"Xenophobia - No Matter the Economy, Never an Answer"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day

“Xenophobia – No Matter the Economy, Never an Answer”

September 20, 2010

In the late 1940s/early 1950s, on our way to swim in Willard Pond in Hancock, NH, we used to drive past what my father always claimed was a Gypsy encampment. Whether my father was romanticizing what was a small group of people living in desperate, rural squalor, or whether they really were Romas or Romanis, I never learned. While my sister Betsy also remembers our father’s claim, the owners of the Hancock Inn where my wife and I spent this past weekend were unable to confirm that Gypsies ever lived in the area.

What got me thinking of that incident so many years ago was a disquieting report in Friday’s New York Times (and echoed in the same day’s Wall Street Journal) that President Sarkozy has been deporting Romas from France since mid August. The decision to do so is a reminder that prejudice and injustice remain present in developed societies; economic hard times bring forward feelings of xenophobia, not unlike the way a summer’s rain on a garden brings forth earth worms.

The September 16 issue of The Economist includes an article entitled, “A Long Road: Europe’s Romanis have mostly a horrible time. But they are thriving in America.” The author writes: “They fare better in some countries than others. Spain and Macedonia count as ‘relative’ success stories; the worst black spots of disadvantage are in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.” Since France has chosen two of those countries – Romania and Bulgaria – as the recipients of their Roma deportees she must rank among the worst. Thus far, since mid August, France has banished 8000 Romas and “cleared hundreds of illegal camps.” Both Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007, so in a sense the peripatetic Romanis are testing the concept of the Union’s “open borders”.

As a child, and unaware of the awful poverty of their very existence and the gross persecution of their members, the term “Gypsy” conjured a romantic vision of a rootless people who happily wandered the world. So, when my father talked of the Gypsies camped along the dirt road leading to Willard Pond, I pictured campfires, music and dancing. What I saw instead were dirty faces with despondent expressions, dressed in rags – a people discriminated against simply because they looked different. (Of course, in rural New Hampshire at that time, if one weren’t white and of western European heritage, one did look different.)

The history of the Romas is not well documented. Most authorities trace their heritage to fifth century India, to a time when an economic calamity forced large numbers to take to the road to fend for themselves. They appear generally to have wandered west. The word “Gypsy”, apparently, derives from a corruption of the word “Egyptian”. What is known is that they are nomadic (perhaps more from need than inclination), that they are patriarchal, that they stick close to one another and that the language they speak is Romani. What is also well known is that they have long been persecuted. As early as 1544, Britain deported Gypsies to Norway. And, of course, they suffered grievously under the boot of Nazism seventy years ago. No one knows how many Romas were exterminated by the Nazis, but estimates range from 500,000 to 4,000,000.

While Gypsies are popularly associated with crystal balls, palm readings and tarot cards, many have risen to prominence, including at least one Nobel winner – Dr. Augustus Krogh of Denmark for physiology in 1920. More commonly famous entertainers of Roma heritage include Charlie Chaplin, Yul Brynner, Elvis Presley and Michael Caine.

The current issue of The Economist has a damning piece on President Sarkozy, entitled “The incredible shrinking presidency.” They write that when first elected President in May 2007: “He balanced firmness on immigration from abroad with fairness towards ethnic minorities at home.” In contrast, today “Mr. Sarkozy seems to be a shadow of the reformer he once was on economic affairs and a caricature of the tough-cop leader on social matters. He bashes capitalism with one hand and now Roma (gypsies) with the other. His popularity has collapsed…” No one denies the problems Mr. Sarkozy faces, but the deportation of thousands of Roma to countries that will not treat them well seems unnecessarily harsh and reminds one of earlier expulsions.

The world is in constant motion – for good and for bad. But fanning the fans of Xenophobia risks tilting the world toward nationalism, the tightening of borders and restrictions to trade; it risks halting a global economic recovery that is fragile at best. The answer, in the end, involves education and assimilation. A risk during times of economic hardship and high unemployment is to turn inward. Xenophobia is never a solution. America’s concerns about illegal immigration from Mexico get overblown and fail to recognize that the jobs these people often perform are ones that others, already here, do not want. Fear of the Chinese and the competition they bring to our manufacturers, so threatening tariffs, harms consumers and will hinder, not help, our exports. Similarly, sending Romas packing to Bulgaria and Romania raises the specter of past atrocities and will not enrich the French economically.