Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Interaction, migration and change
From East to West: The Roma migration from Slovakia 201 they are not able to save up to pay for it and they get into debts either with Roma usurers or with pawnshops, which levy interest of at least 17% a month, and thus they wind up in a chronic dependency. Many Roma families resolve the decrease in their income by selling flats and withdrawing "back” to the country settlements where their relatives live, where they live in illegal but, from the operational point of view, cheaper shacks.12 If, in Slovakia, the usury interest amounts from 17% to 50%, in the Czech lands, specifically in Ústí nad Labern, they amount to 100%. Our researches show that the anonymous urban milieu makes possible the increasing of interest to exorbitant amounts. At the start of the new millennium, the phenomenon of usury became a serious social problem not only in Slovakia, but also in the Czech Republic.13 In 2002 in the Czech Republic, first reports began to reach the public showing that the problem of "usury” was not only an intra-community Roma issue.14 In several Czech districts, private non-Roma money lenders appeared, (for example, the company "Past Finance” in Hodonin), which began to provide loans with interest rates as high as 130%. The loan conditions were never transparent. In relation to this, it is necessary to touch upon the fact that in the Czech Republic, specifically in Ústí nad Labern and Ostrava, the fight against usury is successfully being waged with the aid of state organs working in criminal proceedings despite the difficulty of gaining testimonies of eyewitnesses. This is because the victims of usury are, namely, drastically frightened, and, therefore, they fear for their own safety and the course and speed of the proceedings. The problem of usury in the Czech Republic has been followed long-term and investigation of the individual cases is supported by the association “People in Need” and the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) in Prague.15 The attempt developed by the UNHCR in Prague to prevent the development of new victims of usury is interesting. It involves a project known as the Social Emergency Fund, which was begun in June 2001 in two towns afflicted most by usury, specifically Ústí nad Labern and Ostrava. The project was founded on the
