Canadian officials do not perceive Czech Roma as a drain on resources
Hamilton, 16.6.2009 14:19, (Czech Television)

In Canada, according to recent data from Roma organizations there, 1 687 Czech Roma out of a total of 50 000 immigrants are waiting to hear how the courts will rule regarding their status. The total number of Czech Roma living in Canada, including those from the previous emigration wave in the mid-1990s, is around 3 500. Bureaucrats with civil administrations of the cities where Czech Roma immigrants have settled, most frequently Hamilton and Toronto, do not perceive their arrival as a drain on the system.

"We have many people here who have come from Africa – Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan. The Czech Roma do not represent such a big problem for us. The number is still not that alarming,” Hamilton town councillor Bob Bratin told Czech Television. In his view immigrants are a priority for the Canadian government as they are needed to maintain the economy. "We need people who will do difficult labour,” Bratin said.

However, the Roma are not travelling to Canada merely for economic reasons. They are primarily arriving to request asylum from the ethnic discrimination that predominates in the Czech Republic. Paul St. Clair, who works with a local Canadian Roma organization, discusses the decisions made by local courts as confirmation of this fact: "That court is independent, and if 95 % of the people are succeeding, then something must be going on there (in the Czech Republic) that is more than just an economic problem.”

"Maybe I am overdoing it a bit, but I do feel more at home here than in the Czech Republic. We are welcome here,” says Marek Polák, who came to Canada with his mother, Anna Poláková, who until recently was chief editor of Czech Radio’s Roma broadcasting section. After repeated attacks on her family in the Czech Republic, she requested asylum in Canada. In her view, the attacks crossed the line of what was bearable. Her daughter Andrea is satisfied in Canada: "It’s simply that people behave differently here, they do not view us with prejudice.”

Czech Television, translated by Gwendolyn Albert
Czech Television

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