Roma liaisons making it hard for other Roma to move

[Tiriol]

Meanwhile, in Finland: Roma liaisons - Roma who act as liaisons between their communities and culture and the civil authorities - have interfered with moves of the other Roma for cultural reasons.

Roma liaisons interfere in moves by other Roma
Ombudsman for Minorities contacted from around Finland

The activities of Roma liaisons, who serve as unofficial liaisons for the Roma community, have caused some controversy. Minority Ombudsman Johanna Suurpää says that the liaisons have been found to interfere with housing applications of other Roma in a way that could amount to discrimination.
Suurpää’s office has been contacted several times during the summer by Roma who say that Roma liaisons have interfered with their plans to relocate.

One factor that can affect relocation of Roma households is the requirement within Roma culture that members of families that are at odds with each other are expected to avoid contact with each other.
The liaisons, who are Roma themselves, have sometimes given other reasons, such as the notion that the new community would not want more Roma residents.
When a Roma family is moving to a new community, public housing authorities sometimes consult a Roma liaison on the question.
“It is not a good practice”, Suurpää says.
“The issue is problematic from the point of view of equal treatment of citizens. Under the Finnish constitution, people have the right to choose where they live, and municipal civil servants must not discuss plans for a move with third parties.”

In any case, someone who is moving must give consent to a possible consultation with a Roma liaison.
Suurpää notes that it is not in line with the constitution for members of any population group to need permission from anyone to move house.

In one case, the five members of the family of Tanja Palmroth and Kyösti Grönfors were to have moved to another city so that their hearing impaired son could go to a special school.
A municipal apartment was available and Palmroth had a place to study.

Their plans foundered when the local Roma liaison said that it would not be appropriate for the family to move to the community.
Palmroth and Grönfors were shocked. They said that every Roma knows when family feuds are an issue, but they say that there were no such problems here.
“Roma culture has always stood up for children. Respect for others is also part of it”, Grönfors says.
“We do not need special treatment. The Finnish constitution is enough for us.”

Chief inspector Sarita Friman-Korpela of the Consultative Committee for Roma Affairs, which operates under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, says that the role of the liaisons has been discussed extensively.
She does not believe that there has been an actual increase in problems related to relocation, but she thinks that they come out more frequently than before.
“Those who feel that it is unfair get in touch more easily. I think that it is a good thing.”
Friman-Korpela emphasises that everyone has the right to move to any community they want to.
“It also applies to Roma. No cultural reason can exceed people’s fundamental rights.

Friman-Korpela notes that the mission of the Roma liaisons is to give general information about the Roma culture.
“Solving individual matters is not the task of any collective. It is a matter for public authorities with official responsibility.”
The Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (ARA) has also said that cultural issues need to be taken into consideration in choosing Roma residents, but that such considerations must not go beyond the fundamental individual rights guaranteed under the law.

This news item has been in media from time to time: the Roma culture's traditions of blood feud and family feud have caused these kind of legal troubles when the Roma have desired to move to a new place, but the local Roma, who don't get along with the first group's extended family, don't like the idea and the civil authorities, uninterested in causing possibly violent trouble, give in to these "suggestions". Personally I think that the brunt of state's authority should be brought down on cases such as these, but I'm damned if I know how to do so without appearing racist or without causing undue problems for all three parties (muncipality authority; the local Roma; and the moving Roma) and for outsiders.