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IT IS ESTIMATED that there are only about 5,000 Roma living in Ireland. The majority come from former Eastern Bloc countries – in particular Romania and Bulgaria – and came to Ireland following the accession of these countries to the European Union in 2007.
However, some arrived earlier, either as seasonal workers (for instance fruit-picking in the southeast) or seeking asylum on the basis of persecution.
This means that the majority of Roma living in Ireland have been here over a decade, if not longer. Their children have been born here and gone to school, and are now getting married and starting their own families.
And yet, many of the rights that Roma are entitled to as EU citizens, and as long term residents of Ireland, are not accessible to them. And as a result, many Roma have not really integrated into Irish society, and remain marginalised.
Here in Nasc Ireland, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, we provide legal advice and information to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from all over the world.
Roma are experiencing racism when accessing their rights
We have worked closely with our Roma clients to ensure that they are able to access the rights they are entitled to, things like jobseekers allowance, child benefit, medical cards, housing assistance, and access to education and employment.
We have found through this work that many people in this community can experience racism and even institutional discrimination when trying to access those rights.
These are issues that Roma experience across Europe, regardless of their EU citizenship. This can be partially explained by the rules governing the 2007 accession of several Eastern European states to the European Union, states that funnily enough have high populations of Roma.
When the 2007 Accession was negotiated, EU member states were given the right to restrict some employment rights of new member citizens for several years. Which effectively meant that people coming to Ireland from Romania and Bulgaria didn’t have an automatic right to work in the same way that people coming from France or Germany did.
Lower literacy, health outcomes and employment
Although the Irish government reversed that policy in 2012, as a result of Nasc’s strategic advocacy, the policy has had a long-term impact on access to rights and benefits which we believe has had a disproportionate effect on members of the Roma community, who already tend to experience lower literacy and education levels, lower health outcomes, and less employment opportunities compared to EU and Irish citizens.
Add to that what can only be described as institutional discrimination in the form of excessive requirements for documentation, arbitrary refusals that are then overturned on appeal, long delays in decision making, and sometimes even outright racism from service providers, means that some members of the Roma community live in extreme poverty, without access to social welfare, medical cards or social housing.
These are all rights that as EU citizens and ordinary residents of Ireland, they are entitled to.
Naturalisation is crucial to advance Roma rights
Rights that exist on paper but are not accessible are hollow indeed when your family is starving, or living in one room with no heat. When you are forced to beg on the street and run the risk of a cycle of arrest and incarceration just to survive.
Nasc has been working to support members of the Roma community in applying for Irish citizenship and passports for eligible Irish citizen children.
Naturalisation and recognition of Irish citizenship will significantly improve access to rights and services for this community, to guarantee and vindicate those rights, which will also help promote their participation and integration into Irish society.
Jennifer DeWan is the Campaigns and Communications Manager at Nasc Ireland, in Cork. As a migrant to Ireland from the US, Jennifer is committed to raising awareness about and promoting positive changes in relation to immigration and integration. To mark this year’s International Roma Day Nasc are hosting an event to promote the political and civic participation of Roma, which will include intensive advice and support on applying for naturalisation and Irish passports, as well as information on housing, social welfare, healthcare and other issues.
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One optin is to tell the banks to sort out their own mess they got themselves into & give the taxpayers back the money theyve robbed from them. Not to mentin halving all government TD’s\Ministers\Assistants\etc etc salaries.
Unfortunately are bereft of ideas as to how best do this, or they would have mentioned them in Kennys statement. Notice how reluctant they are at really challenging the Banks to come up with some pain relief plan for themselves. mathew Elderfield thretened to do something and he was told, back off by the banks, so really we are were we are and people thought FF were bad!!! Taxpayers and other suffering will, under this administration (even if there is little alternative) suffer even more. Oh i hate doom and gloom!!!
@Alan – is there ANY alternative? Seriously? Special Needs Assistants, hospitals and schools, while just political ammunition to Adams, really could do with all that cash. Are the government doing the best of a bad deal, or could more be gained by doing as Adams says?
We are in the EU, it’s supposed to be a fair arrangement. Greece getting up to 60% off their debt is sending out the wrong message to Europe especially Ireland. If a similar deal isn’t struck for us then it’s time we rethink our membership in my opinion.
quite right
we would lose most of our trade as it’s all with EU countries, that would ruin the country even more!
We would be decimated without our inter-EU trade agreements! What a ill-thought out idea.
People in Europe (like elswhere around the globe) don’t buy from us because were in the EU, they buy from us because they either need or want our produce.
@ A Musgrave… China and India are not in the EU Dictatorship but they have the benefit of basically Free Trade with the EU, with no tarriffs on many goods and 3% on most of the rest, Free trade was the argument for us joining “the common market”, but the world trade agreements effectively done away with the reason we joined in the first place, We are in this mess because we gave away control of our own interest rates and control of our own currency, The EU as it stands and the Euro is destined to fail, you cannot have a common currency and not have the checks and balances which naturally regulate it and the economies which use it.
Basically the EU has to become all or nothing, Don’t think I want a United States of Europe! People fought for our Independance for a reason, it is sickening to see it being given away!
Hi A Musgrave…. I used to think the way you do but am beginning to wonder……………..
Whilst we have had a huge amount of grants etc down the years from the EEC/EC/EU I’m starting to wonder if we added it all up, would it total what we’ve lost in our fishing stocks for example?
Farmers have received CAP payments down the years, but when you see countries like Saudi Arabia, China etc buying HUGE swathes of agricultural land across Russia, South America, Africa, Australia to ensure they can feed their own increasing populations over the coming decades, then you have to note that agriculture i.e. food production will be a huge industry and we are well placed for that.
Remember also that our biggest trading partner is the UK and through negotiated trade agreements with them, we could have access to the Commonwealth nations.
We could still be a trading partner with Europe…. but the major upcoming world economies are the BRIC counties.
We’ve always been told about our “special relationship” with the US, because of English first language, education etc so no reason for that to change.
Also we could print our own cash… We could take control of our finances again. Didn’t Greenland leave?
also see how much of your taxes are going to the ECB now…..
http://bondwatchireland.blogspot.com/
If you totalled it all up I think you’d be horrified at how much membership of the EU is currently costing us
Stephen McLaughlin
India and China u said… how does a worker in Irelnad? minimum 8.75 phr! what about in india or china? E150 pa. that’s y talk talk and the others left ireland and that’s y these countries are dominating the world trade. capitalism talks everywhere!
So M. Martin is attacking/complaining? Wasn’t it the plonkers from his party that got us into that mess?
Remember the FG and Labour manifestos, the grand standing, putting a foot down, over our dead bodies rhetoric? All trashed now. Just another set of bait promises to hook the electorate. If Greece can achieve a colossal write down, the argument for Ireland demanding likewise is unassailable. Only the most perverse political masochism would demand even more sacrifices from citizens. The worry is that Kenny, Noonan and the boys will swallow the nonsense that the EU/ECB/IMF are actually ‘protecting’ Ireland by insisting it, the taxpayers, pay back every singe cent. Even a moneylender would blush before pushing that.
Where is our haircut?
I bet the ATM’s will still have cash when they do default. There’s another myth getting blown out of the water soon.
They had in Iceland.
It is the most inane argument I’ve ever heard. If I hear it threatened again I’ll throw my cushion at the telly.
fianna fail should keep quiet, its them tw*ts that got us into this mess in the first place
The EU will only act when they absolutly have no other option. The way they have handled the Greek crises shows this. I wouldnt expect any concessions any time soon.
We have already had a write-down of debt, in the form of interest rate reductions. We will get more similar write-downs. Morgan Kelly reckons we will eventually be given 50 years of finance at 2 percent or less. That seems more and more likely.
Is it desirable? Could we not leave the Euro and go back to the punt? Are there in fact any real alternatives?
It is possible to have more than one currency. It used to be quite common. Switzerland has had this for 80 years and are considering introducing a third.
Liberalising the issuance of currency wlll help mitigate against the collapse of the Euro.
http://www.feasta.org/2011/09/17/the-parallel-punt/
have your say