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Article from Socialist Worker (Britain) 2116, 30 August 2008 (www.socialistworker.co.uk)
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THE EXPERIENCE OF GYPSIES AND TRAVELLERS IN BRITAIN
Emma Nuttall from the Friends, Families and Travellers charity works with English Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers. She spoke to Sadie Robinson about the struggles they endure
Gypsies and Travellers in Britain are socially excluded, powerless and often quite dispersed. The lack of resources and services available to them has a drastic impact on their lives. Educational achievement among Gypsies and Travellers is the lowest of any ethnic group in Britain.
They have the highest rate of infant mortality, the lowest life expectancy and higher rates of maternal deaths. Gypsies and Travellers live between ten and 12 years less than the settled population. They have higher rates of anxiety and depression.
You're incredibly vulnerable if you're camped out on the roadside. We've had cases where people have been firebombed.
I think the tabloid press encourages people to see Gypsies and Travellers as not being human. This makes them victims of the last socially acceptable racism. But the reality is that where there are well established sites there are usually no problems.
Currently there are about 4,500 Gypsy and Traveller families in England that don't have an official site to live on. So they stop on the roadside and get moved on. We've worked with some families that have been moved over 50 times in a year.
Compulsory
The tabloid newspapers say it's outrageous that families are living on the roadside but they don't ask why the families are there – they haven't got an authorised site to live on.
This makes it very difficult to access education, employment and healthcare, not to mention basics like electricity and running water.
Local authorities used to have a duty to provide sites for Gypsies and Travellers under the 1968 Caravan Sites Act. People paid council tax and paid rent to live there.
The Tories' Criminal Justice Act in 1994 changed this. They thought that it was too costly to provide sites and that Gypsies and Travellers should buy their own land.
The act also recommended that local authorities should identify which land would be suitable for Gypsy and Traveller sites. But this wasn't compulsory – and only one local authority followed the advice.
This meant that whatever land Gypsies or Travellers bought was disputed. People would pressure councillors and say they didn't want gypsies living near them. Councillors wouldn't identify land that could be used for sites.
The Housing Act in 2004 introduced a duty on councils to do what they called a "Gypsy and Traveller accommodation needs assessment".
The act said that once the councils worked out how many pitches on sites were needed, the local authority had to allocate suitable land to meet that need. Their housing strategy would also have to say how the sites would be delivered.
But the problem is that, where many Travellers have bought land, they haven't managed to obtain planning permission.
The main stumbling block with the 2004 act is the length of time the process takes. It is so slow. Meanwhile you've got thousands of families stuck on the roadside.
For more about the work of Friends, Families and Travellers, go to » www.gypsy-traveller.org
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original article at
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Article from Socialist Worker (Britain) 2116, 30 August 2008 (www.socialistworker.co.uk)
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ATTACKS ON ROMA ECHO A WARNING FROM HISTORY
John Sinha reports from Rome in the aftermath of a wave of attacks on Roma Gypsy people across Italy
» Jess Hurd's photographs
The image of a Roma Gypsy camp being burnt to the ground by a mob in Naples, Italy, in May shocked the world. It was just one incident in a rising tide of anti-immigrant and anti-Roma racism that has swept Italy following the re-election of Silvio Berlusconi's right wing government.
The new government has launched an offensive against the Roma and other immigrants. It aims to make all Roma inhabitants – citizens and non-citizens, adults and children – to submit to fingerprinting for a racial database.
Some 900 soldiers have been mobilised against immigrants in Rome, Italy's capital city. Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, said the number of Roma camps would be reduced in the capital, with the people living there moved into "solidarity villages".
The right wing Northern League, which is part of Berlusconi's government, has organised campaigns against Roma camps, sparking vicious attacks on them.
Ettore Fusco, the League's mayor of Opera, said at a council meeting about a Roma shantytown, "Let's all go and resist. Residents' interests don't include solidarity with travellers." The shantytown was set on fire later that evening.
Persecution
The increased persecution of Roma across Italy is the most recent example of the horrific oppression the Roma have faced for generations.
The Roma are a distinct ethnic group. There are thought to be over 12 million Roma spread across many countries throughout the world today. Official numbers are not available as they are often not recorded in official census counts.
The Roma have faced large-scale, state-sponsored persecution. The Nazi Holocaust during the Second World War saw the slaughter of six million Jews. The Nazi's racism also extended to the Roma – up to 1.5 million were killed.
Today, although Roma Gypsies have become more established and integrated, they remain one of the most marginalised and persecuted groups in Europe. They face poverty, ill health, racism, violent attacks and unemployment.
The recent experience in Italy shows that the scapegoating of the Roma for society's problems continues to this day.
'Where we live isn't fit for dogs'
We spoke to a Roma woman who lives at the Via della Martora nomad camp situated on the outskirts of Rome.
"I've lived in Italy for 17 years. I was born in Serbia, but my parents died here and are buried here. All my children were born here. We lost everything when we left Serbia – we have no ties left with that country.
"Where we live isn't even fit for dogs. Look at how we live – we are next to an open sewer. In the winter we have a major fire risk because these shacks are all made of wood. My shack has burned down three times. Once when it burned down we were left with nothing but the clothes we were wearing.
"Our shack is also damp because of the mud from the sewer. We have one toilet to serve over 100 people. We have to wash ourselves from a plastic tub. The council does nothing for us.
"There is mud everywhere. When my daughter goes to school I have to carry a flannel with me to remove the mud from her shoes. I don't want my children to have this life."
'My children have been taken into care'
Cazim Rustic and his family are homeless and spend their lives near Tiburtina railway station in Rome. They told us about the tragedies that have hit their lives.
"I have lived in Italy since 1969," said Cazim. "We have been homeless for the past 12 years. All of my family are living in car parks. My wife had bronchitis. She caught a cold from sleeping outside. We sent her to the hospital. The following day she died."
Miso, Cazim's son, told us, "I was born here in Rome – but the authorities put me in detention for 60 days for no reason. They won't give me a passport or an ID card.
"My brother Adja was killed by a drunken Italian motorist six weeks ago. He died because he was sleeping in the streets."
Adja's widow said, "My children were taken into care because I was living in the streets. The authorities tell me I can't have my children back until I find a home."
'The government sends soldiers against us'
Cesim Casic lives at the Via Pontina camp 20 miles outside Rome next to a busy dual carriageway.
"I am 24 years old," he said. "I was born here in Rome, but I'm still a foreigner. My children were born here. They too remain foreigners.
"We are in the same position as clandestine immigrants who come from Africa or Albania. I have never been to the land of my parents.
"It seems as if Italy is becoming like the 1940s when Benito Mussolini and the fascists were in charge. For me this is no longer a free country. The government is putting soldiers on the streets against immigrants. Why? We are not at war."
'My children have to play in dust'
Zubeida Hibeshid is a 62 year old woman who also lives at the Via Pontina camp. "I came here from Bosnia with my husband 40 years ago," she said.
"I was living in another camp in Rome until two years ago. It was much better than here. We built our own shacks and had our market stalls.
"Now the council has put us in these metal boxes in the middle of nowhere. They are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. We do not have adequate running water or electricity. This place is laid out like a concentration camp.
"And if you don't have a car, you are a prisoner here. Look at the dust my children have to play in. It is no good for their health. All my children were born here. But they are not citizens and receive no welfare."
These interviews and more will appear next issue of Reel News, the anti‑capitalist DVD magazine. Go to » www.reelnews.co.uk
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original article at
Pope appears to back fascism warning
August 20, 2008 - 12:00AM
To view the entire article, click on: http://www.theage.com.au/world/pope-appears-to-back-fascism-warning-20080819-3y85.html
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/17/familyandrelationships.roma
'Why do the Italians hate us?'
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/aug/16/thefarright.roma
Czech far-right party activist to address BNP
Jo Adetunji
Saturday August 16 2008
The Guardian
The head of an ultra-right wing party which advocates a "final solution" for Roma in the Czech Republic is due to speak at the annual festival held by the British National party today. Petra Edelmannova, chair of the Czech National party, is booked to give a 25-minute speech at the BNP's Red White and Blue festival in the village of Denby in Derbyshire.
The event faces strong opposition from local residents and anti-racism campaigners who are mounting a demonstration. The protest has been organised by a number of groups including Unite Against Facism (UAF), Love Music Hate Racism and Derby Racial Equality Council. The TUC and unions CWU and Unite are giving their support. UAF said it was expecting more than 500 people and coaches from around the country.
Edelmannova's party recently announced it was working on a 150-page "study" called The Final Solution to the Gypsy Issue in the Czech Lands, which it said it would present as part of a 2010 general election campaign.
Although the title evokes the Nazi plan to eradicate Jews in wartime Germany, the party told Lidove Noviny, a national Czech newspaper, its aim is only to offer Roma voluntary relocation to land bought in India. The NS is a marginal party in the Czech Republic, gaining only 0.17% of votes in the 2006 parliamentary elections. Judy Mallaber, MP for Amber Valley, said she had deep concerns. "[The BNP's] attempts to present a respectable image are still masking some deeply disturbing underlying views."
Simon Darby, deputy leader of the BNP, said: "There is a Gypsy problem there. What's wrong with people who talk frankly about their problems?"
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In Hungary the number of physical attacks on Roma have been rising at alarming rates.
Finland has announced a crackdown on Roma immigrants.Forced sterilizations of Roma women are still being performed in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia.
The Czech National Party has announced it will soon release their plan called "The Final Solution to the Gypsy Issue in the Czech Lands".Oh course they say they don't want to kill Romanis, just ship them all to India.
How immigrants/undocumented people are treated is important and revealing.
The treatment of people without documents in this country is deplorable: families broken up, people locked up.....
In Europe, Roma are targeted as the other and blamed for everything from crime to disease to society's woes in general.
In the US it is Spanish speaking people.
The " immigration debate" is framed in terms which I find disturbing and dehumanizing---- illegal alien, undocumented worker.Dehumanization is a step.
Activist demands abolition of extremist party
http://www.praguemonitor.com/en/391/czech_national_news/26224/
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POCKETBOOK ARGUMENT FOR INTEGRATION
Are Central and Eastern European countries so rich they can afford to marginalize millions of people?
by S. Adam Cardais
Posted on 28 July 2008
PRAGUE All too often in Central Europe the desperation of the region's Romani population remains shamefully removed from public scrutiny in ghettos hidden far outside capitals such as Prague or Bratislava.
But travel south through the Balkans to Podgorica, where near-toddlers clutch at the arms of tourists and beg for change, or Sarajevo, where shrouded, frail Romani women circulate with their children – hands extended – through the cafes in the Turkish Old Town. This screams the despair of joblessness, poverty, and illness rampant among Central and Eastern Europe's approximately 4 million Roma. The same despair countries such as the Czech Republic try to marginalize – if not cloak – through what one Prague-based human rights worker calls "tacit apartheid."
The near total societal exclusion of Roma – often referred to as Gypsies – in Western and Eastern Europe has received much attention recently, most notably from the "Decade of Roma Inclusion" initiative launched by nine central and southeast European governments in 2005 to foster integration. Yet, as any traveler through the Balkans would easily see, Roma are hanging on the desperate margins. Furthermore, Italy's recent decision to begin fingerprinting Roma after protests earlier this year reveals the depth of subterranean anti-Roma sentiment in Europe.
Given the considerable attention, and the billions of euros in European Union aid money at the "Decade of Roma Inclusion's" disposal, why so little progress? It's not a lack of ideas or funding, say Roma integration experts. It's not even that Roma are work shy, an oft-espoused theory among inclusion skeptics. No, experts say, the problem is weak political will.
Yet keeping Roma in the depths should be unacceptable in modern Europe. Not only is it unjust and immoral – it's bad economics.
TAXPAYERS' BURDEN
"Poverty is expensive," says Gwendolyn Albert of Peacework, an international human development organization. "That's what most people don't realize."
Indeed, Roma exclusion has significant economic costs that should be shouted in arguments supporting integration. It might be a cynical approach, but it might also have the political legs that moral considerations seem to lack.
The costs start with jobs. Either because of discrimination or lack of education or skills, Roma unemployment is disproportionately high in Central and Eastern Europe, reaching 70 percent in some countries.
At the same time, majority populations are advancing toward wheelchairs faster than tricycles. Labor markets will be short tens of thousands of workers in the coming decades, so smart governments should be trying to capitalize on their inexpensive, available Romani work force. But most aren't. Instead, countries such as the Czech Republic are recruiting foreign workers to fill the gaps.
"To bring people from Mongolia to northern Bohemia or northern Moravia, where you have a lot of unemployed Roma, is absurd," Albert says.
Especially so when considering that joblessness lands most Roma on social welfare. A 2003 report by the UN Development Program found that up to 70 percent of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe derive their income from state transfers such as child allowances and unemployment benefits. This social dependency is costly, clearly, but then consider that many low-income Roma don't pay taxes to support these programs and the costs of exclusion are clear: countries lose workers, public money, and tax revenue.
Measuring these costs is difficult because reliable figures on Roma are scarce. The UNDP's are the most recent, and they cover only Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. But economists Luchezar Bogdanov and Georgi Angelov have calculated Bulgaria's exclusion drain.
In a 2007 study for the Open Society Institute's Sofia office, the researchers found that over 10 years Bulgaria would gain the equivalent of 7 billion to 16 billion euros from full integration and that the return on investment would outweigh the cost by a ratio as high as 3-to-1.
The path to realizing the ambitious goal of "full integration" throughout the region has to start with structured, coherent policy reform that leaps beyond mere awareness to improving education and health care in Romani communities, experts say. Gabriela Hrabanova, a member of the Czech government's Council for Roma Community Affairs and half Romani herself, says the Roma Teacher Assistance program, which trains teachers to better work with Romani children, is a model project.
Unfortunately, she and others says, both Brussels and regional governments' integration efforts are unfocused, with more emphasis placed on drafting action plans than building meaningful grassroots programs. The EU Roma Policy Coalition, a grouping of advocacy organizations, came to a similar conclusion regarding the EU's 2 July agenda for tackling exclusion, saying it laid the onus on member states while failing to propose a single meaningful European strategy.
The coalition is hoping for real progress at the EU High Level Conference on Roma in September. Many arguments for Europe walking the talk on integration will no doubt be made there.
Maybe someone will swallow the attendant cynicism and make the economic argument. It might just prod leaders into action.
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S. Adam Cardais is TOL's Market Values columnist.
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http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=279&NrSection=2&NrArticle=19798
Here's the link to a very good article from MLive.com It talks about the use of the term "Gypsy" moths and its relation to the situation of Roma (Gypsies) in the world today. I cringe each time I hear Gypsy moth Gypsy cab Gyppo logger. On and on.... It is any wonder we prefer to be called Roma ? http://www.blog.mlive.com/minorityreport/2008/07/from_gypsy_moths_to_the_roma.html |
