Hope Trumps Despair: Three Romani Women’s Struggle for Dignity in France

21 October 2014

By Maria Radu, Lenuta Sztan and Rodica Varga

Lenuta Sztan, Maria Radu and Rodica Varga made invaluable contributions as project assistants in the production of the recent ERRC report, Destroying Progress/ Progressing Destruction: EU Romani Women and Children in France. The report addresses the harrowing conditions endured by EU citizens of Romani origin in informal settlements. The following blog contributions from Lenuta, Maria, and Rodica are vivid personal accounts of the realities on the ground, and provide eloquent testament of the women’s resilience, determination and hope for the future in the face of daunting odds, acute deprivation and degrading treatment.

 

Maria Radu

When I arrived to France in 2008, I lived on a settlement with my husband’s family. After a month, we were evicted and had to start looking for a new place to settle. We found one and stayed there for 3 months. Since 2008, each year, I have lived on at least three different settlements. In total, I have been evicted eleven times in France. I would like to describe one of these evictions.
 
We knew that they were going to evict and demolish the settlement and so we had prepared our baggage beforehand. We woke up at four in the morning to get ready to go, but the police came at five. When we saw them, we took our bags from the shacks to leave for the station. The police stopped us and blocked us from leaving the settlement. They wanted us to force us to watch as the bulldozers destroyed our homes. After the demolition, they encircled us and found someone who could speak French to translate for them that we had to take the train far away and never come back to their Département. 

At the station, the police made all the people get off the train and they pushed us into the wagon. We were forced into the train, we were screaming that we did not know Paris, that we would be lost, that we were afraid, that we had our papers and legal documents still in the shacks that were now demolished, the we had nothing left. 

We went as far as Villeneuve-le-Roi; from the train we saw forests, we thought that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, that maybe we could live there nonetheless. 

But, when we arrived at the train station, there were police there waiting for us there as well. They said that they were contacted by the police in Massy, and that we couldn’t stay there either because there was gas under the ground. 

So, the police took us to Gare du Nord in Paris where we slept on the sidewalk for 3 nights. Firemen, the Red Cross and some volunteers were there and they gave us milk, diapers for the babies and some food. Every morning we woke up and went back to Massy, the only place that we were familiar with, to find a settlement where we could possibly stay.

Why did I insist on staying in France? To have a job, to have a house, because in Romania, I did not have these things. Finally, I have a job with the ERRC and I am also a temporary educative assistant at an elementary school and I am preparing for an exam for a childcare diploma.
 
This shows that if you have motivation, you can do it. Other people on my settlement thank me for giving them hope too. The others do not have jobs and are obliged to beg. We should help these people to fill out important papers and documents, and to understand the system, like those who have helped me to do.

 

Lenuta Sztan

The difficulty in finding a job in France, for me, this is the biggest problem today and the biggest obstacle. In 2014, we had hope, but the situation stays the same. Even if we have all our papers the reply is always ‘no’. 

I cannot understand what is happening with the procedures, the mentality, the answer is always no, no and no. If we have one paper, they demand another. It is discrimination that is playing a role, as we are not French, they reject us. My husband has given his CV to 20 companies, but there is no reply. We have a postal address, but we live in a slum, the address is not concrete, and to have this right does not necessarily help us to have the other rights that we have in France respected. 

In January, I created my CV with the national employment office, and I cannot find work. On the settlement many other people have gone to the employment office, but there is only one person who has found a job. We apply for jobs, but we get no replies. The only chance that I have had since 2008 is the work I am doing with the ERRC. And it is the only change in my life since 2008. I have seen a change in my life, it is an advancement, and without this work, I would not be in France anymore. 

It is important to find a job because I live on a very harsh settlement and need to find a house. This is important for everyone, there are families who have all the rights to stay here, but need a better life that this, in the jungle. We can leave this jungle with a job, we can change our lives. 

For women, it is important to work to change their lives and to offer their children an education, to advance, to integrate, to get out of this social deprivation. 

The situation is difficult for men, and it is very difficult for women. There are people who did not have an education in Romania, in general it is the women, and they are illiterate, it is not their fault, it is their parents’ fault. Women have different problems than men; they have household duties, appointments for the children, women take care of the administrative problems of the family. They are always occupied with the children. There are still children who do not go to school, they are waiting for a place in the school, and their mothers stay with them during the day. They cannot grow up without an education, we cannot raise illiterate children in the 21st century. It is impossible and it is incredible.
 
If they were in school, their mothers could work at least a few hours per day. That could be a change, a little change step by step, we cannot do everything in one day, we understand that, we have been waiting since 2008. We are tired. But it is the will that wins, there are people here without education, but they speak foreign languages, they are motivated.
 
To combat this, we have to change the mentality of everyone, we must continue to talk about our situation, show that we are motivated, that we really want to get out of this misery, we ask for a chance. We must show that what we say is true; that what we say, we do. 

I hope for the future, I still hope.

 

Rodica Varga

I came to France because in Romania, we did not have any work and we heard that in France you can work, make a life, and that life is better in France than in Romania. We came directly to Marseille and stayed with my sister for three days. We could not stay with her any longer than that, so we went looking for a settlement to live on. We found a settlement where we stayed for three months. We began waste picking in the trash bins to find things to sell on the market. We found clothes, toys and DVDs. The others showed us what we should take from the trash bins and every Friday, we went to the markets to sell what we had found.
 
We met someone who gave my husband some work, but we had to still stay on the settlement because we did not have enough money. In August, there was an eviction of the settlement and we went back to Romania because we had nowhere else to go in France. We stayed in Romania for one month, but decided to come back to France. 

We saw that life is better in France for us, even if we live in a slum. My husband again found a job as a scrap metal collector and we lived on a settlement under a bridge from January to March, but, again, there was an eviction. We could not find another place to live, and with the money that my husband had made, we bought a car for 250 euro which did not run, but which we could live in. 

In the car, life became very difficult. My husband’s boss got an expulsion order to leave France and he once again started to look in bins for things to sell on the market. Despite everything, I sent my kids to school. From the car, they went to school every day so that they would not end up like us, without work, so that they would not be left behind. 

I was pregnant again, with two children enrolled in school, and living in a car. That is when people working for the NGOs ADDAP 13 and the Secours Catholique asked me to meet with a journalist to tell him my story. I told them that I would do it, and when I explained my life, he became curious and wanted to see the car. He felt very bad for us and said, “tonight, you will not sleep in this car.’’ We were so happy! That night, we slept at his home, there was hot water, there are no words to explain how great it was… He did not say that we were dirty, or that we were gypsies, he shared everything with us. 

We stayed there for two weeks and then found a hotel room where we could stay for 10 days, paid by the NGOs, and we helped to pay as well. We were so happy to not go back to the car. During this time, I gave birth.
 
We returned to the journalist’s house after the hotel while we looked for another solution. There was a priest who took us in. The kids were well behaved, we were like at home, we felt good. For almost 6 months now, we have an apartment in social housing. It is not too stable, we have a meeting for another apartment which is more stable, next to the school. 

Help is wonderful, but we would like to have our own home, to be like the others, be even more stable, for the kids to grow up and have a good job. If I could not finish school, it was because of money. I do not want that for my sons. 

I would like for the Roma in France to think like us: that we can have stability. They are worried and stressed because of evictions, they think they cannot send their kids to school because they will be evicted soon, but if they want to stay in France, they have to think otherwise. Digging in trash bins is not a way to build a life, there are possibilities if you show that you are serious and that you think about the future.