Deciphering the myth – Romanian Gypsies – Episode 1: A little history

In 2007 Romania entered in the European Union and with it, what seemed to be a big national issue “the gypsy (roma) situation” became a big European issue. Alongside millions of Romanian citizens (both Romanian and Gypsies) going to Italy, Spain or France for honest working in agriculture, housekeeping or construction (domains in which the exodus was so massive that the demand in Romania became hard to be filled) we witnessed also a large exodus of poverty and criminality (both Romanian and Gypsies). In these days, you will find the same kind of beggars, prostitutes or thieves in Rome, Paris, Madrid or Helsinki as we are so used to see in Bucharest.

And, instead of learning from our mistakes, the French, the Italians are making the same errors Romanians did in the past (and still doing today): turning their backs to the problem, saying it is a Romanian issue and not a European one.  In 2010, the Italians and the French started destroying the cottages built at town edges, started deporting EU citizens for the sole purpose of being gypsies or being poor, or started bribing them with some hundreds EUROs for the promise they would return to Romania and never come back.

Instead of long term thinking all taken measures are nothing but short term patches. It’s like taking a pill for healing a broken bone.

So, to help you see the bigger picture, today I am starting the first “series” with the subject being the Gypsies.

Gypsies – a little history

Gypsies are, by their nature, a nomadic society. They started their journey from Southern Asia and, in 300 years, they spread all over Europe – from Turkey and Russia to Spain and England. And, everywhere they went, they weren’t greeted with open hearts: in Greece, they were called atsingatoi (untouchables); in England they were expelled from local communities, in France they were branded and their heads were shaved, in Moravia and Bohemia the women were marked and, pretty much everywhere, they were enslaved (more details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people).

                                         Poster advertising a slave auction in Romania

In Romania the enslavement lasted till the middle of the 19^th century. Even after they were liberated, no actions were taken in order to integrate this important ethnic group in the society. Instead, the situation degraded again starting with the 1930s when the power was taken by totalitarian leaders. Similar to Jews in Germany or Poland, gypsies were deported in concentration camps outside Romania. After the war ended, the new, communist, regime started a large operation of registering and helping settle the gypsies in towns and villages. Also, by making school mandatory, the regime tried to fight the high rates of illiteracy within the ethnic group. After more than 40 years of communism the results were very poor.

                                                   Gypsies at work (Caldarari)
http://blog.razvan-voiculescu.ro

The main reasons include:

• The centralized system that was created in order to destroy all forms of private enterprise. The regime was intended to decide where you stay, what you study, what job you will have. For most of the gypsies, the regime decided the best job for them was in agriculture, perceived as the lowest link on the social chain and, an activity they wouldn’t choose if given an alternative (based on their culture and history, most gypsies thrived in other occupations like blacksmiths, stonemasons, traders or entertainers)
• Lack of Education – despite starting a national program for fighting illiteracy, on the countryside, the situation was very different from the cities. Children would have to walk several kilometers everyday just to go to school and, after, the domestic activities awaited them: working on the field, taking the animals to pastures etc. Given this very busy program, most of the children would quit school after just 1, 2, 3 or 4 classes

Update 1: as clau2002 points out the education issue was similar both for Gypsies and for Romanians. A correction that had to be made.