Gypsy People In Europe part 2 Essay - 4,817 words

... European Union is increasingly concerned about. The Unions greatest fear is that large numbers of Roma may move legally to
Western Europe, increasing tensions there, following the accession of the Czech Republic and other EU candidate states. Some of
the most shocking and well-documented cases of anti-Gypsy prejudice, however, occur within the EU itself, notably in Greece. A
recent report by the Minority Rights Group-Greece catalogues repeated cases of police brutality, bureaucratic harassment and poor
health care. Since 1996 Greek authorities have evicted Roma from five established settlements including a community of 3,500 tent-
dwellers who had been living in the same area near Thessaloniki for 30 years.

Nine other settlements have been threatened with eviction and Roma have become persona non grata in many Greek towns.
According the Greek Helsinki Monitor group: A rather awkwardly parked car owned by a Roma resulted in a municipal council
decision of immediate expulsion of 300 Roma from the region on the grounds that Roma increase the criminality rate in the area.
Roma have also been evicted from campsites near Athens in preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games. All unsettled confederations
that live among settled peoples seem to become convenient scapegoats. So it is with the Roma, who have regularly been accused by
the local populace of many evils as a prelude to later official and legal persecution. Their relations with the authorities in the host
country have been marked by consistent contradiction. Official decrees were often aimed at settling or assimilating them, yet local
authorities systematically refused them the bare hospitality of a campsite.

During the Holocaust the Nazis murdered an estimated 400,000 Roma. French laws in modern times forbade them campsites and
subjected them to police supervision, yet they were taxed and drafted for military service like ordinary citizens. Spain and Wales are
two countries often cited as examples where Roma have become settled, if not wholly assimilated. In modern times the socialist
countries of Eastern Europe attempted programs of enforced settlement to end Roma migration. Traditionally the Roma have
pursued occupations that allowed them to maintain an itinerant life on the perimeters of settled society. The men were livestock
traders, animal trainers and exhibitors, tinkers (metal smiths and utensil repairmen), and musicians; the women told fortunes, sold
potions, begged, and worked as entertainers. Before the advent of veterinary medicine, many farmers looked to Roma livestock
dealers for advice on herd health and husbandry. Enmity against Roma, of course, is nothing new.

It reached its most extreme in Nazi Germany when Roma were interned as members of a criminal underclass and between a quarter
and half a million perished in concentration camps. Their suffering, known among Roma as The Devouring, or Porajmos, was finally
and belatedly recognized by the United Nations in August when the UN's Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
called for compensation for Roma victims of Nazi terror and deportation. The UN announcement coincided with the first distribution
of funds by the Swiss Fund for Needy Victims of the Holocaust/Shoa to Gypsy survivors of the holocaust in the Ukraine. Almost
4,000 Ukrainian Gypsies received $400 each. Roma organizations, however, are also demanding an apology from Germany for the
holocaust and have set up a fund for a memorial to those who died. So what does the future hold for one of Europes largest, most
diverse and least understood minorities? With growing tensions and renewed prejudice have come increasing demands for ethnic
recognition and an assertion of the Romas cultural identity.

At the end of July the fifth Congress of the International Romany Union (IRU), meeting in Prague, called for the Roma to be
internationally recognized as a separate nation. The Roma community itself, however, is pluralistic and divided with distinctive
European groupings including the Manouches of France, the Romnichals in Britain, the Gitanos of Spain and the Sinti of Germany
and central Europe. Many Roma are physically identifiable by their dark, swarthy looks, yet assimilation has left some unable to
speak Romany and contact with the wider Roma community has been weakened. Few, however, are completely accepted by society
at large. There is also a huge gulf between the small educated elite and ordinary Gypsies. Varied external influences and dispersal
across Europe and beyond have led to considerable variations in their culture and organization.

Historically, Roma have organized themselves on the basis of the extended family with elders taking decisions for the group.
National or international organizations have often been dominated by three or four families, while the plethora of Roma groups has
limited their political clout. Leading Roma organizations, however, are striving for greater unity. The long-established IRU is
planning a new headquarters in Brussels to better coordinate Roma activities. At their July congress delegates stressed the
importance of education by and for the Gypsy community. There is talk of Roma University to research and teach Romani and Roma
culture. Elsewhere Roma are seeking better access to existing universities.

In Romania, for instance, young Roma of the Romani Criss organization have persuaded the government to reserve university
places for Roma students. The proportion of Roma with university or college degrees in all post-socialist countries did not exceed 1
per cent of the adult Roma population. One tenth of them graduated from secondary school. The corresponding numbers concerning
education levels were much higher among the non-Roma majority in every Central and Eastern European country. Consequently, the
majority of the Roma were unprepared to face the challenges of the labor market, and some of them remained functionally illiterate.
Outcomes in other spheres of social policy towards Roma were also controversial. No doubt, during socialism, the level of Roma
employment increased significantly, resulting in the expansion of contacts with members of the majority on an equal basis. Material
conditions of the Roma improved and the differences in everyday lifestyles among Roma and non-Roma were reduced. On the basis
of increasing similarity induced by the common fate of state socialism, a reduction of hostility against the Roma people was expected
among members of the majority.

Attempts to reduce differences in social, educational and cultural status between Roma and non-Roma by coercion and avoiding
Roma participation in the decision-making process often had negative outcomes. The efforts to accelerate the process of equalizing
Roma communities with the rest of society activated a policy of social engineering which decreased indigenous abilities to cope with
the problems in Roma families and communities. Under the pressure of forced assimilation part of the Roma subjects of state-
socialist societies developed dysfunctional strategies of coping such as learned helplessness and striving for instant gratification.
Some recent efforts at encouraging Roma education in countries bent on the notion of assimilation, however, have been badly
received. In Greece, a recently initiated three-year program for educating teachers of Roma children has been criticized for
providing books in Greek only when most Greek Roma speak Romani. Unlike similar education programs in other European
countries, said the Minority Rights Group, the Greek one seems to undermine the Roma identity of the children.

Education, whether in Romany or the national language, is nevertheless seen as a key issue among Roma leaders. The problems
experienced by Gypsies differ from one country to another and may require different policy solutions. Novel approaches to Roma
exclusion may have to be attempted to ove
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