Roma Situation Essay

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The Roma situation is a macrocosm for many of the concepts that are used in globalization today. Internal displacement, racial discrimination, poverty, and persecution are both historical and current issues. Roma have been subject to their fair share of alienation, human rights violations and war crimes. NGO's associated with the protection and promotion of the Roma people use methods available to other well -established NGO's. The situation of the Roma people has also inspired a new direction in anthropology. They are connected as they have a common language, blood, traditions, culture and religion. The Roma situation has raised concerns in dozens of NGO's as well us the UN and the European Union. This paper will examine the Roma situation …show more content…

In its Poverty Reduction Strategy, it aims to stimulate poverty ridden Roma populations with investment incentives as well as providing opportunities for low-skilled labour. It then tries to focus on restructuring the economy of these nations so as to better allow the unemployed to seize opportunities in market systems. Its last stressed point is to provide better social services. The UN has examined the situation and has come to the conclusion in its Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination that solving the Roma problem is essential for the elimination of racial discrimination against other groups.(UN) It emphasized affirmative action, and mass media campaigns in the hopes of halting the traditional European perception of Roma. From the involvement of these and many more institutions, the Roma situation is finally getting the full attention it deserves, and is no longer dismissed with contempt as it once had been. These organizations have made it clear that helping the Romani people is not only necessary, but also symbolic in the way European society will deal with other minority groups in the future. One very critical change that works in the favour of Roma is the …show more content…

Well, to start off, there was an article in the Toronto Star dated 02/28/05 about the discrimination of Roma in Toronto. Six Neo-Nazi skinheads decided to openly profess their hate for gypsies outside of a hotel in Scarborough, at which Romani refugees were staying. At the trial, the case was dismissed on a technicality. The defense was that the skinheads referred to them as "gypsies" and that this did not signify "Roma." When brought before the Supreme Court, the skinheads got their just desserts.(Star) This article expands on some of the ideas in this paper. Although for the most part European Roma were the individuals being addressed, their discrimination and identity problems span the globe, and in this case the intervening NGO is the Canadian Jewish Congress, who made sure this story was kept in the public eye. As this particular event is so close to home, it gives solid claims to the transnational, transsovereign and transatlantic nature of the Diaspora. In the beginning of the paper it was mentioned that Roma are a macrocosm and have also inspired a new direction in modern anthropology. Before the 1980's, culture was seen as a fixed location. (Okely, 151) The Romani people are a prime example of the falsity of this claim and it is a macrocosm in the sense that in today's interconnected world culture is afloat. This anthropological notion is in tune with and may help provide information on modern day refugees,

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