Toronto, minorities and Roma Community Centre

After arriving in Canada, I was absolutely amazed as to how well minorities have been integrated into the community, without losing their own cultural identity. When I first heard that Toronto is a multicultural city, I replied – “Well, so is London”. However, I later discovered that in Toronto, people are keener to keep their family values alive, to continue speaking their language on a regular basis and to promote their culture, food, music etc. On the other hand, in London, I think that people are more a product of British citizenship plus own ethnicity, while in Toronto, people from minorities identify more with their ethnic background than they do with the Canadian culture or the Canadian citizenship.

 There are many organizations dealing with ethnic minorities. These organizations are celebrating minorities by creating events, music festivals or simply organizing programs that would help people from minorities to integrate better into the Canadian society.

As I am a Romanian, I was very interested in finding more about the Romanian community. However, to my disappointment, it turned out that as many of the Romanians are integrated very well here, there aren’t many Romanian organizations that promote the Romanian culture, as integrated Romanians are not keen in expressing their culture through a big event/festival. They would rather celebrate their customs within their families.

During my time in Canada, I have been in touch with a Romanian family that was kind enough to show me Toronto and to teach me more about this city. After expressing to them my disappointment with the nonexistent Romanian community, they explained to me that many of the Romanians that came here wanted at first to find a job, a house and to integrate within the society rather than being part of a community. Apparently, in their opinion, the ones that are being part of an organization or a community (defined as an institution, not as people with common interests living in a particular area) are usually the ones that were not able to integrate very well in the society, and this is why they might seek help in first place at the Romanian Organizations that are relatively active.

As there are not many Romanian organizations ( or the ones that exist are not really extensive or particularly active), I decided to have a look at organizations that are promoting and taking care of other minorities.

One minority that came to my attention is the Roma minority, better known as gypsies. As Roma people are still facing major racism and were not able to fully integrate in any European country, I was curious to see how the Romani people are integrating here, in Toronto. 

As I was searching on Google about the Roma Diasporas in Toronto, I came across an organization called the Roma Community Centre -  http://www.romatoronto.org/ -  whose aim is to assist Roma refugees from different countries (especially those from the former Soviet Bloc) to integrate more easily into the Canadian society and to raise awareness about the issues that are making many Roma people seek asylum in Canada. Moreover, the Roma Community Centre (better known as RCC) is trying to change some preconceptions that people have towards Roma people through educational programs. The Centre opened in September, 1997 and operates in general in the Greater Toronto area. 

Here is a summary of RCC and its activities: 

-    RCC provides settlement services ( information, support, advice, translation services and legal advice) to Roma immigrants in partnership with Culture Link

-    RCC works with Metro Shelters Committee who houses refugees when they arrive in Toronto

-    RCC operates a Public Education and Awareness Program whose role is to destroy stereotypes behind the term gypsy and replace it with a genuine understanding of the Roma people as an ethnic minority. The way RCC is doing this is by creating an educational program that is taught in schools, high schools and universities. By presenting an unbiased image of who the Roma people are, their history and culture as well as showing the discrimination that they face in their home countries, Canadian public will learn to value this minority in the Canadian society.  

The only down side of this whole organization is that sadly, because there is no funding in this area, the social settlement operation requires volunteers or help from social agencies. However, the Public Education and Awareness Program is supported by a grant from Heritage Canada. Another down side it that the only way one could contact this organization is by email, as they do not have yet a permanent office in Toronto. However, establishing a Social Centre and a permanent office is one of the immediate goals of RCC. Other goals include – expanding the existing programs, to start a radio program for Roma people in English and Romani (which I think would make Roma people exercise their English as well as maintain a connection with their mother tongue) as well as creating textbooks about Roma people with Canadian content.

I find their website (which, since I done my research changed its layout and became more modern and easy to explore) – very interesting and very organized. On their webpage, one can find the history of the organization, the educational part (lectures and presentations) as well as different resources (books, periodicals, poetry books) that are promoting the Romani culture and history in a positive and very authentic way.

The most interesting part of their website I find to be the RCC Facts Sheets, where one can learn the myths and facts about the Roma people. The reason why I like this section is because it destroys the stereotypes that surrounds this minority ( such as “Roma are lazy and unwilling to work” ; “Roma are dirty and do not wash often”; “Roma have the ability to do magic” or that “Roma are Rumanians and that is where the words Roma and Romani come from”) and it gives unbiased facts of who the Roma people actually are.

After exploring this website, I would definitely recommend to the future students participating in this exchange to volunteer with this organization and help them change the perceptions that some Torontonians have towards Roma people as well as help the organization  to promote the culture of this minority better. Moreover, the volunteers could also help the organization to plan an event as the ones they did in the past. For years, the organization planned and threw Christmas parties, New Year parties, art projects and many other events for its members, but they stopped doing this in 2007, probably because of the lack of money and volunteers.

Ultimately, the website has changed my views towards this minority and contributed to my learning and understanding of the Roma people. In Romania , Roma people are not really integrated within the society, because of their nomadic background and customs, but also because Romanians are experiencing xenophobic reactions towards this minority. On the other hand, Roma people were not able to integrate well with other European countries that ought to be more open minded giver their membership of the E.U.  . According to the Copenhagen Criteria established by the European Council, all member states should have among other criterias “respect for and protection of minorities”. Despite this, even though this is a must for all the E.U. countries, in the case of Roma minorities is barely coming through.

However, this issue requires more depth and thought than I can go into here. In the end, I am very happy to know that the Roma minority is received and promoted better in Toronto that it is in Europe and it makes sense since Toronto is seen as the home of a “cultural mosaic environment”, while other cities in Europe, such as Bucharest, Paris, and even London are, in a way, transforming the people from different minorities into Hybrids citizens of two cultures, the ones of the home country and the host country. 

Jack Fellows - The Gypsies

Paul Hitter -  We like gipsy music but we don't like gipsies