wiiw Other Seminars
Series Details
Venue: wiiw, Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Vienna, lecture hall (entrance from the ground floor)
Thursday, 14 June 2012, 4:00 pm
Open for all (free attendance)
Invitation:
English
In the last two years the problem of extreme exclusion of Roma from European
societies has become what it deserves to be: a European (Europeanized) problem.
Paradoxically, ex-President Sarkozy's theatrical clamp down on illegal Roma and their
expulsion, with the aim of placating the far right voters in France, was the main trigger,
although already in 2009 the European Commission produced a promising
Communication. What followed was a call for a Europe-wide Roma Strategy.
Commissioner Reading did not venture that far but spearheaded a process culminating
in a European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies in April 2011. Since
then a Council Conclusion underlined the importance of policy efforts to lift Roma out of
abject poverty and deep, degrading social exclusion. National reactions, however, have
been deeply disappointing. None of the National Roma Strategies, as submitted by the
end of 2011 are up to the challenge. None of these strategies can possibly be the basis
for realistic visible changes. The policy of platitudes to placate the European audience
but no real action in fear of losing domestic electorate, has continued unabated. The
mechanisms of interaction between the European institutions and the new memberstates with large proportion of Roma on one hand, and the Western Balkan
enlargement candidates on the other, are different. Thus the possible outcomes may
also be different. Moreover, the policy efforts are progressing against the background
of rising radical right populism, often with explicit racist content. The lecture aims to
assess the expected impact of the national strategies. It will confront them with the
reality on the ground. And it will show areas where not only solutions have not yet been
offered but where our own intellectual gaps are also an obstacle, such as an
insufficient understanding of how public policy can steer the dynamics between a rather
hostile majority and marginalized and disenfranchised minority.
(Papers and Powerpoint presentations, as far as available, are posted on our homepage after the respective seminars.)
