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Back to index of Nerve 12 - Summer 2008
Call Mr President...
By Leo Singer
Marek Schuster enjoys rolling his own cigarettes, chill out at home and receive visitors from his large family. The DVD player in his dining room shows clips from passionate musicals with typical Gypsy music and dance. Ludo - his two month old fifth child - likes listening to it and falls asleep immediately. Yes, Marek's ethnic origin is Roma and he moved to Liverpool from Slovakia.
Beginnings
I come from the East of Slovakia, from a small town. I was unemployed and so were my parents. My mother was sacked from a textile factory where she had been working for whole her life. We lived in a small apartment on a housing estate. We were five family members living from 10,000 Slovakian crowns and it was very hard to survive.
I left Slovakia in 1998 and asked for asylum in the UK. In 2000 I was deported back to Slovakia and my pregnant partner stayed here. I got twelve orders to leave before I finally signed my agreement. I was locked in a detention centre for two months before I got deported. My partner was Czech and we had two children. So she came back to Czech Republic and I went to meet her there.
Immediately after Slovakia joined the EU in 2004 I moved with my family back to England. The first six months were really terrible. As a migrant from a new EU country, I wasn't an asylum seeker anymore. But nevertheless I was without a good job and without any benefits. It was me, my wife and our three children. I worked for an agency but it was bad. One week work, two weeks off. Again and again. And I had to pay the rent for our two bed-room flat. We wouldn't be able to survive without borrowing money from family and friends!
Work
They call me Mr. President at my job. It's because my surname is Schuster, the same as the surname of a former Slovakian president. I work in a huge warehouse in Warrington. It is a sorting and distribution centre for clothes for Marks & Spencer shops in the whole North of England. I was the first East European worker employed at Staffline agency. And we were all Roma men. We worked hard, very hard and the bosses got used to it.
Then we suddenly realised: why is all that? I noticed that the tempo of work of a scouse colleague was slower than mine but he might get a better pay. At that moment we changed our behaviour and we became 'bad' to the company. We were arguing with them, refusing overtimes and I remember how my cousin once threw a rack after the supervisor. And you know what? We gained their respect! They stopped treating us like shit. My salary is £5.80 an hour and an overtime is £8.20. Of course it is not much but the work is not hard. And I learned from scousers how to pretend that I work and when I can find some free time to have my cigarette.
There are other agencies where the conditions of people from the east are really horrible. For example my nephew and his wife used to work in a factory producing salads. The agency paid them the minimum wage and their overtime was just over £6. They were forced to work 13-14 hours a day. They didn't know how long their working time actually was. On top of that the agencies charge for finding the job for you. I heard that some workers pay about £400-500 to a manager for getting a job! These agencies operate their offices in Slovakia and they 'send' workers to England where they are picked up by people from other agencies who charge you right in the airport.
Community?
Community? Why community? I don't need any community. My family, this is my community. And my mates and colleagues from my work too. I go to pub with them sometimes. So I really don't need to meet with other people just because they are Roma like me. I understand that some people need to meet other people who speak the same language and feel better with them but I am not like that. But one of my colleagues is very active and tries to set up a Roma community in Kensington.
I am only worried about young generation. Drugs arrived to young Roma in Liverpool. I am afraid about my children and I think that the youth needs some community venues instead of taking drugs. My nephew was actually involved in a Roma community space in Toxteth. It was illegal and closed by police soon. This was wrong because young people liked that place and could play games there.
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