Romani people

The Romani people are known by a variety of names, mostly as Gypsies, Romani, Roma, Romanies, Tsinganoi, Bohémiens, with many variants. Numerous subgroups and clans self-designate, such as the Sinti, Kalderash, Boyash, Manouche, Lovari, Lăutari, Machvaya, Romanichal, Romanisael, Calé, Kale, Kaale, Xoraxai, Xaladytka, Romungro, Ursari, and Sevlengere. In English, the word gypsy is most common.

In some regions, Roma is the primary term used in political contexts. Because all Romani use Romani as an adjective, Romani became an alternative noun. It is used by organizations such as the United Nations and the US Library of Congress. However, the World Roma Congress, the Council of Europe and other organizations prefer the term Roma, and recommend that Romani be used only as an adjective. The British government uses "Roma" as a sub-group of "White" in its ethnic classification system.

The English word Rom derives from Romani rom, meaning 'man, husband' (plural romá). Rom (with the plural Roma or Roms) and Romani (with the plural Romanies) are nouns and adjectives. Both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy. Romani is also spelled Romany, or Rommany. The terms Roma and Romanis are increasingly encountered as generic terms for the Romani people.

Rom's etymology is unclear. The Oxford English Dictionary says it likely derives from Sanskrit ḍomba, meaning 'lower-caste person working as a wandering musician', itself deriving from a Dravidian word, such as domba, ḍomba ('caste of acrobats, jugglers, clowns'). The standard assumption is that the demonyms of the Roma, Lom, and Dom, share the same origin.

Romani may serve as the feminine adjective and Romano as the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as an ethnic name, while others (such as the Sinti, or the Romanichal) do not.

Sometimes, Rom and Romani are spelled with a double r, i.e. Rrom and Rromani. In this case, Rr is used to represent the phoneme /ʀ/ (also written as ř and rh), which in some Romani dialects has remained distinct from the one written with a single r. The double r spelling is common in certain institutions (such as the INALCO Institute in Paris) or used in certain countries, e.g. Romania, to distinguish it from the endonym/homonym for Romanians (sg. român, pl. români).

In English, the exonym Gypsy (or Gipsy) is the most commonly used term. It originates from the Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien. The Castilian term Gitano and the French Gitan have similar etymologies. They are ultimately derived from the Greek Aigyptioi (Αιγύπτιοι), meaning 'Egyptian', via Latin. This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Roma, or some related group (such as the Indian Dom people), were itinerant Egyptians. Another designation is Cingane (alternatively Çingene, Tsinganoi, Zigar, Zigeuner, Tschingaren), likely deriving from the Persian word چنگانه (chingane), itself derived from the Turkic word çıgañ, meaning poor person. It is possible that the origin of this word is Athinganoi, the name of a Christian sect with whom the Roma (or some related group) could have become associated.

These exonyms may be written with a capital letter, to designate an ethnic group. While some Roma use the term, others consider it derogatory. The Council of Europe rejects the use of "Gypsy" and its variants, as well as administrative terms such as "Gens du Voyage". In Britain, many Roma proudly identify as "Gypsies", and, as part of the Gypsy/Roma/Traveller grouping, it is used to describe all para-Romani groups in official contexts. In North America, the word Gypsy is most commonly used as a reference to Romani ethnicity, though a nomadic lifestyle and fashion are also referenced using this word.

Other designations

In English, the exonym Gypsy (or Gipsy) is the most commonly used term for the group. It originates from the Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien. The Castilian term Gitano and the French Gitan have similar etymologies. They are ultimately derived from the Greek Aigyptioi (Αιγύπτιοι), meaning 'Egyptian', via Latin. This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Roma, or some related group (such as the Indian Dom people), were itinerant Egyptians.

These exonyms are sometimes written with a capital letter, to show that they designate an ethnic group. While some Roma use the term, some Roma consider it derogatory because of its negative and stereotypical associations. The Council of Europe considers that "Gypsy" or equivalent terms, as well as administrative terms such as "Gens du Voyage", are not in line with European recommendations. In Britain, many Roma proudly identify as "Gypsies", and, as part of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller grouping, this is the name used to describe all para-Romani groups in official contexts. In North America, the word Gypsy is most commonly used as a reference to Romani ethnicity, though lifestyle and fashion are at times also referenced using this word.

Another designation of the Roma is Cingane (alternatively Çingene, Tsinganoi, Zigar, Zigeuner, Tschingaren), likely deriving from the Persian word چنگانه (chingane), itself derived from the Turkic word çıgañ, meaning poor person. It is also possible that the origin of this word is Athinganoi, the name of a Christian sect with whom the Roma (or some related group) could have become associated in the past.

Estimates

No official/reliable counts of Roma populations worldwide were available as of 2005. Many Roma refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for reasons such as fear of discrimination.

The European Romani population was estimated to be 10 million in Europe (as of 2019). Some Romani organizations gave earlier estimates as high as 14 million (2007). Significant Romani populations inhabit the Balkans and spread across Europe. In the European Union, an estimated 6 million Roma live (2019).

Outside Europe, several million more Roma may live, particularly in the Americas. Today, Turkey has the largest Romani population. Turkey has the largest Romani population.

Subgroups

Romani people may belong to distinct subgroups based in part on territorial, cultural and dialectal differences, as well as self-designation.

Romani subgroups may have more than one ethnonym. They may use more than one endonym and be commonly known by an exonym or by the endonym of another subgroup. The only name approaching an all-encompassing self-description is Rom. Even when subgroups do not use the name, they all acknowledge a common origin and a dichotomy between themselves and Gadjo (non-Roma). For instance, while the main group of Roma in German-speaking countries refer to themselves as Sinti, their name for their language is Romanes.

Subgroups have been described, in part, as a result of the castes and subcastes in India, which the founding population of Rom almost certainly experienced in their South Asian urheimat.

Many subgroups use names derived from the Romani word kalo or calo, meaning "black" or "absorbing all light". This closely resembles words for "black" or "dark" in Indo-Aryan languages (e.g., Sanskrit काल kāla: "black", "of a dark color"). Likewise, the name of the Dom or Domba people of North India, with whom the Roma have genetic, cultural, and linguistic links, has come to imply "dark-skinned" in some Indian languages. Hence, names such as kale and calé may have originated as an exonym or euphemism for Roma.

While not subgroups, Romani people often use the term Xoraxane to refer to Turkified or Muslim Roma and Dasikane to refer to Christian Roma.

Other endonyms for Roma include:

• Arlije (also Erlides, Yerli, meaning "local", from the Turkish word Yerli) in the Balkans and Turkey to describe sedentary Muslim Roma
• Bashaldé, Hungarian-Slovak Roma diaspora in the US from the late 19th century
• Bergitka Roma (also Carpathian Roma), Poland, mainly Goral lands
• Çerge also Čergarja (nomad), Nomadic Lifestyle Muslim Roma in the Balkans and Turkey
• Calé, the endonym used by both the Spanish Roma (gitanos) and Portuguese Roma (ciganos). Caló is the language spoken by the Calé
• Gurbeti Muslim Roma in Northern Cyprus, Turkey and Balkans
• Kaale or Kàlo in Finland and Sweden
• Kā̊lē, the primary endonym used by the Romani subgroup in Wales, although Kalé is the most prominent orthography in academia (Romanichal also live in Wales)
• Lalleri, from Austria, Germany, and the western Czech Republic (including the former Sudetenland)
• Lovari, chiefly in Central Europe, formerly known as horse traders, whose name derives from the Hungarian word for horse
• Polska Roma, largest Romani subgroup in Poland
• Rom in Italy
• Roma in Romania, commonly known by ethnic Romanians as țigani, have a number of subgroups defined by occupation:
  • Argintari "silversmiths"
  • Aurari "goldsmiths"
  • Boyash, also known as Băieși, Lingurari, Ludar, Ludari, or Rudari, who coalesced in the Apuseni Mountains of Transylvania. Băieși is a Romanian word for "miners." Lingurari means "spoon makers", and Ludar (sing.), Ludari (pl.), and Rudari may mean "woodworkers" or "miners". (There is a semantic overlap due to the homophony or merging of lemmas with different meanings from at least two languages: the Serbian rudar "miner", and ruda "stick", "staff", "rod", "bar", "pole" (in Hungarian, rúd, and in Romanian, rudă)
  • Churari (from Romanian ciurari "sieve-makers")
  • Colari "carpet dealers"
  • Florari "flower-sellers"
  • Kalderash, from Romanian căldărar, literally "bucket-maker", meaning "kettle-maker", "tinsmith", "tinker"; also in Poland, Moldova and Ukraine
  • Lăutari "musicians" (lăută = lute)
  • Ungaritza (blacksmiths, bladesmiths)
  • Ursari ""dancing bears" trainers" (from Romanian urs "bear")
  • Zlătari "goldsmiths working with extracting and processing gold" (Not to be confused with Rudari miners)"
• Romové (or Roma), Czech Republic
• Rómovia (or Roma), Slovakia
• Romanichal, in the United Kingdom

• Romanisæl, in Norway and Sweden
• Romanlar, Turkish-speaking Muslim Roma in Turkey, also called Çingene or Şopar, with all subgroups, who are named after their professions, like:
  • Ayıcı (bear-leader)
  • Cambaz (acrobatics and horse trading)
  • Çiçekçi (flower-seller)
  • Demirci (blacksmith)
  • Kalaycı (tinsmith)
  • Kuyumcu (goldsmith)
  • Müzisyen (musician)
  • Sepetçi (basket-maker)
  • Subaşı (soldier or butler)
  • Sünnetçi (circumciser)
  • Şarkıcı (singer) etc., but the majority of Turkish Roma work as day laborers too
• Roms or Manouche (from manush, "people" in Romani) in France
• Romungro or Carpathian Roma from eastern Hungary and neighbouring parts of the Carpathians
• Sepečides, meaning "basket-maker"; Muslim Roma in West Thrace, Greece
• Sinti or Zinti, predominantly in Germany, and northern Italy
• Zargari, Muslim Roma in Iran, who once came from Rumelia/Southern Bulgaria from the Maritsa Valley in Ottoman times and settled in Persia

Diaspora

Roma form distinct populations throughout Europe.

In the 19th century, Roma began migrating from Europe to the Americas. However, Romani slaves were first shipped to the Americas with Columbus in 1498. Spain sent Romani slaves to its Louisiana colony between 1762 and 1800. An Afro-Romani community exists in St. Martin Parish due to intermarriage between freed African American and Romani slaves.

In Brazil, the Roma are mainly called ciganos by the non-Romani population. Most of them belong to the Calés (Kale) subgroup. Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazil's president from 1956 to 1961, was 50% Romani via his mother'. Washington Luís, the last president of the First Brazilian Republic (1926-1930), had Romani ancestry.

The US Romani population is estimated at more than one million. Between 800,000 and 1 million Roma live in Brazil, most of whose ancestors immigrated in the 19th century. Brazilian Roma are mostly descended from German and Italian Sinti (in the South and Southeast regions) and from Roma and Calon people. Brazil also includes a notable Romani community descended from Sinti and Roma deportees from the Portuguese Empire during the Portuguese Inquisition.

Persecution led many Roma cultural practices to be extinguished, hidden, or modified to survive in places that excluded them. The widespread carnivals throughout Brazil are one of the few spaces in which the Roma can express their cultural traditions, including the so-called "carnival wedding" in which a boy is disguised as a bride, and the "Romaní dance", presented by women parading in their traditional attire.

Genetics reveal that the ancestors of the Romani people originated in the northwestern regions of South Asia, particularly in present-day Punjab, Rajasthan and Sindh. Because Romani groups did not chronicle their history or maintain oral accounts, most hypotheses about early Roma are based on linguistic data.

Shahnameh legend

According to a legend reported in the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh, the Sasanian king Bahrām V Gōr learned toward the end of his reign (421-439) that the poor could not afford to enjoy music, and so he asked the king of India to send him ten thousand luris, expert lute-player. When the luris arrived, Bahrām gave each one an ox, a donkey, and a donkey-load of wheat so they could live on agriculture and play music for the poor. However, the luris ate the oxen and the wheat and returned a year later with their cheeks hollowed by hunger. The king, angered by their having wasted his gifts, ordered them to wander the world on their donkeys.

Linguistic evidence

Linguistic evidence showed that the roots of the Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages, and a large part of its lexicon shares that root.

Romani and Domari share some agglutination of second-layer postpositions (or case-marking clitics) to the nominal stem, concord markers for the past tense, neutralization of gender marking in the plural, and use of the oblique case as an accusative. This prompted discussion about the relationship between the languages. Domari was once thought to be a "sister language" of Romani, with the two languages splittng after leaving the Indian subcontinent. Later research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as separate branches within the central zone language group. The Dom and the Rom, therefore, likely descend from two waves of migration separated by several centuries.

The Romani migration hypothesis is supported by several lines of evidence. The Romani language features a unique blend of words found in modern Indian dialects, including many military-related terms. Genetic studies reinforce this theory by revealing a link between Romani populations and specific communities (castes) in northern India, such as the upper-caste Jats and Rajputs.

In phonology, the Romani language shares isoglosses with the Central branch of Indo-Aryan languages, especially in the realization of some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan. However, it preserves several dental clusters. In regards to verb morphology, Romani follows the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers, lending credence to the theory of their Central Indian origin and migration to northwestern India. Although the retention of dental clusters suggests a break from central languages during the transition from Old to Middle Indo-Aryan, the overall morphology suggests that the language participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages. The following table presents the numerals in the Romani, Domari and Lomavren languages, with the corresponding terms in Sanskrit, Hindi, Odia, and Sinhala to demonstrate the similarities. Note that the Romani numerals 7 through 9 have been borrowed from Greek.

Genetic evidence

Genetic findings published in 2012 suggest that the Roma originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group. According to the study, the ancestors of present-day scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations of northern India, traditionally referred to collectively as the Ḍoma, are the likely ancestral populations of European Roma. However, scholars such as Ian Hancock speculated that they could have originated from high-caste groups such as Jats and Rajputs.

Also in 2012, another study reported that the "Roma came from a single group that left northwestern India about 1,500 years ago". According to the study, they reached the Balkans about 900 years ago and subsequently spread throughout Europe. The team also found that the Roma displayed genetic isolation, as well as "differential gene flow in time and space with non-Romani Europeans".

Genetic research reported that "over 70% of males belong to a single lineage that appears unique to the Roma".

Genetic evidence dates the migration from India to medieval times. The Roma were described as "a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations", while common Mendelian disorders among Roma indicates "a common origin and founder effect". A 2020 whole-genome study reported the northern Indian origins, and substantial Balkan and Middle Eastern ancestry amongst Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. The study also included a sample of Roma from Spain and Lithuania, with significantly greater European ancestry.

A 2001 study reported "a limited number of related founders, compatible with a small group of migrants splitting from a distinct caste or tribal group". The same study reported that "a single lineage... found across Romani populations, accounts for almost one-third of Romani males". A 2004 study of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe and Spain. concluded that the Romani population "was founded approximately 32-40 generations ago, with secondary and tertiary founder events occurring approximately 16-25 generations ago".

Haplogroup H-M82 is a major lineage cluster among Balkan Roma, accounting for approximately 60% of the total. Haplogroup H is uncommon in Europe, but is present in the Indian subcontinent.

A study of 444 people representing three ethnic groups in North Macedonia found that mtDNA haplogroups M5a1 and H7a1a were dominant among Roma (13.7% and 10.3%, respectively).

Y-DNA composition of Muslim Roma from Šuto Orizari Municipality in North Macedonia, based on 57 samples:

• Haplogroup H, 59.6%
• Haplogroup E, 29.8%
• Haplogroup I, 5.3%
• Haplogroup R, 3.0%, of which half are R1b and many are R1a
• Haplogroup G, 1.8%

Y-DNA Haplogroup H1a occurs in Roma at 7-70% frequencies. Unlike ethnic Hungarians, Hungarian and Slovak Roma subpopulations typically exhibit Haplogroup E-M78 and I1 at frequencies above 10% and sometimes above 20%, while the dominant haplogroup among Slovak and Tiszavasvari Roma is H1a; among Tokaj Roma, it is Haplogroup J2a (23%); and among Taktaharkány Roma, it is Haplogroup I2a (21%).

Five relatively consistent founder lineages were reported among Roma subpopulations: J-M67 and J-M92 (J2), H-M52 (H1a1), and I-P259 (I1). Haplogroup I-P259, as H, is not found at frequencies above 3% among host populations, while haplogroups E and I are absent in South Asia. The lineages E-V13, I-P37 (I2a), and R-M17 (R1a) may represent gene flow from the host populations. Bulgarian, Romanian, and Greek Roma are dominated by Haplogroup H-M82 (H1a1), while J2 is prevalent among Spanish Roma. In Serbia, Haplogroup H prevails among Kosovo and Belgrade Roma, while among Vojvodina Roma, H drops to 7% and E-V13 becomes the dominant haplogroup.

Among non-Roma Europeans, Haplogroup H is rare, peaking at 7% among Albanians from Tirana and 11% among Bulgarian Turks. The Ottoman occupation of the Balkans left a significant genetic mark on the Y-DNA of the Roma there, resulting in a higher frequency of Haplogroups J and E3b in Romani populations from the region.

Full genome analysis

A 2019 full-genome autosomal DNA study on 186 Roma samples from southeastern, northeastern, and southwestern Europe reported that modern Romani people in these areas are characterized by a common South Asian origin and a complex admixture of Middle Eastern, Caucasus, Balkan and broader European-derived ancestries. Earlier admixture dates among Roma in the Balkans support that they migrated into Europe via the Balkans. The autosomal genetic data links the proto-Roma to groups in northwest India (specifically Punjabi and Gujarati samples), as well as Dravidian-speaking groups in southeastern India (specifically the Irula). The paternal lineages of Roma are most common among Dravidian-speaking populations in southern and central India. The authors argue that this may point to a founder effect among the early Roma during their ethnogenesis or shortly after their migration out of the Indian subcontinent. It is theorized that the ancestors of the Romani people may have had a low-caste origin, since they were genetically closer to the Punjabi cluster that lacks a common marker characteristic of high castes: West Eurasian admixing.

Possible migration route

Romani ancestors may have emerged from what became Rajasthan and migrated northwest to what became Punjab around 250 BCE. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, was dated around 500 CE. The migration may have taken place in the context of the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni. As these soldiers were defeated, they moved westward with their families into the Byzantine Empire. A central Indian origin for Romani followed by a migration to northwest India, is supported by ancient isoglosses with Central Indo-Aryan languages in the realization of some Old Indo-Aryan sounds. This is further supported by its sharing patterns with northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some of the developments leading to the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages, thus indicating that the proto-Roma did not leave the Indian subcontinent until the late second half of the first millennium.

Armenian-origin words in the Romani language indicate that Roma passed through Armenia before the linguistic changes of the 9th century. They arrived in the Balkans, and thus in Europe proper, during the Byzantine period.

Romani people have a long history of adopting other ethnic identities or getting labeled as members of other ethnic groups.

Indian diaspora

In March 1976, the International Roma Cultural Festival in Chandigarh, India, received the support of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who referred to the Roma as part of the global Indian diaspora. In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, then Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj stated that the Roma are the "children of India". Advocates who took part, including Jovan Damjanovic, president of the World Roma Organisation (Rromanipen), argued that recognition could provide the Roma with cultural affirmation, a stronger sense of belonging, and potential access to support from Indian institutions while symbolically addressing centuries of marginalization. Damjanovic stated that if India were to accept this proposal, it would mark the first step toward countering negative perceptions surrounding the Roma and that this could provide India with cultural, economic, and political benefits. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Romani community as a part of the Indian diaspora. Following that event, a starred question was raised in the Lok Sabha concerning whether the Roma constituted part of the diaspora and whether any official study had been proposed to trace their origins. The Ministry of External Affairs replied that the purpose of the conference was to revive cultural and linguistic ties, assess scholarship, and encourage research, not to grant formal recognition.

In April 2022, an international conference revisited the issue. The event, supported by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, examined whether the Roma could be recognized. Speakers emphasized the connections from the Roma to India and the community's desire for recognition while noting the complexities arising from centuries of displacement and marginalization. The conference underscored the ongoing need to consider formal recognition.

A 2007 article argued that the Romani people's Indian origin is of more than historical/academic interest and that acknowledging this connection is essential for the "political legitimacy and security" of the Romani people. Establishing a verifiable historical and genetic link to a specific place of origin would allow the Romani people to counter the "fictitious history" often imposed on them. This connection provides a basis for seeking Indian government support, which is instrumental in symbolically acknowledging them as an Indian population outside of India. This recognition supports Romani leaders in their struggle for representation in forums such as the United Nations, thereby enhancing their political standing and providing a measure of security.

Romaei/Eastern Romans

As the Roma fled the Muslim conquests of Mahmud of Ghazni in Northern India during the early 11th century, they arrived in the Eastern Roman Empire by the 12th century.

Athinganoi

In the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the Roma took on the identity of the Athinganoi (Greek: Αθίγγανοι). They were a Manichaean sect regarded as Judaizing heretics who lived in Phrygia and Lycaonia, but were neither Hebrews nor Gentiles. They kept Sabbath but were not circumcised. They were Shomer nagia. The word "Athiganoi" is the origin of the Turkish name Ciganos as well as the Romanian name țigani, as the Ottoman Empire had linguistic and cultural influence on the neighbouring Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. The Ottoman Turks conquered the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century; consequently, they ruled over the Roma (Ciganos).

Egyptians

Some terms for the Romani people point to Egyptians. The English term Gypsy (or Gipsy) originates from the Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien. The Spanish term Gitano and French Gitan have similar etymologies. They are ultimately derived from the Greek Αιγύπτιοι (Aigyptioi), meaning "Egyptian", via Latin. This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Roma, or some related group (such as the Indian Dom people), were itinerant Egyptians.

Bohemians

The Roma from Bohemia (later the Czech Republic) were called Bohemians because they were believed to have originated in Bohemia and came later to Western European countries such as France in the 16th century. The term bohemian came to refer to carefree, artistic people. The Roma were musicians, dancers, and circus performers who moved from place to place, leading a nomadic lifestyle away from society's conventional norms and expectations. This lifestyle inspired the 19th-century European artistic movement Bohemianism, as well as the hippie movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States.

Irish Travellers

Because Irish Travellers, a subgroup of the Irish (having the same ancestral genetics as the general population of Ireland), lived as nomads, the Roma and the Irish Travellers came to be conflated with each other.

Yenish people

Similar to Irish Travellers, the Yenish people were confused with the Roma because they were nomadic and itinerant. The Yenish originated in Western Europe, primarily in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The Yenish descended from members of marginalized/vagrant classes of society in Germanic-speaking regions in Europe during the Late Middle Ages. Most of the Yenish became sedentary during the mid-19th to 20th centuries. Their cultures remained distinct despite sharing nomadic and itinerant lifestyles.

Balkan people

Forced sterilization carried out in several European countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, in the mid- to late 20th century decrease in Roma populations in those countries. Countries in South Eastern Europe that had not forced sterilization, such as Romania and Bulgaria, experienced steady increases of Roma birth rates during the 20th and 21st centuries, mainly because of the Roma tradition of marrying in their early teens. Once communism fell in Eastern Europe, travel restrictions were lifted, and Eastern European countries joined the European Union, it was easier for Eastern European Roma to migrate to Western Europe. Often, Romania is wrongly identified as the place of origin of the Roma because of their similar names. Romanians derive their name from the Latin romanus, meaning "Roman". This refers to the Roman conquest of Dacia, whose inhabitants, the Dacians, were a sub-group of the Thracians.

In parts of the Balkans, particularly in Bulgaria, some people of Romani descent identify as ethnic Turks, and over generations have adopted the Turkish language.

Arrival in Europe

A number of Armenian-origin words in the Romani language indicate that Roma passed through Armenia prior to linguistic 9th century changes. They arrived in the Balkans, Europe proper, during the Byzantine period. A 1068 document describing an event in Constantinople mentions "Atsingani", probably referring to Roma. They likely reached the Balkans in the 12th century, although some records support arrival as early as the 7th century.

Later historical records of the Roma in the Balkans date to the 14th century: in 1322, after leaving Ireland on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Irish Franciscan friar Symon Semeonis encountered Romani migrants outside Candia (modern Heraklion), in Crete, calling them "the descendants of Cain"; his account is the earliest surviving description by a western chronicler of Roma in Europe.

In 1350, Ludolph of Saxony mentioned a people with a unique language whom he called Mandapolos, a word possibly derived from the Greek word mantes (meaning prophet or fortune teller).

In the 14th century, Roma are recorded in Venetian territories, including Methoni and Nafplio in the Peloponnese, and Corfu. Around 1360, a fiefdom called the Feudum Acinganorum was established in Corfu, which mainly used Romani serfs and to which the Roma on the island were subservient.

With the decline of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire began expanding into Europe during the second half of the 14th century. Fleeing Ottoman wars, Romani people began migrating to western Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. They often travelled as pilgrims, in organised groups of between 40 and 200 people. By the 16th century, they were present throughout western and northern Europe.

By the 1440s, they were recorded in Germany; and by the 16th century, Scotland and Sweden. Some Gitanos are thought to have migrated from Persia through north Africa, reaching the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century.

Early modern history

Their early presence met a mixed reception. Although 1385 marks the first recorded transaction for a Romani slave in Wallachia, they were issued safe conduct by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund in 1417. Roma were ordered expelled from the Meissen region of Germany in 1416, Lucerne in 1471, Milan in 1493, France in 1504, Catalonia in 1512, Sweden in 1525, England in 1530 (see Egyptians Act 1530), and Denmark in 1536. From 1510 onwards, any Roma found in Switzerland was to be executed, while in England (beginning in 1554) and Denmark (beginning of 1589) Roma who did not leave within a month were to be executed. Portugal began deportations of Roma to its colonies in 1538.

A 1596 English statute gave Roma privileges that other wanderers lacked. France passed a similar law in 1683. Catherine the Great of Russia declared the Roma "crown slaves" (a status superior to serfs), but also kept them out of certain parts of the capital. In 1595, Ștefan Răzvan overcame his birth into slavery, and became the Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia.

Since a royal edict by Charles II in 1695, Romanis in Spain had been restricted to certain towns. An official edict in 1717 restricted them to 75 towns and districts, so that they would not concentrate. During the latter part of the 17th century, around the Franco-Dutch War, both France and the Dutch Republic needed thousands of men to fight. Some recruitment took the form of rounding up vagrants and the poor to work the galleys and provide the armies' labour force. With this background, Roma were targets of both the French and the Dutch.

Into the first decade of the 18th century, Roma were slaughtered with impunity throughout the Dutch Republic. Roma, called 'heiden' ('heathens') by the Dutch, wandered throughout the rural areas of Europe and became the societal pariahs of the age. In the Great Gypsy Round-up, Roma were arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish Monarchy in 1749. Heidenjachten, translated as "heathen hunt" happened throughout the Dutch Republic in an attempt to eradicate them.

Although some Roma were kept as slaves in Wallachia and Moldavia until abolition in 1856, the majority traveled in wagons as free nomads, as reflected in the spoked wheel symbol in the Romani flag. Elsewhere in Europe, they were subjected to ethnic cleansing, abduction of their children, and forced labour. In Britain, Roma were sometimes expelled from small communities or hanged; in France, they were branded, and their heads were shaved; in Moravia and Bohemia, the women were distinguished by their severed ears. As a result, large groups of the Roma moved East, toward Poland, which was more tolerant, and Russia, where the Roma were treated more fairly as long as they paid taxes.

Modern history

Roma began emigrating to colonial North America, with small groups recorded in Virginia and French Louisiana. Larger-scale Roma emigration began in the 1860s, with Romanichal groups from Great Britain. The most significant number immigrated in the early 20th century, mainly from the Vlax group of Kalderash. Many Roma settled in South America.

The flag of Kosovo, adopted on February 17, 2008, includes one white star (of six) that symbolizes the Romani people, alongside Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Turks, and Gorani.

World War II

During World War II and the Holocaust, the Nazis committed genocide against the Roma. In the Romani language, this genocide is known as the Porajmos. Roma were marked for extermination and sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment in Zigeunerlager ("Gypsy camps") and concentration camps. They were often killed on sight, especially by the Einsatzgruppen (paramilitary death squads) on the Eastern Front. The number of victims has been estimated at between 220,000 and 1,500,000.

The Roma were also persecuted in Nazi puppet states. In the Independent State of Croatia, the Ustaša killed almost the entire Romani population of 25,000. The concentration camp system of Jasenovac, run by the Ustaša militia and the Croat political police, was responsible for the deaths of between 15,000 and 20,000 Roma.

Post-1945

In Czechoslovakia, they were labeled a "socially degraded stratum", and Romani women were sterilized as part of a state policy to reduce their population. This policy was implemented with large financial incentives, with threats of denying future welfare payments, with misinformation, or after administering drugs.

An official inquiry from the Czech Republic, resulting in a report (December 2005), concluded that the Communist authorities had practised an assimilation policy towards Roma, which "included efforts by social services to control the birth rate in the Romani community. The problem of sexual sterilisation carried out in the Czech Republic, either with improper motivation or illegally, exists," said the Czech Public Defender of Rights, recommending state compensation for women affected between 1973 and 1991. New cases were revealed until 2004, in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland "all have histories of coercive sterilization of minorities and other groups".

Traditional Romanis place a high value on the extended family. Traditionally, virginity is essential in unmarried women. Eastern European Romanis are more likely to find it acceptable for girls to have sex before marriage versus other Eastern Europeans. Roma usually marry young; the Romani practice of child marriage created controversy in several countries. Romani law amongst some Roma, particularly the Kalaidzhi, establishes that the man's family must pay a bride price to the bride's parents, but only traditional families still follow it.

Once married, the woman joins the husband's family, where her role is to tend to her husband and her children and care for her in-laws. In the traditional Romani household the oldest man or grandfather is head of the household, while men have more authority than women. Women gain respect and power as they age. Young wives begin gaining authority once they have children.

Traditionally, as can be seen on paintings and photos, some Romani men wear shoulder-length hair and a mustache, as well as an earring. Romani women generally have long hair, and Xoraxane Romani women often dye hair blonde with henna.

Romani people traditionally displayed a desire to live in alignment with the natural world. Cooking was often done outdoors over open fires, using hunted/foraged ingredients. Many Romanis in England historically lived and travelled around the English countryside in vardos, while others settled in urban areas. Today, most are sedentary and live in houses. Romanis were often portrayed outdoors in rural settings in historical European art and literature.

Romani social behavior has traditionally been regulated by Indian social customs ("marime" or "marhime") which are respected by most Roma (and by most older generations of Sinti). This regulation affects many aspects of life and is applied to actions, people and things: parts of the human body are considered impure, the genital organs (because they produce emissions) and the rest of the lower body. Clothes for the lower body, as well as the clothes of menstruating women, are washed separately. Items used for eating are also washed in a different place. Childbirth is considered impure and must occur outside the dwelling. The mother is deemed impure for forty days after giving birth.

Death is considered impure, and affects the whole family, who remain impure for a period of time. Romani dead must be buried. Animals that are considered to have unclean habits are not eaten by the community.

Romani women practiced fortune-telling for centuries, using techniques such as palm-reading. It provided income, and typically passed from mother to daughter. In 1747 and later again in 1824, palm-reading was made illegal in Britain, which drove it underground. Romani fortunetellers were traditionally known as drabardi. While it was practiced as a trade aimed at non-Romani, it was virtually never practiced amongst Romani. However, the notion that Romani people have psychic powers and that Romani women are fortunetellers also functions as a continuing negative stereotype.

Romani people historically practiced nomadic professions such as horse trading, metalworking, music, dancing, juggling, horse training, fortune-telling and aninmal training (such as bears). Romani people also earned money as tinkers or sieve-makers. Romani people turned to roofing and blacktopping when metalworking was superseded by factory technology.

Belonging and exclusion

In Romani philosophy, Romanipen (also romanypen, romanipe, romanype, romanimos, romaimos, romaniya) is the totality of the Romani spirit, Romani culture, Romani Law, and Romani identity.

An ethnic Rom is considered a gadjo in Romani society if they have no Romanipen. Sometimes a non-Rom may be considered a Rom if they do have Romanipen. Usually this is an adopted child. It has been hypothesized that this owes more to a framework of culture than adherence to traditional rules.

Religion

Romani people are predominantly Muslim, with a significant Christian minority.

Muslim Roma generally retain enduring influences of Ottoman culture, as shaped within Anatolia and former Ottoman territories. During periods of conflict, particularly the Ottoman wars in Europe, some Romani fled the Balkans, settling in northern and western Europe. Muslim Romani partaking in these migrations, or their descendants, eventually converted to Christianity.

Deities and saints

Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla is considered a patron saint of the Roma. Saint Sarah, or Sara e Kali, is venerated as a patron saint in her shrine at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France. Since the turn of the 21st century, Sara e Kali is understood to have been Kali, a Hindu deity brought from India by the Roma; as the Roma became Christianized, she was absorbed in a syncretic way and venerated.

Saint Sarah is now increasingly considered as "a Romani Goddess, the Protectress of the Roma" and an "indisputable link with Mother India".

Balkans/Southeast Europe

For the Romani communities in Southeast Europe, the following apply:

• Albania, The majority of the Romani population in Albania is Muslim.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina, The majority of the Romani population in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Muslim.
• Bulgaria, The majority of the Romani population in Bulgaria is Christian (mostly Orthodox). In northwestern Bulgaria, in addition to Sofia and Kyustendil, Christianity is the dominant faith among the Roma, and a major conversion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity among the Roma has occurred. In southeastern Bulgaria, Islam is the dominant religion among the Roma, with a smaller section of the Roma declaring themselves as "Turks".

• Croatia, The majority of the Romani population in Croatia is Christian (mostly Catholic). After the Second World War, a large number of Muslim Roma relocated to Croatia, the majority moving from Kosovo. Their language differs from those living in Međimurje and those who survived Romani Holocaust.
• Greece, The majority of the Romani population in Greece is Christian. The descendants of groups, such as Sepečides or Sevljara, Kalpazaja, Filipidži and others, living in Athens, Thessaloniki, central Greece and Greek Macedonia are mostly Orthodox Christians, with Islamic beliefs held by a minority of the population. Following the Peace Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, many Muslim Roma moved to Turkey in the subsequent population exchange between Turkey and Greece.
• Hungary, The majority of the Romani population in Hungary is Christian. The country experienced an influx of Muslim Roma during the Ottoman period in Hungary, who later converted to Catholicism. Theravada Buddhism influenced by the Dalit Buddhist movement has gained popularity in recent times among Romani in Hungary.

• Kosovo, The majority of the Romani population in Kosovo are Muslim and speak Albanian. Some Roma in Kosovo speak Serbian and are Orthodox Christians.
• Montenegro, The majority of the Romani population in Montenegro is Muslim.
• North Macedonia, The majority of the Romani population in North Macedonia is Muslim.
• Romania, The majority of the Romani population in Romania is Christian (mostly Orthodox). In Dobruja, there is a small community that are Muslim and also speak Turkish.
• Serbia, The majority of the Romani population in Serbia is Christian (mostly Orthodox). There are some Muslim Roma in southern Serbia, who are mainly refugees from Kosovo.
• Slovenia, The majority of the Romani population in Slovenia is Christian (mostly Catholic), although a sizeable proportion are Muslim.

Other regions

Modern-day Romani often adopted the dominant religion in the regions through which they had migrated. It is likely that the adherence to differing religions prevented families from intermarriage. In Eastern Europe, most Romani are Orthodox Christians, Muslims or Catholics. In Moldova, Romania, the majority of Romani inhabitants are Orthodox Christians. In Western Europe, the majority of Romani inhabitants are Catholic or Protestant. In Crimea and East Thrace, the majority of Romani inhabitants are Muslim. The majority of the diaspora in the United States practice Christianity.

In Ukraine and Russia, the Romani populations are Christian and Muslim. Their ancestors settled on the Crimean peninsula during the 17th and 18th centuries, but some migrated to Ukraine, southern Russia and the Povolzhie (along the Volga River). These communities are recognized for their staunch preservation of the Romani language and identity.

In the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, Romani populations are Roman or Greek Catholic, many times adopting and following local, cultural Catholicism as a syncretic system of belief that incorporates distinct Roma beliefs and cultural aspects. For example, many Polish Roma delay their Church wedding due to the belief that sacramental marriage is accompanied by divine ratification, creating a virtually indissoluble union until the couple consummate, after which the sacramental marriage is dissoluble only by the death of a spouse. Therefore, for Polish Roma, once married, one can't ever divorce. Another aspect of Polish Roma's Catholicism is a tradition of pilgrimage to the Jasna Góra Monastery.

In southern Spain, many Romanies are Pentecostal, but this is a small minority that has emerged in contemporary times. The majority of the Romani people in France are Catholic or Protestant (mostly Pentecostal).

Music

Romani music plays an important role in central and eastern European countries. The style and performance practices of Romani musicians have influenced European classical composers such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. The lăutari who perform at traditional Romanian weddings are virtually all Romani.

Probably the most internationally prominent contemporary performers in the lăutari tradition are Taraful Haiducilor. Bulgaria's popular "wedding music", too, is almost exclusively performed by Romani musicians such as Ivo Papasov, a virtuoso clarinetist closely associated with this genre and Bulgarian pop-folk singer Azis.

Many famous classical musicians, such as the Hungarian pianist Georges Cziffra, are Romani, as are many prominent performers of manele. Zdob și Zdub, one of the Moldova's most prominent rock bands, although not Romanies themselves, draw heavily on Romani music, as do Spitalul de Urgență in Romania, Shantel in Germany, Goran Bregović in Serbia, Darko Rundek in Croatia, Beirut and Gogol Bordello in the United States.

Another tradition of Romani music is the Romani brass band, with practitioners such as Boban Marković, and the brass lăutari groups Fanfare Ciocărlia and Fanfare din Cozmesti.

The distinctive sound of Romani music influenced bolero, jazz, and flamenco (especially cante jondo) in Spain.

Dances such as Spain's flamenco and bolero were influenced by the Romani. Antonio Cansino blended Romani and Spanish flamenco and is credited with creating modern-day Spanish dance. The Dancing Cansinos popularized flamenco and bolero in the United States. Dancer and actress Rita Hayworth was Cansino's granddaughter.

European-style gypsy jazz ("jazz Manouche" or "Sinti jazz") is practiced among its creators (the Romanie People); one who acknowledged this artistic debt was guitarist Django Reinhardt. Contemporary artists in this tradition known internationally include Stochelo Rosenberg, Biréli Lagrène, Jimmy Rosenberg, Paulus Schäfer and Tchavolo Schmitt.

The Romani people in Turkey achieved musical acclaim. Local performers usually perform for holidays. Their music is typically performed on instruments such as the darbuka, gırnata and cümbüş.

Tallava is performed by the Romani community in Albania and Kosovo. Notable tallava musicians include Mandi Nishtulla, Marsel Selita, Bekim Dehari, and Muharrem Ahmeti.

Paramichia is a term used to refer to Romani legends and folktales. A popular legend among the Vlach Roma is of the hero Mundro Salamon, also known by other Roma subgroups as Wise Solomon or O Godjiaver Yanko.

Some Roma believe in the mulo or mullo, meaning "one who is dead"; the Romani version of the vampire. The Roma from Slavic countries believe in werewolves. Roma figure prominently in the 1941 film The Wolf Man and the 2010 remake.

Some Roma hold that certain foods are auspicious, or lucky (baxtalo), such as foods with pungent tastes like garlic, lemon, tomato, and peppers, and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, pickles and sour cream. Hedgehogs were historically a delicacy among some Romanis. Stuffed cabbage and stuffed peppers are also widely enjoyed dishes among the Romani community. Tea is a widely enjoyed drink among the Romani community, prepared with peaches and strawberries. Frybread is another favored dish within Romani cuisine. In Romania, cornmeal is frequently eaten by the Romani community.

Romani contemporary art emerged at the climax of the process that began in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, when the interpretation of the cultural practice of minorities was enabled by a paradigm shift, commonly referred to in specialist literature as the "cultural turn". The idea of the cultural turn was introduced; and this was also the time when the notion of cultural democracy became crystallized in the debates carried on at various public forums. Civil society gained strength, and civil politics appeared, which is a prerequisite for cultural democracy. This shift of attitude in scholarly circles derived from concerns specific not only to ethnicity but also to society, gender and class.

Most Roma speak one of several dialects of the Romani language, an Indo-Aryan language. They also often speak the languages of the countries they live in. Typically, they also incorporate loanwords and calques into Romani from the languages of those countries and especially words for terms that the Romani language does not have. Most of the Ciganos of Portugal, the Gitanos of Spain, the Romanichal of Great Britain, and the Romanisael of Sweden and Norway have lost their knowledge of pure Romani, and speak the mixed languages Caló, Angloromani and Scandoromani, respectively. Most of the Romani language-speaking communities in these regions consist of later immigrants from eastern or central Europe.

There are no concrete statistics for the number of Romani speakers, both in Europe and globally. However, a conservative estimate is 3.5 million speakers in Europe and a further 500,000 elsewhere, though the actual number may be considerably higher. This makes Romani the second-largest minority language in Europe, behind Catalan.

In regards to the diversity of dialects, Romani works in the same way as most other European languages. Cross-dialect communication is dominated by the following features:

• All Romani speakers are bilingual, accustomed to borrowing words or phrases from a second language; this makes it difficult to communicate with Roma from different countries
• Romani was traditionally a language shared between extended family and a close-knit community. This has resulted in the inability to comprehend dialects from other countries, and is why Romani is sometimes considered to be several different languages.
• There is no tradition or literary standard for Romani speakers to use as a guideline for their language use.

Roma enslavement

One of the most enduring persecutions against the Roma was their enslavement. Slavery was widely practiced in medieval Europe, including the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in the 13th-14th centuries. Legislation decreed that all the Roma living in these states, as well as any others who immigrated there, were classified as slaves. Slavery was gradually abolished during the 1840s and 1850s.

The exact origins of slavery in the Danubian Principalities are not known. There is some debate over whether the Roma came to Wallachia and Moldavia as free people or were brought there as slaves. Historian Nicolae Iorga associated the Roma's arrival with the 1241 Mongol invasion of Europe and he also considered their enslavement a vestige of that era, in which the Romanians took the Roma from the Mongols and preserved their status as slaves so they could use their labor. Other historians believe that the Roma were enslaved while they were being captured during the battles with the Tatars. The practice of enslaving prisoners of war may have also been adopted from the Mongols.

Some Roma may have been slaves of the Mongols or the Tatars, or they may have served as auxiliary troops in the Mongol or Tatar armies. However, most of them migrated from south of the Danube at the end of the 14th century, some time after the founding of Wallachia. By then, the institution of slavery was already established in Moldavia and it was possibly established in both principalities. After the Roma migrated into the area, slavery became a widespread practice among the majority of the population. The Tatar slaves, smaller in numbers, were eventually merged into the Romani population.

Persecution

Some branches of the Roma reached western Europe in the 15th century, fleeing from the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans as refugees. Although the Roma were refugees from the conflicts in southeastern Europe, they were often suspected of being associated with the Ottoman invasion by certain populations in the West because their physical appearance was exotic. (The Imperial Diet at Landau and Freiburg in 1496-1498 declared that the Roma were spies for the Turks). In western Europe, such suspicions and discrimination against people who constituted a visible minority resulted in persecution, often violent, with attempts to commit ethnic cleansing until the modern era. In times of social tension, the Romani suffered as scapegoats; for instance, they were accused of bringing the plague during times of epidemics.

On 30 July 1749, Spain conducted The Great Roundup of Roma (Gitanos) in its territory. The Spanish Crown ordered a nationwide raid that led to the break-up of families because all able-bodied men were interned in forced labor camps in an attempt to commit ethnic cleansing. The measure was eventually reversed and the Roma were freed as protests began to erupt in different communities. Sedentary Roma were highly esteemed and protected in rural Spain.

Later in the 19th century, Romani immigration was forbidden on a racial basis in areas outside Europe, mostly in the English-speaking world. In 1880, Argentina prohibited immigration by Roma, as did the United States in 1885.

There is widespread denial about the persecution still faced by Romani people.

Forced assimilation

In the Habsburg monarchy under Maria Theresa (1740-1780), a series of decrees tried to integrate the Romanis to get them to permanently settle, removed their rights to horse and wagon ownership (1754) to reduce citizen mobility, renamed them "New Citizens", and obliged Romani boys to enter military service just as any other citizens if they had no trade (1761, and Revision 1770), and required them to register with the local authorities (1767); and another decree prohibited marriages between Romanis (1773) to integrate them into the local population. Her successor, Josef II, prohibited the wearing of traditional Romani clothing along with the use of the Romani language, both of which were punishable by flogging. During this time, the schools were obliged to register and integrate Romani children; this policy was the first of the modern policies of integration. In Spain, attempts to assimilate the Gitanos were under way as early as 1619, when the Gitanos were forcibly settled, the use of the Romani language was prohibited, Gitano men and women were sent to separate workhouses, and their children were sent to orphanages. King Charles III took a more progressive approach to Gitano assimilation, proclaiming that they had the same rights as Spanish citizens and ending the official denigration of them which was based on their race. While he prohibited their nomadic lifestyle, their use of the Calo language, the manufacture and wearing of Romani clothing, their trade in horses, and other itinerant trades; he also forbade any form of discrimination against them, and he also forbade the guilds from barring them. The use of the word gitano was also forbidden to further their assimilation. It was replaced with "New Castilian", a designation which was also applied to former Jews and Muslims.

Most historians believe that Charles III's pragmática failed for three main reasons, reasons which were ultimately derived from its implementation outside major cities as well as in marginal areas: the difficulty which the Gitano community faced in changing its nomadic lifestyle, the marginal lifestyle to which the community had been driven by society, and the serious difficulties of applying the pragmática in the fields of education and work. One author ascribes its failure to the overall rejection of the integration of the Gitanos by the wider population.

Other policies of forced assimilation were implemented in other countries: one of these countries was Norway, where a law which permitted the state to remove children from their parents and place them in state institutions was passed in 1896. This resulted in some 1,500 Romani children being taken from their parents in the 20th century.

Porajmos (Romani Holocaust)

During World War II and the Holocaust, the persecution of the Roma reached a peak during the Romani Holocaust (the Porajmos), the genocide which was perpetrated against them by Nazi Germany. In 1935, Roma living in Germany were stripped of citizenship by the Nuremberg laws and subsequently subjected to violence and imprisonment in concentration camps. During the war, the policy was extended to areas under German occupation, and it was also implemented by other Axis countries, most notably, by the Independent State of Croatia, Romania, and Hungary. From 1942, Roma were subjected to genocide in extermination camps.

Because no accurate pre-war census figures exist for the Roma, the actual number of Romani victims who were killed in the Romani Holocaust cannot be assessed. Estimates range from 90,000 victims to as high as 4,000,000, with a majority falling between 200,000 and 500,000. Lower estimates do not include those Roma who were killed in all Axis-controlled countries. A detailed study by Sybil Milton, a former senior historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, contained an estimate of at least 220,000, possibly as many as 500,000. Ian Hancock, Director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at the University of Texas at Austin, argues in favour of a higher figure of between 500,000 and 1,500,000.

In Europe, the Romani population are associated statistically and culturally with high poverty, high crime rates, and behavior that is considered antisocial or inappropriate by the rest of the European population. Partly due to this, but perhaps also a cause of this, anti-Roma discrimination continues in the present day, although efforts are being made to address such bigotry.

Amnesty International reports continued to document instances of anti-Romani discrimination during the late 20th century, particularly in Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Kosovo. The European Union has recognized that discrimination against Roma must be addressed, and with the national Roma integration strategy they encourage member states to work towards greater Romani inclusion and upholding the rights of the Roma in the European Union.

*projections for Serbia also include up to 97.000 Roma IDPs in Serbia

Romani children in some parts of Europe face significant disadvantages in education, including lower rates of school enrollment and higher dropout rates. Romani children enrolled in school systems are disproportionately placed in special education schools and are often segregated from non-Romani children. Disparities in educational outcomes are compounded by higher rates of poverty, housing insecurity, discrimination, and limited access to early childhood education.

The Roma of Kosovo have been persecuted by ethnic Albanians since the end of the Kosovo War, and for the most part, much of the Romani community has been expelled.

Czechoslovakia carried out a policy of sterilization of Romani women, starting in 1973. The dissidents of the Charter 77 denounced it in 1977-78 as a genocide, but the practice continued through the Velvet Revolution of 1989. A 2005 report by the Czech Republic's independent ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, identified dozens of cases of coercive sterilization between 1979 and 2001, and called for criminal investigations and possible prosecution against several health care workers and administrators.

In 2008, following the rape and subsequent murder of an Italian woman in Rome at the hands of a young man from a local Romani encampment, the Italian government declared that Italy's Romani population represented a national security risk and it also declared that it was required to take swift action to address the emergenza nomadi (nomad emergency). Specifically, officials in the Italian government accused the Romanies of being responsible for rising crime rates in urban areas.

The 2008 deaths of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic, two Romani children who drowned while Italian beach-goers remained unperturbed, brought international attention to the relationship between ethnic Italians and Roma. Reviewing the situation in 2012, one Belgian magazine observed:

On International Roma Day, which falls on 8 April, the significant proportion of Europe's 12 million Roma who live in deplorable conditions will not have much to celebrate. And poverty is not the only worry for the community. Ethnic tensions are on the rise. In 2008, Roma camps came under attack in Italy, intimidation by racist parliamentarians is the norm in Hungary. Speaking in 1993, Václav Havel prophetically remarked that "the treatment of the Roma is a litmus test for democracy": and democracy has been found wanting. The consequences of the transition to capitalism have been disastrous for the Roma. Under communism they had jobs, free housing and schooling. Now many are unemployed, many are losing their homes and racism is increasingly rewarded with impunity.

The 2016 Pew Research poll found that Italians, in particular, hold strong anti-Roma views, with 82% of Italians expressing negative opinions about Roma. In Greece 67%, in Hungary 64%, in France 61%, in Spain 49%, in Poland 47%, in the UK 45%, in Sweden 42%, in Germany 40%, and in the Netherlands 37% had an unfavourable view of Roma. The 2019 Pew Research poll found that 83% of Italians, 76% of Slovaks, 72% of Greeks, 68% of Bulgarians, 66% of Czechs, 61% of Lithuanians, 61% of Hungarians, 54% of Ukrainians, 52% of Russians, 51% of Poles, 44% of French, 40% of Spaniards, and 37% of Germans held unfavorable views of Roma. IRES published in 2020 a survey which revealed that 72% of Romanians have a negative opinion about them.

As of 2019, reports of anti-Roma attacks are increasing across Europe. Discrimination against Roma remains widespread in Kosovo, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic, against which the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in Romani advocates' favor on the subject of discriminatory and segregationist education and housing practices. Romani communities across Ukraine have been the target of violent attacks.

Roma refugees fleeing the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine have faced discrimination in Europe, including in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Moldova.

Concerning employment, a 2019 report by the FRA revealed that, across the European states that were surveyed, on average 34% of Romani men and 16% of Romani women were in paid work.

Romani children are overrepresented as victims of human trafficking and have a higher vulnerability to sexual exploitation.

Many Roma in the EU have no national health insurance and around 57% do not have a job or a form of paid employment. A third of households don't have tap water, a toilet or a shower.

The Roma and Sinti communities face markedly higher levels of anxiety, sleep issues, depression, and psychological distress, primarily as a result of systemic discrimination, marginalization, severe poverty, and historical trauma.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights reported in 2021 that 25% of Roma surveyed in ten European countries experienced discrimination within the previous year in areas such as healthcare, housing, education, and employment. Of these, only 5% reported the incidents to authorities, a decrease from 16% in 2016. 80% of Roma across ten European countries are at risk of poverty, a rate that has remained unchanged since 2016. While there have been slight improvements in housing conditions, with the share living in poor housing decreasing from 61% to 52%, severe material deprivation and overcrowding remain widespread. Discrimination remains a significant barrier to equal access to education for Roma communities, contributing to ongoing segregation and lower educational attainment. The FRA Roma Survey 2021 also highlighted stark health disparities, whereby Roma men live, on average, nine years less, and Roma women eleven years less, than the general population in the surveyed countries.

Forced repatriation

In the summer of 2010, French authorities demolished at least 51 Roma camps and began the process of repatriating their residents to their countries of origin. This followed tensions between the French state and Romani communities, which had been heightened after a traveller drove through a French police checkpoint, hit an officer, attempted to hit two more officers, and was then shot and killed by the police. In retaliation a group of Roma, armed with hatchets and iron bars, attacked the police station of Saint-Aignan, toppled traffic lights and road signs and burned three cars. The French government has been accused of perpetrating these actions to pursue its political agenda. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that the European Commission should take legal action against France over the issue, calling the deportations "a disgrace". A leaked file dated 5 August, sent from the Interior Ministry to regional police chiefs, included the instruction: "Three hundred camps or illegal settlements must be cleared within three months, Roma camps are a priority."

Voluntarily assimilated groups

Some Romani people have been known to assimilate en masse with and even be absorbed by other ethnic groups. Assimilated Romani people often keep their identity a secret from outsiders, so it is very hard to determine the extent to which Romani people voluntarily assimilate into Gadjo society.

The most notable case of large-scale Romani assimilation is of the Romani Crimean Tatars. Several independent waves of Romani people undertook complete or near-complete assimilation into the Crimean Tatar people. Romani Crimean Tatars are the fourth largest subethnic group of the Crimean Tatar nation.

For centuries, the Crimean Roma have worked as artisans, musicians, entertainers, and in a variety of blue-collar professions such as porters and blacksmiths. Almost all Romani Crimean Tatars living in Crimea today are legally Gadjo because they are recorded as ethnic Crimean Tatars, not Roma, in their internal passports and national censuses and consider their Crimean Tatar identity to be their primary identity. Mixed marriages between Romani Crimean Tatars and other Crimean Tatars without Romani backgrounds are accepted by the Crimean Roma. Many prominent Crimean Tatar celebrities are of Romani descent, such as Enver Sherfedinov and Sabriye Erecepova. Historian Olga Kucherenko postulates that while Crimean Tatars were in exile, additional Romani people of non-Crimean origin were also absorbed into the Romani Crimean Tatars.

In Basque Country, the Erromintxela people are assimilated descendants of a 15th-century wave of Kalderash Roma, who entered the Basque Country via France. Both ethnically, linguistically, and culturally, they are distinct from the Caló-speaking Romani people in Spain and the Cascarot Romani people of the Northern Basque Country. Over time the Erromintxela replaced many of their Romani customs with Gadjo Basque customs. Their Erromintxela language is a mixture of Basque and the Romani languages, but there are very few speakers left due to assimilation. The younger generation of Erromintxela Roma are overwhelmingly shifting away from their Erromintxela language in favor of the Basque and Spanish languages.

In the United States, there are an estimated one million Americans who are of Romani descent, although most are not open about their background and keep a low profile. Most Americans know very little about Romani people, so they face less discrimination in the US than Europe, although they can still be victims of anti-Romani racism. Prominent Americans of Romani descent include Charlie Chaplin and President Bill Clinton.

Segregation and water injustice

Roma communities across Europe continue to face significant barriers in accessing adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene services, as discrimination, poverty, and social exclusion, among other factors, exacerbate the lack of access of these groups. A 2018 report by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) exemplifies this with the right to water where the systematic exclusion of Roma from decision-making processes results in the denial of the human right "to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation" as defined by the UN General Assembly in 2010. These cases of systemic discrimination, environmental racism, and the failure of authorities to provide sanitation services reflect patterns identified not only in research but also in legal proceedings claiming violations of the principle of equal treatment. Litigation in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo has also exposed the systemic nature of this problem.

Romani people in special education

A Roma Special School is a school for Roma children. They are often associated with schools for mentally or physically disabled children, and are generally considered to put Roma students at a disadvantage by delivering lower-quality education than traditional schools. Special Schools are sometimes preferred by Roma parents because children are better-protected from discrimination from non-Roma students.

• World Romani Congress
• European Roma Rights Centre
• Gypsy Lore Society
• International Romani Union
• Decade of Roma Inclusion, multinational project
• International Romani Day (8 April)
• Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues
• National Advisory Board on Romani Affairs (Finland)

Many depictions of the Romanis in literature and art present romanticized narratives of the mystical powers of fortune telling or as people who have an irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. The Roma were a popular subject in Venetian painting from the time of Giorgione at the start of the 16th century. The inclusion of such a figure adds an exotic oriental flavor to scenes. A Venetian Renaissance painting by Paris Bordone (c. 1530, Strasbourg) of the Holy Family in Egypt makes Elizabeth a Romani fortune-teller; the scene is otherwise located in a distinctly European landscape. The Romani community served as an inspiration and is represented in Bram Stoker's Dracula.