UPROOTED
Children’s
Perspectives on Europe’s Repatriation Policies
A film by the Romedia Foundation (Hungary) – 2011
Uprooted is a documentary about Europe’s repatriation policies as seen through the eyes of the youths directly affected. Going back and forth between Germany and Kosovo, the film brings the voice of Roma youths into the debate on immigration in Europe and is a powerful testimony to the potential success of multiculturalism in Germany.
In October 2010, Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed". From the perspective of children like Anita, Sedat and Nasmija, born and raised in Germany by parents who had fled war-torn Kosovo at the beginning of the 1990s, the statement makes no sense. For them, there is no question: they are German.
Tens of thousands of Kosovo Roma fled the Yugoslav Wars throughout the 1990s and many remain trapped in refugee camps in the Balkan region and inside Kosovo. But despite grave safety concerns, urope’s youngest state has now been proclaimed ’safe’ for the return of those who had fled.
Fifteen months ago, Sedat and Nasmija were deported from Germany. They now live in inhuman conditions in a refugee camp in Kosovo. Having been accustomed to afternoons spent doing their homework, playing video games and volunteering at the local fire station in their town near Hanover, the boys now collect scrap iron to survive.
The film was produced in cooperation of the Roma Center Göttingen e.V. and the campaign "alle bleiben!" (German for: everyone stays!). Just now there is again a team of the Roma Center in Kosovo for further research. They try to find and visit the deported Roma there to talk to them about their experiences and situation.
Based on the report by UNICEF "Integration subject to Conditions" by Verena Knaus and Peter Widmann and the report by the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society “The Position of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in Kosovo”.