Tag Archives: Racism

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18.04.2014 Central Council demands apology because of racist investigations

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The Central Council of German Sinti and Rroma demands an apology from the government of Baden-Württemberg due to racist investigations in connection with the murders of the National Socialist underground (NSU), and the establishment of an investigation committee because of intra-police racism. On the occasion of the trial against Nazi perpetrators who had committed several racist murders, the chairman of the Central Council, Romani Rose, demanded a concession from the government: “Rose said on Wednesday in Munich, that especially in the case of the murdered Heilbronn police officer Michèle Kiesewetter, there has been a “general suspicion” against Sinti and Roma. He expected at least an apology by the state government of Stuttgart and an assurance that such events never happen again. “It is constitutionally inacceptable to put an entire ethnic group under suspicion”, said Rose” (Focus online 2014). “In July 2009, three detectives travelled to Serbia and surveyed a Roma man. […] The psychologists pointed out that man was “a typical representative of his ethnicity.” That means, lying was an essential part of his socialization. The man “obviously grew up in a world of lies and deception since his earliest childhood.” The racist remarks about the witness, and the Roma in general, were adopted by the state police without a distancing statement into the investigation files” (Tagesspiegel 2014). The case against the NSU-murderers is therefore indirectly also a lawsuit against institutional racism in the German police (compare Die Welt 2014, Stuttgarter Zeitung 2014, Südwestpresse 2014).

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18.04.2014 “Gypsies On Benefits And Proud” confirmes racist stereotypes

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The English television program Gypsies On Benefits And Proud, which reports on migrant Rroma in England, shamelessly confirms racist stereotypes about workshy, asocial Rroma, by unscrupulously abusing the good faith of the interviewees. The populist program aims to show how easy it allegedly is for Romanian and Bulgarian Rroma migrants to travel to England and to abuse the local welfare system. That these are extreme individual cases is deliberately concealed, as well as the fact that the portrayed Rroma lived in poorest conditions and under discrimination in their home villages: “Gipsies have revealed how they are claiming thousands of pounds every month in benefits after moving to Britain and milking the generous state benefit system. The admissions were made in a damning new Channel 5 documentary, which follows the lives of Roma gipsies in Britain. […] The documentary, which will air April 11, also features Ion Lazar, 36, who came to the Britain with five other immigrants when the work restrictions on Romanians were lifted in January. He admits he is just planning to stash his benefits to take home to his family in Romania. ‘I need maybe forty thousand from benefits…. four zero thousand pounds for my family and I think this money I can make in one years maybe two,’ he said.” The program Gypsies on Benefits And Proud deliberately discredits an entire ethnic group with its undifferentiated reporting by establishing a clear link between ethnicity and social abuse. It thus makes itself indictable for racist defamation. Politically loaded views are presented as if they were scientific facts. By this, they also abuse the good faith of television viewers who expect the media to present truth, and encourage fascist views and opinions, as one can read in the comment section of the articles. These fascist comments should provide ample food for thought for the creators of the TV show and the journalists as they reproduce the viewpoints of the program without thinking. They thereby implicitely advocate what is no less than an intellectual genocide of the Rroma (compare Britton 2014, Channel 5 2014, Dassanayake 2014, Lincolnshire Echo 2014, McGarry 2014).

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16.04.2014 Manual Valls has to go back to court

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The new Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, must again appear in front of the court. The Rroma organization La Voix des Rroms accuses him of incitement to “discrimination, hatred, and violence” against Rroma. The lawsuit relates to statements that Valls made on the March 14th and on September 24th, 2013 in presence of the French press. He accused Rroma immigrants in France of wilfully not wanting to integrate and stated that there is widespread, intra-ethnic crime amongst them: “The inhabitants of the camps do not want to integrate into our country, for cultural reasons or because they are at the mercy of begging or prostitution networks. […] They have an extremely different lifestyle than we do and are obviously enough on a confrontation course: we all know, the proximity of these camps causes begging and theft and therefore delinquency. […] The Rroma have a tendency to return to Romania and Bulgaria.” Fassin wonders why the lawsuit against Valls has not received any media attention. He explains this lack of interest on the one hand with a focus on his political profile that is characterized by seriousness and rigor, and on the other hand, with the verdict of the French court of December 13th, 2013. This first lawsuit against Valls, filed by the French movement against racism (MRAP), was rejected with the explanation that Valls’ statements were not a minister’s instructions, but personal opinions of the politician: “[the minister] is in the exercise of his function when he is issuing instructions […] but not when he interacts with the media to express his opinion. […] The French Republic does not recognize the concept of race. [He] could only be in the exercise of his functions, if he recommended a different treatment of persons, based on their origin.” Fassin discredits this justification of the French court as absurd. It means that de facto a minister can never possibly speak on behalf of the government in matters relating to racism, but only ever on his own. Thus one allows Manual Valls and other policy makers to enjoy the privilege of fools, while it is denied to the rest of the population, whereby Fassin is absolutely right (Fassin 2014).

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16.04.2014 Wrong experts and the European integration of the Rroma

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On the occasion of the international Rroma Day of April the 8th, Dus (2014) discusses the efforts of the European Union to integrate Rroma. The conclusion in the latest report from Amnesty International is bleak in this regard: the rights of the minority are under- respected, and their advancement is deliberately sabotaged. Romania is said to have applied only a fraction of the total funding to support Rroma. Policy makers accuse the Rroma of deliberately not wanting to integrate. Dus further speaks on the dispute between Eastern and Western European politicians: Western European politicians accuse their colleagues of shifting repeatedly the integration of this minority to Western Europe, although a pan-European commitment is inevitably necessary. In addition, there is a increasing popularity of right-wing nationalist slogans and worldviews, which are particularly hurtful to minorities such as Rroma.

A total arrogance is the subsequent testimony of the political scientist and historian Pavel Kandel, head of the centre for ethno-political and inter-state conflicts at the European Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The reason for the hostile attitude consists mainly in the fact that they do not work and for the most part do not want to work. This is  immanent to the Rroma generally. There are of course examples that testify to the contrary, but they primarily refer to the sedentary Roma. These are by and large not numerous.” Kandel loses all credibility as a scientist with this highly polemical statement. To allege the Rroma of a general unwillingness to work is highly racist. He therefore totally dismisses the actual reasons for the lacking integration of the Rroma: exclusion, defamation and persecution of the minority, who have a history of hundreds of years. However, Kandel’s racism doesn’t end here. He claims that the Rroma intentionally burden the Western European welfare system, use illegal methods to enrich themselves, migrate in mass movements to the West, and are culturally incompatible with the Western European societies: “With the accession of the countries of Eastern Europe [ … ] to the European Union, they [the Rroma ] were offered the opportunity for unimpeded movement to where the standard of living is higher and where a complex system of social aid exists. And even if they do not take advantage of these opportunities, there are many more possibilities for increasing their standard of living by using their standard methods in the rich European countries. From this follows their mass migration into the West. In addition, it results in the harsh reactions of the population and the authorities in the West. It is a collision of two ways of life that have very little in common. First, the Roma themselves create problems. Secondly, unauthorized pogroms in relation to the Roma have to be ascribed to themselves. The alternatives are to take them in either protection or to chase them out. To chase them out is easier.” With these supposedly scientific, but in truth completely absurd generalizations and accusations, Kandel makes himself guilty of demagogy against the Rroma. He reproduces almost all the negative stereotypes that exist about the minority. Hundred thousands of Rroma live in Western Europe and are fully integrated, work and coexist with the majority population without problems. The statement that the “chasing out” of the Rroma is easier than to take them into protection is a request for exclusion, pogroms and violence against the minority, which is clearly a fascist statement that is punishable. The statements of the cited historian Nadezhda Demetr are also undifferentiated, although she indicates the necessity of education for the integration of Rroma. Demetr states: “But the situation turned against them. Because the Roma are illiterate in their mass. 80 percent cannot read or write at all. And they cannot find their way in a new world. [ … ] Special programs for the adaptation of the Roma to normal life are required, of which in Europe exist enough by the way. Why these programs do not work, is a special issue.” This article is a prime example of experts who misuse their authority shamelessly, to speak truth about a phenomenon. Instead of intelligent, sophisticated analyses, they provide polemic, biased knowledge that openly discredits and insults the Rroma. They also do damage to the credibility of the social and historical sciences, by discrediting any scientific standards of objectivity and critical analysis.

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16.04.2014 6th arrondissement: turmoil around a racist police letter against Rroma

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Several French newspapers report on an internal letter from the police of the 6th arrondissement in Paris. The note by a police officer orders the police of the  arrondissement to locate all Rroma living in the streets and to expel them: “From now on and until new directives to the staff of the 6th arrondissement are given, all Rroma families living in the streets have to be located day and night and systematically expelled” (Le Monde 2014). One senior police officer, interviewed by Le Parisien, expressed to be snubbed by “violent and illegal” nature of the text. The letter is illegal because it is explicitly forbidden in France to mark people based on their ethnicity and to make them the targets of interventions. The mayor of 6th arrondissement, Pierre Lecoq, was not surprised by the tone of the letter and announced that he did not want to see Rroma families with small children in the streets. The number of Rroma families in the area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés has tripled in the last two months, Lecoq stated. He also perpetuates the racist notion of child-trafficking gangs that deliberately educate Rroma children to beg and steal. Jean-Pierre Colombies, delegate of the national police syndicate, said that he regretted the fact that police officers have to implement instructions from the police headquarters, which are directed by ruling politicians. The expulsion of Rroma from one place to another doesn’t solve anything, he added. The Paris police prefecture in turn communicated that the proposed approach directly derives from the directives of Pierre Lecoq, who demanded decisive actions against the Rroma. Gérard Taieb, attorney for personal rights, discredits Lecoq’s argument as pure hypocrisy. Taieb stated that it was not about the protection of the children. By expelling the families from the streets, the minors and infants are not helped in any way. The detection and expulsion of a group of people based on their ethnic affiliation was clearly illegal. This view was assented by the new interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, in his public statement.

The new spokesman for the French government, Stéphane Le Foll, stated that there were clear guidelines and rules on how the police should behave in the event of such circumstances, regardless of internal proposals. Le Foll also denied estimates that there was an “invasion” of Rroma in 6th arrondissement. No increase in the number of Rroma had been recorded. Le Foll added that it must not be forgotten that there are actual slums and one should try to make the Rroma immigrants move back to their countries of origin. At this point, Le Foll must be contradicted, since this migration happens because of discrimination, poverty and lack of perspectives. Most immigrant Rroma want to integrate, have a job and lead a normal life. This intention is denied them repeatedly and decidedly, as one hear clearly in an interview with Louis de Matignon Gouyon on Europe 1 (20 minuntes 2014, Béguin 2014, Carez 2014, Europe1, Le Figaro in 2014, Le Monde in 2014, Le Parisien 2014, Politi 2014).  

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16.04.2014 Rroma: “Education as the key to success”

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Müller (2014) takes a critical look at the relevance of education in Romanian Rroma families. The importance of education is give to little attention in many Rroma families, the young Rromni Andreea from Buzau, in South-eastern Romania states. Poverty obliges Rroma children to help their families from a young age within the household and at work: “My community thinks that you cannot take up any prestige profession such as teacher or doctor as Roma anyway. They cannot imagine that you can reach a good position with education. They have come to terms with being the outsiders in society. – Only one third of Roma children in Romania graduate, according to estimates by NGOs. The vast majority remains without a chance, because the children are living in poor neighbourhoods, where they have to help at home, instead of going to school.” The problem lies not only in the lack of awareness about the importance of education, but also in the strong discrimination against Rroma in the labour market as wells as in the education system. Thus, many Rroma get assigned to unskilled labour despite having graduated, because they are marked as “unreliable and slow” due to racial prejudice. Therefore, education alone cannot stop the exclusion of and discrimination against the Rroma, but it is an important first step towards greater self-determination and recognition.

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12.03.2014 Talking to each other instead of about each other: German visit in Bulgaria

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Plück (2014) reports about the visit of the German FDP deputies Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Joachim Stamp in Plovdiv, where 50,000 Rroma are living in mostly precarious conditions. Lambsdorff states that the aim of the visit is to talk with the people concerned and to thereby get rid of the one-sidedness in the debate on Rroma. Unfortunately, there isn’t really anything new to hear in Plück’s article: Bulgaria is said to be an economically weak country that is plagued by severe corruption. Because of nepotism, EU funding programs are very poorly implemented. The Rroma representative Anton Karagyozov meanwhile confirms stereotypical notions of clan structures, widespread crime and misery: “He reported plainly of the financial support for children whose fathers are dead or sitting in jail and whose mothers have left them in Stolipinovo to earn money with prostitution in Western Europe. He reports from the strict clan structures, such that a woman can be “stolen” by a man if she does not want to marry him. In plain language this means rape and a subsequent wedding.” Such stories may be useful for obtaining support funds. But they do not contribute at all to the successful integration of the Rroma. Rather, they nourish the clichéd notions that are mentioned again and again in the debate on “poverty immigrants”. Plück’s article does not change any of these misconceptions.

Merkelt (2014) meanwhile reports on a cultural event in Duisburg. In an old fire station, a Rrom sang “Gypsy Songs” for the visiting Gadje. Author Rolf Bauerdick read from his controversial book, trying to counteract cliché ideas in his own way, even though he inevitably confirms many stereotypes. As he only portrays already visible Rroma in his book, most of which live in economic misery, he does not really confront the public image with new ideas.

Scherfig (2014) complements the theme with a report on the integration project “Harzer Strasse” in Berlin-Neukölln. In 2011, the Aachen housing company bought three mostly inhabited by immigrant Rroma and massively overcrowded apartment buildings, and renovated them. The adult residents almost exclusively work and try to improve their language skills. The housing complex “Harzer Strasse” is considered a showcase project, as it demonstrates the possibility of successful integration, based on promotion and simultaneous demand: “Since the first of January 2014, the free movement of persons is valid for Romania and Bulgaria. [ … ] Critics fear the “immigration into the German social system.” […] However, almost all Roma in the Harzer Strasse have been working for several years and also pay into the social system. […] According to the federal employment agency, Bulgarians and Romanians only make up 0.7 percent of Hartz IV recipients.”

Another aspect of the immigration debate are immigrants from former Yugoslavia. Blasius (2014) reports on the sharp rise in the number of asylum procedures by immigrants from Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, many of them are said to be Rroma. Almost all applications for a permanent residency permit are rejected because the citizens of the former Yugoslavia are not recognised as political refugees: “Despite the often miserable living conditions, Roma are not recognized as political refugees from former Yugoslavia. Unlike Roma from the EU-countries Bulgaria and Romania, they have no permanent right to stay.” In response to this, Blasius states, many of the rejected just file new applications, as they are entitled to under the law. Therewith, the flood of applications can be explained. The German grand coalition meanwhile plans to classify Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia as safe countries of origin in order to enable accelerated deportations. The classification will be done at the expense of the immigrants who get no voice in the process, but de facto are affected by precarious conditions in their countries of origin. While the proponents of deportations rely on country analyses, which declare no or very minimal discrimination against minorities in countries like Serbia, the proponents of the asylum seekers state the exact opposite. Subjective experiences, which can rarely be proved with documents, are usually neglected in favour of official country analyses that assess the social situation in a country.

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11.04.2014 Robert Kushen: the integration of Rroma remains a challenge

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On the occasion of the international Rroma Day, the chairman of the European Rroma Rights Centre, Robert Kushen, reflects on the situation of the Rroma in Europe and the continuing challenges for this minority (Kushen 2014). He arrives at a sober view: the decade of Rroma inclusion, which was adopted in Sofia in 2005, and encompassed the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Spain, unfortunately cannot fulfil the expectations that it raised. Rroma are still affected by widespread poverty, discrimination, unemployment and insufficient access to public institutions such as schools and hospitals: “Despite this political recognition of an unconscionable social crisis, Roma remain among the poorest, unhealthiest, least educated and most marginalised European citizens. The data are devastating: Across Central and Southeast Europe, 90 percent of Roma live in poverty. Fewer than one third of adults have paid employment. Only 15 percent of young Roma have completed secondary or vocational school. Nearly 45 percent of Roma live in housing that lacks basic amenities. Life expectancy in Roma communities is 10-15 years less than in non-Roma communities, with many Roma lacking access to insurance and health care.” Kushen refers in his judgement to information from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP 2013). Reasoning with such figures is not without dangers, since the representation of the Rroma as uneducated, poor, and unhealthy is often interpreted by the polemical, public discourse as a cultural peculiarity of the minority, although these characteristics are inevitably a poverty phenomenon. Although is not to deny that numerous Rroma are poor and uneducated, the relevant question is whether such an argument can contribute to the  integration of the Rroma. In addition, surveys often only take into account the visible Rroma, because the integrated ones are hard to identify as Roma and difficult to contact. Not only images of misery are needed, which generate compassion, but also images of success that allow a positive identification.

Kushen continues with information about the marginalization of the Rroma in Italy, France, Sweden and Hungary, and then gets on to the latest report from the European Union on the situation of the Rroma. The report published on April the second this year, can not present success stories either: “In early April, the European Commission convened a “Roma Summit” and issued a report assessing how member states are doing in addressing the interconnected problems of poverty and discrimination which the Roma are facing. The report noted “the persistence of segregation” in education, a large and in some cases widening employment gap between Roma and non-Roma, big differences between Roma and non-Roma in health insurance coverage, and an “absence of progress” in addressing the need for housing. Finally, the report noted that discrimination remains “widespread” (compare European Commission 2014).

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11.04.2014 Rroma as an enemy stereotype

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=On the occasion of the international Rroma day, numerous international newspapers report about the continuing marginalization of the Rroma minority in their countries. For Germany, Jakob (2014) notes that according to the latest research of historian Wolfgang Benz, the Rroma are ranked behind social groups such as the Jews or asylum seekers, concerning popularity. The purpose of such a popularity-scale can and should be questioned. Apart from the mirroring existing prejudices towards certain social or ethnic groups, no real benefit for combating prejudices can be drawn from this. However, this viewpoint is contradicted by Jacob, who states in reference to the study by Wolfgang Benz: “The study by Benz created on behalf of the anti-discrimination agency shows how deep prejudices about Roma and Sinti are rooted in Germany. Benz said it reassures him that the vast majority of the respondents (91 percent) consider integration services a good suggestion for a better coexistence with Sinti and Roma. 63 percent called for stronger minority rights, the study states”. That these sociological statistics will be followed by true actions, is much to be hoped. The aid programs are not devoid of  prejudices, as another part of Benz study shows: 80% of respondents are in favour of a fight against welfare abuse, 78 % speak out to take against crime among the Rroma (Protestant Press 2014). The enemy image of the Rroma is therefore anything but irrelevant, and is still deeply rooted in many peoples’ minds. As a result, many Rroma keep their identity secret. Wolfgang Benz confirms this in a radio interview, in which he addresses the invisible Rroma of Germany: “In fact, Sinti and Roma are living in Germany since a long time, completely integrated. No one recognizes them. Some of them are part of the boardrooms of large industrial companies. They pursue ordinary bourgeois professions and they do not make themselves visible. They fear discrimination. One doesn’t allow them to integrate and then one is claiming that they do not want to integrate” (Polland 2014).

The creation of an EU-fund dedicated to the Rroma, that would not have to be refinanced by the member states, as with the existing funding, is not only met with approval. Rudko Kawczynski, of the European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF), speaks out against the creation of such separate fund. This would only foster the resentments against the minority that already are considerable. Rather, an awareness of injustice among the governments in question has to be created, he states, so that they finally take decisive actions against the discrimination of the Rroma (Jacob 2014).

On the occasion of the Rroma Day, a cultural week in Berlin is held under the slogan “May we, that we are!” The program includes concerts, theatre, films and panel discussions. The culture week is organized by the Hildegard-Lagrenne-Foundation, which aims to promote education, integration and social participation of the Rroma in Germany (Dernbach 2014, rbb 2014).

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11.04.2014 “Who are the Rroma living in Switzerland?”

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Boullé (2014) spoke to the Lausanne photographer Yves Leresche, who has dealt with Rroma living in Switzerland for several years. Leresche deconstructs four common stereotypes about the minority. (1) The Rroma are all the same: false. Rroma belong to diverse groups such as the Sinti, the Gurbeti, the Arlii, the Lingurari, the Ursari, the Kalderasha etc., who pursued traditional occupations in earlier times, to which their group name often refers. Leresche terms the Jeniche wrongly as Rroma. From a political point of view – concerning the prejudices against the minorities – this may be useful, because  they share a history of exclusion and persecution. In terms of migration history, language and traditions however, there are striking differences between the two ethnic groups. The Rroma are from India and the talk Rromanes, originating from Sanskrit. The Jeniche however derive from European folk groups that were starting to travel in the wake of social upheavals and speak the language Jeniche, influenced by Yiddish and other old European languages.

(2) Rroma are all beggars: also wrong. Leresche distinguishes four different groups of Swiss Rroma: The invisible, who have been living in Switzerland integrated and unobtrusive for decades, sometimes generations. Very few know that they are Rroma, because they keep their identity a secret. The travellers; the stereotypical notion that all Rroma are travellers refers to them. However, they represent only a small percentage of the Rroma. In Switzerland primarily the Jeniche are travellers, and also of them only a small percentage. Rroma are often equated with asylum seekers. While this is true sometimes, many have been living in Switzerland for a long time and have a definite residency status. Leresche also points to refugees from the Kosovo, which present the most recent migration movement of Rroma to Western Europe. Finally, with European Rroma, Leresche refers to migrants from the EU-countries. He makes aware of the economic immigrants among them, but far too little stresses that the predicted mass migration from Southern and Eastern Europe is a political issue.

(3) The Rroma come to us, to enrich themselves: also wrong. The Rroma seek an alternative to their often precarious living conditions in Southern and Eastern Europe. They want a normal life, a job, a good education for their children. Unfortunately, some of them lack good qualifications, what makes the integration into the labour market more difficult. Leresche doesn’t stress enough that the begging Rroma usually have nothing to  with criminal begging networks, as it is often claimed by the police, but beg because of lacking alternatives.

(4) The Rroma do not stay for a short time, but forever. In this stereotype, Leresche differentiates far too little between invisible and visible Rroma. He merely indicates that Rroma who migrate seasonally only come for a few months to beg. Because after some time, political and police resistance starts to form, begging becomes unprofitable after one to two years. Here it must be added, that only a small part of the Rroma are begging. The majority of the Swiss Rroma is integrated and pursues a normal work. In addition, the idea of the lucrative nature of begging is false, as recently Jean-Pierre Tabin has shown in his study.

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11.04.2014 How non-objective assumptions reinforce racist stereotypes

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Birrer (2014) reports, on the basis of the TV-report “More underage criminal tourists” by Georg Humbel (2014), about the allegedly increasing number of criminal Rroma children. As the article by Gut/Scherrer (2013) in the Weltwoche of November 2013, Birrer cites police sources that speak of transnationally operating child-trafficking networks. The basic existence of such criminal actors is not to deny here, but their characterisation and especially their frequency, has to be strongly questioned. Birrer argues as follows, in reference to the Bernese immigration-policemen Alexander Ott: “They come mainly from Eastern Europe – and don’t pursue their criminal activity voluntarily in Switzerland. In their home countries, they are recruited by traffickers, and finally borrowed from well-organized gangs. Many of them are Roma from Romania and Bulgaria. […] The children are under constant scrutiny of agile backers. They have to expect sanctions, if they do not generate a certain amount of cash and valuables. Therefore, they are helplessly extradited to the traffickers.” The evidence for the existence of such child-trafficker gang is very poor, as many articles to show (compare Friedli/Schöpfer 2013, Mappes-Niediek 2012, Mappes-Niediek 2013, Jirat 2013, Tabin 2012). Rather, they are civil and police morals and assumptions associated with them that make the begging or stealing children automatically victims of brutal traffickers. The fact that behind it, there is mostly great poverty which forces to beg is not considered in this reasoning. Thus gaps in knowledge, about the socio-economic situation in the countries of origin of the children are used in order to present them as part of criminal Rroma gangs. This practice says more about the own prejudices and morals, than it explain something about the Rroma.

Jirat (2013) discusses the project „Agora“, which was founded on the initiative of Alexander Ott in 2009. The aim of this project is to prevent organized child abuse and human trafficking, of which young Rroma are said to be mainly affected. Jirat questions precisely this status of the beggars. The data of the Bernese immigration police – which states a strong presence of beggar gangs in Bern – are of doubtful origin. Jirat states: “The immigration police view is necessarily limited: the focus is always a possible crime (human trafficking or child abuse), and there are always potential perpetrators, which are repeatedly named: “most of them are Roma.” This is the crucial point. “Through this representation, the social construction of a ‘Roma-problem’ in connection with begging is made”, says the historian Bernhard Schär from the Center for Democracy in Aarau. The same is done in connection with break-ins or street prostitution.” The perspective and analysis of the immigration police, Jirat argues, is a strongly biased. It operates with the logic of perpetrators and victims. The sociological perspective is almost totally neglected.

Tabin (2012) proves that a causal relationship between begging children and organized gangs cannot be confirmed by social science. The modest incomes obtained by begging, don’t coincide in any way with the proceeds referred to by the Bernese immigration police, which speaks of up to 600 francs per child. Tabin, who refers to additional, similar studies, comes to an average amount of 15 to 20 francs per day.

In any case, it is very problematic to describe the begging of Rroma children as a cultural phenomenon. Journalists as Mappes-Niediek decidedly write against this notion and see the supposed beggar gangs in reality as a symptom of poverty, that has nothing to do with organized crime: “There are prestige hierarchies in the Roma neighbourhoods, customary clientilism, dependencies, mostly through informal money lending. But structures of command and obedience were not noticed by the numerous social workers, anthropologists or humanitarian aid workers, who work in Roma slums and sometimes live there. [ … ] Wrong is also the impression that human trafficking, crime and begging with children is the rule among the poverty migrants from Bulgaria and Romania. Begging with kids is prohibited all over Europe and basically rarely, because it takes place, by its very nature, in the greatest possible publicness” (Mappes-Niediek 2013).

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09.04.2014 “Roma stereotypes enforce racism”

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Mappes-Niediek (2014) explores the intimate integration of poverty and Rroma, which are too often used interchangeably in the discussion on the minority, and prevent a critical inquiry about the reasons of poverty: “If somewhere beggars appear, it is sufficient to be written in the newspaper: those are Roma! – and no one will ask what their mendicant existence has to do with the social conditions in their country of origin or even with the euro crisis. The ethnic name replaces a rational explanation. Even if no one mentions the name, it is always present in the backs of their heads. But even if we avoid to call the Roma by name, we do not eliminate the clichés. We have just made them irrefutable.” Mappes-Niediek, on the occasion of the international Rroma-day of April the 8th, calls to talk about the reasons for the impoverishment and defamation of the Rroma, and to not just apply a politically correct vocabulary. Otherwise one trivializes poverty and promotes the stereotypes, and thus racism. Mappes-Niediek criticism is legitimate, but his statement, that the Rroma represent both an ethnic group and a social class, is problematic. Although it should not be negated that there are many Rroma living in great poverty, but one discredits with this statement all those Rroma who live integrated and belong to the middle or upper class. It is therefore questionable whether one fosters the social integration of the Rroma, if one defines them as an underclass: “In reality, the Roma in Europe have never completely become a nation, but at the same time always remained a social group, a underclass. That they were always both, never crossed ours, the majority’s mind. Firstly, until the 20th century, the “Gypsies” were just a “roving rabble”. Then they were, definitely since the Roma national movement of the 1970s, a “nation” as the Germans, the French, the Danes – a nation however that did not succeed, for whatever reasons, to organize itself like the others, and therefore secretly always was considered inferior by the majority.”  

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09.04.2014 Hungary, Rroma and prostitution in Switzerland

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In her article, Kiss (2014) discusses the Hungarian prostitutes in Switzerland, the social background of sex work, the constitution of moral values, the role of the media and the current debate on a Europe-wide ban on prostitution. The effort to prohibit prostitution derives from the notion of a substantial or at least significant congruence of prostitution and human trafficking. Kiss qualifies this idea in relation to Zurich and replaces it with the notion of a grey area said to be organised by the family or the clan. This statement is dangerous, because it alludes to stereotypes of criminal Rroma clans, explained as being hierarchically organized and culturally determined: “In Zurich, however, the smallest part of prostitutes are victims of human trafficking and extreme exploitation, the women of the office for women migration [FIZ] say – and vice versa, there are also self-employed sex workers. The Hungarian women often work in the area in between, in a frame, which is organised by the family or the clan.” Kiss deals further with the prostitutes’ origin. She cites the Bernese sociologists Sachsa Finger, who assumes that most Hungarian sex workers in Switzerland are from Roma settlements in Nyíregyháza, Ózd and pecs. That there are also Magyar prostitutes is not stressed enough. It is mainly poverty, no or lacking educational qualifications, unemployment and suppressing role models, that lead women into prostitution. That this social ills cannot be easily eliminated with a prohibition of prostitution, Kiss is aware, even if she can not stress often enough the dishonouring of women through sex work: “Alice Schwarzer, you’re right. Let’s prohibit prostitution. These women don’t lead a life, in a few months they age by years. […] But her protest pales in comparison to the Eastern European reality. […] Should one make it impossible for the mothers to gain a livelihood for her hungry family? On the other hand, why does no one talk about the social policy in these countries? Why does no go into the villages and settlements in the tent cities, where women’s rights are worth nothing ? […] Who will feed my children?, asks the prostitute who arrives in Zurich by train. Where will I work when prostitution is banned? But to these questions, the latest turn in the discourse about free sexuality has no answer.”

  • Kiss, Noëmi (2014) Bereit zur Verrichtung. In: Das Magazin Nr. 14/2014, S. 12-19.
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09.04.2014 Stigma and the international Rroma Day

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On the occasion of the international Rroma Day, Grunau (2014) spoke with the president of the central council of German Sinti and Roma, Romani Rose. Rose’s assessment of the social integration of the Rroma is mediocre. While there has been progress in terms of political and historical recognition of the Rroma, there still are massive stigma and appalling living conditions in which Rroma have to exist: “In some areas some things have improved, but what we are not satisfied at all with is the situation of the Roma minority in Eastern Europe. There are situations that are catastrophic. […] These are particularly Bulgaria, Romania, but also the Czech Republic and Slovakia. There are informal ghettos that are without sewerage, without electricity, and water. There are villages, where over a thousand people live without any perspective. This situation has been known for many years. It is no longer acceptable. There is an infant mortality-rate that is four times higher and a life expectancy that is ten years lower compared to the majority population.” In this regard, Rose demands easier access to funding that doesn’t need not be refinanced by the states themselves. He proposes the creation of a special fund for the Rroma. Next, Rose criticizes the continuing discrediting and instrumentalization of the Rroma by right-wing nationalist parties and actors, but also by bourgeois politicians in the wake of the immigration debate in Western Europe. Thus, the openly racist Jobbik party made a share of 21% of the votes, in the elections in early April. At the end of the interview, Rose also points to the still highly distorted perception of the minority. 64% of the people of a survey said that they did not want Rroma as neighbours. However, many of them already have neighbours, friends or acquaintances that are Rroma are, but they do not know that they belong to the minority: “However, these 64 percent do not know that they already have work colleagues, neighbours and tenants, they do not know that they are shopping in stores with people who are members of the minority. Also in show business or in football, everywhere there are members of the minority.”

Caspari (2014) emphasizes in her conversation with the antiziganism researcher Markus End that there are not only negative but also positive stereotypes that encourage the idea of a cultural alterity of the Rroma: “Those who say that all Sinti and Roma make such great music just positively present a stereotype. It implies that members of the ethnic group are different, that they only make music and do not like to work as “we” do.” The same is the case with emphatic articles about the Rroma that still reproduce stereotypes: “In many – also benevolent – reports clichés of supposedly typical characteristics of the Roma are used, even though the Rroma do not exist at this general level. [ … ] An online editor recently headlined concerning the debate over free migration: “not only Roma are coming, but also academics” – as if there were only uneducated members of the ethnic group. About the nurse, the doctor or the construction worker, who are well integrated in Germany, rarely if ever is reported. Images that are added to the articles on the situation of Roma, often show poor, barefoot children. Here again, a cliché is conveyed.”

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09.04.2014 The invisible Rroma in Switzerland

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Plozza (2014) focuses, on the occasion of the international Rroma-day, on the invisible Rroma of Switzerland. He spoke with the Rroma representatives Stéphane Laederich and Mustafa Asan. Both emphasize the massive prejudices that still prevail against the Rroma and make a disclosure of one’s identity a difficult task: “Most Swiss Roma are not criminal and they do not pull their caravans from place to place. On the contrary, they lead a normal, almost petit bourgeois life, explains the Roma representative Mustafa Asan. “The Swiss Roma are sedentary and integrated. They live in their own homes, they have their own jobs and their own occupation […] Today, 50,000 to 100,000 Roma are living in Switzerland. One does not know that for sure. Because many of do not reveal themselves as being Roma, says Stéphane Laederich, director of “Roma Foundation” in Zurich. “Many are still afraid that they will lose their friends, their job, or certain opportunities in their career”, he says. Fearing the old prejudices about Gypsies and travelling people, they prefer to remain silent.” Asan demands that the Rroma occur more often in the public, reveal themselves and reach out to their fellow human beings. This is the only way to dismantle prejudices and stereotypes, he says. However, this has to happen with objective facts and not positive clichés as dancing and singing Rroma. The fact that not only the Rroma, but above all the majority population – that has marginalized the ethnic group for centuries – is encouraged to act, should not go unmentioned. It must signal to the minority that they are accepted and welcomed. Because integration is a process based on reciprocity that requires commitment of all parties involved (compare Aargauer Zeitung 2014, Gehrig 2014).

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09.04.2014 Amnesty International criticizes the continuing discrimination against Rroma

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Many newspapers chronicle the report published by Amnesty International on April the 8th, the International Rroma Day, which accuses the social discrimination against Rroma. Amnesty International comes to a grim conclusion in regard to the social integration of the minority: the Rroma in Europe are still highly marginalized, the political will to foster them is often deficient and hate crimes against the minority are all too often re-interpreted as a lack of willingness to integrate: “The violent offenders are encouraged by the passive attitude of the governments, which accept a systematic discrimination against the Roma silently”, notes Çalışkan [German secretary general of AI]. “Instead of resolutely opposing violence and discrimination, many European politicians even fuel the notion that Roma are responsible for their own exclusion. Such statements by high-ranking politicians encourage further violence in society and are a distortion of the facts. The current situation of many Roma can be traced back to the years of disregard for the rights of Europe’s largest minority” (Amnesty International 2014/IV). –  “In its report, Amnesty urges national governments in Europe [and the European Union] to condemn hate crimes and to clarify that racist acts will not be tolerated. Among other things, the human rights activists propose to collect data and publish data on hate crimes” (Kalkhof 2014). There follows an analysis of the status quo of the minority in the Czech Republic, France and Greece. In all three countries, the defamation of the Rroma is still massive, the report states. While right-wing extremist groups in the Czech Republic rally against the ethnic group, in France the already mentioned discourse of a supposedly lacking will to integrate dominates the debate. This view totally ignores the exclusion of the minority in the sense of a repressive, nationalist governance. If the Rroma are not given any opportunity to integrate, they cannot, no matter how hard they try. Especially worysome is the repression on Rroma exerted by state institutions. This includes both governments and their measures taken against the minority, as well as executive institutions such as the police and the judiciary. Romani Rose describes the voting share of 21% of the openly Rroma-hostile Jobbik party as a “danger signal for Europe” to no longer passively accept discrimination against the Rroma (Amnesty International 2014/I, Amnesty International 2014/II, Amnesty International 2014/III, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 2014, Joerin 2014, Kalkhof 2014, Süddeutsche Zeitung 2014).

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04.04.2014 Stereotypes of criminal Rroma gangs

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20 Minuten (2014) reports on tricksters in the canton Aargau. The number of offenses, which were carried out by con artists, is said to have increased rapidly in recent times. This information is followed by a detailed description of the specific offenses and the appearances of the offenders, who are said to have dark hair. The remark at the end of the article, which states that the perpetrators are mostly Rroma is problematic: “According to the police, it mostly involves Roma, who are travelling in cars with foreign licenses. Victim of con artists are predominantly elderly people.”  The reference to the ethnicity of the perpetrators is unnecessary; it merely encourages racial prejudice against members of the minority. Rroma are not more criminal than members of any other ethnic groups. To ascribe them a culturally related delinquency lacks any reason and respect. Stereotypical notions of criminal Rroma gangs can be found in Western Europe since the 15th century. They have survived to the present day.

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04.04.2014 Correct, half-right and wrong information about the history and culture of the Rroma

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On the occasion of the 8th of April, the international Rroma day, Zimmermann (2014) discusses the history and culture of the Rroma. She spreads truths, but also some half- truths and misinformation about Rroma. She begins with the migration history from India, which she unfortunately only sees authenticated by the DNA-analysis. The linguistic analysis of the Rromanes, which gives an undeniable proof of the Indian roots of the Rroma, as Rromanes is related to Sanskrit, remains unmentioned. However, she rightly acknowledges that the repeatedly falsely attributed travelling lifestyle is related to the expulsion of the Rroma: “The Romani people were discriminated against for their dark skin and once enslaved by Europeans. They have been portrayed as cunning, mysterious outsiders who tell fortunes and steal before moving on to the next town. […] Also, as a matter of survival, the Romani were continuously on the move. They developed a reputation for a nomadic lifestyle and a highly insular culture. Because of their outsider status and migratory nature, few attended school and literacy was not widespread. Much of what is known about the culture comes through stories told by singers and oral histories.” Unfortunately, Zimmermann emphasizes far too little the big quantity of misinformation and pejorative stereotypes that were maintained through these oral histories. Particularly problematic is her reference to the spiritual energy “dji”, which she cites as a reason for the alleged lack of willingness to integrate: “Romani also believe that spiritual energy, also known as dji, can be depleted by spending too much time with those outside of their community, which is another explanation for why they are reluctant to assimilate.” To allege the Rroma a deliberately chosen anti-social behaviour is very dangerous. It trivializes a centuries-old history of exclusion and persecution that is the actual reason for the continued segregation of the Rroma. At the end of the article, Zimmermann rightly acknowledges that the Rroma are almost exclusively sedentary today, but often keep their identity a secret, due to continuing discrimination.

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04.04.2014 Rroma strongly discriminated against in Austria

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News.at (2014) and APA (2014) report on the latest survey of the Austrian Volkshilfe, on the occasion of the international Rroma day on April the 8th. The organization comes to the conclusion that the discrimination against Rroma in Austria is perceived as a massive by the questioned people: “A clear majority of Austrians (74 percent) sees Roma and Sinti currently affected by persecution, expulsion and racist violence. 68 percent of the polled people said that Roma and Sinti are group particularly discriminated against in Europe. Concerning Austria, 54 percent agreed with this statement. Measures against discrimination, in support of Roma and Sinti (for example, social counselling and labour market projects) are favoured by 59 percent of the population.” The president of the Volkshilfe, Erich Fenniger, demands more clarification about the Rroma in Austria and the promotion of positive images about Rroma by all members of society.

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04.04.2014 Polemical defamation of the Rroma

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The right-wing populist platform unzensuriert.at (2014) in its latest article defames the Rroma as unwilling to integrate and as a burden for Western European welfare states. In addition, a corruption bias is ascribed to them: “On a ‘EU Roma Summit’ on April 4th in Brussels, a “relief and development program” for the South-East European gypsies is planned to be implemented. Since the EU-extension onto Eastern Europe, those migrate in hordes from Bulgaria and Romania to Central and Western Europe. Municipalities such as Duisburg or Dortmund are close to a socio-political collapse due to immigration of the Rroma and the associated neglect of entire districts. [ … ] Such financial assistance has already in the past “fuelled” the corruption channels and could be diverted into the registers of Roma clan-chiefs and corrupt administrators and politicians connected with them.” Unzensuriert.at operates totally uncritically with a highly distorted, politicized, and value-loaded image of the Rroma. Through that, it propagates racist stereotypes such as the notion of criminal Rroma clan-chiefs and culturally related anti-social behaviour. The fact that such alleged “facts” are the result of centuries-old prejudices, is totally neglected by the platform. The same is true for the right-wing populist website Politically Incorrect (2014), which also propagates against the alleged exploitation of Western Europe through the Rroma.

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