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This article is about the Indo-Aryan ethnic group. For the unrelated Latin ethnic groups, see Ancient Romans, Romanians or Romansh people.
The Romani people[46][47] (singular Rom, plural Roma as a noun; also known as Romanies or Roma people[dubious ]) are an ethnic group with origins in South Asia.[48][49] The Romani people are a widely dispersed ethnic group, with the largest concentrated populations in Europe and the Americas.[50][51] They are often referred to as Gypsies or Gipsies.
[edit] TerminologyRom (plural Roma) is a noun[52] which means married man or husband. Some Romanies use it as an ethnic name, while others (such as the Sinti or the Romanichals, etc.) do not use this term as a self-ascription for the entire ethnic group.[53] The term is used as a designation for the branch found in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, as well as a generic term for all the branches.[54] Romani (or Romany) can be both an adjective and a noun.[55] All Romanies use the word Romani as an adjective. For this reason, the term began to be used as a noun for the entire ethnic group.[56] Today, the term Romani is used by most organizations—including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the US Library of Congress.[57] However, some organizations use the term Roma to refer to Romani people around the world.[53] Since Roma is a noun, it is technically incorrect to be used as an adjective as in "Roma language" or "Roma diplomacy", although it is often used in this way. The correct forms would be: "Romani language" or "Romani diplomacy"[56][58] Sometimes, Rom and Romani are spelled with a double r, i.e., Rrom and Rromani, particularly in Romania in order to distinguish from the Romanian endonym (români). This is well established in Romani itself, since it represents a sound different from the one written with a single r.[57] [edit] EtymologyMost Roma refer to themselves as rom or rrom, depending on the dialect. The word means "husband", romni/rromni meaning "wife", while the unmarried are named čhavo ("boy") (pronounced [cʰaʋo]) or čhej ("girl"). There are no historical proofs to clarify the etymology of these words. More theories have been proposed:
The word Rom (plural Roma) is a noun, Romani is an adjective, while Romanes is an adverb (meaning, roughly, "in the Romani way"). The language is called the Romani language or Romanes. In the Romani language, the adjective is created by attaching suffixes to the root that express gender and number: "Romani" (f. sing.), "Romano (m. sing.) and "Romane" (m. & f. pl.). Usually in English only the feminine singular form is used, but they may also appear in the other forms.[citation needed] "Romanes" is created by attaching the suffix -es, usually employed for adverbs.[64] The use of the word Romanes in English as a noun is incorrect[65]. The English term Gypsy (or Gipsy) originates from the Greek word Αιγύπτοι (Aigyptoi), modern Greek γύφτοι (gyphtoi), in the erroneous belief that the Roma originated in Egypt, and were exiled as punishment for allegedly harboring the infant Jesus.[66] If used, this exonym should also be written with capital letter, to show that it is about an ethnic group.[67] As described in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the medieval French referred to the Roma as "egyptiens". This ethnonym is not used by the Roma to describe themselves, and is often considered pejorative (as is the term "gyp" meaning "to cheat", a reference to the suspicion the Roma engendered). However, the use of the word "Gypsy" in the English has now become so pervasive that many Roma organizations use it in their own organizational names. In North America, the word "Gypsy" is commonly used as a reference to lifestyle or fashion, and not to the Roma ethnicity. The Spanish term gitano and the French term gitan may have the same origin.[68] In much of continental Europe, Roma are known by names similar to the Hungarian cigány (pronounced [ˈtsiɡaːɲ]), which early Byzantine literature derived from the Greek ατσίγγανοι (atsinganoi, Latin adsincani), applied to Roma during Byzantine times,[69] or from the Greek term αθίγγανοι (athinganoi)[70] meaning literally 'untouchables'[citation needed], in reference to a 9th-century heretical sect that had been accused of practising magic and fortune-telling.[71] In modern Greek, aside from the singular term Rom (Ρομ), the terms gyphtoi (Greek:γύφτοι) and tsinganoi (Greek:τσιγγάνοι) are interchangeable and both are used when referring to the Roma. "Bosha" is Armenian and Georgian[citation needed] word for Roma (pl. "boshebi"). Because many Roma living in France had come via Bohemia, they were also referred to as Bohémiens.[72] This would later be adapted to describe the impoverished artistic lifestyle of Bohemianism.[citation needed] Outside Europe, Roma are referred to by more varied names, such as Kowli (کولی) in Iran and Iraq ; Lambani, Labana Lambadi, Rabari or Banjara in India; Ghajar (غجر),Salab (صلب) or Nawar (نور) in Arabic. In Arabic, these three words distinguish entertainment Roma: Ghajar or Salab, from trade Roma Nawar, Nawar is also used as a pejorative term to mean vulgar, or low in North Levantine Arabic, and are used as insults. The other term, Ghajar does not hold any pejorative connotations. They are also called tzo'anim צוענים in Hebrew (after an ancient city in Egypt and the biblical verb צען ṣā‛an, roaming). [edit] Population
1% (France 0.79, Turkey 0.99, Serbia 1.44) 2% (Spain 1.62, Slovakia 1.71, Greece 1.82, Hungary 2.02, Romania 2.46) 3% (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 2.85) 4% no country 5% (Bulgaria 4.67) Very few (0-0.5%) No official data available Worldwide there is an estimated population of at least 15 million Roma[73]. The official number of Roma people is disputed in many countries.[74] Because many Roma often refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for fear of discrimination[75], unofficial estimates are undertaken in efforts to reveal their true numbers. The largest Roma population is found in the Balkan peninsula; significant numbers also live in the Americas, the former Soviet Union, Western Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The Roma recognize divisions among themselves based in part on territorial, cultural and dialectal differences. The main branches are[76][77]:
Among Roma there are further internal differentiations, like Bashaldé; Churari; Luri; Ungaritza; Lovari (Lovara) from Hungary; Machvaya (Machavaya, Machwaya, or Macwaia) from Serbia; Romungro (Modyar or Modgar) from Hungary and neighbouring carpathian countries; Erlides (also Yerlii or Arli); Xoraxai (Horahane) from Greece/Turkey; Boyash (Lingurari, Ludar, Ludari, Rudari, or Zlătari) from Romanian/Moldovan miners; Ursari from Romanian/Moldovan bear-trainers; Argintari from silversmiths; Aurari from goldsmiths; Florari from florists; and Lăutari from singers. [edit] OriginsThe absence of a written history has meant that the origin and early history of the Roma people was long an enigma. As early as 200 years ago, cultural scholars hypothesised an Indian origin of the Roma based on linguistic evidence[80]. Genetic information confirms this. Although the Nazis claimed that the Gypsies were not Aryan,[citation needed] some members of the Gypsy Lore Society (established in 1888 in England) claimed that the Gypsies were the most ancient Aryans and "sought to protect them from mixing with non-Gypsy elements and from modernization...".[81] [edit] Linguistic evidenceUntil the mid to late eighteenth century, theories of the origin of the Roma were mostly speculative. Then in 1782, Johann Christian Christoph Rüdiger published his research that pointed out the relationship between the Romani language and Hindustani.[82] Subsequent work supported the hypothesis that Romani shared a common origin with the Indo-Aryan languages of Northern India,[83] with Romani grouping most closely with Sinhalese in a recent study.[84] The majority of historians accepted this as evidence of an Indian origin for the Roma, but some maintained that the Roma acquired the language through contact with Indian merchants.[85] [edit] Genetic evidenceFurther evidence for the Indian origin of the Roma came in the late 1990s when it was discovered that Roma populations carried large frequencies of particular Y chromosomes (inherited paternally) and mitochondrial DNA (inherited maternally) that otherwise exist only in populations from South Asia. 47.3% of Roma men carry Y chromosomes of haplogroup H-M82 which is otherwise rare outside of the Indian subcontinent.[86] Mitochondrial haplogroup M, most common in Indian subjects and rare outside Southern Asia, accounts for nearly 30% of Roma people.[86] A more detailed study of Polish Roma shows this to be of the M5 lineage, which is specific to India[87] Moreover, a form of the inherited disorder congenital myasthenia is found in Romani subjects. This form of the disorder, caused by the 1267delG mutation, is otherwise only known in subjects of Indian ancestry. This is considered to be the best evidence of the Indian ancestry of the Romanies.[88] The Roma have been described as "a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations",[89] while a number of common Mendelian disorders among Romanies from all over Europe indicates "a common origin and founder effect".[89] See also this table: [90] A study from 2001 by Gresham et al. suggests "a limited number of related founders, compatible with a small group of migrants splitting from a distinct caste or tribal group".[91] Also the study pointed out that "genetic drift and different levels and sources of admixture, appear to have played a role in the subsequent differentiation of populations".[91] The same study found that "a single lineage ... found across Romani populations, accounts for almost one-third of Romani males. A similar preservation of a highly resolved male lineage has been reported elsewhere only for Jewish priests".[91] See also the Cohen Modal Haplotype. A 2004 study by Morar et al. concluded that the Roma are "a founder population of common origins that has subsequently split into multiple socially divergent and geographically dispersed Gypsy groups".[88] The same study revealed that this population "was founded approximately 32–40 generations ago, with secondary and tertiary founder events occurring approximately 16–25 generations ago".[88] [edit] History
Linguistic and genetic evidence indicates the Roma originated from the Indian subcontinent.[92] The cause of the Roma diaspora is unknown. However, the most probable conclusion is that the Roma were part of the military in Northern India. When there were repeated raids by Mahmud of Ghazni and these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire. This occurred between 1000 and 1050 AD. This departure date is assumed because, linguistically speaking, the Romany language is a New Indo-Aryan language (NIA)--it has only two genders (masculine and feminine). Until around the year 1000, the Indo-Aryan languages, named Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA), had three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter). By the turn of the 2nd millennium they changed into the NIA phase, losing the neuter gender. Most of the neuter nouns became masculine while a few feminine, like the neuter अग्नि (agni) in the Prakrit became the feminine आग (āg) in Hindi and jag in Romany. The parallels in grammatical gender evolution between Romany and other NIA languages is proposed to prove that the change occurred in the Indian subcontinent. It is therefore not considered possible that the Romas' ancestors left India prior to 1000 AD. They then stayed in the Byzantine Empire for several hundred years. However, the Muslim expansion, mainly made by the Seljuk Turks, into the Byzantine Empire recommenced the movement of the Roma people.[93] The Banjara people, numbering around 2,274,000 in India,[94] are Gypsies[95] who claim that they, too, are descended from the Rajputs, and that many of their ancestors left India through the Himalayas and never returned. For this reason, the Banjara are considered related to the Romani people.[96]. Others suggest the Roma were originally low-caste Hindus recruited into an army of mercenaries, granted warrior caste status, and sent westward to resist Islamic military expansion.[citation needed] In either case, upon arrival, they became a distinct community. Why the Roma did not return to India, choosing instead to travel west into Europe, is an enigma, but may relate to military service under the Muslims. Contemporary scholars have suggested that one of the first written references to the Roma, under the term "Atsinganoi", (Greek), dates from the Byzantine era during a time of famine in the 9th century. In 800 AD, Saint Athanasia gave food to "foreigners called the Atsinganoi" near Thrace. Later, in 803 AD, Theophanes the Confessor wrote that Emperor Nikephoros I had the help of the "Atsinganoi" to put down a riot with their "knowledge of magic". "Atsingani" was used to refer to itinerant fortune tellers, ventriloquists and wizards who visited the Emperor Constantine IX in the year 1054.[97] The hagiographical text, The Life of St. George the Anchorite, mentions that the "Atsingani" were called on by Constantine to help rid his forests of the wild animals which were killing his livestock. They are later described as sorcerers and evildoers and accused of trying to poison the Emperor's favorite hound. In 1322 AD a Franciscan monk named Simon Simeonis described people resembling these "atsinganoi" living in Crete and in 1350 AD Ludolphus of Sudheim mentioned a similar people with a unique language whom he called Mandapolos, a word which some theorize was possibly derived from the Greek word mantes (meaning prophet or fortune teller).[98] Around 1360, an independent Romani fiefdom (called the Feudum Acinganorum) was established in Corfu and became "a settled community and an important and established part of the economy."[99] By the 14th century, the Roma had reached the Balkans; by 1424 AD, Germany; and by the 16th century, Scotland and Sweden. Some Roma migrated from Persia through North Africa, reaching the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. The two currents met in France. Roma began immigrating to the United States in colonial times, with small groups in Virginia and French Louisiana. Larger-scale immigration began in the 1860s, with groups of Romnichal from Britain. The largest number immigrated in the early 1900s, mainly from the Vlax group of Kalderash. Many Roma also settled in South America. When the Roma people arrived in Europe, curiosity was soon followed by hostility and xenophobia. Roma were enslaved for five centuries in Wallachia and Moldavia until abolition in 1856.[100] Elsewhere in Europe, they were subject to ethnic cleansing, abduction of their children, and forced labor. During World War II, the Nazis murdered 200,000 to 800,000 Roma in an attempted genocide known as the Porajmos. They were marked for extermination and sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment in concentration camps. They were often killed on sight, especially by the Einsatzgruppen (essentially mobile killing units) on the Eastern Front. In Communist Eastern Europe, Roma experienced assimilation schemes and restrictions of cultural freedom. The Romany language and Romani music were banned from public performance in Bulgaria. In Czechoslovakia, they were labeled a "socially degraded stratum," and Roma women were sterilized as part of a state policy to reduce their population. This policy was implemented with large financial incentives, threats of denying future welfare payments, with misinformation, or after administering drugs (Silverman 1995; Helsinki Watch 1991). An official inquiry from the Czech Republic, resulting in a report (December 2005), concluded that the Communist authorities had practised an assimilation policy towards Roma, which "included efforts by social services to control the birth rate in the Romani community" and that "the problem of sexual sterilisation carried out in the Czech Republic, either with improper motivation or illegally, exists" [101], with new revealed cases up until 2004, in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. [102] In the early 1990s, Germany deported tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to Eastern Europe. Sixty percent of some 100,000 Romanian nationals deported under a 1992 treaty were Roma.[citation needed] In Norway, many Roma were forcibly sterilized by the state until 1977.[103][104] In May 2008 Roma camps in Naples, Italy were attacked and set on fire by local residents.[105] In July 2008, the Italian government began fingerprinting all Roma, including children, whether or not they are Italian citizens. The government claimed fingerprinting would cut crime, avoid children being used for begging and help identify illegal immigrants for expulsion. [106] [edit] Society and culture
The traditional Roma place a high value on the extended family. Virginity is essential in unmarried women. Both men and women often marry young; there has been controversy in several countries over the Roma practice of child marriage. Roma law establishes that the man’s family must pay a bride price to the bride's parents, but only traditional families still follow this rule. Once married, the woman joins the husband's family where her main job is to tend to her husband's and her children's needs, and to take care of the in-laws as well. The power structure in the traditional Roma household has at its top the oldest man or grandfather, and men in general have more authority than women. As women get older, however, they gain respect and authority in the eyes of the community. Young wives begin gaining authority once they mother children. Roma social behaviour is strictly regulated by Hindu purity laws ("marime" or "marhime"), still respected by most Roma and among Sinti groups by the older generations. This regulation affects many aspects of life, and is applied to actions, people and things: parts of the human body are considered impure: the genital organs (because they produce emissions) as well as the rest of the lower body. Fingernails and toenails must be filed with an emery board, as cutting them with a clipper is a taboo. Clothes for the lower body, as well as the clothes of menstruating women, are washed separately. Items used for eating are also washed in a different place. Childbirth is considered impure, and must occur outside the dwelling place. The mother is considered impure for forty days after giving birth. Death is considered impure, and affects the whole family of the dead, who remain impure for a period of time. However, in contrast to the practice of cremating the dead, Roma dead must be buried.[107] Cremation and burial are both known from the time of the Rigveda, and both are widely practiced in Hinduism today (although the tendency for higher caste groups is to burn, for lower caste groups in South India to bury their dead)[108]. Some animals are also considered impure, for instance cats because they lick themselves[109] and mix the impure outside with their pure inside[citation needed]. [edit] ReligionThe Roma people still in India, by the largest numbers than elsewhere, maintain the Hindu religion.[110] In stark contrast those who left the subcontinent have converted to Christianity or Islam. These migrant Roma populations have usually adopted the dominant religion of the host country while often preserving aspects of their particular belief systems and indigenous religion and worship. Most Eastern European Roma are Catholic, Orthodox Christian or Muslim. Those in western Europe and the United States are mostly Roman Catholic or Protestant. In Turkey, Egypt, and the southern Balkans, the Roma are split into Christian and Muslim populations. In addition, Evangelical Romany churches exist today in every country where Roma are settled.[citation needed] The movement is particularly strong in France and Spain; there are more than one thousand Roma churches (known as Filadelfia Evangelical Church) in Spain, with almost one hundred in Madrid alone. In Germany, the most numerous group is that of Polish Roma, having their main church in Mannheim. Other important and numerous Romany assemblies exist in Los Angeles, California; Houston, Texas; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Mexico City. Some groups in Romania and Chile have joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In the Balkans, the Roma of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania have been particularly active in Islamic mystical brotherhoods (Sufism). Muslim Roma immigrants to western Europe and America have brought these traditions with them.[citation needed] [edit] Music
Roma music plays an important role in Eastern European countries such as Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Vardar Macedonia), Albania, Hungary, Russia, and Romania, and the style and performance practices of Roma musicians have influenced European classical composers such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. The lăutari who perform at traditional Romanian weddings are virtually all Roma. Probably the most internationally prominent contemporary performers in the lăutar tradition are Taraful Haiducilor. Bulgaria's popular "wedding music," too, is almost exclusively performed by Roma musicians such as Ivo Papasov, a virtuoso clarinetist closely associated with this genre and Bulgarian pop-folk singer Azis. Many famous classical musicians, such as the Hungarian pianist Georges Cziffra, are Roma, as are many prominent performers of manele. Zdob şi Zdub, one of the most prominent rock bands in Moldova, although not Roma themselves, draw heavily on Roma music, as do Spitalul de Urgenţă in Romania, Goran Bregović in Serbia, Darko Rundek in Croatia, Beirut and Gogol Bordello in the United States. Another tradition of Roma music is the genre of the Gypsy brass band, with such notable practitioners as Boban Marković of Serbia, and the brass lăutari groups Fanfare Ciocărlia and Fanfare din Cozmesti of Romania. The distinctive sound of Roma music has also strongly influenced bolero, jazz, and flamenco (especially cante jondo) in Europe. European-style Gypsy jazz is still widely practised among the original creators (the Roma People); one who acknowledged this artistic debt was guitarist Django Reinhardt. Contemporary artists in this tradition known internationally include Stochelo Rosenberg, Biréli Lagrène, Jimmy Rosenberg, and Tchavolo Schmitt. The Roma of Turkey have achieved musical acclaim from national and local audiences. Local performers usually perform for special holidays. Their music is usually performed on instruments such as the darbuka and gırnata. A number of nationwide best seller performers are said to be of Roma origin.[citation needed] [edit] LanguageMost Roma speak one of several dialects of Romany[111], an Indo-Aryan language. They also will often speak the languages of the countries they live in. Typically, they also incorporate loanwords and calques into Romani from the languages of those countries, especially words for terms that the Romani language does not have. Most of the Ciganos of Portugal, the Gitanos of Spain and the Romnichal of the UK, have lost their knowledge of pure Romani, and respectively speak the patois languages Caló[112] and Angloromany. Roma of the Iberian Peninsula, however, mostly speak the languages of their countries. There are independent groups currently working toward standardizing the language, including groups in Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, the USA, and Sweden. Romany is not currently spoken in India.[citation needed] [edit] Persecutions[edit] Historical persecutionThe first and one of the most enduring persecutions against the Roma people was the enslaving of the Roma who arrived on the territory of the historical Romanian states of Wallachia and Moldavia, which lasted from the 14th century until the second half of the 19th century. Legislation decreed that all the Roma living in these states, as well as any others who would immigrate there, were slaves.[113] The arrival of some branches of the Roma people in Western Europe in the 15th century was precipitated by the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Although the Roma themselves were refugees from the conflicts in southeastern Europe, they were mistaken by the local population in the West, because of their foreign appearance, as part of the Ottoman invasion (the German Reichstags at Landau and Freiburg in 1496-1498 declared the Roma as spies of the Turks). In Western Europe, this resulted in a violent history of persecution and attempts of ethnic cleansing until the modern era. As time passed, other accusations were added against local Roma (accusations specific to this area, against non-assimilated minorities), like that of bringing the plague, usually sharing their burden together with the local Jews.[114] Later in the 19th century, Roma immigration was forbidden on a racial basis in areas outside Europe, mostly in the English speaking world (in 1885 the United States outlawed the entry of the Roma) and also in some South American countries (in 1880 Argentina adopted a similar policy).[114] [edit] Holocaust
The persecution of the Roma reached a peak during World War II in the Porajmos, the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In 1935, the Nuremberg laws stripped the Roma people living in Nazi Germany of their citizenship, after which they were subjected to violence, imprisonment in concentration camps and later genocide in extermination camps. The policy was extended in areas occupied by the Nazis during the war, and it was also applied by their allies, notably the Independent State of Croatia, Romania and Hungary. Because no accurate pre-war census figures exist for the Roma, it is impossible to accurately assess the actual number of victims. Ian Hancock, director of the Program of Romani Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, proposes a figure of up to a million and a half, while an estimate of between 220,000 and 500,000 was made by the late Sybil Milton, formerly senior historian of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.[115]. In Central Europe, the extermination in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was so thorough that the Bohemian Romany language became totally extinct. [edit] AssimilationIn the Habsburg Monarchy under Maria Theresia (1740-1780), a series of decrees tried to force the Roma to sedentarize, removed rights to horse and wagon ownership (1754), renamed them as "New Citizens" and forced Roma boys into military service if they had no trade (1761), forced them to register with the local authorities (1767), and prohibited marriage between Roma (1773). Her successor Josef II prohibited the wearing of traditional Roma clothing and the use of the Romany language, punishable by flogging.[116] In Spain, attempts to assimilate the Gitanos were under way as early as 1619, when Gitanos were forcibly sedentarized, the use of the Romany language was prohibited, Gitano men and women were sent to separate workhouses and their children sent to orphanages. Similar prohibitions took place in later in 1783 under King Charles III, who prohibited the nomadic lifestyle, the use of the Calo language, Romani clothing, their trade in horses and other itinerant trades. Ultimately these measures failed, as the rest of the population rejected the integration of the Gitanos.[116][117] Other examples of forced assimilation include Norway, where a law was passed in 1896 permitting the state to remove children from their parents and place them in state institutions[118]. This resulted in some 1,500 Roma children being taken from their parents in the 20th century[119]. [edit] Contemporary issues
[edit] Central and Eastern EuropeThe practice of placing Roma students in segregated schools or classes remains widespread in countries across Central and Eastern Europe. In Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, many Roma children have been channeled into all-Roma schools that offer inferior quality education and are sometimes in poor physical condition, or into segregated all-Roma or predominantly Roma classes within mixed schools.[120] In Hungary and Bulgaria, many Roma children are sent to classes for pupils with learning disabilities, regardless of whether such classes are appropriate for the children in question or not. In Bulgaria, they are also sent to so-called "delinquent schools", where a variety of human rights abuses take place.[120] Despite the low birth rate in the country, Bulgaria's Health Ministry was considering a law aimed at lowering the birth rate of certain minority groups, particularly the Roma, due to the high mortality rate among Roma families, which are typically large. This was later abandoned due to conflict with EU law and the Bulgarian constitution.[121] Roma in European population centers are often accused of crimes such as pickpocketing. This is a regular justification for anti-Ziganist persecution. In 1899, the Nachrichtendienst in Bezug auf die Zigeuner ("Intelligence Service Regarding the Gypsies") was set up in Munich under the direction of Alfred Dillmann, cataloguing data on all Roma individuals throughout the German lands. It did not officially close down until 1970. The results were published in 1905 in Dillmann’s Zigeuner-Buch [122], that was used in the next years as justification for the Porajmos. It described the Roma people as a "plague" and a "menace", but almost exclusively presented as Gypsy crime trespassing and the theft of food. A UN study[123] found that Roma in Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria are arrested for robbery at a much higher rate than other groups. Amnesty International[124] and Roma groups such as the Union Romani blame widespread police and government racism and persecution.[125] In July 2008, a Business Week feature found the region's Roma population to be a "missed economic opportunity."[126] [edit] ItalyThe country is home to about 150,000, who live mainly in squalid conditions on the outskirts of major cities such as Rome, Milan and Naples. They amount to less than 0.3 per cent of the population, one of the lowest proportions in Europe. In general, the ethnic group lives apart and is often blamed for petty theft and burglaries.[127] On July 3, 2008 it was announced that Italy had started fingerprinting their Roma populations, despite accusations of racism by human rights advocates and international organizations. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told parliament the move was needed to fight crime and identify illegal immigrants for expulsion, but also to improve the lives of those legally living in the makeshift, often unsanitary camps.[128] On July 19, 2008 two Roma girls drowned off Torregaveta, west of Naples. Local newspapers reported that sunbathers continued as normal with a day at the beach despite the bodies of the two girls being laid out on the sand nearby for an hour. [129] Hostility to the Roma has been growing in recent years, and according to Enzo Esposito of Opera Nomadi, Italy's largest Roma organisation, the events on the beach "showed a terrible lack of sensitivity and respect."[130] On September 4, 2008 the European Commission said Italy's census of illegal gypsy camps does not discriminate against the Roma community. They said the census is in line with European Union law. An analysis of an Italian report on the census showed it did not seek "data based on ethnic origin or religion," said Michele Cercone, spokesman for European Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot. The controversial fingerprinting programme has the sole aim of "identifying persons who cannot be identified in any other way," he said. The fingerprinting of minors was only being carried out "in strictly necessary cases and as the ultimate possibility of identification," Cercone said. [131] [132] [edit] United KingdomIn the UK, "travellers" (referring to Irish Travellers and New Age Travellers as well as Roma) became a 2005 general election issue, with the leader of the Conservative Party promising to review the Human Rights Act 1998. This law, which absorbs the European Convention on Human Rights into UK primary legislation, is seen by some to permit the granting of retrospective planning permission. Severe population pressures and the paucity of greenfield sites have led to travellers purchasing land and setting up residential settlements very quickly, thus subverting the planning restrictions[citation needed]. Travellers argued in response that thousands of retrospective planning permissions are granted in Britain in cases involving non-Roma applicants each year and that statistics showed that 90% of planning applications by Roma and travellers were initially refused by local councils, compared with a national average of 20% for other applicants, disproving claims of preferential treatment favouring Roma.[133] They also argued that the root of the problem was that many traditional stopping-places had been barricaded off and that legislation passed by the previous Conservative government had effectively criminalised their community, for example by removing local authorities’ responsibility to provide sites, thus leaving the travellers with no option but to purchase unregistered new sites themselves.[134] [edit] DenmarkIn Denmark, there was much controversy when the city of Helsingør decided to put all Roma students in special classes in its public schools. The classes were later abandoned after it was determined that they were discriminatory and the Roma were put back in regular classes.[135] [edit] United StatesLaw enforcement agencies in the United States hold regular conferences [136] on the Roma and similar nomadic groups. It is common to refer to the operators of certain types of travelling con artists [137] and fortune-telling [138] businesses as "Gypsies," although many are Irish Travellers or not members of any particular nomadic ethnic group.[citation needed] [edit] Roma people by geographic area[edit] Central and Eastern Europe
A significant proportion of the world's Roma live in Central and Eastern Europe, often in squatter communities with very high unemployment, while only some are fully integrated in the society. However, in some cases—notably the Kalderash clan in Romania, who work as traditional coppersmiths—they have prospered. Some Roma families choose to immigrate to Western Europe now that many of the former Communist countries like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria have entered the European Union and free travel is permitted. During the 1970s and 1980s many Roma from former Yugoslavia migrated to Western European countries, especially to Austria, Germany and Sweden. The current and historical situation of Roma in the region differs from country to country. [edit] HungaryThe number of Roma people in Hungary is disputed. In the 2001 census only 190,000 people called themselves Roma, but sociological estimates give much higher numbers (about 5%-10% of the total population). Since World War II, the number of Roma has increased rapidly, multiplying sevenfold in the last century[citation needed]. Today every fifth or sixth newborn is Roma[citation needed]. Estimates based on current demographic trends project that in 2050, 20.9% of the population (1.64 million people) will be Roma.[139] [edit] TurkeyRoma in Turkey are known as Chingene, Chingen or Chingan (Mostly), Chingit (West Black Sea region), Dom (East Anatolia), Posha (East Anatolia), Abdal (Kahramanmaraş), Roman (Izmir) [140]. Estimates of the population vary from 300.000 to 5 million, dispersed all across the country.[3] They have integrated fully to the ethnic make up of the country, and in later years have started to recognize, and cherish their Roma background as well.[141] Blacksmithing and other handicrafts are the Roma's specialities. 
[edit] SpainRoma in Spain are generally known as Gitanos and tend to speak Caló which is basically Andalusian Spanish with a large number of Romany loanwords.[142] Estimates of the Spanish Gitano population range between 600,000 and 800,000 with the Spanish government estimating between 650,000 and 700,000. [143] Semi-nomadic Quinqui consider themselves apart from the Gitanos. [edit] PortugalThe Roma in Portugal are known as Ciganos, and their presence goes back to the second half of the 15th century. Early on, due to their socio-cultural difference and nomadic style of live, the Ciganos were the object of fierce discrimination and persecution.[144] The number of Ciganos in Portugal is difficult to estimate, since there are no official statistics about race or ethnic categories. According to data from Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance[145] there are about 40,000 to 50,000 spread all over the country.[146] The majority of the Ciganos do not have today a nomad style of life, rather concentrating themselves in the most important urban centers. This population is characterised by very low levels of educational qualification, social exclusion and residential and housing difficulties (many living in degraded ghettos). However, from the late 1990s to the 2000s, major public housing (bairros sociais) policies were targeted at the Portuguese Roma people.[147][148] The |
