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rfmcdonaldThe recent decision by the Canadian government to impose visas on visitors from the Czech Republic hasn't pleased Canadian Romany leaders.
St. Clair goes on to claim--sadly plausibly--that Romanies in the Czech Republic are faced with violence that meets with indifference from the state.
It's important to note that this 2009 exodus of Czech Romanies to Canada is not the first. As Josef Klíma wrote for Radio Prague ("The Roma Exodus to Canada"), an earlier exodus also strained Canadian-Czech relations.
Where did Canada's Gypsies come from? The ever-useful Multicultural Canada has a few pages on the subject.
Their urbanization began around 1920, it seems, and most Romany now are concentrated in central Canada with a total population numbering in the hundreds. The extent to which this population statistic is accurate is open to question, on account of the low status associated with Romany identity and those who claim it.
The Roma Community Center in Toronto has criticised the Canadian government for today's reintroduction of visa requirements for Czechs, which the Center says harms the persecuted minority of Czech Romanies.
The situation in the Czech Republic and other countries is similar to the situation in Germany in the 1930. Like at the time, Canada now prevents a persecuted minority from finding a safe refuge, Paul St.Clair, an activist from the centre, told CTK.
"We are disappointed that Canada has decided to shut the door to Czech Roma who are genuine refugees even if they come from a highly developed central European country," the Center said in a press release.
St.Clair recently faced accusations that he personally profits from the Romany immigration to Canada, being one of its organisers. He has sharply dismissed the accusations.
St. Clair said Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), which decides on granting asylum, has complied with 85 percent of Czech Romany asylum claims in the past one-and-a-half year.
However, in a press release concerning the visa reimposition on Monday, Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said that more than a half of the claims have been rejected or withdrawn before the IRB makes the final decision.
The statistics are therefore distorted, Kenney said, indicating that a number of Czech claimants only abuse Canada's asylum system.
St. Clair goes on to claim--sadly plausibly--that Romanies in the Czech Republic are faced with violence that meets with indifference from the state.
It's important to note that this 2009 exodus of Czech Romanies to Canada is not the first. As Josef Klíma wrote for Radio Prague ("The Roma Exodus to Canada"), an earlier exodus also strained Canadian-Czech relations.
On Tuesday, August 5 (not Aug. 6 as widely reported), the private television station Nova, by far the most-watched in the country, broadcast a documentary portraying the life of Czech Roma who'd emigrated to Canada as carefree and comfortable. The 15-minute report, by reporter Josef Klima on the Na vlastni oci (With Your Own Eyes) program, showed Czech Roma families living comfortably on state support as they waited to be granted asylum by the Canadian government.
Within days, there were reports of large numbers of Roma, reportedly 5,000 in the large east Moravian city of Ostrava alone, selling their property and possessions in preparation for emigrating to Canada. By the following week, the Canadian Embassy in Prague was receiving hundreds of calls a day, 90% from Roma, and flights to Canada from Prague were booked into October. The situation was also fuelled by offers by the mayors of some towns to contribute funds to buying airline tickets for the Roma who wanted to leave. The mayor of Ostrava-Marianske Hory, Liana Janackova, told Mlada fronta dnes, "we have two groups of people -- Gypsies and whites -- that live together, but can't and don't want to. So why can't one group take the first step toward finding a solution? I don't think it's racist. We just want to help the Gypsies."
[. . .]
Lucie Cermakova, spokeswoman for the Canadian Embassy in Prague, denounced the program as one-sided. "The program presented only one side of the matter and picked out only nonsensical ideas," she said. A similar opinion was voiced by a spokeswoman for the Czech Embassy in Ottawa, Marie Jurkovicova: "According to our information, the program was full of half-truths, which strongly distorted reality and practically invited the exodus of large groups of Czech Roma. It concealed a number of facts." (Mlada fronta dnes, August 13, 1997)
[. . .]
Canadian officals in the Czech Republic are attempting to convince Czech Roma that emigrating to Canada is no easy or safe path to follow, Terry Mooney, charge d'affaires at the Canadian Embassy in Prague told the Canadian Press. "We're trying to stop them by indicating that they're taking an enormous risk in going," he said. "They may not be accepted. And if they are returned, they will return, generally speaking, to impoverished circumstances...We're trying to tell them that life in Canada is not a bed of roses, even if they are accepted. They need to think very soberly about whether all of this is worth it." (CP, Aug. 26, 1997)
There were also reports in Canada that the Canadian immigration officials were delaying the processing of asylum claims by Roma to make checks for criminal records. During this delay, the Roma applicants are left without any legal status in Canada and they cannot apply for working permits or social aid. And the hostels in Toronto, for instance, are already beginning to run out of space to house them.
Where did Canada's Gypsies come from? The ever-useful Multicultural Canada has a few pages on the subject.
Beginning in the nineteenth century, the Rom began to migrate to other parts of Europe and, after the 1880s, to both North and South America. Today, most Gypsies in Canada are Rom. Although no systematic research has been conducted on their arrival in this country, on the basis of available data, it is reasonable to estimate their first appearance as having been around the turn of the century. Passenger lists record Rom arriving at New York in 1899, 1900, and 1901 who claimed either to have been in Canada or to be headed here. Border-crossing records show Rom entering the United States from Winnipeg and Montreal in 1903, and a photograph exists from the following year of a band of Rom camping at Innisfail, Alberta.
The Canadian Rom are divided into two main tribes – the Machwaya (from the Mačcva region of northern Serbia) and the Kalderash – of which there are numerous branches. According to the Rom themselves, most belong to the Mineshti clan of the Kalderash tribe, a group of related families claiming descent from a common ancestor, Mina, who is variously identified as a man or a woman. If the latter, she is described as a large, strong woman who travelled across Russia with her seven sons and a pig. The majority of Canadian Rom trace their ancestry to four brothers, Zlatcho, Grofia, Wasso, and Bochi, the sons of Zurka, a descendant of Mina. According to oral tradition, they first came to the United States in the 1880s or 1890s and thence to Canada. Other clans arrived at about the same time and were probably associated with one another through marriage ties. They include the Papineshti (geese clan), the Supeshti, a clan of Russian Kalderash, and the Goneshti, who claim to be members of the Churara tribe, a group distinct from both the Machwaya and the Kalderash. Since 1970 there has been a steady influx of Lowara Rom from Europe, and if police reports are any guide, they now constitute the largest Gypsy group in Canada. The Lowara are closely related to the American Rom but have diverged from them to some extent in dialect and customs as a result of their longer stay in Europe.
Regardless of nomenclature, all these groups are Rom with almost identical speech and customs. They apparently interact and intermarry freely; for all practical purposes they should be considered variants of a single ethnic entity. In addition, several other Gypsy groups have arrived in North America and subsequently sojourned or taken up residence in Canada. The Rom were preceded in this country by the Romnichals from the British Isles (1870s) and the Ludar from Bosnia (1890s). Hungarian musician Gypsies, or Romungros, are found in the bigger Canadian cities, but their history in Canada is largely unknown. As well, several Irish and Scottish traveller groups, who are not of Gypsy origin though they are commonly so regarded by non-Gypsies, have immigrated to this country.
Their urbanization began around 1920, it seems, and most Romany now are concentrated in central Canada with a total population numbering in the hundreds. The extent to which this population statistic is accurate is open to question, on account of the low status associated with Romany identity and those who claim it.
