Antiziganism
Encyclopedia
Antiziganism or Anti-Romanyism is hostility, prejudice
or racism
directed at the Romani people, also known as Gypsies.
As an endogamous
culture with a tendency to practise self-segregation
, the Romanis have generally resisted assimilation
with the indigenous communities of whichever countries they have moved to; they have thus successfully preserved their distinctive and unique culture.
The price of this cultural longevity, however, has been a degree of isolation from the surrounding population that has made them vulnerable to being stereotype
d as thieves
, tramps
, con men
and fortune tellers
. Due in part to this same cultural segregation, the Romanis have been subject to various forms of discrimination
throughout history and in nearly all the countries in which they have settled.
an languages. Note however, that in several regions "zigan" and its variations are considered derogatory and offensive. Many activists and scholars prefer the phrase "Roma-phobia".
records, the Atsínganoi are mentioned as "wizards... who are inspired satanically and pretend to predict the unknown."
By the 16th century, many Romanies in Eastern and Central Europe worked as musicians, metal craftsmen, and soldiers.
As the Ottoman Turks
expanded into the territory of modern Bulgaria
, they relegated Romanies, seen as having "no visible permanent professional affiliation", to the lowest rung of the social ladder.
In Royal Hungary
(present-day West-Slovakia
, West-Hungary
and West-Croatia
), strong anti-Romani policies emerged since they were increasingly seen as Turkish spies or as a fifth column
. In this atmosphere, they were expelled from many locations and increasingly adopted a nomadic way of life.
The first anti-Romani legislation was issued in March of Moravia
in 1538, and three years later, Ferdinand I ordered that Romanies in his realm be expelled after a series of fires in Prague. Seven years later, the Diet of Augsburg
declared that "whosoever kills a Gypsy, will be guilty of no murder." In 1556, the government stepped in to "forbid the drowning of Romani women and children."
In England, the Egyptians Act 1530
banned Romanies from entering the country and required those living in the country to leave within 16 days. Failure to do so could result in confiscation of property, imprisonment and deportation. The act was amended with the Egyptians Act 1554, which directed that they abandon their "naughty, idle and ungodly life and company" and adopt a settled lifestyle. However, for those who failed to adhere to a sedentary existence the Privy council
interpreted the act to permit execution of non-complying Romanies 'as a warning to others'.
issued an edict against the Romani, ordering "that all adult males were to be hanged without trial, whereas women and young males were to be flogged and banished forever." In addition, they were to have their right ears cut off in the kingdom of Bohemia
, in the March of Moravia
, the left ear. In other parts of Austria they would be branded on the back with a branding iron
, representing the gallows
. These mutilations enabled authorities to identify them as Romani on their second arrest. The edict encouraged local officials to hunt down Romani in their areas by levying a fine of 100 Reichsthaler
for those failing to do so. Anyone who helped Romani was to be punished by doing a half-year's forced labor. The result was "mass killings" of Romani. In 1721, Charles VI
amended the decree to include the execution of adult female Romani, while children were "to be put in hospitals for education."
In 1774, Maria Theresa of Austria
issued an edict forbidding marriages between Romani. When a Romani woman married a non-Romani, she had to produce proof of "industrious household service and familiarity with Catholic
tenets", a male Rom "had to prove ability to support a wife and children", and "Gypsy children over the age of five were to be taken away and brought up in non-Gypsy families."
A panel was established in 2007 by the Romanian government to study the 18th and 19th century use of Romani as slaves
for Princes, local landowners, and monasteries. Slavery of Romani was outlawed in Romania around 1856.
under the direction of Alfred Dillmann, cataloguing data on all Romani individuals throughout the German lands. It did not officially close down until 1970. The results were published in 1905 in Dillmann’s Zigeuner-Buch, that was used in the following years as justification for the Porajmos
. It described the Romani people as a "plague" and a "menace", but almost exclusively presented as Gypsy crime trespassing and the theft of food.
in the Porajmos, the Nazi genocide of Romanis during the Holocaust. Because the Romani communities of Eastern Europe were less organized than the Jewish communities, it is more difficult to assess the actual number of victims though the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Research Institute in Washington puts the number of Romani lives lost by 1945 at between 500,000 and 1.5 million. Former ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill
has argued that the Romani population suffered proportionally more genocide
than the Jewish population of Europe and that their plight has largely been sidelined by scholars and the media.
The extermination of Romanies by the German Nazi authorities in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
was so thorough that the Bohemian Romani language
became a dead language. The policy of the Nazis varied across countries they conquered: they killed almost all the Romanis in the Baltic countries, yet they did not attempt to eliminate the Romanis in Denmark or Greece.
Romanies were also persecuted by the Ustashe in Croatia
, who were allied to the Nazis. There were hardly any Romanies left in Croatia after the war.
in 2011, "...systematic discrimination is taking place against up to 10 million Roma across Europe. The organization has documented the failures of governments across the continent to live up to their obligations".
Antiziganism has continued in the 2000s, particularly in Romania
, Bulgaria
, Slovakia
, Hungary
, Slovenia
and Kosovo
.
Romanis often live in low-class ghettos, are subject to discrimination in jobs and schools, and are often subject to police brutality. In Bulgaria, professor Ognian Saparev has written articles stating that 'Gypsies' should be confined to ghettos because they do not assimilate
, are culturally inclined towards theft, have no desire to work, and use their minority status to 'blackmail' the majority. European Union
officials censured both the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2007 for forcibly segregating Romani children from normal schools.
As of 2006, many Romanies who had previously lived in Kosovo
, lived in displaced refugee communities in Montenegro
and Serbia
. Those who remain often fear attacks from ethnic Albanians
who see them as "Serb Collaborators". In February 2007, three Romani women in Slovakia
received compensation after suing a hospital for sterilizing them while they were underage and without their consent. While the sterilizations occurred in 1999 and 2002, and the women had been repeatedly appealing to prosecutors since then, they were up until this time ignored.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
Thomas Hammarberg
has been an outspoken critic of Antiziganism, both in reports and periodic Viewpoints. In August 2008, Hammarberg noting that "today's rhetoric against the Roma is very similar to the one used by Nazis and fascists before the mass killings started in the thirties and forties. Once more, it is argued that the Roma are a threat to safety and public health. No distinction is made between a few criminals and the overwhelming majority of the Roma population. This is shameful and dangerous."
According to the latest Human Rights First
Hate Crime
Survey, Romanies routinely suffer assaults in city streets and other public places as they travel to and from homes, workplaces, and markets. In a number of serious cases of violence against Romani people, attackers have also sought out whole families in their homes, or whole communities in settlements predominantly housing Romanis. These widespread patterns of violence are sometimes directed both at causing immediate harm to Romanis, without distinction between adults, the elderly, and small children and physically eradicating the presence of Romani people in towns and cities in several European countries.
, Romania
, Bulgaria
, and Slovakia
, many Romani children have been channeled into all-Romani schools that offer inferior quality education and are sometimes in poor physical condition, or into segregated all-Romani or predominantly Romani classes within mixed schools. In Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, many Romani children are sent to classes for pupils with learning disabilities, regardless of whether such classes are appropriate for the children in question or not. In Bulgaria, they are also sent to so-called "delinquent schools", where a variety of human rights abuses take place.
Romani in European population centers are often accused of crimes such as pickpocketing
. In 2009 a documentary by BBC
called Gypsy child thieves uncovered how Gypsy children are kidnapped and abused by Gypsy gangs from Romania
. The children are often held locked in sheds during the nights and sent to steal during the days. In Milan
, Italy
, it is estimated that a single Gypsy child is able to steal as much as €12,000 in a month; there were as many as 50 of such abused Gypsy children operating in the city. Meanwhile, the Romani bosses of these gangs build glossy villas back in Romania. The film went on to describe the link between poverty, discrimination, crime and exploitation.
A UN study found that Romanis in Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria
are arrested for robbery at a much higher rate than other groups. Amnesty International
and Romanis groups such as the Union Romani blame widespread police and government racism and persecution. In July 2008, a Business Week feature found the region's Romani population to be a "missed economic opportunity." Hundreds of people from Ostravice
in the Beskydy mountains signed a petition against a plan to move Romani families from Ostrava
city to their home town, fearing the Romani invasion as well as their schools not being able to cope with the influx of Romani children.
In 2009, the U.N.'s anti-racism panel charged that "Gypsies suffer widespread racism in European Union." that 'Racially motivated crime is an everyday experience' for Roma people, says EU's Fundamental Rights Agency.'.
in the country, Bulgaria's Health Ministry was considering a law aimed at lowering the birth rate of certain minority group
s, particularly the Romanis, owing to the high mortality rate
among Romani families, which are typically large. This was later abandoned because of conflict with EU law
and the Bulgarian constitution.
Attaka
have also been accused of fueling of antiziganist feeling.
In 2011 in Bulgaria outburst widespread Anti-Roma protests
.
. According to Říčan (1998), Roma make up more than 60% of Czech prisoners and about 20-30% earn their livelihood in illegal ways, such as prostitution, trafficking and other property crimes. Roma are thus more than 20 times overrepresented in Czech prisons than their population share would suggest.
The high crime rate and asocial behavior creates fear and hostility. According to 2010 survey, 83% of Czechs consider Roma asocial and 45% of Czechs would like to expel them out of Czech Republic. A 2011 poll, which followed after a number of brutal attacks by Romani perpetrators against majority population victims, revealed that 44% of Czechs are afraid of Roma people. The majority of the Czech people
do not want to have Romanies as neighbours (almost 90%, more than any other group) seeing them as thieves and social parasites. In spite of long waiting time for a child adoption, Romani children from orphanages are almost never adopted by Czech couples. After the Velvet Revolution
in 1989 the jobs traditionally employing Romanis either disappeared or were taken over by workers from Ukraine
, Romania
, Poland
, Slovakia
, Mongolia
and even Nigeria
.
While the general attitude of Czech population towards Roma minority is negative, occurrences of anti-Roma violence are condemned by the public and repressed by the authorities. Among highly medialized cases was Vítkov arson attack of 2009
, in which four right-wing extremists seriously injured 3 year old Romani girl. The public responded by donating money as well as presents to the family, which was in the end able to buy a new house from the donations, while the perpetrators were sentenced to 18 and 22 years in prison.
The Gypsies and Romanis are in the centre of agenda of far-right groups in the Czech Republic, which are spreading antiziganism especially in connection with criminal acts rendered by Romani perpetrators on majority population victims, focusing especially on cases of rapes and murders, such as nearly killing and rape of 13 years old boy in Duchcov
or rape of 17 year old girl in church in Nový Bydžov
, or brutal murder of 81 years old woman in Olešnice
by gang of Romani children, who were sent to commit the crime by father of one of them in order to exploit lower ranges of punishment available for minors. Far-right groups often hold demonstrations in places, where majority population suffers from high crime rates attributed to Romani perpetrators. Far-right groups also organize "crime patrols" in such places. (these are however no militia style patrols, they rather rely on requesting police presence). Far-right is also promoting repatriation of Roma to India
on voluntary basis, arguing that the Czech state should offer paying all the costs, including establishment of their new livelihood there. There are some Romani groups calling for a similar plan, however instead of India they are requesting relocation to Germany
, France
, United Kingdom
, Denmark
, Sweden
, Finland
or Belgium
, while in their view the Czech Republic should reimburse costs.
In January 2010, Amnesty International launched a report titled Injustice Renamed: Discrimination in Education of Roma persists in the Czech Republic. According to the BBC
, it was Amnesty's view that while cosmetic changes had been introduced by the authorities, little genuine improvement in addressing discrimination against Romani children has occurred over recent years.
, there was much controversy when the city of Helsingør decided to put all Romani students in special classes in its public schools. The classes were later abandoned after it was determined that they were discriminatory and the Romanis were put back in regular classes.
. The people were deported after living more than 10 years in Germany. The deportations were higly controversial: many of children, who obtained education in Germany, spoke German as their primary language and considered themselves as Germans.
village southeast of Budapest
as they were fleeing their burning house which was set alight by a petrol bomb. The dead man's two other children suffered serious burns. Suspects were arrested and are currently on trial.
Another commentator feels that Hungary is on the brink of a race war with the ethnic Hungarian paramilitary Magyar Garda in confrontation with the Romani Garda.
In 2007 and 2008, following the brutal murder of a woman in Rome at the hands of a young man from a local Romani encampment, the Italian government started a crackdown on illegal Roma and Sinti campsites in the country.
In May 2008 Romani camps in Naples were attacked and set on fire by local residents. In July 2008, a high court in Italy
overthrew the conviction of defendants who had publicly demanded the expulsion of Romanis from Verona
in 2001 and reportedly ruled that "it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma on the grounds that they are thieves." One of those freed was Flavio Tosi
, Verona's mayor and an official of the anti-immigrant Lega Nord. The decision came during a "nationwide clampdown" on Romanis by Italian prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi
. The previous week, Berlusconi's interior minister Roberto Maroni
declared that all Romanis in Italy, including children, would be fingerprinted.
Opposition party member, Gianclaudio Bressa, responded by insisting that these measures "increasingly resemble those of an authoritarian regime". In response to the fingerprinting plan, three United Nations
experts testified that "by exclusively targeting the Roma minority, this proposal can be unambiguously classified as discriminatory." The European Parliament
denounced the plan as "a clear act of racial discrimination" and asked the Italian government not to continue.
A short time later, in July 2008, the deaths of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic
, two Roma children who drowned while Italian beach-goers in Naples remained unperturbed, brought additional international attention to the strained relationship between Italians and the Roma people.
, racism and animosity against Roma, Romanichal, British Romanies and other Travelling groups is still endemic within Britain and until the 1960s it was a common to hang signs in pubs declaring “No Blacks, No dogs, No Gypsies”. In 2008 the media reported that Gypsies experience a higher degree of racism than any other group in the UK, including asylum-seekers and a Mori poll indicated that a third of UK residents admitted openly to being prejudiced against Gypsies. The term "travellers" (referring to Scottish Travellers
, New Age Travellers
as well as Romanichal, Roma and Irish Travellers) became a 2005 general election
issue, with the leader of the Conservative Party
Michael Howard
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 some 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 very quickly, thus subverting the planning restrictions.
Travellers argued in response that thousands of retrospective planning permissions are granted in Britain in cases involving non-Romani applicants each year and that statistics showed that 90% of planning applications by Romanis and travellers were initially refused by local councils
, compared with a national average of 20% for other applicants, disproving claims of preferential treatment favouring Romanis.
They also argued that the root of the problem was that many traditional stopping-places had been barricaded off and that legislation passed by the previous Conservative government had effectively criminalised their community, for example by removing local authorities’ responsibility to provide sites, thus leaving the travellers with no option but to purchase unregistered new sites themselves.
In June 2009, having had their windows broken and deaths threats made against them, twenty Romanian Romani families were forced from their homes in the Lisburn Road
, Belfast
, in Northern Ireland
. Up to 115 people, including women and children, were forced to seek refuge in a local church hall
after being attacked. They were later moved by the authorities to a safer location. An anti-racist
rally in the city on 15 June to support Romani rights was attacked by youths chanting neo-Nazi slogans. The attacks were condemned by Amnesty International
and political leaders from both the Unionist
and Nationalist
traditions in Northern Ireland.
Following the arrest of three local youths in relation to the attacks, the church where the Romanies had been given shelter was badly vandalised. Using 'emergency funds', Northern Ireland authorities assisted most of the victims to return to Romania.
, many Romani people were forcibly sterilized by the state until 1977. Due to the recent influx of Romani peoples from Romania and Moldova, the Romani have become a common sight on city streets in Norway for 9 – 10 months of the year. This has led to many complaints specifically concerning Romani beggars. There is generally much prejudice expresses by many Norwegian and specifically in the Southern city of Kristiansand a number of dubious accusations have been made against the Romani in the regional newspaper and via the internet. Some Kristiansand citizens have reacted to non-aggressive begging by spitting or verbally harassing the beggars.
, the Society for Threatened Peoples
estimated that 80% of Kosovo's 150,000 Romanis were expelled by the Albanian population. At UN internally-displaced persons' camps in Kosovo for Romanis, the refugees were exposed to lead poisoning.
businesses as "gypsies," as the term in the United States has come to designate any peoples with a nomadic lifestyle rather than a specific ethnic group. Additionally, a common derogatory phrase in the US is to "be gypped," as in "I was gypped" or "he gypped me," meaning that someone executed a bad deal or took money that he was not entitled to take.
One of these issues deals with the health risks involved in a subordinate, limited lifestyle. These people are often forced to live in areas without clean water, to live without jobs to pay for food, and are set apart from learning communities, making them more vulnerable to disease and environmental inequality. Environmental injustice refers to people who are:
It is very common that the Roma population is located in areas that are unwanted by non-Roma populations. They are often sited amongst hazardous or dangerous facilities and left to live without the luxuries that have become common to the non-Roma, majority populations. Again Harper asks:
As people have begun to research the Roma people it becomes more evident the amount of racism that has existed. The segregation of the Gypsy people from the rest of the majority population was not a gradual process that happened due to decrease in income or long term prejudices. Instead the gypsies have been intentionally removed on several occasions, and allowed only to live in areas that were assigned to them by the non-Roma. An example of this occurred in Czechoslovakia after World War II. There are also cases in which the Gypsies are both removed and denied access to areas that are deemed unfit for them to inhabit.
Research done in these areas also began to show, specifically, the damage that has occurred in Romani villages and towns. After visiting and examining these areas it becomes evident the exact events of environmental injustice that take place. Kids run around without clothing due to lack of funds, mothers balance buckets on their heads, and elders sit in their own stench without bathing because water is so scarce. The sanitation in some areas of Gypsy neighborhoods is very minimal.
, pediculosis
, pyodermatitis, mycosis
and askaridosis. There is also a recognition of respiratory health problems that occurs in the majority of the inhabitants of the areas. Other serious diseases that are rampant in majority gypsy populations are hepatitis and tuberculosis.
Aside from these studies implemented by the UNDP, very few organizations spend time dealing with the dilemma that the Roma face. This is due to the type of issue that most people consider the Gypsy segregation to be. Carl Maida addresses this issue by saying:
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
or racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
directed at the Romani people, also known as Gypsies.
As an endogamous
Endogamy
Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such basis as being unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. A Greek Orthodox Christian endogamist, for example, would require that a marriage be only with another...
culture with a tendency to practise self-segregation
Auto-segregation
Auto-segregation is the separation of a religious or ethnic group from the rest of society in a state by the group itself. Through auto-segregation, the members of the separate group can establish their own services, and maintain their own traditions and customs.For example, some world tribes have...
, the Romanis have generally resisted assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
with the indigenous communities of whichever countries they have moved to; they have thus successfully preserved their distinctive and unique culture.
The price of this cultural longevity, however, has been a degree of isolation from the surrounding population that has made them vulnerable to being stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
d as thieves
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
, tramps
Hobo
A hobo is a term which is often applied to a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, often penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States during the last decade of the 19th century. Unlike 'tramps', who work only when they are forced to, and 'bums', who do not...
, con men
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
and fortune tellers
Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
. Due in part to this same cultural segregation, the Romanis have been subject to various forms of discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
throughout history and in nearly all the countries in which they have settled.
Etymology
The root zigan (ˈtsiɡaːn) is the basis of the word given to the Roma people in many EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an languages. Note however, that in several regions "zigan" and its variations are considered derogatory and offensive. Many activists and scholars prefer the phrase "Roma-phobia".
In the Middle Ages
In the early 13th century ByzantineByzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
records, the Atsínganoi are mentioned as "wizards... who are inspired satanically and pretend to predict the unknown."
By the 16th century, many Romanies in Eastern and Central Europe worked as musicians, metal craftsmen, and soldiers.
As the Ottoman Turks
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
expanded into the territory of modern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, they relegated Romanies, seen as having "no visible permanent professional affiliation", to the lowest rung of the social ladder.
In Royal Hungary
Royal Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary between 1538 and 1867 was part of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, while outside the Holy Roman Empire.After Battle of Mohács, the country was ruled by two crowned kings . They divided the kingdom in 1538...
(present-day West-Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, West-Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and West-Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
), strong anti-Romani policies emerged since they were increasingly seen as Turkish spies or as a fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
. In this atmosphere, they were expelled from many locations and increasingly adopted a nomadic way of life.
The first anti-Romani legislation was issued in March of Moravia
March of Moravia
The March or Margraviate of Moravia, was a marcher state, sometimes de facto independent and varyingly within the power of the Duchy, later Kingdom of Bohemia...
in 1538, and three years later, Ferdinand I ordered that Romanies in his realm be expelled after a series of fires in Prague. Seven years later, the Diet of Augsburg
Diet of Augsburg
The Diet of Augsburg were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in the German city of Augsburg. There were many such sessions, but the three meetings during the Reformation and the ensuing religious wars between the Roman Catholic emperor Charles V and the Protestant...
declared that "whosoever kills a Gypsy, will be guilty of no murder." In 1556, the government stepped in to "forbid the drowning of Romani women and children."
In England, the Egyptians Act 1530
Egyptians Act 1530
The Egyptians Act 1530 was an Act passed by the Parliament of England in 1531 to expel the "outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians", meaning Gypsies. It was repealed by the Act 19 & 20 Vict...
banned Romanies from entering the country and required those living in the country to leave within 16 days. Failure to do so could result in confiscation of property, imprisonment and deportation. The act was amended with the Egyptians Act 1554, which directed that they abandon their "naughty, idle and ungodly life and company" and adopt a settled lifestyle. However, for those who failed to adhere to a sedentary existence the Privy council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
interpreted the act to permit execution of non-complying Romanies 'as a warning to others'.
18th century
In 1710, Joseph IJoseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph I , Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, King of the Romans was the elder son of Emperor Leopold I and his third wife, Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg....
issued an edict against the Romani, ordering "that all adult males were to be hanged without trial, whereas women and young males were to be flogged and banished forever." In addition, they were to have their right ears cut off in the kingdom of Bohemia
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia was a country located in the region of Bohemia in Central Europe, most of whose territory is currently located in the modern-day Czech Republic. The King was Elector of Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806, whereupon it became part of the Austrian Empire, and...
, in the March of Moravia
March of Moravia
The March or Margraviate of Moravia, was a marcher state, sometimes de facto independent and varyingly within the power of the Duchy, later Kingdom of Bohemia...
, the left ear. In other parts of Austria they would be branded on the back with a branding iron
Branding iron
A branding iron is a tool which uses the process of pressing a heated metal shape against an object or livestock with the intention of leaving a mark....
, representing the gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
. These mutilations enabled authorities to identify them as Romani on their second arrest. The edict encouraged local officials to hunt down Romani in their areas by levying a fine of 100 Reichsthaler
Reichsthaler
The Reichsthaler was a standard Thaler of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1566 by the Leipzig convention. It was also the name of a unit of account in northern Germany and of a silver coin issued by Prussia.-Reichsthaler coin:...
for those failing to do so. Anyone who helped Romani was to be punished by doing a half-year's forced labor. The result was "mass killings" of Romani. In 1721, Charles VI
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , Hungary and Croatia , Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711...
amended the decree to include the execution of adult female Romani, while children were "to be put in hospitals for education."
In 1774, Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...
issued an edict forbidding marriages between Romani. When a Romani woman married a non-Romani, she had to produce proof of "industrious household service and familiarity with Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
tenets", a male Rom "had to prove ability to support a wife and children", and "Gypsy children over the age of five were to be taken away and brought up in non-Gypsy families."
A panel was established in 2007 by the Romanian government to study the 18th and 19th century use of Romani as slaves
Slavery in Romania
Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of Roma ethnicity...
for Princes, local landowners, and monasteries. Slavery of Romani was outlawed in Romania around 1856.
19th century
Petty theft was a regular justification for persecution of Romanies. In 1899, the Nachrichtendienst in Bezug auf die Zigeuner ("Intelligence Service Regarding the Gypsies") was set up in MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
under the direction of Alfred Dillmann, cataloguing data on all Romani individuals throughout the German lands. It did not officially close down until 1970. The results were published in 1905 in Dillmann’s Zigeuner-Buch, that was used in the following years as justification for the Porajmos
Porajmos
The Porajmos was the attempt made by Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia, Horthy's Hungary and their allies to exterminate the Romani people of Europe during World War II...
. It described the Romani people as a "plague" and a "menace", but almost exclusively presented as Gypsy crime trespassing and the theft of food.
Porajmos
Persecution of Romani people reached a peak during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the Porajmos, the Nazi genocide of Romanis during the Holocaust. Because the Romani communities of Eastern Europe were less organized than the Jewish communities, it is more difficult to assess the actual number of victims though the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Research Institute in Washington puts the number of Romani lives lost by 1945 at between 500,000 and 1.5 million. Former ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill
Ward LeRoy Churchill is an author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government...
has argued that the Romani population suffered proportionally more genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
than the Jewish population of Europe and that their plight has largely been sidelined by scholars and the media.
The extermination of Romanies by the German Nazi authorities in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...
was so thorough that the Bohemian Romani language
Bohemian Romani
Bohemian Romani or Bohemian Romany is a dialect of Romani formerly spoken by the Romanies of Bohemia, the western part of today's Czech Republic...
became a dead language. The policy of the Nazis varied across countries they conquered: they killed almost all the Romanis in the Baltic countries, yet they did not attempt to eliminate the Romanis in Denmark or Greece.
Romanies were also persecuted by the Ustashe in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, who were allied to the Nazis. There were hardly any Romanies left in Croatia after the war.
Contemporary antiziganism
According to a report issued by Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
in 2011, "...systematic discrimination is taking place against up to 10 million Roma across Europe. The organization has documented the failures of governments across the continent to live up to their obligations".
Antiziganism has continued in the 2000s, particularly in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
and Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
.
Romanis often live in low-class ghettos, are subject to discrimination in jobs and schools, and are often subject to police brutality. In Bulgaria, professor Ognian Saparev has written articles stating that 'Gypsies' should be confined to ghettos because they do not assimilate
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
, are culturally inclined towards theft, have no desire to work, and use their minority status to 'blackmail' the majority. European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
officials censured both the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2007 for forcibly segregating Romani children from normal schools.
As of 2006, many Romanies who had previously lived in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, lived in displaced refugee communities in Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
and Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. Those who remain often fear attacks from ethnic Albanians
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
who see them as "Serb Collaborators". In February 2007, three Romani women in Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
received compensation after suing a hospital for sterilizing them while they were underage and without their consent. While the sterilizations occurred in 1999 and 2002, and the women had been repeatedly appealing to prosecutors since then, they were up until this time ignored.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
Commissioner for Human Rights
The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent institution within the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, mandated to promote the awareness of and respect for human rights in member states...
Thomas Hammarberg
Thomas Hammarberg
Thomas Hammarberg is a Swedish diplomat and human rights defender.He is currently the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg...
has been an outspoken critic of Antiziganism, both in reports and periodic Viewpoints. In August 2008, Hammarberg noting that "today's rhetoric against the Roma is very similar to the one used by Nazis and fascists before the mass killings started in the thirties and forties. Once more, it is argued that the Roma are a threat to safety and public health. No distinction is made between a few criminals and the overwhelming majority of the Roma population. This is shameful and dangerous."
According to the latest Human Rights First
Human Rights First
Human Rights First is a nonprofit, nonpartisan human rights organization based in New York City and Washington, D.C....
Hate Crime
Hate crime
In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...
Survey, Romanies routinely suffer assaults in city streets and other public places as they travel to and from homes, workplaces, and markets. In a number of serious cases of violence against Romani people, attackers have also sought out whole families in their homes, or whole communities in settlements predominantly housing Romanis. These widespread patterns of violence are sometimes directed both at causing immediate harm to Romanis, without distinction between adults, the elderly, and small children and physically eradicating the presence of Romani people in towns and cities in several European countries.
Europe (European Union)
The practice of placing Romani students in segregated schools or classes remains widespread in countries across Central and Eastern Europe. In HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, many Romani children have been channeled into all-Romani schools that offer inferior quality education and are sometimes in poor physical condition, or into segregated all-Romani or predominantly Romani classes within mixed schools. In Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, many Romani children are sent to classes for pupils with learning disabilities, regardless of whether such classes are appropriate for the children in question or not. In Bulgaria, they are also sent to so-called "delinquent schools", where a variety of human rights abuses take place.
Romani in European population centers are often accused of crimes such as pickpocketing
Pickpocketing
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person of a victim without their noticing the theft at the time. It requires considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection...
. In 2009 a documentary by BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
called Gypsy child thieves uncovered how Gypsy children are kidnapped and abused by Gypsy gangs from Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. The children are often held locked in sheds during the nights and sent to steal during the days. In Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, it is estimated that a single Gypsy child is able to steal as much as €12,000 in a month; there were as many as 50 of such abused Gypsy children operating in the city. Meanwhile, the Romani bosses of these gangs build glossy villas back in Romania. The film went on to describe the link between poverty, discrimination, crime and exploitation.
A UN study found that Romanis in Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
are arrested for robbery at a much higher rate than other groups. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and Romanis groups such as the Union Romani blame widespread police and government racism and persecution. In July 2008, a Business Week feature found the region's Romani population to be a "missed economic opportunity." Hundreds of people from Ostravice
Ostravice
Ostravice is a village and a popular summer holiday resort in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic under the Moravian-Silesian Beskids to which it serves as a gate....
in the Beskydy mountains signed a petition against a plan to move Romani families from Ostrava
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...
city to their home town, fearing the Romani invasion as well as their schools not being able to cope with the influx of Romani children.
In 2009, the U.N.'s anti-racism panel charged that "Gypsies suffer widespread racism in European Union." that 'Racially motivated crime is an everyday experience' for Roma people, says EU's Fundamental Rights Agency.'.
Bulgaria
Despite the low birth rateBirth rate
Crude birth rate is the nativity or childbirths per 1,000 people per year . Another word used interchangeably with "birth rate" is "natality". When the crude birth rate is subtracted from the crude death rate, it reveals the rate of natural increase...
in the country, Bulgaria's Health Ministry was considering a law aimed at lowering the birth rate of certain minority group
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
s, particularly the Romanis, owing to the high mortality rate
Mortality rate
Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time...
among Romani families, which are typically large. This was later abandoned because of conflict with EU law
European Union law
European Union law is a body of treaties and legislation, such as Regulations and Directives, which have direct effect or indirect effect on the laws of European Union member states. The three sources of European Union law are primary law, secondary law and supplementary law...
and the Bulgarian constitution.
Attaka
National Union Attack
The National Union Attack is a nationalist political party in Bulgaria. At the last legislative elections, 5 July 2009, it won 9.4% of the popular vote and 21 out of 240 seats...
have also been accused of fueling of antiziganist feeling.
In 2011 in Bulgaria outburst widespread Anti-Roma protests
Anti-Roma protests in Bulgaria 2011
Anti-Roma protests outburst in Bulgaria started during the night of 23rd to 24th September 2011 in the village Katunitsa and later spread to other locations all over the country, including Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Pleven, Ruse, Pazardzhik, Stara Zagora and others...
.
Czech Republic
Roma make up 2-3% of population in the Czech RepublicCzech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. According to Říčan (1998), Roma make up more than 60% of Czech prisoners and about 20-30% earn their livelihood in illegal ways, such as prostitution, trafficking and other property crimes. Roma are thus more than 20 times overrepresented in Czech prisons than their population share would suggest.
The high crime rate and asocial behavior creates fear and hostility. According to 2010 survey, 83% of Czechs consider Roma asocial and 45% of Czechs would like to expel them out of Czech Republic. A 2011 poll, which followed after a number of brutal attacks by Romani perpetrators against majority population victims, revealed that 44% of Czechs are afraid of Roma people. The majority of the Czech people
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
do not want to have Romanies as neighbours (almost 90%, more than any other group) seeing them as thieves and social parasites. In spite of long waiting time for a child adoption, Romani children from orphanages are almost never adopted by Czech couples. After the Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
in 1989 the jobs traditionally employing Romanis either disappeared or were taken over by workers from Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
and even Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
.
While the general attitude of Czech population towards Roma minority is negative, occurrences of anti-Roma violence are condemned by the public and repressed by the authorities. Among highly medialized cases was Vítkov arson attack of 2009
Vítkov arson attack of 2009
The Vítkov arson attack of 2009 occurred during the night of 18 / 19 April 2009. Three Molotov cocktails were thrown through the windows of a house inhabited by a Roma family. Three people were injured...
, in which four right-wing extremists seriously injured 3 year old Romani girl. The public responded by donating money as well as presents to the family, which was in the end able to buy a new house from the donations, while the perpetrators were sentenced to 18 and 22 years in prison.
The Gypsies and Romanis are in the centre of agenda of far-right groups in the Czech Republic, which are spreading antiziganism especially in connection with criminal acts rendered by Romani perpetrators on majority population victims, focusing especially on cases of rapes and murders, such as nearly killing and rape of 13 years old boy in Duchcov
Duchcov
Duchcov is a town in the Teplice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population exceeding 9,000 and is located at the foot of the Ore Mountains....
or rape of 17 year old girl in church in Nový Bydžov
Nový Bydžov
Nový Bydžov is a town in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It is situated near Hradec Králové and Chlumec nad Cidlinou on the river Cidlina.-History:...
, or brutal murder of 81 years old woman in Olešnice
Olešnice (Rychnov nad Kněžnou District)
Olešnice is a village and municipality in Rychnov nad Kněžnou District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. -References:...
by gang of Romani children, who were sent to commit the crime by father of one of them in order to exploit lower ranges of punishment available for minors. Far-right groups often hold demonstrations in places, where majority population suffers from high crime rates attributed to Romani perpetrators. Far-right groups also organize "crime patrols" in such places. (these are however no militia style patrols, they rather rely on requesting police presence). Far-right is also promoting repatriation of Roma to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
on voluntary basis, arguing that the Czech state should offer paying all the costs, including establishment of their new livelihood there. There are some Romani groups calling for a similar plan, however instead of India they are requesting relocation to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
or Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, while in their view the Czech Republic should reimburse costs.
In January 2010, Amnesty International launched a report titled Injustice Renamed: Discrimination in Education of Roma persists in the Czech Republic. According to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, it was Amnesty's view that while cosmetic changes had been introduced by the authorities, little genuine improvement in addressing discrimination against Romani children has occurred over recent years.
Denmark
In DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, there was much controversy when the city of Helsingør decided to put all Romani students in special classes in its public schools. The classes were later abandoned after it was determined that they were discriminatory and the Romanis were put back in regular classes.
France
France has come under criticism for its treatment of Roma. In the summer of 2010 French authorities demolished at least 51 illegal Roma camps and began the process of repatriating their residents to their countries of origin. The French government has been accused of perpetrating these actions to pursue its political agenda.Germany
After 2005 Germany deported some 50,000 people, mainly gypsies and Romanis, to Kosovo. These were asylum seekeres who fled the country during the Kosovo WarKosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
. The people were deported after living more than 10 years in Germany. The deportations were higly controversial: many of children, who obtained education in Germany, spoke German as their primary language and considered themselves as Germans.
Hungary
Hungary has seen escalating violence against the Romani people. On 23 February 2009, a Romani man and his five-year old son were shot dead in TatárszentgyörgyTatárszentgyörgy
-References:...
village southeast of Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
as they were fleeing their burning house which was set alight by a petrol bomb. The dead man's two other children suffered serious burns. Suspects were arrested and are currently on trial.
Another commentator feels that Hungary is on the brink of a race war with the ethnic Hungarian paramilitary Magyar Garda in confrontation with the Romani Garda.
Italy
The country is home to about 150,000, who live mainly in squalid camps on the outskirts of major cities such as Rome, Milan and Naples. They amount to less than 0.3 per cent of the population, one of the lowest proportions in Europe. In general, the ethnic group lives apart and is often blamed for petty theft and burglaries.In 2007 and 2008, following the brutal murder of a woman in Rome at the hands of a young man from a local Romani encampment, the Italian government started a crackdown on illegal Roma and Sinti campsites in the country.
In May 2008 Romani camps in Naples were attacked and set on fire by local residents. In July 2008, a high court in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
overthrew the conviction of defendants who had publicly demanded the expulsion of Romanis from Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
in 2001 and reportedly ruled that "it is acceptable to discriminate against Roma on the grounds that they are thieves." One of those freed was Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi
Flavio Tosi is an Italian Venetist politician. He is member of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.-Career:Having joined Liga Veneta in 1991, he was elected to the Municipal Council of Verona in 1994 at the age of 25. From 1997 to 2003 he was also provincial secretary of Liga Veneta for the Province of Verona...
, Verona's mayor and an official of the anti-immigrant Lega Nord. The decision came during a "nationwide clampdown" on Romanis by Italian prime minister
Prime minister of Italy
The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
. The previous week, Berlusconi's interior minister Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni
Roberto Maroni is an Italian politician from Varese. He is a member of the Northern League political movement. Since 1992 he is a Member of the Chamber of Duputies of the Italian Republic, always elected in Lombardy's districts and costituencies...
declared that all Romanis in Italy, including children, would be fingerprinted.
Opposition party member, Gianclaudio Bressa, responded by insisting that these measures "increasingly resemble those of an authoritarian regime". In response to the fingerprinting plan, three United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
experts testified that "by exclusively targeting the Roma minority, this proposal can be unambiguously classified as discriminatory." The European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
denounced the plan as "a clear act of racial discrimination" and asked the Italian government not to continue.
A short time later, in July 2008, the deaths of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic
Death of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic
Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic were two young Roma girls who died accidentally in July 2008 while swimming at a beach in Naples, Italy. Their deaths brought international attention when their covered bodies were photographed amidst Italian vacationers who seemed unconcerned that two non-Italian...
, two Roma children who drowned while Italian beach-goers in Naples remained unperturbed, brought additional international attention to the strained relationship between Italians and the Roma people.
United Kingdom
In the UKUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, racism and animosity against Roma, Romanichal, British Romanies and other Travelling groups is still endemic within Britain and until the 1960s it was a common to hang signs in pubs declaring “No Blacks, No dogs, No Gypsies”. In 2008 the media reported that Gypsies experience a higher degree of racism than any other group in the UK, including asylum-seekers and a Mori poll indicated that a third of UK residents admitted openly to being prejudiced against Gypsies. The term "travellers" (referring to Scottish Travellers
Scottish Travellers
Scottish Travellers, or the people termed loosely Gypsies and Tinkers in Scotland, consist of a number of diverse, unrelated communities, with groups speaking a variety of different languages and holding to distinct customs, histories, and traditions...
, New Age Travellers
New age travellers
New Age Travellers are groups of people who often espouse New Age or hippie beliefs and travel between music festivals and fairs in order to live in a community with others who hold similar beliefs. Their transport and homes consist of vans, lorries, buses, narrowboats and caravans converted into...
as well as Romanichal, Roma and Irish Travellers) became a 2005 general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
issue, with the leader of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
promising to review the Human Rights Act 1998
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights...
. This law, which absorbs the European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
into UK primary legislation
Primary legislation
Primary legislation is law made by the legislative branch of government. This contrasts with secondary legislation, which is usually made by the executive branch...
, is seen by some to permit the granting of retrospective planning permission
Planning permission
Planning permission or planning consent is the permission required in the United Kingdom in order to be allowed to build on land, or change the use of land or buildings. Within the UK the occupier of any land or building will need title to that land or building , but will also need "planning...
. Severe population pressures and the paucity of greenfield
Greenfield land
Greenfield land is a term used to describe undeveloped land in a city or rural area either used for agriculture, landscape design, or left to naturally evolve...
sites have led to travellers purchasing land and setting up residential settlements very quickly, thus subverting the planning restrictions.
Travellers argued in response that thousands of retrospective planning permissions are granted in Britain in cases involving non-Romani applicants each year and that statistics showed that 90% of planning applications by Romanis and travellers were initially refused by local councils
Local government in the United Kingdom
The pattern of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to the local arrangements. Legislation concerning local government in England is decided by the Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom, because England does not have a devolved...
, compared with a national average of 20% for other applicants, disproving claims of preferential treatment favouring Romanis.
They also argued that the root of the problem was that many traditional stopping-places had been barricaded off and that legislation passed by the previous Conservative government had effectively criminalised their community, for example by removing local authorities’ responsibility to provide sites, thus leaving the travellers with no option but to purchase unregistered new sites themselves.
Northern Ireland
In June 2009, having had their windows broken and deaths threats made against them, twenty Romanian Romani families were forced from their homes in the Lisburn Road
Lisburn Road
The Lisburn Road is a main arterial road linking Belfast and Lisburn, in Northern Ireland.The Lisburn Road is now an extension of the "Golden Mile" with many shops, boutiques, wine bars, restaurants and coffee houses. The road runs almost parallel to the Malone Road, the two being joined by many...
, Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
. Up to 115 people, including women and children, were forced to seek refuge in a local church hall
Church hall
A church hall is a room or building associated with a church, general for community and charitable use . It is normally located near the church, typically in smaller and village communities. Activities in the hall are not necessarily religious, but are typically an important part of local community...
after being attacked. They were later moved by the authorities to a safer location. An anti-racist
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...
rally in the city on 15 June to support Romani rights was attacked by youths chanting neo-Nazi slogans. The attacks were condemned by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and political leaders from both the Unionist
Unionism in Ireland
Unionism in Ireland is an ideology that favours the continuation of some form of political union between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain...
and Nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
traditions in Northern Ireland.
Following the arrest of three local youths in relation to the attacks, the church where the Romanies had been given shelter was badly vandalised. Using 'emergency funds', Northern Ireland authorities assisted most of the victims to return to Romania.
Norway
In NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, many Romani people were forcibly sterilized by the state until 1977. Due to the recent influx of Romani peoples from Romania and Moldova, the Romani have become a common sight on city streets in Norway for 9 – 10 months of the year. This has led to many complaints specifically concerning Romani beggars. There is generally much prejudice expresses by many Norwegian and specifically in the Southern city of Kristiansand a number of dubious accusations have been made against the Romani in the regional newspaper and via the internet. Some Kristiansand citizens have reacted to non-aggressive begging by spitting or verbally harassing the beggars.
Kosovo
In the aftermath of the Kosovo WarKosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, the Society for Threatened Peoples
Society for Threatened Peoples
Society for Threatened Peoples is an international NGO and human rights organization based in Göttingen, Germany. It seeks to create awareness of and protect minority peoples around the world who are threatened by oppressive governments. The group states on its website that it "campaigns against...
estimated that 80% of Kosovo's 150,000 Romanis were expelled by the Albanian population. At UN internally-displaced persons' camps in Kosovo for Romanis, the refugees were exposed to lead poisoning.
United States
Law enforcement agencies in the United States hold regular conferences on the Romani people and similar nomadic groups. It is common to refer to the operators of certain types of travelling con artists and fortune-tellingFortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
businesses as "gypsies," as the term in the United States has come to designate any peoples with a nomadic lifestyle rather than a specific ethnic group. Additionally, a common derogatory phrase in the US is to "be gypped," as in "I was gypped" or "he gypped me," meaning that someone executed a bad deal or took money that he was not entitled to take.
Environmental struggles
Environmental struggles within the group of people labeled the Gypsies or Roma people are very common. Because the Romani people experience various types of prejudice within the areas and countries that they live, they are more likely to be subjects of environmental injustices and environmental racism. The gypsies, because of their minority status are oftentimes pushed to the outskirts of towns and cities and receive fewer benefits and lesser levels of education. It is documented thatWhile the economic restructuring of a command economy into a western style market economy created hardships for most Hungarians, with the national unemployment rate heading toward 14 percent and per capita real income falling, the burdens imposed on Romas are disproportionately great.This group of people is a minority that is consistently cast out and denied opportunities that other Europeans have. Even the simple aspects of life that are the result of a job and income are not available to this group of people due to their inability to gain working positions. Ethnic prejudice is a prevalent issue among the Romani populations. It is difficult for all people of gypsy descent to obtain a working position, male or female. Being stuck in positions of helplessness can lead to many other issues. These issues are displayed overtly within the population of the Gypsy people as a result of being ostracized from community and respect by the other populations that inhabit European soil.
One of these issues deals with the health risks involved in a subordinate, limited lifestyle. These people are often forced to live in areas without clean water, to live without jobs to pay for food, and are set apart from learning communities, making them more vulnerable to disease and environmental inequality. Environmental injustice refers to people who are:
Denied environmental benefits such as water, sewage treatment facilities, sanitation and access to natural resources, and suffer from exposure to environmental hazards due to their proximity to hazardous waste sites, incinerators, factories, and other sources of pollutionThis definition is applicable to the Romani people in several different ways. There is a very proliferate issue with access to water among the Romani people all over Europe. This is mostly due to their inconvenience of living locations and the distance in which they live away from wells. “While most of Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, is connected to the public water and sewerage system, there is only one tap for every 200 families in Glavova “mahala”, an area in Sofia where Roma live.” This forces the women and children to receive the amount of water necessary for them to live off of by walking with heavy buckets to and from the well each day or as often as needed. Not only does this lack of irrigation affect the quality of water, it directly affects the health of those that drink the water. The lack of irrigation and sewage is also toxic because waste is never decontaminated and/or completely removed from the living quarters. Instead of being cleaned or taken away, the waste runs down tunnels that are dug by hand into a swamp nearby. This method of sewage presents many health risks to the Gypsy people that are forced to live in these conditions.
Water-borne diseases, such as diarrhoea and dysentery, are an almost constant feature of daily life, especially for children. Médecins Sans Frontières, which runs the only medical centre in Fakulteta, estimates infant mortality among Roma children to be six times higher than in the rest of the Bulgarian population.This unfortunate living condition is one that is simply a result of the economy and society. Krista Harper supports this in her statement:
We argue that in the case of Roma in CEE, spaces inhabited by low-income Roma have come to be “racialized” during the post-socialist era, intensifying patterns of environmental exclusion along ethnic lines.This excerpt materializes the ideas that not only are the Gypsy people subjects of environmental injustice, but they are also made vulnerable to racism due to their own practices and traditions. Oftentimes the gypsy people are viewed differently due to their habits and lifestyles. These lifestyles however are not personal choices, but rather ways of surviving within the conditions they have been placed.
It is very common that the Roma population is located in areas that are unwanted by non-Roma populations. They are often sited amongst hazardous or dangerous facilities and left to live without the luxuries that have become common to the non-Roma, majority populations. Again Harper asks:
Is it an accident that Roma shantytowns are frequently located next to landfills, on contaminated land, or that they are regularly exposed to floods? Why do water pipelines end on the edges of their settlements, so that people have to walk miles every day just to collect potable water for cooking and drinking?This references the environmental injustices that the Gypsy people undergo. Because the Roma neighborhoods are most likely located in areas or dumping sites there are numerous issues with harmful substances like lead. In a specific case, men living in the Roma village of Heves found car batteries and began to disassemble them, exposing themselves and many others to the toxic lead that came from within. In similar cases lawsuits are held and activist groups are formed, but due to the lack of acceptance of the Romani people it is difficult to organize a group powerful enough to rise above the racism and inequalities that have already been established by non-Gypsy people.
As people have begun to research the Roma people it becomes more evident the amount of racism that has existed. The segregation of the Gypsy people from the rest of the majority population was not a gradual process that happened due to decrease in income or long term prejudices. Instead the gypsies have been intentionally removed on several occasions, and allowed only to live in areas that were assigned to them by the non-Roma. An example of this occurred in Czechoslovakia after World War II. There are also cases in which the Gypsies are both removed and denied access to areas that are deemed unfit for them to inhabit.
Local councils have issued ordinances banning Roma from settlements.10 Roma are frequently evicted, and many observers have noted a trend to remove Roma from town centers and relocate them to inferior ghettoized housing on the periphery.
Research done in these areas also began to show, specifically, the damage that has occurred in Romani villages and towns. After visiting and examining these areas it becomes evident the exact events of environmental injustice that take place. Kids run around without clothing due to lack of funds, mothers balance buckets on their heads, and elders sit in their own stench without bathing because water is so scarce. The sanitation in some areas of Gypsy neighborhoods is very minimal.
The four patterns of the unequal distribution of environmental benefits and harm identified in the research are: 1) exposure to hazardous waste and chemicals (settlements at contaminated sites); 2) vulnerability to floods; 3) differentiated access to potable water; and 4) discriminatory waste management practices. While the four identified patterns of environmental injustice may not (and probably they do not) represent all potential forms of environmental injustice, they summarize patterns identified in the field research.According to a study done by the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), one of few organizations that focus on the Gypsy people, the percentage of Roma people that have access to running water and sewage within Romania and the Czech Republic is well below the county average. This is a clear sign of both environmental racism and environmental injustice within these areas. Many diseases were reported in this study as well. There is a proliferation of skin diseases amongst the people of this area due to the lack of housing standards, including scabies
Scabies
Scabies , known colloquially as the seven-year itch, is a contagious skin infection that occurs among humans and other animals. It is caused by a tiny and usually not directly visible parasite, the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which burrows under the host's skin, causing intense allergic itching...
, pediculosis
Pediculosis
Pediculosis is an infestation of lice — blood-feeding ectoparasitic insects of the order Phthiraptera. The condition can occur in almost any species of warm-blooded animal , including humans...
, pyodermatitis, mycosis
Mycosis
A mycosis is a fungal infection of animals, including humans. Mycoses are common, and a variety of environmental and physiological conditions can contribute to the development of fungal diseases...
and askaridosis. There is also a recognition of respiratory health problems that occurs in the majority of the inhabitants of the areas. Other serious diseases that are rampant in majority gypsy populations are hepatitis and tuberculosis.
Aside from these studies implemented by the UNDP, very few organizations spend time dealing with the dilemma that the Roma face. This is due to the type of issue that most people consider the Gypsy segregation to be. Carl Maida addresses this issue by saying:
There are one or two people-not one or two groups, but one or two people- who are working on Gypsy issues…other than that, I have not heard of any Roma environmentalism. When I asked environmentalists why their groups did not deal with the problems of Roma Communities, the most frequent response was that the main problems of the Roma were poverty and access to education and that these were “social” issues, not environmental issues.It is argued, however, that it is an environmental issue that is existent as a result of the social issues. Without the wars and ideals of the areas of great segregation, the Gypsy people would most likely be able to maintain life within the bounds of society. Again, “Roma civil rights activists and environmentalists alike pointed to poverty and the dire unemployment of Gypsies in their analysis.”. It is highly argued that if it were not for the prejudice on the Gypsy people, issues of environmental racism and environmental justice would not have to be addressed.
Antiziganism in popular culture
- The European Center for Antiziganism ResearchEuropean Center for Antiziganism ResearchThe European Centre for Antiziganism Research, or ECAR, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to combatting Antiziganism, or prejudice against Romani people, also known as Gypsies....
officially filed a complaint against Sacha Baron CohenSacha Baron CohenSacha Noam Baron Cohen is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice artist. He is most widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, and Brüno...
— who plays Borat in the eponymous mockumentaryMockumentaryA mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
film BoratBorat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of KazakhstanBorat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, often referred to simply as Borat, is a 2006 mockumentary comedy film directed by Larry Charles and distributed by 20th Century Fox...
— for inciting violence and violating GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's anti-discrimination laws. One part of the satiricalSatireSatire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
film, which purportedly portrays Borat's impoverished native village in KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, actually shows a Romani village in Romania.
- The Tintin bookThe Adventures of TintinThe Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
The Castafiore EmeraldThe Castafiore EmeraldThe Castafiore Emerald is an album in the classic comic-strip series The Adventures of Tintin by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero....
heavily criticises antiziganism, as the Romanis who move onto Captain HaddockCaptain HaddockCaptain Archibald Haddock is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
's property are falsely accused of stealing Bianca CastafioreBianca CastafioreBianca Castafiore, the "Milanese Nightingale", is a fictional character in The Adventures of Tintin, the series of classic Belgian comic books written and illustrated by Hergé...
's priceless emeraldEmeraldEmerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...
, though they are innocent.
- Claude Frollo, the antagonist of Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's The Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre DameThe Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...
, was portrayed as having a strong, genocidal hatred of gypsies in Disney's animated adaptation of the story.