The Plight of the Romani People

Saman

Photo: Roma prepare a meal in the garden of an abandoned house on December 9, 2009 in Montreuil, on the outskirts of Paris, where some 20 Roma people have taken shelter after they were disloged from various places. They are now refurbishing the property. [Olivier Laban-Mattei/AFP/Getty Images)]

President Nicholas Sarkozy of France has ordered the expulsion of illegal Roma and itinerant immigrants from his country as well as dismantling of their camps. Supporters of the order look upon the Roma as illegal settlers who sabotage public order and have criminal tendencies. Their camps are said to be sources of illicit trafficking, children exploited for begging, prostitution or delinquency. Opponents of this order criticize it as being xenophobic and populist and wrongfully labeling Roma as a public safety threat.

The President is planning on destroying 300 camps in France, most of which belong to the Roma. Unfortunately he is using an ethnic solution for a delinquency problem. But then France has a tendency of coming up with strict, intolerant policies that are quite hypocritical in their nature, such as their move to ban the veil.

On my last visit to France, I was intrigued by the presence of a group of people who resembled the gypsies of fairy tales. They stood out starkly in their colorful and unusual clothing, roaming the streets aimlessly with their children in tow and usually asking for money from tourists. I wondered, who are these people and where do they come from? They were definitely not originally from this region as their facial features and persona were exactly the opposite of what Frenchmen like to portray themselves as.

The Romani people are believed to have originated from central India, probably in the modern-day state of Rajasthan. Their westward migration is said to have occurred in waves between AD 500 to AD 1000, and migration continued towards Europe with the Roma spreading across the Balkans and Northern Europe by the 14th century. Many of them migrated from Persia through North Africa and they even managed to reach North America in colonial times.

Even they weren’t prepared for the xenophobia they would be greeted with in Europe. They were subjected to ethnic cleansing, abduction of their children and forced labor. England saw them being hanged, France saw them being branded and humiliated, Spain saw their families being separated, Moldavia saw them being enslaved and brutalized. With the onset of WW2, they faced genocide at the hands of the Nazis. Romanies, also known as Porajmos were often killed on sight or taken to concentration camps; the total number of victims has been variously estimated at between 220,000 to 1,500,000.

The post-war era gave them little respite. In communist Eastern Europe, they faced assimilation schemes and cultural restrictions. Their language, clothing and music was banned in Bulgaria, their women were sterilized in Czechoslovakia, their children were forcefully taken away in Norway, they were banned entry into the US till 1885 and the list goes on and on. What is it about these people that sparked and continues to spark such a severe reaction among nations? Are we so intolerant that we cannot accept anyone who looks, talks, or behaves differently from us? Is it their lack of assimilation that we can’t stand or the fact that in spite of so much persecution they still live life the way they want and do not conform to our standards and values?

The Roma place a lot of importance on family. Virginity is essential in an unmarried girl and once married the girl joins the husband’s family and spends her life taking care of her family and children. Women gain respect and authority as they get older. Young wives begin gaining authority once they have children, but the head of the household is always the oldest male member. Their social behavior is regulated by Hindu purity laws, with certain areas of the body being considered unclean. Clothes for the lower body are washed separately, childbirth is considered impure and must be outside the home, death is considered impure and the dead are buried not cremated.

The Roma have typically adopted the language and religion of the country they migrate to, even though they have their own language that has its roots in Indo-Aryan languages. Apparently, even this degree of assimilation isn’t enough! What threat this group and its life-style poses to Europeans is beyond my understanding. I am not against taking measures to secure borders and deport illegal immigrants but what worries and puzzles me is the degree of violence and xenophobia traditionally and historically associated with this ethnic group since time immemorial. The respective governments have done nothing to give them opportunities to improve their standard of living and have openly discriminated against them, which is why it doesn’t surprise me to hear of acts of delinquency being committed by them.

Deporting the Roma, or gypsies as they are known in many areas, is not the answer. Where will they be deported to? Most probably Romania or Bulgaria as that is where they trace their more recent roots to, but even those nations don’t know what to do with them. They need to be treated like humans for starters, and then given a chance to make a better life for themselves rather than being thought of as outsiders by the rest of the world. If no country is accepting them as their own, then who do they belong to? Maybe that is the point. Being nomadic and un-attached to any particular nation or ideology is a part of their life-style and if that is how they want to stay then the rest of the whole has to extend a helping hand wherever possible rather than a clenched fist.

Romania’s Prime Minister, Emil Boc, said that all European countries have a “common obligation” toward the millions of Roma on the Continent, but no one seems to be listening. It is much easier to pass on the buck and that is exactly what France is aiming to do. Instead of tackling the issue of delinquency and controlling crime, the politicians are using the Roma as scapegoats for the umpteenth time. Will crime in France disappear with the expulsion of these people? I doubt it, especially since the Roma account for a very small percentage of overall crime in the country.

In 2008, Italy declared the Roma population to be a national security threat and now France sees them as endangering public safety; they must be right. Multi-colored clothing, Indo-Aryan features, fortune-telling, nomadic caravans, and indomitable love of freedom and family values are truly things to be feared. Congratulations to the leadership of Europe for continuing the trend that was initiated by their ancestors when they first set their sights on the Roma.
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Pete Brook, The Roma People: Matt Lutton building upon a legacy of wandering photographers
Michaela Stanková, A wall to keep out Roma and The cost of excluding the Roma minority
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Source: http://www.carbonated.tv/blogs/Roam+Roam+Roam+The
Top Photo: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/39/2009/12/500x_roma4121109.jpg
URL: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2010/08/09/the-plight-of-the-romani-people