INTERVIEW – For Gregory Cousin, anthropologist and researcher, public authorities should seek to support the natural process of integration of the Roma when it exists, rather than destroy illegal shanty towns that invariably form again elsewhere.
The shantytown in the Porte de Clignancourt, north of Paris, could be evacuated Wednesday or Thursday. Installed illegally on the old railway line which forms the inner suburbs of Paris, they are 300-400 Roma living in makeshift shacks. But a new dismantling their encampment would be as useless as expensive, lack of viable recourse solution, says anthropologist Gregory Cousin. The researcher calls for answers in each case, where the government would attach to identify and assist Roma who engaged in a natural integration process
LE FIGARO. – Who are the Roma live in the slums of the Porte de Clignancourt?
Gregory Cousin .- I have no specific answer to that question. The term “Roma” covers two different realities: From the perspective of the authorities, to designate the Eastern Europe of foreigners living in slums. But in the ethnic sense, the term refers to a much smaller group. In general, those living in France come from Romanian rural areas. Most of over 40 adults have worked in CAP, kolkhoz type of collective farms developed under the Communist dictatorship of Ceausescu. Collectivisation in Romania was very hard. They had virtually no pay and were stranded in these farms, which greatly delayed the rural exodus. At the fall of Ceausescu in 1989, Roma have migrated throughout Europe via the same routes as other Romanians. The Romanian diaspora is very important: 2 million people, for a country of 20 million inhabitants.
Why some of them now live in slums
People who live in slums today have something in common: they have chosen to emigrate family. In these camps, there are women and children. This is not the case in the Malian migrant squats for example, where there are only men. The organization in slum is what best corresponds to a family life, because it is more protected, less dangerous than squats. They settled where there is economic activity, so in Paris. Some drop out of small missions in the building, often black. Others live the recovery economy, whether metals where second-hand clothes. Women beg to supplement family income. It generally will buy cigarettes and food. Since 1 January 2014 and the lifting of the ban was made them work, some get CDD or CDI. But many remain poor workers because their administrative situation is hopeless.
You think that the dismantling of illegal settlements is inefficient and costly to the government. Why?
Yes, the camp evacuations are against-productive. I have no general solution to the issue of slums illegally installed on public or private land. But take the example of the Samaritan Camp in La Courneuve. It was razed in August. The record is not good for the 82 families who lived there for seven years: A quarter of them have found work, another quarter found a home … But not one of the fifteen fathers that I ‘ve followed is out of his poor worker status. Even if they have a work contract paid the minimum wage, their status does not allow them to get off the streets: They do not have sufficient income to rent a family home, or even the guarantees necessary to reassure the lessor. When they work, they are employed as posted worker status. They therefore do not contribute in France, which does not give them access to the related aid. The absence of legal address makes any procedure to regularize their extremely complicated situation. I have no miracle solution for successful integration of the Roma. But all I see is the dismantling of the camp is a mistake on many levels: It déscolarise children and breaks the integration process. The elderly and pregnant women should be rehoused in hotels, which is costly to the community. Those who are supported in the insertion villages eventually integrate, but again it is extremely expensive. One could easily defend a policy of integration into their ecosystem, rather than trying to substitute another. We must transform a social reality in administrative reality.
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