German Officials Perplexed About New Gypsy Arrivals
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Berlin authorities are puzzled. A group of Roma families from Romania have arrived and appear intent on staying, despite only having limited tourist visas. The conundrum could be a foretaste of immigration riddles to come.
"It's going good here," said a young Roma woman to SPIEGEL ONLINE earlier this week, pushing a stroller through Spandau. She wore an ankle-length dress, a faded sports jacket, slippers and a black headscarf.
How long might she stay? She shrugged her shoulders. Why did she come to Germany? She moved her hand to her mouth to indicate hunger. Then she asked for money, and pushed her stroller, containing a small boy, in the direction of a subway station.
For over two weeks a group of some 80 Roma has befuddled Berlin authorities by settling in a park, an artists' squat, a Catholic church and now public housing in Spandau. The Romanian gypsies have asked for jobs and asylum. But no city department so far has taken responsibility for them, and one Green politician in Berlin, Volker Ratzmann, has called the official confusion "an embarrassing ping-pong game between the (Berlin) Senate and local districts."
The Romas' public housing home in Spandau is little more than a stop-gap measure. Because Romania is part of the European Union, the immigrants have little chance of winning asylum. But because Germany has not yet completely opened its borders to all EU members, the Roma are in Germany on 90-day tourist visas and cannot stay indefinitely. Borderless travel, though, also means that it isn't entirely clear when they entered the country.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/...628530,00.html
