The Gypsies and the Balkans States

Résumé du document

The Gypsies are now recognized to have originated from northern India and to have arrived in Europe around the 14th century. This deprives the Gypsies of an historical homeland and a state able to protect their rights, even outside its borders. Moreover, their immigration in several waves created a scattered community, with a weak common consciousness and few solidarity ties between the different groups, "based on linguistic, historical and occupational distinctions". Other dividing lines exist between the Gypsies, such as religion (Hindu, Muslim or Christian) even if "their attachment to established religions appears to have been a matter of convenience rather than conviction" , lifestyle (nomadic or sedentary), belonging to different tribes and countries. It is said, too, that another source of diversity is the fact that non-gypsy and quite often marginalized nomadic groups joined the Gypsies in their centuries-long trip from India or adopted their lifestyle in Europe and were thus de facto integrated into the Roma group by Western observers.

Extraits

[...] The policies are partly the result of an international pressure and are focused on a legal issue, the rights of minorities, so it is not surprising that the first step of these policies consist in accepting the “common European standart”[27], formed by several conventions and treaties, notably the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of 2000. On the purely internal scene, these evolutions lead to a greater recognition of the citizenship of the Romani citizens and to new national minorities laws like in Romania. Parallely, law enforcement measures had to be taken, notably to fight anti-Roma extremism. [...]

[...] But with the end of the communist rule in Europe, the situation changed and the Roma found themselves in a situation much worse than before. New economic barriers and an educationnal system reluctant to propose an offer adaptated to the culture and the language of the Romani population prevented the parents to send their children to school. A feature common to several East-European countries is the development of segregated schools attended by the Romani children. Indeed, in Bulgaria in of the Romani pupils attended schools originally designed for mentaly disabled chidren[6]. [...]

[...] B.The Roma and the war in Kosovo The Kosovo crisis provides another case where the Roma became refugees because of the war. They were mainly expelled by Albanians because they were believed to have collaborated with the Serbians and now live in disastrous conditions. “According to the 1991 census, there used to be about 150,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians in Kosovo. Merxha [leader of the United party of kosovo Roma] said only 50,000 are left today. About 20,000 are believed to be in neighbouring countries like Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, while the rest have left for Western Europe.”[40] According to Human Righs Watch, Macedonia hosted in 2003 still 2500 Roma refugees from the 1999 war[41], who moreover could not come back to Kosovo for security reasons and because they had lost their properties. [...]

[...] The integration, although still considered as a solution by some, is not the paradigm it was in Western Europe and international law during the Cold War. Now, the policies are mainly minority-rights oriented, even if some features of the former policies subsist. The exclusionnary policies are rooted in the perception from a nationalist or racist point-of-view of the Roma as a danger for the community, and of the most important of these legacies is housing segregation”[20] that has its origins in the Ottoman organisation of the neighbourhoods. [...]

[...] The March 2005 riots targeting mainly Serbs but also Roma, Ashkalis and “Egyptians” with the destruction of hundreds of houses displaced people and 19 killings proove that the Roma are still vulnerable. Dena Ringold, Mitchell A. Orenstein, Erika Wilkens, Roma in expanding Europe, breaking the poverty cycle, report for the World Bank p3 Hugh Poulton, Balkans, minorities and states in conflict, Minirity rights publications p87 Zoltan Barany, The East European Gypsies, Cambridge University Press p9 Dena Ringold and others, op. cit., p4 Dena Ringold and others, p42 Zoltan Barany, p167 Zoltan Barany, p12 Dena Ringold,. [...]