The Roma
Origins
The Roma, along with certain less numerous peoples who are alsosometimes referred to Gypsies, left India most likely in the 5thcentury. More than one theory now exists about why and how these nomadic tribes left northern India for Persia. Some claim that they were they were a low-caste tribe called the Dom, slave musicians who were sold to Persia or sent as a gift. Some claim that the Roma are descended from Indian mercenaries. The Roma went via India toward Armenia and Turkey between the 5th and 10th century and spread westward into Europe during the Ottoman Empire’s thrusts into the west. Roma were immediately distrusted in Europe. They were a strange colour, spoke an unknown language, were not Christian, and were often assumed to be demonic. Further, given their arrival with the Ottomans, they were often viewed as Muslim spies. They were nomadic, which was not acceptable under the economic models of the time.
From the beginning, Roma were persecuted and denied access to the majority’s economy. Laws across Europe made it illegal simply to be a Gypsy. In Bohemia, Leopold I ordered that all Gypsy men be killed and their women’s ears cut off. Later, England and parts of what is now Germany would pass laws ordering all Gypsies to be killed. Spain forbade the use of the Romani language and traditional dress. During the 1600s France made the punishment for being a Gypsy forced labour in the hands of the state. In the 1700s England, France, and Portugal all had a policy of deporting all nomads.Many of America’s Roma trace their roots to these expulsions. Under Maria Theresa and the Hapsburgs, the aim was to assimilate Roma. Nomadism was forbidden, making impossible the traditional occupations of most Roma, and white peasants were given cash incentives to marry Roma. The Roma did not blend into the local population despite these efforts. Laws forbidding the language likewise were only mildly successful.
In the 1860s Roma were freed from centuries of slavery in Romania and Moldova. The newly-freed people had no homes or job skills and formed a new wave of Romani migration across Europe and the Americas. The descendants of this migration wave are usually referred to as Vlach or Olach Roma, due to their connections to the Wallachia region of Romani.
Under Nazism, Gypsies were marked as an inferior and foreign race in Europe which must be completely removed from the continent. Like Jews, Roma were first subjected to several restrictive laws and then condemned to total extermination. Anyone found to be 1/8 Gypsy was to go to the concentration camps. About 95% of the Czech lands’ Roma died in WWII.
The majority of Roma living in the Czech Republic today were relocated here from Slovakia in the 1950s, when the Czechoslovak government wanted labour to fill new factories in the north. Roma are the Czech Republic’s largest minority at between 200,000 and 300,000 people. They continue to be treated with contempt.Discrimination Today in the Czech RepublicEducation. All children in theory receive the same education regardless of race. In practise, somewhere from 65-75% of Roma are removed from the normal school system and put in schools for the mentally retarded before they reach puberty. Unless we accept that 3/4 of Roma are mentally impaired, the school system seems tohave a mechanism for segregation. Less than 5% of Roma receive highschool matriculation. Within the school system itself there is no mention of recognition of the Roma. Despite their presence here for at least five centuries, they are entirely left out of history texts. Their language is not offered anywhere, even in regions where the Roma make up a significant percentage of the population.Employment. Whereas unemployment for the Czech Republic is around 9%, for Roma estimates are anywhere from 60% to 95%. The problem is no doubt largely due to educational issues but also is, according to the Council of Europe, the US State Department,and many human rights organisations, due to widespread jobdiscrimination. It is still common for Roma to be directly told that firms or shops simply have a no Gypsies policy.Segregation of public places. An ongoing study has found so far that 45 out of 60 visited restaurants refuse to serve Roma. Several foreign embassies including that of the US, the Council of Europe and the UNHCR all agree that discrimination in public places is widespread. In no case has any Rom won a court case in which a white was accused of racial discrimination.Violence. According to HOST, the membership of neo-fascist and neo-Nazi organisations has gone up every year since 1989. The number of racially-motivated assaults has also gone up every yearaccording to HOST and to numerous international rights groups.Most victims of hate crimes are Roma. In recent surveys, more than 30% of Czechs said that they think Roma should be ”relocated and isolated”. According to a 1996 study by the newspaper THE EUROPEAN, 91% of Czechs said that they dislike Roma. The level of discrimination is so high and widespread that the Government of Canada recently (April 1998) deemed it persecution, and on that basis has been granting Czech Roma refugee status in Canada.