Roma are a subgroup of the Romani people[1][2] (also known as Gypsies), who live primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in the Balkans and Western Anatolia, and as recent immigrants in Western Europe and the Americas. Roma is also used as a synonym for the whole Romani people.
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Roma often live in depressed squatter communities with very high unemployment, while only some are fully integrated in the society. However, in some cases—notably the Kalderash group in Romania, who work as traditional coppersmiths—they have prospered.
Many former Eastern bloc countries have substantial populations of Roma. The level of integration of Roma into society remains limited. In these countries, they usually remain on the margins of society, living in isolated ghetto-like settlements (see e.g. Chánov). Only a small fraction of Romani children graduate from secondary schools, although during the Communist regime, at least some of Warsaw Pact countries forced all children to attend school, and provided them, like other citizens, with all required basics such as textbooks and the compulsory uniform. Many Roma have faced discrimination and prejudice from both private groups and national Governments.
In 2004, Lívia Járóka of Hungary became the current Roma Members of the European Parliament. The first Romani MEP was Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia of Spain.
Seven former Communist Central European and Southeastern European states launched the Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative in 2005, a ten year program whose aim is to improve the socio-economic conditions and status of the Romani minority.
Romani people constitute the second largest minority and third largest ethnic group (after Bulgarians and Turks) in Bulgaria. According to the 2001 census, there were 370,908 Roma in Bulgaria, equivalent to 4.7% of the country's total population.[3]
Noted Bulgarian Roma include musicians Azis, Sofi Marinova and Ivo Papazov and politician Toma Tomov.
There were between 300,000 and 350,000 Roma in Greece, according to Greek Helsinki Monitor in 1999. Government estimates range between 200,000 and 300,000. The Roma minority comprise around 3% of the total Greek population.
According to the last census from 2002, there were 53,879 ethnic Roma in the Republic of Macedonia or 2.66% of population. Municipality Šuto Orizari is the only municipality in the world with a Romani majority and the only municipality where Romani is the official language. Due to the demographics, both Romani and Macedonian are official in Šuto Orizari, the municipality being officially bilingual. The mayor of the municipality, Elvis Bajram, is an ethnic Rom, the son of Amdi Bajram, a Macedonian MP and member of the ruling coalition government.
There is a sizable minority of Romani people in Romania, of 535,140 people or 2.46% of the total population (2002 census). The Roma are the most socially-disadvantaged minority group in Romania, even though there are a variety of governmental and non-governmental programs for integration and social advancement, including the National Agency for the Roma and Romania's participation in the Decade of Roma Inclusion. As an officially-recognised ethnic minority, the Romani people also have guaranteed representation in Parliament and official recognition of their language in localities where they make up more than 20% of the population.
According to the 2002, census, there were 108,193 Roma in Serbia or 1.44% of the population. Of those, 79,136 Roma are concentrated in Central Serbia and 29,057 in Vojvodina. The actual total of Roma in Serbia is generally thought to be much higher, due to the fact that many Roma do not wish to identify themselves as Roma.
In Kosovo, the Roma are seen by many Albanians as being allied with Serbian national interests. The Kosovo Liberation Army has targeted Roma as well as Serbs. In 2008 American magazine Business Week featured Romani problems.[4]
Roma are a constitutionally recognized autochthonous national minority of Croatia. The census of 2001 recorded 9,463 Romanies in the country, mostly in the Međimurje County and the City of Zagreb.[5]
According to the last census in Slovakia (2001), there were 89,920 persons counted as Roma, or 1.7% of the population.[6] In the Czech Republic Roma probably make 2–3% of population or an estimated 200–300 thousand – although in the last census (2001), Romani ethnicity officially enrolled only 11,746 persons.
In the Czech Republic, 75% of Romani children are educated in schools for people with learning difficulties, and 70% are unemployed (compared with a national rate of 6%). In Hungary, 44% of Romani children are in special schools, while 74% of men and 83% of women are unemployed. In Slovakia, Romani children are 28 times as likely to be sent to a special school than non-Roma; Romani unemployment stands at 80%.—The Guardian, January 8, 2003[7]
In Slovakia there are a number of Romani parties, like the Roma Civic Initiative.
The number of Romani 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. Today every fifth or sixth newborn is Roma. Estimates based on current demographic trends project that in 2050, 20.9% of the population will be Romani.[8]
The Roma (called cigányok or romák in Hungarian) suffer particular problems in Hungary, for example in the educational system. Only 61% of Hungarian Roma aged 15 and above has completed primary education, and just 13% has completed secondary education.[9] Currently, around 90% of Romani children complete primary education. A research of sample schools however suggests that the drop-out rate among Roma is still almost twice as high as among non-Roma.[10]
The share of Romani students entering secondary education has increased greatly, with the percentage of Romani children not pursuing any secondary education dropping from 49% to 15% between 1994 and 1999. But that increase is almost exclusively due to increased enrolment in the lowest levels of education, which provide only limited chances for employment. Whereas almost half the Hungarian secondary school students enrol in vocational secondary schools or comprehensive grammar schools, which provide better chances, only one in five Romani children does so. Moreover, the drop-out rate in secondary schools is significant.[11]
The separation of Romani children into segregated schools and classes is also a problem, and has been on the rise over the past 15 years. Segregated schools are partly the result of "white flight", with non-Romani parents sending their children to schools in neighbouring villages or towns when there are many Romani students in the local school. But Romani children are also frequently placed in segregated classes even within "mixed" schools.[12] Many other Romani children are sent to classes for pupils with learning disabilities. The percentage of Romani children in special schools rose from about 25% in 1975 to 42% in 1992, with a 1997 survey showing little change - whereas a National Institute for Public Education report says that "most experts agree that a good number of Romani children attending special schools are not even slightly mentally disabled".[13]
Less than 1% of Roma hold higher educational certificates. Their low status on the job market and higher unemployment rates cause poverty, widespread social problems and crime.
The Romani are much less numerous and less controversial in Poland than in other European countries where major sociopolitical issues revolve around them. Estimates of the Romani population in Poland range from 15,000 to 50,000. Czechoslovakia's Romani population, by contrast, numbered 500,000 in the 1980s, when Poland became a transit point on the illegal migration route to Germany. Emigration of Polish Romani to Germany in the late 1980s reduced Poland's Romani population by as much as 75 percent. Nevertheless, negative stereotypes remain strong in Polish society, and acts of violence and discrimination against this most visible minority are common in Poland. In 1991 a mob destroyed a wealthy Romani neighborhood in central Poland (known as the Mława pogrom) after a hit and run incident involving a Roma teen. The Polish governments has adopted no comprehensive policy on Romani but instead had treated violent acts against them as isolated incidents.[14]
In Tsarist Russia there were no laws discriminating against the Roma, as there were towards Jews. They did suffer, however, as did other ethnic groups, during the Soviet period, especially under Stalin.
An official 2002 census in Russia lists the Romani population as approximately 183,000 (0.1% of the population).[15] However, this census was based on a verbal declaration of ethnicity. Many Roma may have declared other ethnicities (Russian, Ukrainian, Moldavian, etc.) in fear of discrimination. The census also didn't always reach people in obscure areas and people living in Russia illegally. Some estimate their actual population to be anywhere from 600,000 to 1 million.
There are a number of different groups of Roma throughout Russia. They include the following:
The presence of Roma in Ukraine was first documented in the early 15th century. Roma maintained their social organizations and folkways, shunning non-Romani contacts, education and values, often as a reaction to anti-Romani attitudes and persecution. They adopted the language and faith of the dominant society being Orthodox in most of Ukraine, Catholic in western Ukraine and Transcarpathia, Muslim in Crimea.
During WWII Nazi policies to exterminate Roma were implemented. By July 1943 the Romanian authorities transported 25,000 Roma to Transnistria, along the Southern Bug River, where half perished because of the brutal treatment. In Ukraine it is estimated that 12,000 were killed in Babi Yar in Kiev. Other massacres took place in Crimea, Podilia, Galicia and Volhynia.
According to the Soviet census of 1926 there were 13,600 Roma in the Ukrainian SSR, 2,500 whom lived in cities. In Crimea there were 1600. According to the 1970 census there were 30,100 Roma in Ukrainian SSR, (up from 28,000 in 1959). In 1979 -34,500. The estimate of the World Romani Union is considerably higher.
Roma are scattered throughout Ukraine, but their largest concentrations are in Transcapathia, Crimea and Odessa oblasts. Half live in cities. 35% consider Romani their mother tongue. Material culture has not differed from the dominant society except in dress. They have a rich folk tradition. Roma themes can be found in Ukrainian literature.
There are more than 3 million Roma living in Turkey.[16] The Roma in Turkey descend from the times of the Byzantine Empire. With the expanse of the Ottoman Empire Turkish Roma settled in Rumelia (Southern Europe under the Ottoman rule). The descendants of the Ottoman Roma today are known as Xoraxane Roma.
In 2007, it was suggested that there were between 2,000 and 6,000 Roma in Ireland, mostly from Eastern Europe.[17]
The Roma were stripped of German citizenship by the Nuremberg laws and were soon made part of the Final Solution, with some Roma transported to share the fate of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Roma were massacred by the Einsatzgruppen in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and were deported to concentration camps. The extermination of the Roma by the Nazis and their allies has been named in the Romani language the Porajmos, loosely translated as "the devouring". Estimates of the total number of Roma killed during the Holocaust range from 220,000 to 1.5 million.
More than 20,000 Roma were deported to the Auschwitz death camp where Dr. Josef Mengele took a special interest in them, studying medical conditions including "noma" which ate away the cheeks of malnourished Roma children. In early August 1944, Auschwitz administration decided to exterminate the entire Roma population of the camp, and with Mengele's assistance about 3,000 people were sent to the gas chamber. [18]
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