[2009.04.30] Canada home and dry 加拿大，家在那儿

The Roma in eastern Europe
东欧的吉普赛人

Canada home and dry
加拿大，家在那儿

Apr 30th 2009 | PRAGUE
From The Economist print edition

How Roma fleeing persecution win asylum in Canada

逃避迫害的吉普赛人怎样获得去加拿大的政治避难权

Looking over the fence to Canada
隔栏遥望加拿大

EMIGRATION to Canada was a well-trodden road for dissidents after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. It is 20 years since the country’s leaden communist regime perished in the velvet revolution. The Czech Republic is a regional success story. Yet rising numbers of Roma (gypsy) citizens are making the same journey to the same faraway country, because life at home is intolerable.

1968年，以苏联为首的多国部队入侵捷克斯洛伐克。之后，许多持不同政见人士都移民到加拿大。20年前的“丝绒革命”[1]将捷克灰沉的共产主义政权推入了坟墓之中，于是捷克共和国建立，成为独树一帜的成功范例。但是现在，又有越来越多的人开始了移民之旅，目的地同样是那片遥远的土地——加拿大，这次换成了捷克的吉普赛公民。他们移民的原因是家里的日子太苦了。

Around 250,000 Roma live in the Czech Republic. Their problems include poverty, lack of education, centuries of prejudice and, now, attacks by far-right extremists. According to the Canadian embassy in Prague, 861 Czechs applied for asylum in Canada in 2008, and 84 won it. Canada does not record their ethnic origin, but officials say most were Roma. That exceeds figures from countries such as Afghanistan (488 applicants) and Iraq (282). For communist Cuba, much scolded by the Czech government for its poor human-rights record, the figures were 184 applicants and 93 given asylum. The numbers for the first quarter of 2009 are even more startling: 653 applications, of which 34 were granted.

捷克大约有25万吉普赛人，他们的问题包括贫穷，教育水平低，几个世纪的受歧视，现在还要加上一条——被极右翼分子攻击。根据位于布拉格的加拿大使馆提供的数据，2008年有861名捷克人申请了到加拿大政治避难，只有84人获准。加方并未将申请者的种族记录在案，但是使馆官员说申请者大多都是吉普赛人。这个数字超过了阿富汗（488个申请者）和伊拉克（282）这样的国家。而被捷克政府批评为人权纪录很差的古巴，这一数字是184，并且其中有93人获得避难权。而捷克在2009年一季度的数字更是耸人：653名申请者，34名获准。

Admittedly, getting to Canada is easier for the Czech Roma than for Afghans or Iraqis (in October 2007 the Canadians lifted visa requirements for Czechs that had been imposed ten years earlier after a previous Roma exodus). But the figures are also higher than from other ex-communist countries with large Roma populations and visa-free travel to Canada. Last year only 288 Hungarians made applications, with 22 granted.

移民加拿大对捷克的吉普赛人来说显然要比阿富汗人和伊拉克人去那儿简单（加拿大在2007年10月提高了对捷克移民签证要求的门槛；而前签证要求是10年前在一次大规模的吉普赛移民潮之后制定实行的）。而有些前共产主义国家虽然同样有大量的吉普赛人口，并且去加拿大旅游免签证，移民的签证率却没有捷克高。比如说匈牙利，去年仅仅288人提出申请，22人获准。

Some Canadian officials say asylum has become a business, with middlemen charging Roma to arrange it. But nobody has produced evidence of this, and the Czech authorities say they have seen no sign. Anna Polakova, who heads Romani-language public broadcasting in Prague, says the claims are absurd. She also questions the idea that Roma asylum applicants are motivated by Canadian welfare payments. “Even if you have little, your family has been here for two, three generations. You know the language. We have our graves here,” she says. In her view, it is middle-class Roma who are leaving in frustration. “Despite all the talk, the fascists are walking down the street.” She herself considered emigration after her son was badly beaten up by skinheads.

有些加拿大官员称政治避难已经成了一个可以赚钱的买卖——中间人安排吉普人移民并收取费用。但是无人可以拿出证据，并且捷克官方也说没有这种迹象。同样，位于布拉格的罗马尼亚语公共广播电台台长安娜·波拉科娃[2]称这种说法简直荒唐。她还对另外一种说法提出质疑，就是那些申请政治避难的吉普赛人是冲着加拿大的福利制度去的。“即使你在这里一无所有，你的家族也已经来了两三代。你会说这里的语言。你祖辈的坟墓在这里，”她说。在她看来，是那些没落的中产吉普赛在离开。“ 法西斯分子还是走上了街头，之前所有的劝阻商量都不奏效。” 促使她自己考虑移民是因为儿子被光头党[3]打了。

The Czech record is no source of pride. Not only has far-right extremism been rising, but so also is segregation. A government study in 2006 found that 80,000 Roma live in over 300 ghetto-like communities, four-fifths of which came into existence only in the previous decade. Roma activists blame Jiri Cunek, a Christian Democratic leader and former deputy prime minister, for making anti-Roma prejudice acceptable in mainstream politics. A mayor of Vsetin in the east, Mr Cunek ordered the eviction of dozens of Roma families from a run-down building in the town centre into containers on its edge.

捷克的人权纪录其实很尴尬。不仅仅极右极端主义在兴起，种族隔离也出现了。政府2006年的一份研究报告中称，超过300个贫民窟般的社区中住着80000个吉普赛人，其中4/5的人搬来不超过10年。吉普赛的激进人士将这归罪于基督教民主党领袖、前捷克副总理吉尼·库奈克，称他使反吉普赛的歧视观点在主流政治中变得可以接受[4]。还在库奈克在东部夫瑟廷市作市长时，他就下令将许多住在市中心废弃大楼中的吉普赛家庭赶到市郊集装箱一样的房子中。

Recently police blocked a confrontation between Roma activists and a neo-Nazi march in Krupka, in the north-west. Last November a similar event in Litvinov, in the north, turned into a riot, with police fighting 500 right-wingers trying to get to a Roma neighbourhood blamed as a hotbed of crime. A firebomb attack on a Roma dwelling in Vitkov, one of three in recent months, badly burnt a 22-month-old girl.

最近在西北部的克鲁普卡市，警方阻止了吉普赛激进分子与游行的新纳粹分子间的冲突。去年11月份，北部的利特维诺夫市发生了类似的事件，最后升级成一场暴力冲突——500个企图前往附近一个吉普赛人聚居地（他们认为那里是犯罪发生的温床）的极右翼分子与警察发生战斗。前些天，一个汽油弹袭击了维特科夫的一个吉普赛人居住区，造成一个22月大的婴儿严重烧伤，这是最近几个月内三起类似事件中的一件。

Roma are suffering in many other countries in the region. Hungary has witnessed a spate of especially nasty murders. But the rich, well-governed Czech Republic, which holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, can surely do better.

东欧其它国家的吉普赛人的境况也很糟。匈牙利接连发生了一连串极为恶劣的凶案。但是富裕且管理完善并且作为欧盟轮值主席国的捷克显然更有可能使现状得到改观。

注：
[1]捷克斯洛伐克的天鹅绒革命,又译“丝绒革命”。不属于颜色革命，捷克斯洛伐克的天鹅绒革命是指东欧剧变时，没有经过大规模的暴力冲突就实现了政权更迭，如天鹅绒般平和柔滑，故得名。“天鹅绒革命”也成为非暴力的通过和平方式更迭政权的代名词。颜色革命基本上都是属于“天鹅绒革命”类型。
[2]http://romove.radio.cz/en/clanek/18638是安娜·波拉科娃的自述。
[3]指新纳粹分子，他们通常都剃着光头，所以被称作“光头党”。
[4]库奈克(Jiri Cunek)曾经公开表示，任何人如果希望得到捷克共和国的资助，首先应当“把自己的皮肤弄黑”。这番话激起了吉普赛少数民族的愤怒。

 

译者/eastx:  http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=18973&extra=page%3D1