Invandraren

Remembrance of the Night of 9 November Pogrom 1938 in 50 countries all over Europe coordinated by UNITED

‘It happened so it can happen again’
[Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor]

Levi warned already after the Holocaust that the incomprehensible hate against a certain group of people is unfortunately not a particular case in history.

Natalka, a two year old Roma girl from the Czech Republic, suffered serious burns on 80% of her body when three Molotov cocktails were thrown into the family house on 19 April this year. The Czech police suspects some ultra-right extremist leaders for the arson attack.

In times of violent incidences like this, the work of the UNITED network becomes increasingly important. The network with its 560 supporting organizations from all over Europe is fighting against nationalism, racism and fascism and in support of migrants and refugees.
Since 1992 the UNITED secretary coordinates the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism, which takes place on 9 November.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom on 9 November 1938, where hundreds of Jewish synagogues, homes and shops were attacked and burnt and numerous Jews were beaten up or even killed, is often seen as the symbolic beginning of the Shoah. The Nazi propaganda called the event cynically the ‘Kristallnight’ reducing an horrifying event to the broken glass in the shop windows.

TODAY’S SITUATION

We have to be aware that antisemitism and fascism are unfortunately still alive in the modern Europe and did not die with the end of the Second World War.
Antisemitism is alarmingly wide spread through public discourse in newspapers, on the internet, at public demonstrations and in politic parties.

As a result of racist and neonazi attacks in Russia at least 48 people were murdered and 253 injured this year, monitored by Sova Center. Shockingly this is only the official number, the actual cypher is estimated to be much higher.

A right-wing party led by Geert Wilders could enter the European Parliament as the second biggest party of the Netherlands – although in the common sense the Netherlands are still considered a tolerant nation.
These are only two examples of plenty of shocking events going on in Europe.

HATRED KILLS – PROTECT YOUR ENVIRONMENT FROM RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM

Looking at these worrying developments, it is time to get active. We have to be responsible for the world we live in, not supporting right-wing actions by overhearing them, but fighting against them.

The European-wide campaign on 9 November, the http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/pages/campnov.htm, aims to counteract the uprising right-wing powers in all over the continent.
71 years after the 9 November pogrom hundreds of activities against fascism and antisemitism are happening in 50 countries all over Europe coordinated by the UNITED secretary.

They will commemorate the pogrom but also draw attention to contemporary forms of fascism and antisemitism and rise awareness in modern society. The main aim is to raise a common voice against any form of hatred ideology.

BE INVOLVED IN THE CAMPAIGN – RAISE YOUR PEN – SPREAD THE MESSAGE

UNITED for Intercultural Action
European network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees
Postbus 413 – NL 1000 AK Amsterdam – phone +31-20-6834778 – fax +31-20-6834582 –
info@unitedagainstracism.org – www.unitedagainstracism.org

I am writing to you from Pakistan as a member of the UNHCR Emergency Response Team.

I’m sure you’ve heard from news coverage that innocent men, women and children are still arriving at the camps. Each one of them has a devastating story to tell.
As I listen to their tales, I can only feel more motivated to continue my work
and try to help them.

Ajij, a 35 year old farmer who recently arrived at the Sugar Mill Camp with his wife and five children told me that they could hear the shelling and bombing every-day, his house was destroyed. He believes they will lose all of their crops. The heat in the camps is too hard for my children, he conceded, I want to go back to my village.

Another man and his wife cried in front of me. They were ashamed of having
fled the bombings near their home. They had no other choice, but they still
felt ashamed.

My most tragic encounter happened a few days ago when I met Sapla at a
hospital in the North West Frontier Province. A bomb hit her home in Swat
district. Her three-year-old daughter and two other relatives were killed
by the mortar. Sapla and her three remaining children survived, but they
are suffering from deep burns and are in constant pain.

I hope you can join me in my effort to try to help people like Ajij and Sapla.

I’m not sure how or if the coming World Refugee Day will be marked here
in the camps in Pakistan, but I do know that your support will allow
families to continue hoping that some day they will be able to go back
home in safety and dignity.

Please give shelter and hope today.

Yours truly,

Hlne Caux
UNHCR Officer

Today is 40 days when one 14 years Roma girl was suicide. According to Russian Orthodox Church tradition, 40 days its symbolic. It was in Tolochin, small town in Vitebsk region. According to Tolochin branch office of Party of Communists of Belarus, today, local library membership card is the only one document which certificated her existence in that life. There was no birthday certificate, no medical card, no school attendance certificate; nothing left…Nothing left, except just simple short piece of paper,
librarian membership card. According to local leader of Tolochin branch office of Party of Communists of Belarus, officially there is no evidence about Natalia Tumarevich’s existence in Tolochin!!!

Natalia Tumarevich was typical Roma girl. Nice, bold, funny girl with whole life in front of her. How did she live? What dreams she had? What she liked? We don’t know…

What have happened in Belarus with Roma? What is going on in Belarus? Suicide’s a not characteristic of Roma community. Roma people has very high survival rate everywhere. But everything has an edge even Roma survival rate.

Roma living conditions are very far from ideal everywhere, it’s true. Different numbers of Roma population in Belarus. I would say something about 25000. Approximately 97 percent of total Roma population is totally unemployment. More then 90 percent didn’t finish secondary school. There are no Roma school, no Roma newspapers, no Roma classes, no cultural programs, nothing. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that but it is. People are existing in Belarus without any kind of positive attention from Belarusian government. In the same time TV channels disseminating different stereotypes about Roma people, doing that with the great pleasure, doing everyday… Attention for Roma people in Belarus directed to discriminate them, to prevent, to separate them from education, from job, from the progress. It’s not a single case, it’s Belarusian state policy to discriminate Roma people!!!

Stop to left “*librarian membership cards*”, stop it now. We are people like everyone else. And we will live our life like a people!!!

For everyone I want to appeal with this. Imagine, please, how many Natalia Tumarevich’s are in your country? Some of them are very close too you, somewhere next too you. Probably, everyday you meet people like Natalia. Remember, Natalia Tumarevich still leaving in your city, in your town, in your country and you are in position to help her. We can’t resurrect poor Roma girl from Belarus but what we can do is to stop our indifference to people like Natalia. Let them to survive…

Kalinin Nicolas
Delegate in European Roma Travelers Forum
Member in Federation of European Roma Young People

*Last news from Belarus:*
Police use violence during anti-Gypsy raid

* http://spring96.org/en/news/27114/*

On 5 January officers of Partyzanski district police department of Minsk
detained more than 80 representatives of Gypsy minority in the Suburb of
Stsiapianka and took fingerprints from them.

All of the detainees were videoed for the police archive. The detainees
accuse the police of self-will and lawlessness. One of them said that at
8.30 a.m. the police burst at the house where his family lived. ‘They did
not knock on the door. They ran, knocked everybody down and shouted: ‘Lie
down, bitches!’ We had to lie on the floor for almost 40 minutes almost
nude, as most of us were sleeping when it all started.

Then they started a search without showing any warrant. They did not even
tell they were from the police. They asked an elderly woman where she kept
her gold. Then they lined us up and led to their bus…’ told one of the
victims.

‘All our neighbors watched it… They took us to the police where there were
about 70-80 Gypsies already. They told they would take our fingerprints and
then would let us go. We returned home only at 4 p.m. They told us: ‘Have
you heard about the terroristic action?’ Now they are making terrorists out
of us,’ he added.

Some other people were detained outdoors. ‘While I was driving my car out of
the yard, three people in masks overlapped the way. They pulled me out,
threw me into the snow and started beating. I have a black eye, and they
fractured my leg,’ said another detainee.

‘We told the police we would complain against them. They answered that then
they would find some drugs at our place next time and would hold such raids
every month,’ he said

*Kalinin** Nicolas*

*Delegate in European Roma Travelers Forum*

Asylum seekers who have written their SFI-prov and passed can now study basic computer courses such as MS-Offfice, Excel, microsoft word among other things. This has come as an appreciated move by many asylum seekers. Some even felt that it was long overdue. Previously, most asylum seekers who had completed their SFI-prov have found themselves with nothing, unless they were involved with praktik or working.

Many asylum seekers currently taking the SFI course have always refused to sit for the SFI-prov because of the fear that in the event they have pass they will be left with nothing to occupy themselves as many find it hard to arrange praktik or secure jobs. There will always refuse on the grounds that there are not ready for the SFI-prov. They felt its best for one to take the SFI course so as to better the Swedish language. In reality yes that is what is bound to happen thereafter except for those who have been granted the permanent residence permit(PUT). However, the majority of them have their decisions still pending.

Now that they can study computers it’s a relief and a positive move to many. The authorities felt that it’s necessary to equip them with computer skills as the labour market in Sweden demands that one be computer literate in most instances. Some are computer literate but then they do not have their computer literacy on paper. So it is wise that even though one is compuetr literate takes the course so as to get a certicate. This is absolutely a positive step by the migration authorities in gearing the asylum seekers for their future in the job market.

It is believed that there are more than 20 000 immigrants living illegal in Sweden, among them mostly failed asylum seekers. Most of them went into hiding after having their applications turned down by the migration authorities. What it means now is that there have no recourse to any public benefits and no right to work.

Refugees from global trouble spots including Darfur, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Ethiopia are among those who end up on the streets, relying on charities, faith groups and the generosity of friends. They end up being destitute through delays in the asylum process or after their cases are refused. Then, benefits, housing and healthcare are withdrawn after the applications have been turned down.

Zeina a refugee from Albania told us how she has managed to survive through solicitors. ‘I always moved around, sleept on my friends’ floors and sofas, and spent my days just walking, with nowhere to go,” she said. “I could get parcels of food and a small amount of money from a Red Cross drop-in. I have no words to explain what life was like for me. It was a miserable time. Sometime I would meet the Jehova’s Witnesses preachers and they have helped me to console my distress.’

Critics say government policy deliberately reduces asylum seekers to destitution to coerce them into returning home voluntarily. There are voluntary packages available through organizations like Red Cross, IOM only to those who agree to go home voluntarily. But many are terrified of returning and choose to take their chances and live with no support at all.

But the challenges of working with refused asylum seekers cannot be addressed by enforcement alone – constructive approaches are also needed. Far from encouraging refused asylum seekers to return home, destitution has the opposite effect. It means the government loses contact with asylum seekers, who enter a cycle of poverty, fear, hunger and mental and physical deterioration. Each day they are destitute, the chances of return become are even more remote.

Instead, the government should maintain contact with refused asylum seekers and work with them to resolve their cases amicably.

Allan not his real name in Borås tells us his story of his frightening arrival in the Sweden to his inspiring struggle to make progress to the Swedish society.

What was it like entering Sweden?

When l entered the airport l didn’t know where to go and what to do and asked one of the security that l wanted to claim asylum. She humbly gave me the right information and directions of where to go. The reception was so wonderful. I took the bus to Gothernburg where I then sought asylum. I was then taken to Kallared in Gothenburg where I claimed my asylum. I had to then wait for two weeks before they placed me in a house where I share with other asylum seekers. I must say I like the house where I stay but the place I don’t like. It’s more dull and most of the people there are very old people. When I came two years back it was even worse, it looked so empty but now there have been many asylum seekers placed so it feels like a community.

One of the holocaust survivors once wrote, ‘ If you haven’t experienced it, you can’t believe it and if you have experienced it you won’t understand it.’ Truly, what I have gone through right from the time they wanted to take my life in my country to the times of trying to organize myself here has been an experience that I still cannot belive nor understand it. It was very difficult to settle here in Sweden because when I arrived it was winter,  l didn’t have any warm clothes to wear and it was very cold. l didn’t have anyone to give me clothes. l have been having nightmares, and dreamed that they are killing my mother. l didn’t have money to phone her to find out how she is and the same nightmares continue.

The other problem I faced was trying to befriend the locals. When you try to make friends with them, they often ask what I’m doing in Sweden and I tell them I’m an asylum seeker they start to ignore me, they disappear. To them I think it sounds like a criminal seeking a habour in Sweden. Some say they don’t understand what an asylum seeker is. I then try to explain to them that I face persecutin in my home country because of A,B,C reasons but I still sound like a strange visitor.

During the day I go to Borås and spend most of the time in the library. I can’t go to SFI because I had a negative on my case so automatically I’m not allowed to continue with the SFI. I have permission to work but cannot find a job but now I have volunteered to work in the church. That is all that has been keeping me going all the time. However, I want to appreciate so far that at least I have been safe the past two years. I’m very thankful to Sweden to have gave me where to hide my head though they haven’t accepted my asylum case.

Unfortunately, it is a sad indictment that racial discrimination is not confined to the past, but many years after legislatives were introduced to abolish slavery, racism still constitutes a real and present threat to the Swedish society. We can be proud however that Sweden at present tops the list of the most welcoming countries to immigrants in the EU but we racism still remains a threat.
Racism in Sweden is most often perceived to relate to friction between the host society and the new immigrants, that is between those of Swedish backgrounds and those from other cultures. It is even feared that it is fast growing to an extent that there are now certain groups emerging from this society in the realms of politics that are bluntly racial. The most victims are immigrants both old and new.

On one hand, the host society too is a victim to racism from the immigrants but the practice is more pronounced to the immigrants. Most immigrants come to Sweden with the aim of making their future here, so it is minimal to argue that they can be hostile to the host society. You can’t go to your neighbour for help and show a negative impression when you need help. You will always try to agree to and comprise even certain things that you don’t agree so as to get help. The same is between immigrants and the host society. Below are a few testimonials of some situations linked to racism.

‘I have experienced racism many times but I have prefered to keep quiet about it. I have more stressing issues to think of than that of being shown racistical actions though to a certain extent it does affect me. One time I went to the library here in Borås and I had to use the public toilet there. However, when I came out from the toilet, there was a white lady standing outside, but surprisingly when she realized I looked foreign, she decided not to go in but instead waste her time by waiting on the other one which was occupied. To me this is simply racism. When she came, she saw that the toilet was locked when and decided to wait but who comes out, a foreigner by looks. I felt pissed! But these are the things that we live with day by day, needless to say we are accepting them as normal.’

‘I have experienced racism at several places in the bus, train, bus station. Sometimes people don’t sit opposite me because of my foreigness. The bus can be full but there is a vacant seat opposite but none sits there, why? Because the person sitting the opposite seat looks foreign. To me it hates each time I experience this and you can’t report such cases because it’s hard to put blame in such a case. They have a choice not to sit. Unless they openly say they can’t sit because there is a foreigner, then I can try to open a case.’

It is clear that racism is amongst us but the only draw back to stamping it out is that people practice it but they don’t say it out to the victims, so that makes it hard for the victims to open a case. For how long are we to live like animals where each time we have to show each other hatred on the grounds of foreign links. We are human beings, different from the animals. We can think and we can make choices, we can distinguish between right and wrong. It’s high time we make racism history!

Any country needs immigrants. It’s not about a cheap labor force, but about new blood and ideas. Sometimes a fresh outlook can prompt introspection and improvement. Without that, a state becomes static and begins to stagnate. Sweden is stagnating and we need fresh ideas in some way. There’s a right way, and a wrong way to do things. One of the greatest reasons for the weakening of any nation is the failure to continue doing things the right way. In some ways, earlier generations of our nation were wiser than we are today.

Remember the days of the holocaust and the role Sweden displayed and the continued tolerance to other society immigrants has been the driving force for peace and prosperity. Sweden was a melting pot before; a place where cultures came together, merged, and shared the best of the best. The result was strength, ingenuity and a culture that was both diverse and unified. We had a universal code of doing things. If someone threatened our nation, we put those differences aside, and fought side by side to preserve our rights. It was a big family, and while we might pick on each other a bit, we never aloud conflicts as a solution.

However, lately there have been so much negativiness that has been brewed upon certain groups of people in our society and these happen to be new immigrants. This has gone to an extent that all the ills happening within the Swedish society is now blamed on the new immigrants. This has had now a tremendous effect on the potentially immigrants have on this society. This is now encouraging the continued pattern of isolation which at present is diving the host society and the immigrants. What it therefore means is that the host society does not benefit from this insular society of immigrants. The new immigrants are now filled with fear and distrust from the host society. The host society in Sweden is now beginning to develop a new negative insight towards new immigrants. They now begin to see the cultural differences they have with the new immigrants as probably stumbling walls rather than opportunities of exchange of new ideas with the host society, so in this case neither the new immigrant or the host society benefits. This has even resulted in the emergence certain groups from the native society in the name of hostility towards immigrants.

However, there is need to remind each other that in the present day world, societies are not drifting apart but instead are coming closer to each. Whether one accepts it or not, it’s the reality on the ground. So we need to change to gear up for this cohesion in a positive manner. We need to take advantage of this change by tapping the knowledge, fresh ideas, skills and cultures immigrants bring along which if incoperated with the existing ones there will take Sweden twice half as far.It’s the time now to send a different message across the new generation. We must move back to the times of the boiling pot rather than to adopt the theory of permiting the deepening of cultural gulfs which continue to split us and create hate when the world is becoming closer to each other.

The majority of the public cannot differentiate between asylum seekers and refugees. Below is a brief breakdown definitions of some of the issues that are worthy knowing.

Asylum seeker: This is someone who is fleeing persecution in their homeland, has arrived in another country, made themselves known to the authorities and exercised the legal right to apply for asylum(protection).

Refugee: This is someone whose asylum application has been successful and who is allowed to stay in another country having proved they would face persecution back home.

Failed asylum seeker: This is someone whose asylum application has been turned down and is awaiting to be returned to their country. The refusal is usually based on the grounds that there is no ground or proof that the said applicant could face persecution in the home country.

Illegal immigrant: This is someone who has arrived in another country, intentionally does not make him/herself known to the authorities and has no legal basis for being there.

Economic migrant: This is someone who has moved to another country to work.

Integration: It is the process of trying to harmonize together two or more different cultures and religions – otherwise known as syncretism.