Romani Culture - Relations With Other People

Relations With Other People

Because of their nomadic lifestyle and differences in language and culture, Romanies and their more settled neighbours have held each other in distrust. The popular image of Romanies as tramps and thieves unfit for work contributed to their widespread persecution. This belief is often cited as the etymological source of the term gyp, meaning to "cheat", as in "I got gypped by a con man." The German name Zigeuner is often thought through popular etymology to derive either from Ziehende Gauner, which means 'travelling thieves', or from the Hungarian Cigány from their word "szegény" meaning "poor". The validity of these derivations, however, is disputed.

During the Enlightenment, Spain briefly and unsuccessfully tried to assimilate the Romanies into the mainstream population by forcing them to abandon their language and way of life; even the word gitano was made illegal. Persecution of Romanies reached a peak during World War II in the Porajmos.

There are still tensions between the Romanies and the majority population around them. Common complaints are that Romanies steal and live off social welfare and residents often reject Romani encampments. In the UK, travellers (referring to both Irish Travellers and Romanies) became a 2005 general election issue, with the leader of the Conservative Party promising to review the Human Rights Act 1998. This law, which absorbs the European Convention on Human Rights into UK primary legislation, is seen by some to permit the granting of retrospective planning permission for Romani communities. Severe population pressures and the paucity of greenfield sites have led to travellers purchasing land and setting up residential settlements almost overnight, thus subverting the planning restrictions imposed on other members of the community. Travellers argued in response that thousands of retrospective planning permissions are granted in Britain in cases involving non-Romanies applicants each year and that statistics showed that 90% of planning applications by Romanies and travellers were initially refused by local councils, compared with a national average of 20% for other applicants, potentially disproving claims of preferential treatment favouring Gypsies. 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 communities by removing local authorities’ responsibility to provide sites, thus leaving the travellers with no option but to purchase unregistered new sites themselves.

Law enforcement agencies in the United States hold regular conferences on the Romanies and similar nomadic groups.

In 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 Romanies were put back in regular classes. Reference page in Danish