“I’ve seen the news and read the stories on the internet. They’ve made me
worry about my children,” says Jonas, father of four and a Roma immigrant form
Czech Republic, now living in Rotherham. “They think we’re stupid and can’t take
care of ourselves… if social services knock at my door, I won’t let them in. "It’s
because we’re Roma. We can’t speak English; we’re an easy target," adds his wife
Yvetta. The distrust between Rotherham’s Roma community and social services has
grown in recent years – as has the city’s Roma community.
It is true that more Roma children are in care or on child protection. Since
2009 the number of Roma children in care has quadrupled and if you compare it,
the percentage is a lot higher then the national average. Mainly through the
behavior in school the Roma children come to the authority’s attention. The
problem that they have, according to the Department for Education, is that they
have poor school attendance, the children experience physical chastisement or
they have a lack of boundaries.
They are coming to Britain with the wish of a better live, and the conditions
that they find in Britain are really better then in their countries of their
origin, for example Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romania. But the problems are
interrelated. It goes so far that the now the Slovakian authorities are involved
in family court cases which concern Roma children who are now living in the UK.
Another problem that arises when Roma children are taken into care is that
the children will speak English. This causes a problem if the children are very
young when they are taken into care and they do not learn to speak Roma. This
makes a family reunion in the future almost impossible.
The Slovak authorities recommended sending those children back to their
country of origin. If the parents are unable to take care of their children the
extended family should do so. But on the other side there are also calls to
improve the services that are or should be available to support Britain’s Roma
communities. The problem here is that the authorities do not know how many Roma
are living in Britain but this is important to know because otherwise they
cannot get funds from the European Union, which has set aside tens of billions
of euros for social inclusion projects. Without this the upcoming question would
be how to finance a better inclusion of the Roma.
Furthermore Britain’s Roma population is likely to rise in coming years, when
restrictions are lifted in 2014 on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants working in
the UK – both countries have one of the largest Roma populations in Europe. This
means that Britain needs to figure out a way how to deal with the increase
number of foreigners that will come to their country.
