Deporting undesirables

[oolon]

Think about it; Roma compose less than 0.8% of France's population at any one time, yet they perpetrate over 20% of the crime.

However what percentage of the Roma people are these criminals? I would reckon that it is much less than 50% that means we are labelling more than innocent people as criminals than guilty. Like it or not these people have a right to be there, perhaps France should have thought about it before it agreed to EU enlargement.

[CaptainCrash]

It's not racism, but it is profiling.

Think about it; Roma compose less than 0.8% of France's population at any one time, yet they perpetrate over 20% of the crime. This makes them overwhelmingly more likely to be a criminal than any other easily identifiable group. It would be almost irresponsible not to take those figures into account.

In London in the period 2009-2010, 69% of prosecutions for gun crime were against black people, who make up 12% of the city's population.

To use your logic, that means a black person is "more likely to be a gunman", therefore police should start kicking down doors based on the occupant's skin colour.

[usxhe190]

How did profiling become Roma deportation? Only in France.

[cookie365]

Are they actually in France legally or illegally?

If illegally then it's a non story.

If legally then it won't happen.

[Brucelles]

In London in the period 2009-2010, 69% of prosecutions for gun crime were against black people, who make up 12% of the city's population.

To use your logic, that means a black person is "more likely to be a gunman", therefore police should start kicking down doors based on the occupant's skin colour.

As the French keep pointing out, the people being deported are in France illegally, and without visible means of support. The deportation is perfectly legal. The only issue is that the police check the papers of Roma more often than they do of, say, me because the Roma are statistically more likely to commit crimes.

Bear in mind that there are half a million Roma living legally in France who rarely cause any trouble, it is only the newly arrived, illegally over-staying, criminal record-breaking groups in their newly created camps outside the big cities that are seen to be the cause of the new crime wave and are being deported, if found to be here illegally.

[Lucio]

As the French keep pointing out, the people being deported are in France illegally, and without visible means of support. The deportation is perfectly legal. The only issue is that the police check the papers of Roma more often than they do of, say, me because the Roma are statistically more likely to commit crimes.

Bear in mind that there are half a million Roma living legally in France who rarely cause any trouble, it is only the newly arrived, illegally over-staying, criminal record-breaking groups in their newly created camps outside the big cities that are seen to be the cause of the new crime wave and are being deported, if found to be here illegally.

And it's that racial profiling that comes across as them being racist. They're making a specific policy to target one ethnic group and it has shades of "ethnic cleansing" that in other countries leads to lots of people being rounded up and shot.

[TooNice]

And it's that racial profiling that comes across as them being racist.

I disagree that profiling on statistics is by itself racist. The risk I would be concerned with, is an element of self-fulfilling prophecy: they start checking Roma, and subsequently find more illegals in absolute terms than those from other nationalities. However, if viewed in percentage terms, then the picture should be less skewed. If only 2% of Roma are there illegally then it will become harder to justify stopping 98 legals just to catch 2 illegals (bad use of resources). Should they carry on checking 100 Roma per day while as an example, only checking 20 Moroccans per day even after finding out that every other Moroccans checked are staying illegally, then the race card might be better justified.

Fair enough if you are generally against profiling (I am not too sure where I stand on this actually), but I don't think that profiling by nationality or even ethnicity as being any worse than profiling by gender, age, height etc. Yes, it would suck to be inconvenienced just for being in a group that is statistically more likely to cause trouble, but short of unconditionally opening every borders in the world, it is very much the right of every countries to make checks in how they deem most efficient. And I dare say that there is a world of difference between deporting someone and shooting them.

To me, it's a non story. It's the same here and most places (excluding countries where you may be able to bribe authorities perhaps): get caught overstaying/working illegally, get deported. What the public thinks is largely irrelevant too in my opinion.