Northern Ireland: Romanians flee after racist attacks

Romanians flee homes after attack


More than 100 Romanian people forced to flee their homes in south Belfast have been moved to a leisure centre.

The group of about 20 families spent Tuesday night in a church hall after a spate of racist attacks on their homes.

Police have said they do not believe paramilitaries were involved in orchestrating the attacks.

Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who has met with the families, said the attacks were a "totally shameful episode".

"We need a collective effort to face down this criminals in society who are quite clearly intent on preying on vulnerable women and children," he said.

The police have met Belfast City Council and social services to discuss how best to care for those affected by the attacks.

Most of the Romanian families, including one with a five-day-old girl, have been taken to the Ozone Leisure Centre in south Belfast, where they will spend the rest of the day.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8104287.stm

Heartbreaking.
Man to man is so unjust!

Talk about a toxic atmosphere!

Paper available here: http://news.ulster.ac.uk/podcasts/Bigotry.pdf (the link given in that blog doesn't work, though it does have convenient graphs of the responses)

will do that to a population. I don't excuse, but entirely understand the source of Northern Ireland being a bigoted place.

Irish from Ireland are a totally different story, so obviously the independent variable is "the Troubles" not Irish culture.

of Romanians with Roma (Gypsies).

A google search revealed some back stories as to why there was a mass immigration in the first place (better benefits than Germany, for instance). It appears that Romanians make a viable attempt to integrate into the socio-economics of Northern Ireland, while the Roma people do not.

From a Romanian source:



I don't know where you get "the Roma people do not (make a viable attempt to integrate into the socio-economics of Northern Ireland)". Rather a broadbrush statement, isn't it?

I guess so...

http://www.newtotown.ie/forum/living-ireland/acceptance-romanians-ireland-1949.html

http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=1627_0_4_0 (I couldn't get this link to work this time)

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070909140250AAv3Jkq

I am sure that there are other sites addressing the issue.

My post was to reflect attitudes in Ireland -- not my attitudes.

The first and third links are anecdotal evidence of bigotry against Roma in the Republic of Ireland (provided by the anonymous bigots themselves on the internet); the second is about Romanian asylum seekers and illegal immigration in the Republic, from 11 years ago.

I remind you that you said "It appears that Romanians make a viable attempt to integrate into the socio-economics of Northern Ireland, while the Roma people do not".

Now you say: "My post was to reflect attitudes in Ireland -- not my attitudes". Wrong. Your first post expressed your personal opinion about the Roma people as a whole - that they don't try to integrate with the Northern Irish community. Evidence of bigotry in the Republic is not evidence of unwillingness to integrate in the north.

I made sure to use "seem" and "appear".

But you come across as strident and combative, so I'm sure you must be "right".

I think it's strange that the media is referring to them as Romanians. If Turks from Germany moved to Northern Ireland, would the media refer to them as Germans? It's not fair to either ethnic group.

Racist, fundamentalist creationist fucks...To be expected from these shit stains. Unionism has separated itself from any degree of decency and credibility because of its relationship with the Free Presbyterians, fundamentalism, and Fuhrer Paisley. They should have been repatriated to the UK 80 years ago if living in an Irish republic was such a terrible fate.

Nowhere in that article is the Republic mentioned. I wonder where they came in on that survey.

They're not far-right racialists like DUP/TUV goons and any violence they may have engaged with is due to political objections to their ubjust subjugation by the Crown.

Are these Romanians or Gypsies?