Roma people

The Roma people (pronounced "rahma"; singular Rom; sometimes Rroma, Rrom), along with the closely related Sinti people, are commonly known as Gypsies in English. They are a traditionally nomadic people who originated in northern India, but currently live worldwide, chiefly in Europe. Most Roma speak some form of Romany, a language closely- related to the modern Indo-European languages of Europe, northern India and Pakistan http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_family.asp?subid=653, but usually speak the dominant language of a region they live in as well. Modern anthropology has related Romany to Punjabi and Pothohari, spoken in northern India and Pakistan.

Rejection

Because of their nomadic lifestyle and unwillingness to be integrated, there has always been a great deal of mutual distrust between the Roma, and their more settled neighbours. They were, and frequently still are, popularly believed to be beggars, thieves and kidnappers, unfit for sedentary labour, resulting in a great deal of persecution. This belief is often cited as the etymological source of the term gyp, meaning to "cheat", as in "I got gypped by a con man." However, this etymology is difficult to verify; the Oxford English Dictionary lists this as simply a possible derivation. The German name Zigeuner is often derived through popular etymology from Ziehende Gauner, which means 'travelling thieves'. The Roma have sometimes accepted among themselves outsiders from mainstream society.

Related Topics:
Beggar - Thieves - Kidnap - Con man - Oxford English Dictionary - Popular etymology

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During the Enlightenment, Spain briefly sought to eliminate the Roma's outsider status, by attempting to forbid the use of the word gitano, and to assimilate the Roma into the mainstream population, by forcing them to abandon their language and way of life. That effort proved unsuccessful.

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Persecution of Roma reached a peak in World War II, when the Nazis murdered large numbers of Roma. Like Jews, Roma were slated for extermination, and were to be automatically sentenced to forced labour and/or imprisonment in a concentration camp or were to be killed on sight. It is believed that 400,000 Roma were killed. See Porajmos

Related Topics:
World War II - Nazi - Concentration camp - Porajmos

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Where possible, many Roma continue their nomadic lifestyle, travelling in caravans (small trailer homes), but in many situations in Eastern Europe, they live in depressed squatter communities with very high unemployment. In some cases — notably the Kalderash clan in Romania, who work as traditional coppersmiths — they have prospered.

Related Topics:
Caravan - Trailer homes - Squatter - Unemployment - Romania - Coppersmith

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To this day, there are still clashes between the Roma and the sedentary population around them. Common complaints are that Roma steal and live off social welfare, and residents often reject Roma encampments. In the UK, travellers, the politically-correct term, became a 2005 general election issue, with the leader of the Conservative Party promising to review the Human Rights Act 1998. This law, which absorbs the European Convention on Human Rights into UK primary legislation, is seen by many to permit the granting of retrospective planning permission. Severe population pressures and the paucity of greenfield sites have led to travellers purchasing land, and setting up residential settlements almost overnight, thus subverting the planning restrictions imposed on other local members of the community.

Related Topics:
Steal - Social welfare - UK - Travellers - Politically-correct - General election - Conservative Party - Human Rights Act 1998 - European Convention on Human Rights - Planning permission

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