What should be done with the Roma (gypsies)?

The country of origin of the Roma was a great mystery beginning sometime in the Middle Ages, the time when the Roma arrived in Europe, to both the inhabitants of the countries they arrived in, as well as to historians. It isn't possible to determine the date of their arrival in Europe exactly, because they spread through Europe in individual bands independent of each other. It is however believed by most scholars that they entered Europe from Egypt and that their actual place of origin was India. There is a similarity between Indian and Romani words that more or less confirms this belief. Not only does their language bears witness to their Indian origin; there's also the surprising similarity of a number of customs, a similar social structure, their choice of professions and the same technology of metal-working, etc.

Then, abruptly, in the 14th century, large groups of people started to wander from place to place; people who differed from the inhabitants by their darker skin, their clothes, their distinct way of life, their completely incomprehensible tongue, their temperament, and their unwillingness to conform to the pressure of the majority of the population that they mingled with.

Despite that, in some places, the Roma were actually welcomed, because they brought new technologies for working with iron and metals. But in many other places, they were unwelcomed. They didn’t mingle with the general population, in fact the Roma chose to be aloof and many of them committed minor crimes in order to survive. The majority of the members of society unfortunately treated the Roma as foreign invaders, (as they do now) which very rarely contribute anything that is good to them now or in the past, and for this reason, they treat the Roma without hesitation as second class citizens from which they can steal from and rob without shame. The trouble that the Roma are facing is that when they enter a foreign country, they are not citizens of that country, they are illegal immigrants.

It follows that immigrants who applied for the right to live and work in a foreign country and were accepted by the country of their choice, are upset that the Roma don’t bother applying for permission to do the same. They just wander in and sit themselves down as if they are citizens of the country they have illegally entered.

When I use the term ‘illegally entered’ I am aware that in Europe where most countries are members of the European Union, anyone in Europe can enter another European country to visit. But this doesn’t mean that they can stay in that country permanently without first being given permission by the government of that country.

There are approximately 8.5 million Roma in Europe and the possibility of that many people wandering around Europe and them contributing nothing, either in taxes or other duties expected of them, frightens many of the citizens of the European countries.

Italy's new center-right government began flexing its muscles on the issue of illegal immigration just a week after taking office in 2008. This spurred a number of attacks on Roma people. Police carried out a number of arrests in a sweep that began on May 7th of that year and deported several illegal immigrants from the country. The government of Italy was responding to Italian concerns about immigrant crime. The government claimed it was not identifying any specific groups, but the crackdown had been largely focused on the Roma people, who mainly came from Romania and other Eastern European countries.

The fear erupted into violence. Roma camps near Naples had to be evacuated after local people torched the shacks, angered by reports that a teenage Roma girl tried to kidnap an Italian baby. Her arrest sparked days of bitter protests, and vigilante groups in the Naples suburb of Ponticelli chased Roma out of two squatter camps by throwing Molotov cocktails into their huts.

Police officers carried out raids on a Roma camp in Rome and detained over 50 Bosnian and Romanian immigrants who didn’t have proper papers. Maroni Italian Police Chief Antonio Manganelli said that "only by blocking the entry into Italy of people who refuse to integrate, people who import crime, will we be able to help ease the fear that has crept across swathes of our country." It is beyond my understanding as to how any government official can make a determination that someone entering their country will refuse to integrate.

Maroni's Interior Ministry’s plans included boosting resources for policing and adopting a firmer line on illegal immigration, although there has been some criticism that the proposed measures could violate EU law. One such proposal would make illegal immigration a criminal offense punishable by up to four years in prison. Rome was also considering extending the detention time for recent immigrants from two to 18 months and carrying out DNA tests to prove family links. Maroni also envisaged reintroducing passport controls at the Italian border, despite the country's membership in the European Union's passport-free Schengen zone. One of the concerns facing France is that 30% of the crimes committed in that country are committed by illegal immigrants.

Milan's conservative deputy mayor, Riccardo de Corato said, "People who want to work are welcome in Milan, but if you want to beg, go and do it in Bucharest." And Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, who is prone to using anti-immigrant rhetoric, told reporters "People do what the political class can't manage." in reference to the mob attack on the Naples settlement. What Italy was facing was two opposite views on the Roma problem.

In September 2010, France vowed to continue deporting Roma Gypsies after critics claimed a leaked document suggesting they are being targeted on President Nicolas Sarkozy's orders means the expulsions are against the constitution and break international human rights laws on discrimination.

The leaked memo emerged a few days after France's immigration minister, Eric Besson, insisted that sending police to destroy camps and settlements and ordering the inhabitants to leave France was not aimed at the Roma. He insisted they were being treated no differently to other EU migrants who do not meet France's residency rules. However, the internal order, circulated to police chiefs last month as France began expelling nearly 1,000 Roma Gypsies to Romania and Bulgaria, appeared to confirm the ethnic minority was being singled out.

The leaked memo, dated 5th of August 2010 and signed by the chief of staff for interior minister Brice Hortefeux, reminded French officials of a "specific objective" set out by Sarkozy. The memo said in part;

"Three hundred camps or illegal settlements must be evacuated within three months; Roma camps are a priority. It is down to the préfect (state representative) in each department to begin a systematic dismantling of the illegal camps, particularly those of the Roma."

I think the words, ‘Roma camps are a priority’ and ‘particularly’ those of the Roma’ is a clear indication that the Roma are being singled out for expulsion. That could be because the Roma were the majority of illegals in those camps.

On September 12th 2010, officials in Marseille announced that more than 100 Roma would be flown back to their home countries having accepted €300 ($400 Canadian) to leave France.

But this raises an interesting question, the question being, ‘is it so wrong to evict the Roma from France?’

Estimates of the number of Roma in France vary from 400,000 to over 1 million, the overwhelming majority of whom have either French citizenship or legal residency. This means then that there are probably a few thousand who are not legal residents who are deported on grounds that they are illegal immigrants. There are people routinely sent back home from France (and other nations all over the world) for visa violations, criminality etc.

Why then is France alarmed by the influx of Roma illegal immigrants still in their country? Since August, France has dismantled about 200 Roma settlements and deported about 1,000 of their inhabitants to Romania and Bulgaria. It has also evicted French nationals from illegal traveler settlements. How many illegal Roma immigrants are there left in France?

I can appreciate the concerns that the French government has about doing nothing about the influx of illegal Roma immigrants in their country. The United States government sat on its keaster and did nothing until the influx of illegal Mexican immigrants entering the United Sates ran into millions. It has been estimated that Canada has at least 200,000 illegal immigrants in its country. Both nations are equally concerned about the influx of illegal immigrants coming into their countries.

The issue of Roma expulsions touches a raw nerve in Germany. Under a deal agreed in April, 2010, as many as 14,000 refugees are to be returned to Kosovo. Ten thousand of them are Roma. The UN children's agency UNICEF warned that half of the Roma to be deported are children, most of whom were born and raised in Germany. But unlike the Roma that France is expelling to Romania and Bulgaria, they do not enjoy the right to return, because they are not EU citizens.

What is the best way to deal with the influx of illegal Roma immigrants in Europe?
Here are three possible ways to deal with them.

1. Place them in immigration camps and process them as to their eligibility
to remain in the countries they have entered illegally.

2. Send them all back to the last country they crossed into to get to the country that currently has them.

3. Fly them directly to the country in which they were born.

There is a much more forceful way in which countries can prevent the Roma or any other illegal immigrants from re-entering a country that has deported them. If they are caught again, the adults will be sent to a prison where they will work at hard labour for three years. Then they will be deported again. If they have children with them, their children will be placed in orphanages until their parents are set free. If they return again as illegal immigrants, they will serve another three years in prison at hard labour and their children who are under the age of 12, will be turned over to accredited adoption agencies. They will not see those children again. If their children are 12 and up to the age of 16, they will be placed in orphanages until their parents are set free. Once they are 17, and their parents are still in prison, they will be deported back to the country they were born in with sufficient money to assist them in their new life. I suggest 1,000 Euros which will be placed in bank accounts in their names that are in the countries they are being sent back to.

I realize that this may seem cruel but many nations who are facing the influx of illegal immigrants cannot deal with them as they have to deal with the many problems their own citizens have without the extra burden placed on the countries that are invaded by the illegal immigrants who choose not to contribute anything worthwhile to the country they have entered illegally.

The Roma must realize that the only way that they can survive in this world is to stay in the countries they were born in and register with their governments and send their children to school and apply for legitimate work. Once they begin to live in this manner, they will have little difficulty in surviving in this era they are in.

If on the other hand, Roma or any others choose to remain totally distinct from the other peoples of their own countries and wander about aimlessly in their own countries or the neighbouring countries and choose a life of committing crimes or begging on the streets, they will always be thought of and treated as nuisances and undesirables and will be turfted out of the countries they have illegally slipped into and possibly totally ignored in their own countries. It is up to the Roma to conform to the society that exists in their own countries. If those Roma who live by crime and begging choose to continue in the way they have for centuries, then they will have only themselves to blame for the misery they bring upon themselves and their children.

There is of course an obligation on the part of all countries in which the Roma legitimately reside to make sure that those Roma who wish to work and live a crime-free existence, are given the same rights as others in their countries.