In France and America, Bigotry Knows No Borders

[Panaconda]

In France and America, Bigotry Knows No Borders
by Michelle Chen
Wednesday, September 15 2010

All the media stories of rabid attacks on Muslims and Latino immigrants in recent weeks might have you convinced that America’s racism is unique among nations. But across the Atlantic, another republic is making headlines with its blatant bigotry. The French may not think much of Americans, but both countries’ governments share a singular antipathy for “outsiders.”

France has launched a widely condemned program to expel members of the Roma ethnic minority and send them to Romania and Bulgaria.

While such assaults are nothing new to marginalized Roma migrants, who trace their deep lineage to a nomadic people of Punjab, India, the state’s determination to decimate their settlements has drawn criticism from the United Nations and European Parliament, perhaps because it evokes the stench of ethnic cleansing in a Europe still grappling with its new identity and past genocides.

The New York Times reported in August on the purge:

France flew some 100 Roma home to Romania — people who France insists agreed to leave voluntarily for a flight and a resettlement sum of about $385 instead of facing the chance of forcible expulsion in a month. … Mass expulsions based on ethnicity violate European Union law, and the failure of France to do individual assessments of each case — as opposed to cursory examinations of papers by the police — also violates European Union rules.

...

France’s crackdown on local Roma communities might seem more severe, baldly discriminatory and conducted with minimal due process. But in both expulsion campaigns, the government’s motive is to project toughness by demonizing an utterly defenseless “illegitimate” group. Another common feature is that both are carried out under ostensibly liberal-democratic regimes, with a tradition of absorbing migrants and refugees (both led by statesmen who are children of immigrants, no less).

...

http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/09/in_france_and_america_bigotry_knows_no_borders.html

[msongs]

1. it's a human characteristice and France/America are not unique nt

[blondeatlast]

2. Fact is, France's official policies are more blatant bigotry than ours are.

Given a Sarkozy-like leader and a few years, we'd likely be doing the same. k/r

[burnsei sensei]

3. The Romany people are being forced

to relocate.
We had the internment of the Japanese in ww2 and the atrocities against the Germans in ww1.
Still, our crimes pale in comparison to this.
These people should be protected, should be allowed to stay where they are, and to travel if it is their choice.
I also think the Catholic Church should be speaking up for them, they have protected them in the past.
I dislike these developments intensely; the Roma have lived in Europe and among Europeans for centuries. They have never been a barbaric or invasive influence.

[surrealAmerican]

4. What do the Romanians have to say about this?

They don't exactly have a history of being some sort of bastion of ethnic tolerance either.

[Panaconda]

5. Conflict erupts between EU and France over Roma expulsions

Conflict erupts between EU and France over Roma expulsions
By Antoine Lerougetel and Peter Schwarz
16 September 2010

The French government’s policy of mass expulsions of Roma has led to a sharp conflict between Brussels and Paris.

In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, EU commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding accused the French government of “discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin or race” and of calling into question “the common values and laws of our European Union”. She described the French policy as a “disgrace”.

The statement by Reding, a Christian Democrat from Luxembourg, was unusual both in its tone and its content. She accused two French ministers, Eric Besson (immigration) and Pierre Lellouche (European affairs), of having lied to her and implicitly compared the actions of the French government with those of the fascists during the Second World War.

“I personally have been appalled by a situation which gave the impression that people are being removed from a Member State of the European Union just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority”, she said. “This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War.”

...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/roma-s16.shtml