A
Challenge to Europe’s Conscience
There may be an upside to France’s move to
deport thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians, if it helps pull the “Roma
question” off the bottom of the EU’s agenda.
10/02/2014 - When something gets shoved
under the rug, it can trip you up. At that point, you can either nudge it aside
or pull it out and put it in its proper place.
Not to stretch the metaphor too far, but
for years, countries in Europe have been stepping over or pushing aside – into
someone else’s way – the question of what to do about millions of people who
consistently challenge our value system and notions we have about ourselves as
humane and enlightened.
Yes, we’re talking about the Roma – again.
Wearying as the topic may be, we have no right to ignore it, especially as some
countries dip into a playbook for dealing with minorities that we had hoped had
been retired, that the wars of the 20th century and the subsequent founding of
the EU itself had been insurance against ever being reopened.
But there it is. In France, more than 8,000
people have been sent back to Romania or Bulgaria this year. Paris calls them
“voluntary transfers” because the deportees were given a lump sum for
themselves and their children. Brussels calls that paying someone to waive
their rights as EU citizens. We call it a fig leaf.
Those EU rights allow any citizen of a
member country to stay in any other for up to three months without working.
After that time, they must demonstrate that they are self-sufficient or have
found legal employment. And even if they cannot, immigration authorities must
weigh what threat they pose to public policy or what burden they would be on
public funds before deporting them.
Admittedly, legal employment may not be
widespread among those being booted out of France right now. And no one should
expect French communities to tolerate unsanitary, perhaps unruly (but perhaps
not), and almost always unassimilated, colonies of migrants in their midst.
Further – it’s faint praise, to be sure –
at least France is not following Italy’s lead entirely, fingerprinting Roma
indiscriminately and sending “back” to Romania even Roma who were born in the
country.
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