Roma in Europe [antikvár]

ROMA IN EUROPE Foreword This book focuses on a new policy framework and is being published with the intention of encouraging a greater understanding for the right of the Roma to participate to a greater extent than in the past in the decision-making processes affecting them as well as in realizing the programs based on these decisions and controlling them. In other words, the book addresses a policy for the Roma, meaning one that is legitimated with and by the Roma, one that is formulated and put into practice by them, one that is devised in light of the political actors involved and rooted in those who represent them. It addresses both non-Roma, who usually have little knowledge of the Roma and whose opinion is blurred by prejudice, and the Roma, who despite the tough living conditions most of them have to master nevertheless find the energy to stand up for the interests of their group at the local, regional, state or even European level. For centuries now, i.e., since their arrival in Europe, the Roma are the subject of political decisions that have as a rule been leveled against them. In their "gypsy policies", the political decision makers tended to be in line with the opinion of the majority of the population, among whom nurtured by prejudice fears prevailed. While the intensity of the persecution of the Roma everywhere and at all times has differed, it certainly culminated sadly in the Nazi genocide, to which hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma fell victim. Despite this historical background, the Roma disappeared for decades from the public eye and the political domain, although their disadvantaging continued. Not until the divisions in Europe started to be overcome did political attention start to be directed toward the Roma. European integration and the greater interest European policy makers have shown in the Roma has for the first time created an opportunity to break the vicious circle of prejudices and social marginalization. Many Roma believe this trend offers a basis for politicizing the debate on the Roma and for demanding political participation. In the first essay in this volume the editor endeavors to shed light on this debate, the background, and the stimuli it has triggered and render these accessible to the general public. -Günter Grass, the Nobel Prize laureate for literature, was probably the first prominent non-Roma to publicly champion Roma participation in policy-making at the European level. The relevant extract from his speech in Strasbourg is reprinted here.