Author:
Publication: The Observer
of Business and Politics
Date: November 27, 2000
A year ago, a town in
the Czech Republic made international news when it erected a wall separating
its Gypsies from the rest of its citizens. While Gypsies face discrimination
in most of Eastern and Central Europe, their lot is not that much better
in the West.
One example is Italy,
a country that has historically embraced minorities. Yet the Italian
government has institutionalised the prejudices many Italians feel toward
Gypsies. They face police abuse and and many live in segregated housing
or camps.
Unlike some other nations,
Italy has not simply shut its doors to immigrant Gypsies, or Rome, as they
call themselves, from Eastern Europe. It has taken in thousands of
Gypsies who fled Yugoslavia, and provided them with basic shelter.
But immigrant Gypsies and even some of the tens of thousands born in Italy
live in squalid camps largely separated from the rest of Italy's people.
Most camps have no real
sanitation and many have no water or electricity. Some are surrounded
by walls, and local officials occasionally restrict the inhabitants' movements.
While criminal behavior is frequent, Italian officials are too quick to
tar all Gypsies with that label. In the smaller, unauthorised camps,
police frequently raid Gypsy quarters and destroy dwellings.
A new report by the European
Rome Rights Centre. a Budapest-based organisation financed in part
by George Soros, details the conditions in many of these camps. which
nave also been criticized by the United Nations. While the city of
Rome is building better housing for some Gypsies. the housing is
still segregated. By contrast, Italy has provided decent public housing
integrated into Italian cities for other immigrant groups. The government
furthers the idea of Gypsy separation by officially calling them although
most stopped wandering generations ago. Many Italian cities do not
want to take in Gypsies.
Italian society is openly
scornful of Gypsies and studies show that even people who have never met
them fear them as thieves. These prejudices are reinforced by nationalist
politicians, especially in the north. in May, e.g.. the mayor
of a town near Milan said he would pay 5 million lira, to any farmer who
would spray manure on an area where Gypsies were camped.
Such prejudices keep
Gypsies outside Italian society, a situation that encourages petty crime
and fuels more discrimination. The Italian government needs to break
this vicious circle by helping Gypsies become part of their new country.
The New York Times
