Chapter 16: The Roma in Canada

Question 1

Who are the Roma - 1?

Answer 1

diasporic people who migrated from northwestern India in the 11th C
large group of mixed peoples arose after the defeat of the Ghaznavid Empire in 1040
 adopted a lingua franca derived from Sanskrit  Romanes
 a new ethnic group, the Roma
migrated to Persia, Armenia  Anatolia (Turkey)  Europe in c 1300
 sub-groups with deep differences in dialect, practices, identities

Question 2

Who are the Roma - 2?

Answer 2

the largest minority group in Europe, pop. = 10-12 million (Council of Europe 2011)
pop. in Canada = ~ 100,000
pop. in US = ~ 1 million
‘Roma’ is an ethnonym from Romanes, now adopted by Romani leadership, states, NGOs, media, and academics
‘Gypsy’ is an exonym, from the false belief that the Roma came from Egypt
‘Gypsy’ in European languages is derogatory, but it is so normalized that many European Roma still use it.

Question 3

The Roma in Canada

Answer 3

Cdn Roma belong to many sub-groups, and are diverse re country of origin, religion, immigration status, and cultural practices
small numbers arrived in the 19th C
Lunenburg, NS, 1862: “Gypsies arrived at Lunenburg (it was said for the first time), and pitched their tents in Mr. N. Kaulbach’s pasture” (DesBrisay 1895: 558).
Roma travelled throughout Canada from the late 19th century.

Question 4

Gypsy Stereotypes:

Answer 4

The Mystic
The Dancer
The Criminal
The Wedding
The Nomad

Question 5

Why do the Roma Claim Refugee Status in Canada?

Answer 5

Acts of violent racism and systemic discrimination against their Roma populations are regularly carried out in Central and Eastern Europe.
Attacks by neo-Nazis and the failure of police to protect Romani victims are the most conspicuous…
…but expulsions, segregated schools, exclusion from the labour market, and political leaders’ public aspersions are other manifestations of systemic racism.
 1000s of Roma have migrated to Canada from CEE where they claim refugee status

Question 6

How the refugee System works?

Answer 6

The Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) determines whether an asylum-seeker qualifies as a refugee as defined by the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (and the 1967 Protocol) (UNHCR 2010):

Are they unable or unwilling to return to their country of nationality for reasons of a “well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”?

Question 7

Police Abuse of the Roma

Answer 7

raids on Roma settlements, discriminatory investigations of racially motivated misconduct, arbitrary seizure or destruction of property, arbitrary detention, ethnic profiling of Roma individuals in public spaces or while driving…the negative use by police of crime statistics broken down by ethnicity; and, increasingly, the creation of biometric databases targeting Roma” (Council of Europe 2012: 76, 81).

Question 8

How Reforms to the Refugee System Affect the Roma

Answer 8

Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act (Dec 2012) fundamentally changed the refugee system.

Designated Countries of Origin (DCO) = “countries that do not normally produce refugees, countries that have a robust human rights record, and countries that offer strong state protection…foreign nationals from these countries are unlikely to require protection” (Government of Canada, 2012).

Dec 2012–spring 2014  42 countries on the DCO list including Hungary and others in Central and Eastern Europe that have the largest Roma populations

The law was criticized by many orgs and experts, eg. Cdn Assn of Refugee Lawyers (CARL), Peter Showler former IRB Chair, Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Amnesty International: the DCO system undermines “the neutral, human-rights focused basis of determining refugee status.”
It discriminates between deserving and undeserving claimants: