Posted to findingDulcinea by Chris Coats
Much of the recent attention has focused on the Roma population in Italy, which has come to symbolize a threat to the country’s well-being in the eyes of the newly elected Berlusconi government.
Within Italy, Roma have been blamed for a spike in crime—which incidentally is not supported by statistics—making them targets for exclusionary efforts both official and otherwise, leading some to warn of “echos of Mussolini.”
These efforts have ranged from crowd violence, to indifference to the suffering of Roma citizens, an instance that drew Pope Benedict into the national debate.
Returning to office earlier this year on a platform of law enforcement, Berlusconi and his allies introduced a slate of new laws and orders targeting a number of minority groups, with an emphasis on the Roma people, going so far as to begin fingerprinting and registering the entire population.
However, expansion of the European Union into former Soviet Republics and other Eastern European states has also cast a light on the dismal state of the Roma people overall.
Living conditions and access to basic public services, such as education, have been cited as being beyond a point of crisis.
This most recent spate of anti-Roma activity comes, ironically, halfway through the Decade for Roma Inclusion—a multi-national effort to improve the living conditions and increase opportunities for Romani across the continent.
Despite this effort, reports of segregation and exclusion have emerged from across the continent, from separate education programs in the Ukraine to forced eviction in Bulgaria.
Even within nations that have embraced the idea of civic improvement and assimilation, efforts to integrate Romani into wider communities have sometimes been greeted with disdain by local populations.
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