Europe, the home of the Eiffel tower, The Mona Lisa, the Sixteenth Chapel and the Red Light district. We think of Europe as home to the French, the Spanish, and the Germans. What we tend to forget is that Europe also has minorities and the biggest one is the Romani, Roma or gypsies.
The Romani people were originally from northern India and came to Europe sometime between the eight and tenth century C.E. The Romani’s are a nomadic people and today about 10 to 12 million Romani’s live in Europe. This makes the Romani people the largest ethnic minority in Europe. The Romani’s are found all over Europe but for the most part in Eastern and central regions.
The Romani’s have often been stereotyped as fortunetellers, horsemen and nomads with no respect for the law. In Europe they are yet again facing discrimination and growing prejudice after France’s latest deportation of the Romani’s. Discrimination towards the Romani’s is nothing new in the history of Europe. Laws opposed the Romani’s can be traced all the way back to the 1400s and during World War II almost half a million Romani’s lost their lives in concentration camps. This part of World War II history is often forgotten and is rarely mentioned. It was not until 1979 that the Western German Federal Parliament identified the Nazi killings of the Roma and opened up for compensation for loss and suffering due to the War, most of whom however, had already died.
The Romani’s have kept their culture and their unique language over the years they have lived in Europe. We can see traces of their dance traditions in other cultures around Europe. The flamenco today often associated with Spain but it was traditionally a Romani’s tradition. Even if the Romani’s have been part of the European culture for quite some time the majority of them never assimilated to the European culture. Marriage between a Romani’s and a European is been frowned upon. Mixed marriages between Romani’s and other ethnicity's are rare and therefore marital assimilation has not taken place to any great extent. It seems that the Romani’s themselves have discouraged marriages outside the group and this could be one of the reasons the Romani’s are not being assimilated with the dominant group of society. They are keeping their status as an minority group.
Assimilation in the eyes of the European nations has not taken place with in the Romani group. Norway is one of the European nations that have tried to forcefully assimilate the Romani’s by taking children away from they parents and placing them in foster care. Hoping that this way the children would be assimilated to the main culture in Norway. Guess what? It didn’t work.
Today many countries are part of The European Union (EU). The union is an economic and political union between 27 countries in Europe. One of the benefits of this Union is that people within the Union can move freely, there are no borders. The Romani people are doing just that. They are moving around. Traditionally many of them were travelers and they moved around in Europe looking for work. Because of this, some of them don’t have citizenship and it’s also hard to know exactly how many people are Romani’s. They often don’t apply to census and children are rarely a part of the school system. Some of the Romani’s have assimilated and are reluctant to even admit that they are Romani’s. The prejudice and racism against this group has been vast and is still going on. France just recently deported and ruined several Romani camps under the “excuse” that the Romani’s didn’t have work and could not support themselves. Therefore according to EU directives they were to be shipped back to their countries. Several other countries have done this the last year or so but France has taken this discrimination to a new level. Leaders in Europe have compared France to the Nazis and even the Pope has spoke out against this practice. But even so, the Romani’s are being deported back to Romania or Bulgaria where most of them originated.
On the other hand, one could see how France in the hard financial times doesn’t want to take responsibility for a minority like this. It seems hard to get the Romani’s to conform to society and they are often considered a drain on the welfare system. Spain is used as an example of how a nation can and should take care of the Romani’s. Today Spain has about one million Romani’s living within their borders. Almost 75 percent of them have some form of steady income. Spain has taken measures like adjusting social services and having inclusion programs to try to assimilate the Romani’s. Today the Roman’s have access to public housing and financial aid with the condition of sending their children to school and health care facilities. Spain now sees that almost every Romani child starts elementary school, but only 30 percent graduate. This is actually a high number for this ethnicity in Europe.
I highly doubt that any other minority group in Europe would receive the treatment the Romani’s are getting. The blame for this might not only be placed on the European countries. The Romani’s themselves have in many ways not conformed to the social rules and the structure they now are a part off. Thereby creating some of the problems themselves. It would make it easier for them if they conformed somewhat to the structure of the societies they find themselves in.
Even so, the prejudice and racism the Romani’s have and are experiencing will most likely not end any day soon. Because the truth is that people in Europe for most the part don’t care about this group. One would think that in 2010 we should know better, but then again the history of the hatred toward this ethnicity is so founded in people’s mentality that it will not change any time soon. Definitively not now with the hard financial times and the need for a scapegoat. Who better than the Romani’s?
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