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Canada sees an influx of Roma immigrants

Local officials decline to generalize Roma experience

June 18th, 2008 issue

By Reuel S. Amdur

For the Post
Why have Roma recently been leaving the Czech Republic for Canada? From November 2007 through last March, 267 Czechs — thought to be all Roma — sought refugee status in Canada. By contrast from 2001 to 2007, there were only 123 such applications.
The recent increase follows the removal of visa restrictions last November, and the reasons behind it seem clear to those in Canada working with refugee claimants.
“They tell me it’s because of beatings and harassment by skinheads and neo-Nazis,” said Max Berger, a Toronto lawyer who is representing some of the applicants.
Others are able to fill in more graphic details. Paul St. Clair, executive director of Toronto’s Roma Community Centre, spoke about the experiences of some 40 or so families he has seen during the recent influx.
“Seven pregnant women were beaten and kicked in the stomach by skinheads. Four can no longer conceive,” he said. “Another woman, eight months pregnant, was kicked in the stomach and her child now carries permanent bruises.”
St. Clair also said that men could not find work in the Czech Republic, many reporting that a potential employer would either claim a job was filled or come right out and say, “We don’t hire Roma.”
According to St. Clair, many Roma were afraid to use the metro and trains, because of attacks from skinheads. At night, skinheads invaded Roma neighborhoods, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, sometimes invading homes, destroying property and attacking people with knives and miniature baseball bats.  
He added that the National Guard, a new extremist group, is known to beat people with dark skin during their marches, during which they chant, “The Czech Republic is for whites.” He said that complaints to the police were fruitless because authorities asked for the names of the attackers, without which the matter is dropped. Often, he said, they did not even make a report.  
Amnesty International, in its April 18 report, also spoke of “incidents of violence” by young racists. Amnesty cited the European commissioner for human rights, who expressed concern about allegations of police violence against Roma and police inaction when Roma were victims of crime.  
Establishing a pattern
Canada also received an influx of Czech Roma in 1997, following a Czech television program that described Canada as a fine place for Roma. Canada responded at the time by imposing visa requirements for visitors from the Czech Republic — a requirement that was lifted last November.
While Czech officials now say they have no information on another dramatic “mass exodus” of Roma to Canada, they are aware of a level of emigration.
“The majority of Roma currently moving to Canada are members of individual families that had moved to Canada before the state introduced visas for Czechs,” said Radka Soukupová, director of the Commission for Roma Community Affairs, an advisory body of the Czech Cabinet.
When addressing issues of harrassment and job discrimination, Soukupová is quick to guard against generalizing the Roma experience.
“Roma communities are a varied Czech entity, so we can’t look at it as one single mass,” she said. “Roma people are moving to Canada, but this is not a problem of all Roma communities, just some of them.”
However, she was familiar with individual concerns.
“Some complain they don’t get access to proper jobs, housing and education,” she said, adding that, however, “We can’t just say all Roma people are discriminated against in the Czech Republic.”
On issues of harassment, she was aware that “many are becoming scared of the National Guard.”
While anti-Roma racism activity is uncommon in Canda, some people arriving there in 1997 did encounter it. In one Toronto suburb, demonstrators holding placards gathered in front of a motel housing Roma refugee claimants. One Roma woman reported feeling at first that it was like back home, but she was pleased by the Canadian response when police provided protection. Some of the demonstrators were tried for hate crimes. When they were acquitted on a technicality, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial.
— Hela Balínová contributed to this report.
Reuel S. Amdur can be reached at news@praguepost.com


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Reader's comments:

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[15:29 19/06/2008] : Why don't the Roma move to India, their ancestral home? They'd benefit on a cultural level. Secondly, they would be able to partake in the economic boom going on in India.
India and China are becoming the new economic powerhouses of the 21st century. Lots of opportunity to advance there and the future only looks brighter.
Van Pruska
Houston
[12:56 20/06/2008] : "Why don't the Roma move to India, their ancestral home?"

(a) Because after a millenium they are not very likely to have much cultural affinity with India. How many millions of Americans of, for example, Polish descent but a few generations removed, could automatically "slot" into place in their "ancestral home"? And the gap here is only a few generations, not even a thousand years as in the case of the Roma!

(b) Why should they HAVE to? They are Czech citizens, entitled to the same rights and protections as all other Czech citizens, aren't they? At least that's what I thought when I read that the CR is a modern democracy. Either you continue striving to make this a reality for all citizens or you stop posturing as if you are in fact this beacon of democracy when in fact you are not.
A Rahman
London
[11:44 21/06/2008] : The Roma don't want to integrate into any society. They want to pass down their talent for stealing, especially pickpocketing, to the next generation.
They want the government to give them handouts because they are generally too lazy to work. When the government in Slovakia built them housing complexes, within weeks the Roma had systematically dismantled the entire complex, selling all of the windows, hardware and lumber.
They are the scourge of Europe, and no one wants them. Canada should cut them off before the crime wave begins.
John Salerno
Prague
[15:50 25/06/2008] : "Why don't the Roma move to India, their ancestral home?"
Sort of a narrow-minded statement.

Why shouldn't the Slavs return to their homelands of a 1,000 years ago? Or the Francs to theirs? Or to this matter all of the Euro Americans back to Europe, etc.?

We have such narrow-minded people in the United States, but fortunately they are few. So why don't the Czechs just get over themselves. Or maybe all of the Czechs that came to the United States 100-plus years ago, maybe their families should return home.
Richard Elliot
Charlotte
[21:42 25/06/2008] : >>such narrow-minded people in the United States, but fortunately they are few.

actually *most* Americans are like that. Try talking to an Arab-American and see what his or her opinion about this is. See how much *you* would like relentless racist propaganda on the television every day. My guess is that you are white.
Margot Winston
Prague
[16:42 26/06/2008] : "Arab-American" - TRUE Americans do not refer to themselves as Arab-American, African-American, Irish-American, German-American, Asian-American ..... etc.

Even though government forms require such dribble in their completion, TRUE Americans are simply Americans, even though they are aware of their ancestry.

TRUE Americans do not care about your religion, although they will invite you to their church (but at least we go to church) or if you are an immigrant (although they might be interested in your former culture). Most (but not all) Americans do not care about your sexual orientation, race, or anything else - they simply treat you as their neighbor, work colleague, etc. - even if they disagree with your sexual orientation, race, or anything else.
TRUE Americans really just try to get along - and do not understand others who do not wish to just get along.

By the way, we actually get to know our neighbors and help them when they are in need - we don't just say 'dobry den' because it's a cultural thing to do.

I recently gave money to the Czech-Slovak museum in Cedar Rapids that sustained damage due to flooding. Why? I have no Czech or Slovak or any Slavic blood in my family line - but I like preserving the history of cultures - I find it fascinating - even the Muslim and Arab cultures that I cannot identify with.

But I will admit, there are a few American citizens (not TRUE Americans) that give us a bad name.
Of course, should I judge all Czechs to be LIARS like those that I have met - probably not.
Richard Elliot
Charlotte
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