Roma
Vilnius, Вiльнюс or ווילנע: spotlight on Lithuanian capital’s tiny ethnic communities
Lithuania has enjoyed a rich multicultural heritage since being part of the Grand Duchy. Independence was restored for the third time in its history after the collapse of the soviet union in 1990. The motto of this second republic echoes the European union, which the northern country became a member state of in 2004 - ‘Tautos jega vienybeje!’, or ‘strength through unity’ (to the EU’s ‘united through diversity’). A Spanish-Italian-French-German-Russian-British team of journalists and photographers take the temperature of multiculturalism in ‘Vilna’ by focusing on the Jewish (0.3%), Belarusian (1.3%) and Baltic Roma (0.1%) populations. In the capital, Vilnius, dynamic 'foreigners' gradually make a name for themselves in institutions as varied as universities, NGOs, bookshops and nightclubs. In images, we draw multicultural parallels with the buildings which occupy just under a third of the city’s area (Image: (cc) Severin Sadjina/ flickr)
- Read the special edition Vilnius, Вiльнюс or ווילנע: spotlight on Lithuanian capital’s tiny ethnic communities
- Ladies what oppose Belarus in Vilnius
- From San Diego to Vilnius: all Jew you need for a library in Lithuania
- Kirtimai: Lithuania's Roma on education and 'missing England'
- Nightlife in Vilnius: ethnic minority benders
Multiculturalism in Italy: a Roman cocktail
Is Italy racist? This is the question posed by European media, some of which don’t hesitate to point to a lethal dose of racism particularly following the murder of two Senegalese in Florence. However, four journalists and a photographer sent to Rome by cafebabel.com chose instead to talk about the multicultural imprint of a nation which counts 5.4 million immigrants from non-EU countries. Of course, it’s not all sweetness. The Roma continue to battle for a decent future, while young Italians are fleeing a country which is losing its identity. However, second generation immigrants are aware of the civic role which they can play, while the piazza Vittoria in central Rome is a multicultural epicentre, a mixed drink shaken up in the most open of kitchens. In the view of these diverse facts, cafebabel.com is serving up a Roman cocktail which will warm you to embrace the ‘other’, turning away from the bar-side brawls stirred up by press-gang headlines. (Image: © Ehsan Maleki)
'Our School' documentary: segregated Roma schools despite EU funds
When directors and producers Mona Nicoară and Miruna Coca-Cozma followed three Roma children in a small Romanian village for four years, their film initially about a success story of integration became one about the realities of ethnic segregation. Interview
roma, minority, children, gypsy, european union, emir kusturica, integration
Roma and Hungary’s extreme right: the hunt in Gyöngyöspata
In Hungary, a village of 2, 500 inhabitants outside Budapest embodies tensions between the Roma (gypsy) community and the extreme right. Since March, paramilitary militia have been arriving in Gyöngyöspata to march the town's streets. On top of that, Oszkár Juhász, a member of the extreme right-wing party Jobbik, has been elected as mayor
roma, hungary, human rights, right wing extremism, violence, jobbik, politics
The hills are alive with the sound of Viviane Reding
The EU commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship ‘comes from the heart of Europe,’ insists former EC president Jacques Delors, as he introduces her to French students at Paris’ political institute Sciences Po. Meanwhile, Reding goes all out to be less bureaucratic than she is
roma, jacques delors, paris, viviane reding, bureaucracy, human rights, politics
Roma deportations: Europeans offer alternative punishments for France
On 29 September, the European commission reneged on a threat to sue the member state for its actions against an ethnic group. If the EU commission is lacking in inspiration (for controversy), here are some ideas
roma, viviane reding, youth, nicolas sarkozy, discrimination, politics, france
Viviane Reding vs Europe’s macho club?
When the EU justice minister compared France's expulsions of essentially Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to nazi deportation acts in world war two in mid-September, she apparently crossed the line for Paris and Rome...and their male politicians
Esma Redzepova: 'Roma are cosmopolitan'
A mother of 47, a career spanning 20 albums and 40 years and songs in Serbian, Macedonian and Romany. At the Sin Fronteras festival in France, the Macedonian 'gypsy music queen' brings a bit of Roma culture to a country which is planning to export large numbers of its gypsy population 'back' to Romania and Bulgaria by the end of the month
roma, european union, paris, greece, nobel price, candidate countries, multiculturalism
France's 'war on criminality' aside, focus on Parisian Roma in 'social insertion villages'
Four years after their creation in Europe, 'social integration villages' are being presented as a 'Roma paradise'. European associations for minority protection expose some of the difficulties facing the most discriminated community in the EU. Meanwhile, the French government has since planned to dissolve 300 Roma settlements, whilst the UK is seeing its biggest Romany gypsy site, Dale Farm in Essex, bulldozed
roma, paris, association, europe, housing, human rights, suburbs
Alessandro Mannarino: 'Italian brains have been infantilised by television'
An emerging talent on the Italian scene, the 30-year-old Roman combines poetry with sounds from around the world, shoots music videos in Roma camps and slams the way of thinking in his country
roma, italy, alessandro mannarino, best of cafebabel.com, rome, music, culture
Young, Roma and European: 'my children's lives will be better than mine'
While the problems of Europe’s biggest minority seem endless, the EU aims to offer some hope despite ‘much talk and little action.’ Testimonies from Roma Europeans, European Roma
roma, european union, balkans, testimony, berlin, enlargement, society
Lívia Járóka: female, Roma and Euro MP
The first female Roma member of the European parliament takes stock of her first term in office and announces that she will run in this year’s European elections in June. We talk women, Roma statistics and the EU institutions
roma, right-wing, feminism, employment, unemployment, men and women, hungary
Roma in the Ponticelli district, Naples, speak after the fire
The intolerance of the population towards the nomads, who had been living for years on the periphery of the city, has become ever violent, supported by the popular and racist propaganda of the Lega Nord (northern league) political party. We try to understand what is left after the lynchings, the fires, the vigilantes and forced evictions
roma, italy, integration, racism, best of cafebabel.com, naples, discrimination
Photos: hanging out with four Roma communities in the French Auvergne
Generalise all you want; Europe's largest minority are comprised of innumerable different groups - the gypsies, the Sinti, the Manouche, the Calés, the Zíngaro, the Yeniche...snapshot from one camp central France
roma, photogallery, eudebate on the ground, clermont-ferrand, society
In Buzescu, Roma architecture is surreal real estate
We clatter by train through Romania to the small village where the former nomadic Roma are building palaces they design themselves in the middle of Wallachia – with neither consent nor plans. Feature
Tomás de Perrate: 'I don’t know a single gypsy family that feels discriminated against in Andalucia'
The 43-year-old started singing in 1999, after ten years as a hairdresser. Inspired by America's Tom Waits, he says that Balkan gypsy music does not belong to the flamenco family
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