HRSLO
9. Some aspects of the Roma migration from Slovakiafrom Slovakia
Attila Szép
When Mikuláš Dzurinda’s new government took office in 1998, the foreign affairs became one of the most successful areas of the Slovak government policy. The aim of the gov-ernment program was to win back the trust of the key west-ern countries, the member countries of NATO and EU, and of the international community in general. In 1999 and 2000, while carrying on its NATO and EU oriented activities, the Slovak Government managed to achieve some of its concrete integration targets, such as the OECD membership. It suc-cessfully continued its EU accession process, as well. NATO member countries greatly appreciated the Slovak govern-ment’s attitude towards the Kosovo crisis. The Slovak Government could rely on a well-established and predictable internal politics and in this way create the essential condition for developing a fruitful foreign policy. Dzurinda’s cabinet tried to reduce the deficit of democracy and of democratic func-tioning of political institutions that characterised Vladimir Meèiar’s government. The only problem causing serious inter-national tension was the exodus of Slovak Roma asylum seekers into some of the EU countries and the subsequent introduction of visa requirement on Slovak citizens (Bruncko and Lukáè 2000). The aim of this article is to outline the polit-ical attitudes towards the Roma minority in Slovakia in terms of its migration, with some comments on the reflections of the problem in the media.
Until the waves of Roma migration in the period between 1997-1999, the Slovak political and social elite regarded the Roma question as a problem of rather marginal character.
The state programme documents or the declared political intentions did not speak about the Roma question; the
pre-election campaigns did not focus on the problem to a signifi-cant extent (see Nekvapil et al 1989). Still, in spite of the fact that the political environment was overwhelmed with prob-lems of transformation and the creation of a functioning democratic system, some important documents were adopt-ed, which significantly improved the conditions for solving the problems of Roma communities. With the first of these docu-ments, adopted in 1991, the Romas were for the first time granted a national minority status, which represented a sig-nificant step forward concerning their position within the Slovak society, and established the basic preconditions for their cultural and social development. It was, at the same time, a signal that the new political elite treated the problem of Roma minority not only as a social problem (of a margin-alised group), but understood it as a problem with its political and cultural dimensions that has its human rights aspects as well. Documents issued in 1996 and 1997 represented a certain return to the approach based on the understanding of the Roma question through its social dimension. At that time, the problems of the Roma community and their resolution were certainly not at the centre of the political discourse. The ruling political parties (including the one that represented the interests of the Hungarian national minority), in spite of their declared intention to solve the Roma question, did not man-age to convert their programmes into the actual political agenda. There were several factors in the background of this incapacity:
The Roma political subjects were unable to exert suffi-cient pressure on the majority parties to implement concrete measures and, in the first place, to address more concen-trated political activities. To achieve this, they would have needed the support of the Romas themselves as well as a certain cultural and institutional background. No parliamen-tary elections, since 1989, have brought any significant results for the Roma political subjects.
It was an extremely urgent and complicated issue that was further complicated by a considerable social distance between Slovakia’s Roma and non-Roma population. In other
words, the delicacy of the problem made the political parties reluctant to deal with it since it could have endangered their popularity among the majority of population. Concerning the Romas’ low level of organisation and involvement in political issues as well as the weakness of their political subjects of that time, there was no real possibility of gaining political ben-efits from the support of the Roma minority.
Thus, the problems of the Roma minority were not central issues of the pre-election campaigns. The migration waves of 1997 and 1999 and the subsequent international complica-tions, however, changed this situation. The political elite was forced to take up a position and put forward a plan for solv-ing the problem. Besides political declarations, the overall approach to the Roma question changed. The discourses became more concerned with the issue and this resulted in the delineation of different viewpoints within the political elite. Three distinct attitudes took shape. Part of the political parties preferred a systematic and thorough approach to the given problem. Some parties, exploiting the social distance and the prevailing negative attitudes of Slovakia’s majority population towards the Romas, launched a nationalistic or a more sophisticated populist argumentation. The parties of the third group were satisfied with open emphasis on the importance of observing the law, mainly on the part of the Romas (Vašeèka 2000).
According to experts, the public debate on migration of Romas resulted in the formation of several distinct approach-es to the problem. The first standpoint attributed the migra-tion of Romas to their economical motivamigra-tion. According to it, there was a clearly identifiable interest of the migrants in using and abusing the asylum system of the target countries for seeking incomes. The experts argued that the existing leg-islation of Slovak Republic granted the rights to all citizens belonging to national minorities to a sufficient degree, so there were no legal grounds (discrimination on the basis of race or nationality) for the migration of Romas.
Most of the media attention was focused on a single aspect of the problem according to which the migration
rep-resented a threat to Slovakia’s major foreign affairs objective – the integration into transatlantic and European structures.
The representatives of the second viewpoint (“technocrat-ic”) accused the government of not adopting measures able to prevent the migration of Roma. The criticism, in the first place, was levelled at Pál Csáky, the Vice-Premier for Human Rights, National Minorities, and Regional Development and at Vincent Danihel, the Government Commissioner for Solving the Problems of Roma minority. This criticism concerned the incompetence and ineffectiveness of institutions and organi-sations that were responsible for the solution of the problem.
Some criticism of the policy of EU countries appeared as well pointing out its deceitful approach and the alleged con-tradiction between their declared and actually implemented principles.
The main argumentation of the representatives of Roma minority was based on the defence of their migrants, and jus-tified the migration by the existence of either open or hidden racism and discrimination. After all, even the experts con-firmed the complexity of the problem and the existence of a distance between the majority and the Roma population, admitting the possibility of a hidden discrimination against Roma in the fields of education, labour market, and health care.
The Slovak Government used every endeavour to present various viewpoints on an international level and to communi-cate with the international institutions. The aim of this was to prove that the reason for the migration of Roma asylum-seek-ers should not be attributed to their discrimination. In order to prevent the deterioration of the image of this young democ-racy at the international level, the diplomatic activities of the Slovak Government aimed at demonstrating that the Government was seriously concerned about the solution of the Roma question.
The measures of Slovak Government implemented at the level of internal affairs should be greatly appreciated as well.
The cabinet elaborated and adopted the Strategy of the Government of Slovak Republic for Solving the Problems of
Roma Minority [Stratégia vlády SR na riešenie problémov rómskej menšiny] (1999), which represents a good basis for resolving this highly pressing problem.
References
Bruncko, M., Lukáè, P. (2000), ‘Hlavné trendy v zahraniènej politike SR’. In G. Mesežnikov and M. Kollár (eds.) Slovensko 2000. Súhrnná správa o stave spoloènosti.
Bratislava: Institute for Public Issues (IVO).
Nekvapil, J. et al.(1989), ‘Obraz Romu v støedoevropských masmédiách po roce 1989’. Romano džaniben, VI-I-2/2000: 81.
Vašeèka, M. (2000), ‘Rómovia’. In G. Mesežnikov and M.
Kollár (eds.) Slovensko 2000. Súhrnná správa o stave spoloènosti. Bratislava: Institute for Public Issues (IVO) (205-207).