the roma now and then laura laubeova [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
Unit structure• Terminology • Language, identity and culture. Ethnic group? • Roma and non-Roma • Multidisciplinary approach• International Romani movement. Resources and
links• Case study: Czech Republic
Historical background
Education
Terminology
The Roma/The Romani people/The Romanies (12 m Worldwide)
Rom (sg.) (husband; Dom, Domari), Romni (she),Roma (pl.) or Romanies (pl.) accepted by Sinti
(prof.Hancock) a Romani (sg.)
Example: She is a Roma (sic.), Romani, a Romni
Romipen, Rromanipen
Gentiles: Gadje, gadjo, gorgio (gaujo, gawjo, gawja Hancock)
AdjectiveRomani (international documents), Romany (literature)
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Language
The Romani language or Romani or
Romanes (in a Romani way, Romanily)
Vakares Romanes? Do you speak in the Romani way?
Kiravel Romanes. She is cooking in the Romani way
Sanskrit origins:
1760 Valyi Stefan, Univ. of Leiden, NL
Vienna Gazette 1776,
Rudiger 1782, Grellman 1783, Marsden 1785
Identity, culture, politics
Identity - Reflects attitudes of majority -- Withdrawal and separation (protect values and
culture)- Internalisation of stereotypes
Culture & values - cleanlines, eating, treatment of animals, funerals, sexual behaviour, extended family, etc
Romani organisations: Intl. Romani Union; Roma National Congress
European level ERRC, ERIO, ERF (vide links bellow)….
Roma as an ethnic group• National minority (CEE), ethnic minority group (UK -
RRA). Community / communities. • Heterogeniety.• Roma (Rumungro, Vlach, Romanichal, Kalderash, Kale,
Kalo, Lovari), Sinti, Travellers, playground and circus people, bargee people, new age travellers etc
• “Gypsy is not a lifestyle” but race/ ethnic group (Hancock)
• Minorities autochtonous, immigrant• Roma as European minority vs Roma as European
nation
Europe's largest transnational minority; Declaration on "non-territorial" nation (2001)
Roma in societyDiscrimination, racism, anti-Gypsyism, denial of racism,
reversed racism Majority relations twds the Roma
(annihilation/extermination, persecution, segregation; assimilation, integration, accommodation, inclusion)
Major point of departures for Romani studies:a) history – migration from India, early persecution in
15- 18 cent., assimilation under Habsburgs and in Portugal; Porrajmos – Romani holocaust (0,5 m)
b) family and values; c) Romani language, identity and self-determination of
Romani nation But:
Multi-disciplinary approach
• Romani Studies / Romology• Linguistics (Indology)• History (of repression)• Cultural and social antropology / ethnology• Culturology, Musicology• International Relations (UN, EU…)• International law (HR, minority rights law)• Public and social policy• Political economy (WB, UNDP)• Sociology (power issues)• Social psychology (in-group, out-group dynamics)• Psychology (of prejudice, stereotyping) etc.
Key Romani movements,Politics and Policy Actors
International Romani Union
Roma National Congress
European Roma and Traveller Forum (CoE)
European Roma Rights Centre (US Law)
World Bank
Decade of Romani Inclusion 2005-2015
World Romani Congresses (IRU)
The first World Romani Congress, London, 1971:
16-spoked wheel as their international symbol,
flag (green and blue),
anthem (Roma arise),
proclaimed April 8 international Romani day
2nd 1979 Geneva (Jan Cibula)
3rd 1981 Gottingen Ge (Rajko Djuric)
4th 1990 Warsaw (Rajko Djuric)
5th 2000 Prague (Emil Scuka)
6th 2004 Lanciano Italy (Stanislav Stankiewicz)
RNC
Rom & Sinti Union in Hamburg (80s) -> RNC, Rudko Kawczynski
Grassroot, militant, Romani refugees from Eastern Europe – basic human rights approach
Pan-European Romani Identity
vs
nationalist “Zentralrat “ of German Sinti and Roma (81)
Useful links and resources
European Roma Rights Centre http://www.errc.org
European Roma Information Office http://www.erionet.org/Home.html
European Roma and Traveller Forum http://www.ertf.org/
WB www.worldbank.org/roma
UNDP http://roma.undp.sk
Roma in the Czech Republic
Background, Present situation, Issue of Education
Useful links and resources
Romea http://www.romea.cz/
Czech Radio http://www.romove.cz
Maria Theresa and Joseph II. (1760-1784)
assimilation, sedentarisation
1927 Act on Nomadic Gypsies (identity cards)
Nazi holocaust PORRAIMOS (200 000 –1.5 m. victims)Ctibor Nečas, Paul Polanski
Concentration Camp Lety
History
Communism
• Enforced + voluntary relocation to Sudetenlands from Slovak shanty-town settlements (after removal of Germans 1945)
• 1958 Act on settlement of nomadic persons (repealed in CZ in 97)
• 1965 policy on transfer (from Sk) + dispersal, displacement
• 68 federalisation; Association of Gypsies-Roma (73)• 1978 Charter 77 Document 23: Information on situation
of Gypsies-Roma (warning if economy modernises)
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1989-97
• Roma gained status as a national minority, Romani MPs• Bogardus scale of social distance – high hostility• Beauty Queen racist utterance, Racist attacks • Unemployment; stereotype of self-chosen unemployment• Criminality (20% vs. national 3%) – criminalisation• Citizenship law 93 (de facto discrimination), put most
Roma in position of aliens, 96, 2000; led to 97 exodus• Housing ghettoisation (barren flats), educational
segregation
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1997 - present• 97 Emigration to Canada, UK → Bratinka
report on situation of R. community in CZ• 98 UN CERD Concluding observations on
CR, "de facto” segregation in edu (article 5 ICERD)
• April 99 Draft Concept of Romani integration
• „Conflict-free co-existence of the R. community with the remainder of society“
• Safety, non-discrimination, improving social sit (employment, housing, health)
“Exodus” to Canada
1996: 150 Czech Romani claimants
6 Aug. 1997: TV documentary
6 Aug.– 8 Oct. 97: 1500 claimants/ “Invasion” , i.e. 6% of all refugee claimants in 97
Re-introduction of visa requirement
Migration to UK and other EU countries
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After 1997 - cont.
2001 UK Immigration officers in Prg Airport
(CHC Statement 29 Aug. 01), House of Lords Dec 2004
2002 "Conception on Romani Integration",
(2004 reformulation/revision)
2003 Denial by pres. Klaus, BBC Hardtalk
Education and Roma in CZ Push factors for systemic change
• 97 Canada visa imposition• EU accession, Criticism by US Gov., UN, CoE• Role of NGOs, e.g. ERRC: Ostrava region, 27 times more in Special Schools, 5%
population, 50% in special schools
Cf. Brown vs Topeca Board of Education in USA, 50yrs ago
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Achievements
Romani teacher assistants (introduced in 1998) communication barrier, partnership teaching, small group work, contact with families, etc not systemic, inferior status, no educated R. teachers, if not successful‑ blaming the victim
Preparatory classes (since 1994) cf Headstart USA
multicultural/ intercultural edu. programmes -NG0s, community schools
Threats:
re-standardisation of psychological testing in the age of 6 - doubts about the concepts itself
subtractive versus additive bilingualism, irreversible cognitive damage (abstract thinking concepts - Piaget)
institutional, unwitting, indirect racism+ denial of racism
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D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic
• first challenge to systematic racial segregation in education in Europe
• brought by 18 Roma children from Ostrava; placed in “special” remedial special schools (ss)
• complaint filed in 2000 by ERRC - intensive qualitative and quantitative research that revealed racial disparities.
• 7 February 2006 European Court on HR ruled in favour of the Czech State (improvement)
• US Helsinki Commission report 21 Feb 2006
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What next?
• Impact of globalisation on marginalised groups
• Racism, terrorism, other ISMS
• World Bank and the Decade for inclusion
• 2007 European year for equity ?
• Pluralism
• Racism
• Integration
• Assimilation
• Reverse discrimination
• ?