REDUPRE
CONCLUDING WORKSHOP
27- 28 May 2013 Maribor, Slovenia
The position of Roma/Sinti in Italy
with special view to the selected
area of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia
Italy
Prof. Ezio Benedetti
International Institute for High Legal and Economic Studies for
Development (IGES), Gorizia, Italy
ROMA AND SINTI PEOPLE IN ITALY: HISTORICAL,
ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL FRAMEWORK
•FOUR MIGRATION WAVES FROM XV TO XX CENTURY (Central Europe, Balkans, Istria)
•ROMA – SINTI – TRAVELLERS
•MORE THAN 60 DIFFERENT GROUPS
•ROMANES AS A COMMON LANGUAGE
•150.000 – 170.000 ROMA IN ITALY (different estimations, no census) NO DATA – NO
PROGRESS (LESS THAN 0,3% OF THE TOTAL POPULATION)
•60.000-70.000 ITALIAN AND 70.000-80.000 NON-ITALIAN ROMA (many stateless from
former YU, unsolved problem)
•BIGGEST COMMUNITIES IN LOMBARDIA, LAZIO, CAMPANIA, ABRUZZO, MOLISE, CALABRIA
•IN FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA ABOUT 2.400 ROMA/SINTI (LESS THAN 0,15% OF THE TOTAL POPULATION)
biggest community: UDINE (500)
•SINTI ARE ABOUT 1.800 AND ROMA 500-700
THE PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN ITALY AND THE LEGAL
SITUATION OF ROMA AND SINTI IN ITALY AND IN FVG
ITALY
•
RATIFIED ALL THE MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS ON PROTECTION OF MINORITIES
(CoE, UN, OSCE, EU)
•
CONSTITUTIONALLY STATED EQUALITY BETWEEN ALL CITIZENS AND FOREIGNERS (ART. 3
cost.)
•
RECOGNIZES RIGHTS AND PROTECTION TO LINGUISTIC MINORITIES (ART. 6 COST. AND LAW
482/1999)
•
ROMA/SINTI ARE NOT RECOGNIZED AS MINORITY WITHIN THE ITALIAN LEGAL SYSTEM
•
THERE ARE 11 REGIONAL LAWS ON ROMA, MOST OF THEM JUST DEALING WITH THE
CAMPS (ghettoization)
THE PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN ITALY AND THE LEGAL
SITUATION OF ROMA AND SINTI IN ITALY AND IN FVG
ITALY /2
•
REGION FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA ADOPTED A VERY ADVANCED LAW (NO. 11/1988) WHICH DEALS
ALSO WITH SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DIMENSION (vocational training, ESF, schooling, social
housing)
•
SINCE 2007 TILL 2011 JUST “emergency decrees”: ROMA ARE JUST A PROBLEM OF PUBLIC
SECURITY!! MEDIA+GOVERNMENT=HATRED SPEECH (all Roma are criminals=all Roma are
Romanians=all Romanians are criminals)
•
ITALY ADOPTED A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY ON ROMA ISSUES JUST IN 2012 (NATIONAL
STRATEGY ON INCLUSION OF ROMA based on Communication of the EC no. 173/2011)
•
LACK OF A NATIONAL PLAN (government, local authorities, SCO’s, Roma associations)
•
NO RECOGNITION NO PROGRESS
THE APPROACH IS STILL BASED ON “PROBLEM SOLVING”
RATHER THAN “INCLUSION POLICIES”
•
THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION OF ROMA/SINTI
COMMUNITIES IN ITALY AND FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA
• HOUSING: CAMPS (700 camps, 80% Roma), GHETTOIZATION, NO SOCIAL HOUSING
(just 10% live in flats or houses)
• EDUCATION: NO SCHOOLING (35%), SCHOOL DROP-OUT (55%), NO VOCATIONAL
TRAINING (90%)
• EMPLOYMENT: HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (more than 60%), low incomes and
low salaries, INVENTED JOBS AND SCARCE SOCIAL SECURITY
• HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES: no involvement, mutual distrust, welfare approach
THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION OF ROMA/SINTI
COMMUNITIES IN ITALY AND FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA-2
• PARTICIPATION: no associative life (the ones dealing with Roma issues are mainly
led by Italians), no political parties, auto-exclusion and social exclusion two faces
of the same coin
• CRIMINALITY AND DEVIANCE (more than 10% of prison population are Roma,
poverty fosters small criminality and begging)
• INCREASING SOCIAL STRATIFICATION (a few rich Roma, especially Italians, great
majority in camps and some groups in total exclusion living in waste dumps and
under bridges)
DISCRIMINATION AND INTEGRATION OF ROMA
AND SINTI COMMUNITIES IN ITALY
• Highly discriminated in jobs, schooling, police, public administration (Caritas
collected something as 2.500 cases of direct/indirect discrimination just in 2010)
• VOLUNTEERS AND NON PROFIT ASSOCIATIONS HAVE A GREAT ROLE IN
FIGHTING DISCRIMINATION AND DEALING WITH ROMA/SINTI COMMUNITIES
(more than 200 associations involving more than 15.000 people)
• THE PROBLEM IS THAT THERE IS SCARCE COORDINATION AND NO KNOWLEDGE
OF ASSOCIATIONS OPERATING AT A LOCAL LEVEL (isolation)
DISCRIMINATION AND INTEGRATION OF ROMA
AND SINTI COMMUNITIES IN ITALY -2
THE MAIN PREJUDICES, STEREOTYPES
AND DISCRIMINATORY BEHAVIORS
ARE BASED ON SCARCE KNOWLEDGE:
ROMA ARE
NOMADS
THIEVES
BEGGARS
DIRTY
AND LAZY
THEY DESERVE THIS WAY OF LIFE,
THEY DO NOT WANT TO INTEGRATE
NO KNOWLEDGE-NO PROGRES
stereotypes and discrimination are
fostered by the media
(more than 2.000 articles against or highly
discriminatory against Roma just in 2011-2012:
cases of Naples, Livorno etc.)
and by
hatred political speech
(two majors of big cities – Verona and Treviso - have
been condemned by national court for violation
of Law no. 205/1993 againsfascist/nazis and
racist behaviors
IN FVG MORE THAN 1.200 DOCUMENTED
CASES OF DISCRIMINATION, POLICE
VIOLENCE AND EXTREME POVERTY in the
period 2010-2012
CONCLUSIONS AND SOME HOPE
•
LEGAL RECOGNITION
•
NATIONAL ACTION PLAN to enforce
national strategy
•
PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN LOCAL
AUTHORITIES, CENTRAL GOVERNMENT,
NO PROFIT ASSOCIATIONS, ROMA TO
INDIVIDUATE COMPTENCES AND SHARE
PROGRAMMES
•
FUNDS FOR SCHOOLING AND
VOCATIONAL TRAINING (ESF)
•
EDUCATION AND RECIPROCAL
KNOWLEDGE ARE THE keys (inclusion
thprugh culture, music, art, traditional
handcrafts and works..
•
CAMPS ARE THE REAL PROBLEM
(exclusion)
•
CAMPAIGNS THROUGH MEDIA AND
INVOLVEMENT OF POLITICS AND
INSTITUTIONS