Article Review: In France, Poverty Travels

Summary of author’s main idea

As the title suggested, in this article, the author discusses the discrimination
against Roma immigrants who have to lead a vagrant life in France due to
their national origin. The Roma immigrants, who were driven by poverty to
leave Romania to France, have long been confused as gypsies, who are
stereotyped as thieves or organized beggars in rags and thus discriminated.
(Question at issue)

The discrimination against the Roma is constitutional. They are second-class

citizens in EU, being forced to stay in a nation no more than three months and
facing constant threats of expulsion. Recently, this discrimination has been
manifested by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who due to political and financial
scandals, decided to exploit public’s prejudice against the Roma to regain
support. By his publicly condemning criminals from ‘foreign origin’, hundreds
of Roma encampments were violently razed and thousands of Roma were
deported. (Evidence)

The author warned that, by discriminating against those poor Roma, the
French politicians ignore the fact that economical wealth cross-borders should
be achieved on a public base. As such, the French should not make the Roma
be the scapegoats for the influx of immigrants and economic failures. (P.O.V
and purpose)

Evaluation and assessment of author’s ideas

According to the author, the constitutional discrimination against the Roma in
France is a result of stereotypes and the government’s need to exploit this
stereotype to explain their political and financial failures. By explaining the
irony and invalidity behind this discrimination, the author strongly opposes
the government’s exploitation of the Roma as scapegoats and suggests that it
will not change the fact that their poverty is still part of France’s poverty, and
their expectation of a so-called pure and rich France will never be realized In
my opinion, the author’s ideas are generally reliable and justifiable because of
his identity as a French which enables him to observe the true situation of the
Roma in France, and also because of his underlying statement-the
discrimination against the Roma is a self-fulfilling prophecy, which I strongly
agree with.

Imagine, if the Roma immigrants were not treated as second-class citizens,

would they still live in slums, lead a vagrant life and work as irritating
beggars? The difficulty in survival and danger of expulsion also forces many of
them to become criminals. As a result, the Roma’s poor life again reinforces
the public’s prejudice of the Roma as illegal and foreign. In this case,the
discrimination itself is a vicious cycle starting from the discrimination from
upper level.

As such, the elimination of such constitutional discrimination should also start

from the upper level. The government should improve the Roma’s living
conditions, admit their citizenship and provide work opportunities for them.
After having a higher living standard, the Roma could get rid of their image as
poor and immoral immigrants, and hence could be easier to be accepted by
the French. In this way, by attacking the discrimination in laws, the prejudice
against the Roma can be indirectly attacked also.