EU-Roma UK Document, Alex Weeks
Workshop Presentation, Rome 27th May 2008 Project Manager - Professor Lucy Orta University of the Arts / London College of Fashion Project Coordinator: Camilla Palestra To present the activity of the London College of Fashion (LCF) in the context of the European project EU-ROMA, in partnership with LAN, ATU and Locus, we would like to account the reports followed by our meetings with local organizations, private and public, who have been dealing with Roma related issues in London. We have been pursuing various avenues of investigation to develop a relationship and establish a working practice with the two main groups in London: 1. Roma Support Group, and 2. Southwark Traveller Education Support Service. The work that we have done to date, and the networks we are consolidating around Roma issues has been extremely important for the LCF team who have not been working on Roma issues before the beginning of the EU-Roma project and it will highlight the specificity of the situation of Roma people in London, and in the UK. Meeting with Dragica Felja at the Roma Support Group Office in Newham (East London), February 7th, 2008 There is a frequent misunderstanding between travellers and Roma community. The Roma population in the UK and in London is, today, settled in normal houses. The majority of them have been forced to abandon their country (Poland for the most of cases) and went to London as refugees. Here they found a situation far distant from the one that they had in Poland where they were in fact concentrated in a kind of ‘ghetto’, a slum. If we talk about sites and camps we cannot avoid mentioning the travellers’ conditions, which is in certain cases a dramatic situation. Among travellers one finds a mixtures of communities, ethnical origins, and also different reasons of being travellers. The theme of travellers camp is today particularly topical because of the Olympic Area; here is where some travellers had their camps since long time and now, in reason of Olympic competition, which has also a value of brotherhood, a symbol of cohabitation of different populations, they had to move somewhere else. It would be also interesting to draw a parallel line with what happened in Athens in the same circumstances during the Olympiad in 2004. The Roma community is one of the most difficult community to reach and to involve in projects, also because if the high index of illiteracy. The Roma Support Group has also found a problematic relation with the Newham Council (borough where lives the majority of Roma people in London), which tends not to consider the Roma community as an identity (we tried to have a collaborative contact with the local council but without success). One of the points of convergence between the EU-Roma aims and the RSG was the necessity to convey a more positive image of the Roma, within the local community.
EU-Roma UK Document, Alex Weeks
In this respect, the RSG are in discussion with the Council to stage an exhibition and a series of performances by the Roma sometime in June to coincide with the ‘Gypsy, Roma, & Traveller History Month’. Similar initiatives have been successful in the past, with minimal funding and minimal communication. The RSG have now successfully established a consultancy collaboration with the Museum of London, to assist with presenting the Roma through different cultural avenues and with mainstream funding support. They are looking for ways to develop a larger exhibition and utilise the archive of photography and recordings they have been collecting.
Meeting with David Cannon at the Southwark Traveller Education Support Service c/o Bermondsey Old Library, February 25th, 2008 The Southwark Traveller Education Support Service (STESS) was set up to support enrolment, increase attendance and improve achievement of Gypsy, Roma and Travellers young people. From 2003 the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) introduced two new ethnic categories: Travellers of Irish Heritage and Gypsy Roma. The DfES launched the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller programme as part of its national strategies in the autumn term 2006. David Cannon is STESS manger and Advisory Teacher for Secondary education and 16+. We are now aware that the Roma community is one of the most difficult, marginal and unreachable communities in London. In Southwark there are four legal sites for travellers where they can find all the basic comforts that are part of our life nowadays (water, electricity…). Although the common opinion about Roma being Traveller, Roma people has an own ethnic identity. For historical political reasons (due in part to the provenance of Roma families mainly from communist countries), Roma people weren’t allowed to live in sites and camps. They began to settle in houses and are still today living in houses (in Southwark, but we did already find the same situation in Newham). Nevertheless, even if Roma are settled in houses, it seems to be extremely urgent also for local government to ‘map’ conditions, needs, demands of Roma community and to outline problem and to sketch solutions, where possible. In this contest, the ‘mapping’ activity included in the EU-ROMA project could run parallel to an official and institutional programme. Full evidence of the urgency of the issue comes also from the extra-ordinary meeting of the LGTF (Local Government Task Force), which has specifically been called to provide feedback/discuss the draft findings of the London Gypsy & Traveller Accommodation Assessment. The government (Communities and Local Government) is supporting ‘Gypsy, Roma, & Traveller History Month’ to be held in June 2008. It could become a periodic appointment every year. The minister for academies, Lord Adonis, stated its aims were “…to explain the history and culture of the communities…to challenge myths and break down barriers; and to celebrate the richness that these communities bring to our everyday life”. The government has just appointed Iain Wright to the new post of Minister for Gypsies and Travellers.
EU-Roma UK Document, Alex Weeks
David Cannon, who has experience in projects for Roma pupils held at schools, has collaborated with the Roma Support Group and he confirms without doubts the necessary relation with them to success in any project about Roma in London. They have an approach to the community, which differs from the ‘institutional’, formal and therefore mediated approach of any governmental or public institution.
On the advice of David Cannon, since February, we have been developing a working relationship with RSG. Initially who were hostile to any academic study or survey and European partnership but were interested in our proposal to provide ‘Help’ within our specific professional domains. Roma Support Group The Roma Support Group in Newham (East London) is a community organisation working with East European Roma refugees and migrants since 1998 and now working with over 700 Roma families in London. The origins of the organisation and its ethos are based within the grass root movement of the Roma community in London. The RSG was established by the Roma people and it is led by them today. Their aim is to improve the quality of life for Roma refugees/migrants and to advance the education of the public about Roma arts, history and culture. It is also their objective to make the public aware of the discrimination and problems faced by Roma through cultural and informative events, publications etc. RSG are helping Roma to overcome prejudice, isolation, low individual and social esteem and vulnerability by: offering advice and support on welfare, debt, housing and employment matters organizing volunteers’ activities, which promote health and well-being of the Roma community providing education support in accessing primary, secondary and further education organising social inclusion schemes for Roma children and youths, i.e. indoor and outdoor sport activities, visual art workshops, performance art workshops and individual mentoring schemes running cultural activities and schemes for Roma adults and children promoting the understanding of Roma culture through organising events, workshops, publicity and the dissemination of information Advice ...Health ...Education ... Social ... Media ...Culture ...Training ...Mentoring .. For example, the Advice and Advocacy Project is run on the basis of appointments, drop–in sessions and outreach. During the last year we have provided assistance and support to some 750 Roma refugee and migrant families from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania ,
Romania and Bosnia. Advice work covers the following areas: access to welfare, housing, employment issues, money management and debt. In 2008 the Roma Support Group is celebrating its 10th anniversary and it has been just over 10 years ago since the first Roma asylum seekers came to the UK fleeing discrimination, institutionalised racism and persecution in Eastern Europe. This exhibition became to point of convergence between our interests and that of the RSG. Here we could attempt to give the public an insight into what forced Roma people to seek asylum. It was decided we would cover four themes:
EU-Roma UK Document, Alex Weeks
Theme 1 – Coming to London, what issues they faced in the UK Themes 2 & 3 – Seeking Asylum & EU Accession and their contribution to the multi-cultural, diverse fabric of British society Theme 4 – Integration and Contribution These four themes we are enclosing in the four travel trunks, which telling the Roma story about the pain of injustice, exclusion, persecution, insecurity and confusion, while on the other hand we also witness their courage, endurance, fortitude of mind and creativity. EU Accession Timeline 5th April – 14th April 2004
The Home Office informed 2,614 families , most of whom were Roma asylum seekers, that their subsistence support will end and they must leave their accommodation on the 30th April or be evicted because they were due to become EU nationals on the 1st May. Three “choices” were offered: 1/ destitution; 2/ finding employment; 3/ voluntary return to their home countries. The second “choice” was impossible to undertake due to the lack of necessary IDs and paperwork.
13th April until the end of May 2004
Roma Support Group (RSG) supported over 500 Roma families to submit individual appeals to the Asylum Support Adjudicators and numerous Local Authorities across London. The capacity of the organisation was at breaking point as it tried to manage the crisis.
22nd April 2004
RSG sends letters to all MPs in London asking for support.
26th April 2004
Sue Willman of Pierce Glynn Solicitors applied for Judicial Review in the High Court on behalf of a Slovak Roma family.
4th May 2004
Mr Justice Collins grants permission to challenge the Home Office’s decision, but before the final hearing on the 20th May, the Home Office decided to reinstate support to destitute families until they find employment and readjust to new situation.
25th May 2004
The RSG was told to vacate the premises, where advice sessions were based, but thanks to the help of Aston-Mansfield a new office was soon open to the Roma community in East London.
EU-Roma UK Document, Alex Weeks
Context of the exhibition Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month This is the First national Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month to take place in the UK. Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are the largest Ethnic Minority community in the European Union with over 12 million people. In the UK, they are recognised ethnic minority communities and number 300,000. They are also the most marginalised and continue to suffer extreme levels of prejudice and discrimination. And yet they have enriched our culture in so many different ways.” The GRTHM hope that this month-long event will help raise awareness of these communities and their valuable contributions to our society and to offset the negative stereotyping and prejudices that have led to the situation where: The Children’s Society report that nearly 9 out of every 10 children and young people from a Gypsy background have suffered racial abuse and nearly two thirds have also been bullied or physically attacked.(November Report 2007) The achievement levels of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are the lowest of any of the BME communities and the gap is widening. (December 2007 DCSF national figures). GRTHM plan to hold celebrations across the country to establish this month as an opportunity for everyone – early learning centres, schools, colleges, communities and others to learn about the rich, cultural contribution these communities have made across the centuries despite the harshest of treatments at times in their histories.
Possible Projects The Roma Support Group is one of 15 refugee community organisations participating in the Refugee Community History Project, which is a groundbreaking project collected, archived and disseminated more than 150 in-depth interviews with people, who came to London as refugees since 1951. This archive will be a basis for a study and future artefacts for exhibtion.
New Team Member The architects Sue Konu and David Knight from the architecture studio Project 35 Architects have been appointed to collaborate with the LCF in the mapping activity. They have begun research within the city councils, planning legislation and other related areas.
Parallel events and funding The photographer Tom Hunter, who has been photographing traveller populations in the UK has been contacted to carry out a photographic project with a Roma
EU-Roma UK Document, Alex Weeks
community in the South West of England, this community has strong cultural ties to Roma craft traditions. There will be a joint grant application submitted to the University of the Arts London to support this work. http://www.tomhunter.org/