1 1 the True Europeans Gunter Grass Once Wrote, “The Romani People

1 The True Europeans Gunter Grass once wrote, “the Romani people are that which we are trying to become: true Europeans.” Unfortunately, Grass’ sentiment is not one that most Europeans share. In fact, that statement represents a singularity on a continent where the Roma people have long been the victims of systematic discrimination. However, in the past few years, the injustices that the Roma live have become somewhat visible in the halls of the European administration. Europe’s largest minority, the stateless Roma people, who have never fought a war or sought a state of their own, present a challenge to national governments as well as the European framework; yet, as Grass suggested, the Roma may have a lot to teach the continent about what it is to be a European citizen. As the infamous nomadic outsiders dispersed across Europe, history has treated the Roma people with a dualistic misunderstanding. On the one hand, the elusive, wandering gypsy has captured Western imagination, inspiring art, music, and myth. References to common gypsy stereotypes abound in pop culture. However, in spite of the imaginative space the Roma occupy in collective Western thought, the reality of Roma otherness has led to centuries of discrimination, deportation, and extermination. Anti-Gypsyism, also known as antiziganism, is a “distinct and long established kind of racism” (Flašíková-Beňová and Swoboda 2011:10). Lucerne’s fifteenth century anti-Gypsy laws may have been the first in recorded history, but over six centuries of legal, social, and economic discrimination followed. This discrimination reached its nadir during the Second World War. Across Europe, tens of thousands of Roma were rounded up by the Nazi regime and sent to concentration camps where they endured forced labor, starvation, medical experimentation, sterilization, and extermination. The exact number of Roma killed during the Holocaust is not known, but they were targeted as systematically as the Jews.1 In the years following the war, as Europe began to rebuild, Roma populations in each country had different standards of living. Under communism, the Roma had 1 Cristiana Grigore, “Bringing Out the Gypsy in Me,” The New York Times, Nov. 2, 2010. 1 2 enjoyed a relatively anonymous life, but the fall of the Berlin Wall and the open borders that followed made the Roma more visible (Wiersma 2011:14). As membership in the European Union gradually began to extend eastward, the Roma “problem” could no longer be ignored in European political discourse. In 2004, the European Union added ten new member States from Eastern Europe, increasing the E.U.’s total population by almost twenty percent and doubling the Roma population. Although Roma populations can be found all over Europe, Eastern European countries have significantly higher Roma populations than nations in the western part of the continent (Wiersma 2011:14). In Romania, census estimates put the Roma population at approximately 500,000, but many advocates estimate the number to be as high as two million.2 The accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 increased the population of Roma with European citizenship to an estimated ten to twelve million (Thelen 2004:7; Rocard 2011:169). Ivan Krastev (2011) estimates that seventy-five percent of Europe’s Roma population lives in the twenty-first century’s new member states in Eastern Europe (46-47). The 2004 and 2007 expansions brought what was once an eastern European “problem” to the forefront of European human rights discourse. Although Roma have lived for centuries in Western Europe in relatively small populations, the influx of between five and six million new Roma free to move throughout the European Union released a firestorm of xenophobia and anti-Gypsy laws in Western Europe. (Benova and Swoboda 2011:7-8). Due to their own economic hardship, the wealthier nations in Western Europe have viewed the influx of these new immigrants as a burden. In 2007, French president Nicholas Sarkozy stepped up expulsions of Eastern European Roma after rioting broke out following the shooting by police of a Roma man who drove through a checkpoint. During the summer of 2010, Sarkozy approved the expulsion of about 1000 Roma, stating that their camps were rife with “prostitution and crime.”3 2 Suzanne Daly, “Roma, on Move, Test Europe’s ‘Open Borders,’” The New York Times, Sept. 16, 2010. 3 Katrin Bennhold and Stephen Castle, “E.U. Calls France’s Roma Expulsions a ‘Disgrace,’” The New York Times, Sept. 14, 2010. 2 3 Another incident occurred in Italy, where The Guardian reports that hundreds of thousands of Romanians have immigrated since 2002. In Rome in October 2007, a Romanian Roma man sexually assaulted and beat to death Giovanna Reggiani, a 47-year-old Italian woman. Her death caused an outcry of anti- immigrant sentiments and prompted a change in Italy’s immigration laws. In an emergency session of the Italian government, then-president Giorgio Napolitano signed a decree allowing prefects to expel E.U. citizens deemed threatening to public safety. The prologue of the decree explicitly singled out Romanians: “In the last few years the proportion of crime committed by foreigners has increased, and those who commit most crime are the Romanians.”4 The events in France and Italy brought the Roma situation to the frontlines of European rights discourse. Wiersma (2011) explains that it was not until these incidents in France and Italy that the European Union started “to take some real action” (16). Monika Flašíková-Beňová and Hannes Swoboda (2011) begin their introduction to Roma: A European Minority with a quote by Vaclav Havel: “The Gypsy problem is a litmus test not of human rights but of civil society” (7). The authors use this quote to argue that the protection of Roma rights is essentially a test of the European Union’s core values. Under the auspices of the European Union, member states have met new challenges in dealing with the Roma, yet the imposition of Europeanness creates a unique circumstance favorable not only to the amelioration of the Roma situation, but also lays the foundation for the construction of a new, truly European identity which, as Grass’ statement expressed, the Roma already embody. In looking at the Roma situation in the European Union, it is essential to revisit the E.U.’s founding ideology. Out of the rubble of the Second World War arose a new international system, designed to frame the way nations and peoples interacted with each other and ensure the protection of all. The European Union was founded to “end the frequent and bloody wars between neighbours.”5 The Union’s 4 John Hooper, “Italian woman’s murder prompts expulsion threat to Romanians,” The Guardian, Nov. 1, 2007. 5 “The History of the European Union,” Europa, http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/index_en.htm 3 4 motto, “unity in diversity,” encompasses the ideal of a united Europe. The official website of the European Union explains that this motto “signifies how Europeans have come together . to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the continent’s many different cultures, traditions and languages.”6 Roma rights may be making an appearance in political documents, but have yet to become a lived reality. A report from the 2010 Roma Summit held in Cordoba, Spain concluded that while official recognition of Roma human rights had improved, the Roma’s overall situation was in some cases deteriorating, efforts to increase Roma political participation were underdeveloped, and “the Roma population continues to be the most rejected in most European countries and prejudices and stereotypes are increasing” (15-17). President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has said that the Roma “still represent the largest ethnic group facing extreme poverty, social exclusion and discrimination in our territory.”7 Kovats (2011) describes ancient and persistent racism against the Roma, saying it is “widespread and deeply rooted in all European societies.” Nicolae (2011) adds that “racism against Roma is not a deviation from what is considered ordinariness in Europe but is rather the accepted normality” (Nicolae 2011:90). Indeed, the success of Romani integration in Europe may presage the ability of a united Europe to work. Until the Roma are treated with respect, the E.U.’s founding principles are nothing but unattainable ideals. Although the Roma are not in any sense a unified group, a point of commonality between the disparate European Roma populations is the fact that most live in poverty on the outskirts of European cities and towns (Flašíková- Beňová and Swoboda 2011:8). In spite of initiatives taken at the level of the European Union, the ability to incite any kind of change lies with national governments and municipalities (Flašíková-Beňová and Swoboda 2011:9-10). Krastev suggests that the success or failure of Romani integration is indicative of the 6 “EU Symbols,” http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/symbols/index_en.htm 3 7 Teresa Küchler, “Italy must face legal action for anti-Gypsy measures, says Soros,” EU Observer, Sept. 17, 2008. 4 5 possibility for European democracies to endure in the face of “economic and demographic anxieties.” (Krastev 2011:46). As an explanation of anti-Gypsyism in Eastern Europe, Krastev discusses the demographic anxieties and subsequent populist turn in central European democracies in which he claims “threatened majorities” are the new actor in European politics (46). However, Krastev stops short of applying the “threatened majority” ideology to Western Europe, who has experienced a marked increase in Roma populations. The aforementioned incidents in Italy and France were blatant expressions of systemic xenophobia, but the reason the outbursts occurred when they did may shed light on the underlying problem as well as provide a workable solution.

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