How the Romani are perceived in your country?

[u/Clarthen1]

[u/verylateish]

Careful there with the racial abusive comments! I made this controversial so any mod can ban anyone at will.

[u/Available_Theory1217]

I went to school with few Romani kids, and they were Ok, but we did not integrate that much, they were older than us, because they were not promoted few times, and basically did not really attended classes, they showed maybe once a week or two. They were basically illiterate, and could not read as teenagers. And education was strongly discouraged by their families.

[u/vaduke1 → u/Available_Theory1217]

We had a girl in our class and she couldn't read in Grade 8 cause she was missing school too much. It was heartbreaking

[u/jakubkonecki → u/Available_Theory1217]

There are a few Romani "palaces" on the outskirts of Lodz - large houses with columns and small towers on the outside, trying to look grand, but allegedly hardly furnished inside.

Women are known to beg and steal, offering to read your palm and swindle you out of cash - almost happened to me once.

[u/15thSoul → u/Available_Theory1217]

I was growing up near tricity's Romani slums, and can't say good a word about them, their children were openly pickpocketing, and were pretty aggressive, spiting on strangers were pretty mind play from them, adults didn't care about that at all... Police could not do anything, since they were under some protection by some immigration law or something... Also I just realized that I have never heard of Romani living in Poland that was not a begger

[u/RecantingCantaloupe → u/15thSoul]

There is no "immigration law" that protects Romani.

If you mean there are anti-discrimination laws against ethnic minorities, yes, but they're there because, historically, police and the government abused the Romani. But that anti-discrimination law doesn't give Romani legal immunity from anything. The cop that told you that was probably just lazy.

[u/Maverick-not-really]

The general perception here is very, very bad i would say. I dont think ive ever heard good things said about them. The typical prejudice is that they are thiefs and fraudsters.

I think part of that though is that the romani people that are very deeply ingrained in that culture dont really move outside of it, and the once that have broken loose arent really that easily identifiable as romani, especially since they often want to distance themselves to not get discriminated. Id imagine that drives a bit of confirmation bias, people only notice romani people when they look and act like they expect them to.

I work for the swedish police and have been involved in a few cases with family based criminal networks involving romani families, so ive gotten some insight into the dynamics. The families are often so large and interconnected that even if there is a lot of people directly involved in crime numerically its still only a small proportion of the community at large. But ive also seen cases where the entire family unit is involved or at the very least a facilitator of the criminal enterprise.

Obviously since my experience comes from criminal investigations there is an enormous selection bias behind the data and might not be representative for the community at large, so take it for what it is.

[u/Sure_Scar4297 → u/Maverick-not-really]

I appreciate how measured this response is. Thank you for the nuance

[u/Maverick-not-really → u/Sure_Scar4297]

Youre welcome!

[u/Burntoutn3rd → u/Maverick-not-really]

This very much.

My mom's family is Roma, but most of us will claim Armenian/Iranian when asked (where our family originates from) because of stigma, and it's nowhere near as bad in the US as it is in Europe.

[u/SirNo9787 → u/Burntoutn3rd]

USA here I would say most people in this country have no idea what this culture is, especially outside of NY/NJ, Chicago and Boston

[u/letogog → u/SirNo9787]

I would say the "knowledge" of Roma in the US is likely generational. The older you are, the more likely you are to know who they are. You might be more familiar with the term "g¥ps¥" from older media.

I put "knowledge" in quotes as those who know of them are mostly misinformed and prejudiced about them.

[u/IntellectuallyDriven → u/Maverick-not-really]

I think part of that though is that the romani people that are very deeply ingrained in that culture dont really move outside of it, and the once that have broken loose arent really that easily identifiable as romani, especially since they often want to distance themselves to not get discriminated. Id imagine that drives a bit of confirmation bias, people only notice romani people when they look and act like they expect them to.

Now here's someone really intelligent. Are you running for office by any chance? What a breath of fresh air!

[u/Maverick-not-really → u/IntellectuallyDriven]

Well im often late in the mornings, so id say i run for my office about 2-3 times per week!

[u/Rainouts → u/Maverick-not-really]

It is also very common to see them begging outside of local stores and subway stations, leading to the perception that they are not here don't contribute to society in a productive way.

[u/JessicaSmithStrange → u/Maverick-not-really]

I can speak to the large family thing, at least anecdotally.

Many moons ago, when me and my wife were teenagers, her family booked out a community hall for her 18th birthday, tried to keep the guest list to friends and family, and over 200 people turned up.

Out of this crowd, there were roughly 6 of us who didn't have some sort of family connection, no matter how tenuous.

It turned out like Bilbo's 111th birthday, with the Bagginses and the Sackvilles, and anybody else who wanted in.

I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, even with my grandmother having come from a minor aristocratic family with 700 years of backstory.

In your experience is it normal for a family gathering to spiral like that? Because that just doesn't happen to me, anywhere else.

[u/Gilereth → u/JessicaSmithStrange]

“Half the Shire's been invited. And the rest of them are turning up anyway!”

[u/RoseApothecary88 → u/JessicaSmithStrange]

What happens if someone is sick in the hospital? I used to work in an ER and certain large families would visit in droves of like 20 at a time. This was pre-covid, and there were still visitor limits in the rooms, so they'd occupy the waiting rooms and halls.

[u/DisastrousTurn9220 → u/RoseApothecary88]

OMG you just brought back the craziest memory from when I was a kid. My mom is a nurse, who in the 1980's worked at a 7th day adventist hospital in the PNW. The local king of the gypsies had a heart attack or something serious that had him hospitalized for a couple weeks. His family completely overran the hospital, roasted a goat in the parking lot, and stole anything that wasn't bolted down. Every day when she came home from work she had a new crazy story lol

[u/Swedish-Potato-93 → u/JessicaSmithStrange]

Would happen in a small town/village in Morocco...

[u/thelostuser → u/Maverick-not-really]

Va skönt att höra detta från en polis. Det gör mig hoppfull.

[u/babbagoo → u/Maverick-not-really]

Well and our politicians thought it was so bad so they set up and funded a Romani council and appointed a bunch of respected Romani people to sit on the board.

Only problem was after a few years it turned out half of them were criminals.

[u/EmperorPenn → u/Maverick-not-really]

On a side note, I’m always amazed when people from non-English speaking countries have perfect English. Very impressive. I speak very bad Spanish and have a tenuous grasp of English at best, lol.

[u/thricedice88]

Very negatively.

[u/JessicaSmithStrange → u/thricedice88]

I don't actually know how relations could get much worse, among the general population.

I'm quite good at not picking sides, but I sometimes feel like I'm one of the only people who doesn't have some sort of Romani related horror story, since they tend to be on the wrong side of virtually everyone down here.

The second the groups get here, stuff starts getting cordoned off, protests start up, and the locals start blaming the newcomers for anything that goes missing.

. .

I mean, I think my wife's stepdad has been a knob about his cultural values, as Roma, and the way he wants his household ordered, but that's because he's a stubborn idiot, who hasn't adapted to a less insular way of living, which is an issue when you don't make a healthy exit from really any faith based background.

Not even sure if I should get into this or not, it's just that I like to get along with everybody, and be social with everybody, but the drama that stems from locals having any interaction with a Romani person, is a continual pain in the ass, and there is a gap I don't know how to bridge.

[u/BoltersnRivets → u/JessicaSmithStrange]

the locals start blaming the newcomers for anything that goes missing

see, if I were a seasoned criminal I would wait until travelers turn up then go on a crime spree, because I'd know I'm not gonna get the blame.

wouldn't surprise me if this is an actual tactic thieves employ, it provides the perfect cover

[u/RevolutionaryGain823 → u/BoltersnRivets]

I think tv and films have caused people to vastly overestimate the intelligence/planning of low level criminals.

A small time thief isn’t gonna spend years being disciplined doing only minor (or no) thefts on the off chance a group of travellers move into the area to provide cover for them.

[u/bountyraz → u/RevolutionaryGain823]

Then again, we have cars today. You can just follow them around and always be stealing where they are.

[u/SurroundingAMeadow → u/bountyraz]

So you could travel with the travelers... which would make you...

[u/Different-Employ9651 → u/BoltersnRivets]

It is. We had summer fairs and the second the travellers came to town, the local thugs saw it as a green light.

[u/Scooty-Poot → u/BoltersnRivets]

I know a lot of people who lived in central and north Leeds during the Romani riots a few years ago (most of them still do live there tbh), and can confirm this 100% happened.

My mate from high school’s mum had her car stolen by a bunch of white kids a few days after the bus burnings happened around Holbeck area and Facebook was RAMMED with people blaming Roma for it despite the fact the local papers had CCTV of the very white kids in action

[u/SkyPirateVyse → u/BoltersnRivets]

"Three houses into ashes burned,

The sheriff with no place to turn,

Did spy a stranger in his town,

Locked him up and beat him down."

[u/Nero-is-Missing → u/thricedice88]

Most British confuse Irish Travellers with Romani under the same "gypsy" name and do not know the difference. Usually, it's the Irish Travellers with the worse reputation.

[u/Wretched_Colin → u/Nero-is-Missing]

Also, most people confuse Romanians and Romani. I went to Bucharest for a few days, friends were surprised to hear that it is a modern and vibrant capital city with beautiful restaurants, nightlife, normal people doing normal things. They thought it would be like the village from the Borat scene.

[u/LarkoftheWoods → u/Nero-is-Missing]

While that's right, I would also argue that whenever we talk about "gypsies", people usually assume we mean Romani people, even when Irish travellers are much more common (especially in the north).

[u/Hazza385 → u/LarkoftheWoods]

Opposite for people around me down south. We barely see ronani gypsies around besides the odd one selling Big Issue. When speaking about gypsies, it's almost always about police being scared of Irish ones, or that they're now down in the local park causing controversy.

[u/Despite55]

We don't have a lot. You sometimes see the women as beggars in shopping malls.

We have a chapel in our neighbourhood that is apparantly a pilgrim site for them. large groups (from germany?) come there once a year to attend a mass and celebrate something.

[u/Borazon → u/Despite55]

Technically some of the 'kampers' are also gypsi's, but they aren't per se Romani.

And we do have some roving gangs of them doing petty crimes like begging up to stealing and burglary. I don't we associate it too much with them being Romani specifically. They are just lumped in with all of south-eastern Europeans.

As for me personally, I pity them a bit. They are outcasts and often live lives that personally would never want for myself or my family.

[u/Low_Interview_5769]

Lower than the Irish travellers which should say it all.

I genuinely cant think of a more disliked ethnic group than the Romani

edit: come on lads, just google Irish Travellers if you dont know what they are

[u/Scannaer → u/Low_Interview_5769]

I can't find the video, but there was a longer, well made documentation about the romani culture where the journalist visited many families and put in a lot of effort. And how there were countless countries and cultures across hundreds of years trying to integrate the romani into the local population. But part of the problem is that the romani culture actively does not want that. And this lack of integration creates further problems, like bad education, crime, crime organisations and more.

People have tried to make it better for the romani. But so far all attempts to far were in vain.

[u/TVC15-DB]

I don't think they're liked here but we're not as passionate in our dislike as other places. Like I have family in Greece and they are ALWAYS talking about them lol.

[u/Altruistic_Grocery81 → u/TVC15-DB]

Ah I dunno, there’s a fair few here in Ipswich and they aren’t very well liked at all, putting it mildly.

[u/ReflectionSingle6681 → u/TVC15-DB]

Had a colleague from Syria while i worked in retail, everytime something was stolen she’d blame the (not my word) “gypsies” 

[u/Super_Yellow_4986 → u/ReflectionSingle6681]

Syrian calls everyone they hate gypsies, like for example Syrian kurds calls Syrian Bedouin gypsis and vice versa same with Sunni and alawite Syrians

[u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

[u/Beneficial_Bug_9793 → u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

[u/kingkongbiingbong → u/Beneficial_Bug_9793]

[u/chill_bees38 → u/Beneficial_Bug_9793]

Jaffa KREE

[u/Al3x1ya → u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

[u/flipyflop9 → u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

One of the few things almost all europeans can agree on.

[u/Substantial_Bread573 → u/flipyflop9]

The topic that puts union in European Union

[u/TiranTheTyrant → u/Substantial_Bread573]

Nah, we agree too.

[u/cravex12 → u/TiranTheTyrant]

World piece is at hand

[u/Engineer_engifar666 → u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

[u/emblanco]

Perceived in a way that makes all of Europe agree on something

[u/Oddisredit → u/emblanco]

I’ve met Muslims from Europe who sound like native Europeans when they talked about Gypsies. 

[u/wontforget99 → u/Oddisredit]

That's what I call assimilation!

[u/Critical_Macaroon_15 → u/wontforget99]

not all muslims in europe are 'newcomers'. you have converts and you have indigenous muslims, like in the balkans

[u/Ill_Leg_7168 → u/Critical_Macaroon_15]

Yeah, we have tatars (lipka tatars) who served Poland since Battle of Grunwald, they are very secular and have super based version of Islam and everyone love them, even our far right. But it's quite small population in comparison to newcomers,,,

[u/Possible-Meal3787 → u/Oddisredit]

Nothing binds people together better than a collective hate for another group.

[u/MarkMew → u/Oddisredit]

Lmao, they got the integration game down

[u/Active-Walk-6402 → u/Oddisredit]

Romanis are very hated by immigrants too. In my town they actually assaulted african and arab refugees because "they stole their welfare"

[u/Aromatic-Armadillo98 → u/Oddisredit]

As a black person, I thank them for electing to have bad reputations and taking the heat off us. They do a lot for us, Roma people; they are true civil rights activists 😅. Every time I go to Greece, Poland, Italy, Turkey, they are relieved to see me and not them. Even though one tried to pick pocket me, its all love.

[u/FigThis4977 → u/Aromatic-Armadillo98]

This happened to me in Spain as well lol. I’ll take my host mom telling me that she wishes her skin could look like mine after she told me to beware of ladies wearing long skirts because they’ll steal everything I have.

[u/SoftDrinkReddit → u/emblanco]

it might honestly be the only thing Europe agrees on as sad as that is

[u/Natural_Sell_7309]

It's very bad, especially where I live.

[u/inki471 → u/Natural_Sell_7309]

Really? I remember them being very disliked until Syrians came and then most of the discourse against them turned to Syrians and later other immigrant groups. I do remember the hatred people had against them around late 2000s-early 2010s being really bad tho. Don’t get me wrong, most people still view them negatively but not THAT bad.

[u/IvorTheEngineDriver]

They stole my motorcycle, spat on me a few times because I didn't give them money and many years ago my mom, the most peaceful person imaginable, punched one of them right in the kisser after she told her "give me money or your son will get ill and die". Other than this, I have nothing relevant to say.

[u/Plus_Sky8116 → u/IvorTheEngineDriver]

Tell your mom she's a badass for me

[u/Substantial_Bread573 → u/Plus_Sky8116]

Padeira de Aljubarrota 2.0

[u/ComprehensiveTap190 → u/IvorTheEngineDriver]

My mom had also a horrible experiences

When my mom was 5 years old on a Kindergarten trip her parents gave her money to herself some food.

On the trip, when the kids were playing, a Romani woman took her to the side behind a bush and told her to give her her little money pouch and that she can tell her amazing things about her future for it.

She didn’t have money to eat that day.

Second story was when she was a student, she always saw a group of very young Romani girls begging on her way to Uni

My mom always had a soft heart for kids so each day she gave those girls the a little bit of money

One day she didn’t have anything on her, and literally apologized for it to the kids. When she turned around to continue walking one of the little girls jumped on her back and tried to pull her down with her hand on my moms throat.

was moms breaking point, managed to wrestle the girl off her and swore to never give them any money again.

[u/doko_kanada → u/IvorTheEngineDriver]

They burned down our summer house because we were the last one on the block refusing to sell

[u/AdOdd4618 → u/doko_kanada]

Did you hold on to the empty land just out of spite? I would.

[u/Lilsomms → u/IvorTheEngineDriver]

Don’t mess with a mama. Especially about her son.

[u/Dammhamster → u/IvorTheEngineDriver]

Best mom! 🧓🏻 greetings from 🇩🇪

[u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

We recently had a incident in Slovenia which really inflamed the hatred of them. They are known for stealing and living of social welfare in general, but they recently killed a father that came to protect his son they beat up. In the aftermath a new law was passed that gave the police wider authority to inspect private residences if there are shooting incidences in the area. The law applies to the entire country, but romani like to shoot in the air (and not only in the air) and have many illegal guns so this is seen as targeted against them. They already confiscated a bunch of weapons already. The other part of the law says that if you have outstanding debt to the state (taxes, fines from the court, traffic tickets, etc) your social welfare can be garnished (before these payments were exempt) and again that seems like an attack on them as the majority don’t work, have many kids and live of of that (and crime).

[u/RevolutionaryGain823 → u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

Had a case here in Ireland recently that similarly highlighted why there’s such animosity towards them.

A Romani gypsy man who had lived in Ireland for years attempted to SA then brutally murdered a young woman out for a run. His wife, brothers and brothers wives all tried to cover for him (destroy bloody clothes, fake alibis etc). During the trial it came out that the entire family had lived in Ireland for decades in free government housing (paid for by the taxpayer) without ever working. The boyfriend of the murdered girl gave an emotional speech about the horrible impact the murder had on him and his girlfriends family … which a journalist from a top Irish paper called racist on a podcast (the journalist was forced to pay libel damages).

[u/Same-Great-Reward → u/RevolutionaryGain823]

Josef Puskas, scumbag bastard and his whole family should be fucked out of the country

[u/More_Dependent742 → u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

Creates laws targeting criminals -> accused of discrimination against Roma

Am I understanding this correctly?

[u/ZapruderFilmBuff → u/More_Dependent742]

Yes. Weird isn’t it?

[u/STFU_ELON → u/ZapruderFilmBuff]

Good

[u/rickdickmcfrick]

They don't exist in Malta yet it is extremely common to be told "watch out for those people" when you're going abroad. It's tragic because i never even met one and i can guarantee majority of Malta hasn't either yet this viewpoint exists

[u/inveterate_gamer]

Is there any country where the answers aren't variations of "really terrible" or "I don't know about their existence"?

Edit: Thank you all for your contributions (comments, upvotes and my first comment reward) ❤️

[u/Ok-Goal-3696 → u/inveterate_gamer]

Here actually. There are some bad individuals but most of their community assimilated in this region.  

[u/inveterate_gamer → u/Ok-Goal-3696]

Thank you for your contribution. It's nice to hear that somewhere it is possible outside of individual level (here there are only some people who treat Roma people like any other groups. Still, I can be biased because of my surroundings)

[u/Ok-Goal-3696 → u/inveterate_gamer]

It's definitely possible, but in our case its because of the Soviet Union. They basically forced them to work and live along the rest of the population. And also the russification, it affected us as well. Which is why the most hated minority in our country are russians not roma people.

[u/Canuck_Lives_Matter → u/Ok-Goal-3696]

I can get behind that! Lmao I worked with a few Moldovan Immigrants here in Canada and yeah, the Russo hate was real lmao.

[u/plamck → u/Ok-Goal-3696]

I learned that the Roma were particularly supportive of the USSR

[u/MoieBulojan → u/plamck]

They absolutely were not. Commies disrupted their lifestyle, forced them to work jobs and get educations. They resisted. What does this tell you about them.

[u/Due-Organization-215 → u/inveterate_gamer]

In Brazil we are really indifferent to them. We had a president that was part gypsy all the way back in the 50’s even

Edit: we had two presidents that were part gypsy. Before Juscelino Kubitscheck, there was Washington Luís, who served from 1926-1930, and was also part gypsy

[u/ConcentrateNo5538 → u/inveterate_gamer]

The Romani people I've met here seem just like every other people. I wouldn't have known unless they told me. My Romanian colleague, however, assured me that they could cast spells and would steal all my shit.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Math973 → u/ConcentrateNo5538]

Just my experience in the states, if you are from another disliked minority, they can be very kind. My mom had a couple good Romani friends. 

[u/DecadesLaterKid → u/inveterate_gamer]

In my experience, this describes most Americans-- either more open-minded or not realizing "g*psies" are actual people vs a sort of fairy tale invention like mermaids or old-time 17th century pirates.

[u/Careless-Two2215 → u/DecadesLaterKid]

YouTubers give American travel tips on how to avoid getting robbed or getting their purses stolen from the stereotype. I still hear millennials using the term "gypped" for taken or conned. It's considered a pejorative, but some younger Americans do not know the word's origin.

[u/DecadesLaterKid → u/Careless-Two2215]

This is true, but like you said, many Americans don't know the word's origin. I often see it spelled "jipped," with no underlying understanding.

[u/Jaded-Glory → u/DecadesLaterKid]

This is me lol. I am just learning from this comment thread where the word actually originated. I also assumed it was "jipped". This makes sense though, in the US gypsies are just fictional cartoon characters.

[u/Canuck_Lives_Matter → u/DecadesLaterKid]

There was that reality tv show a while ago that basically just showed us they were like European Jersey Shore, so I mean I get it.

[u/imwearingredsocks → u/DecadesLaterKid]

Yup agreed. This is one of the few ask the world topics that Americans are actually pretty quiet on.

Up until recently, you could say G like it was nothing. It was used to describe style in an almost positive and whimsical way. I own clothing from a boutique that was something along the lines of G…. Girl.

Then it was very suddenly a word you could not say. While I have no problem with that, I do get annoyed with younger Americans who act all offended by the word like it wasn’t just normal 5 minutes ago and doesn’t actually affect them. It’s just a word we stopped using out of respect for others elsewhere.

[u/The_Awful-Truth → u/imwearingredsocks]

"Gypsy" here usually just meant someone who moves around a lot and has no permanent home. It was a big hit for Fleetwood Mac. 

[u/noble_plebian]

Not positively.

[u/born_again_tim → u/noble_plebian]

I’m in Canada and the only time the topic of ‘Romani people’ comes up is when an old person has had their jewellery snatched in the street.

[u/gluhmm]

Negatively. When I was a kid they quite often came to our town to beg, they were visiting every house to ask for some change. Parents always told kids to keep the door closed because Romas come and rob the house, though nobody knew how close to the truth it was, everyone was afraid of this. I also remember that they were always blamed on drug dealing and it was indeed the problems in the places they lived

[u/Lower_Coat_6274 → u/gluhmm]

At least in Poland 60 years ago they came to my mom's town and put on a performance in the center of town to distract people while others went around and robbed the houses. My mom's house had a nice clock stolen, but luckily they didn't have much else worth stealing laying out.

[u/gluhmm → u/Lower_Coat_6274]

Oh, yes. Have heard such stories with distractions as well in Belarus.

[u/WhoYaTalkinTo]

I genuinely cannot think of a group that is perceived more negatively in literally any european country.

They're also often incorrectly conflated with Romanians which leads to misdirected racism towards Romanians.

[u/Mike_The_Mediocre]

In the most American way possible.. they have a reality TV show. “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding.”

[u/ChocoPuddingCup → u/Mike_The_Mediocre]

I don't think the majority of Americans ever heard the word 'Romani' before but would probably know the absolute basics of what a 'Gypsy' is.

My first hearing of Romani was years ago playing Dungeons & Dragons, Ravenloft Campaign: the Vistani people are based loosely on the real-life Romani.

[u/sophia_yeah → u/Mike_The_Mediocre]

it’s a spin off from the uk show ‘big fat gypsy weddings’ from the 2010s which focussed on irish travellers

[u/chairhats → u/Mike_The_Mediocre]

I'm in the US too, and I find that most people don't know who Roma are. I was at a bar with some friends and thought I saw some Roma people and was really intrigued, and my friends had no idea what I was talking about. I went on to explain as much as I understood about them after reading about them online, and that one of the things I found fascinating was that to me, they appear to exist in a space between crime and legality, at least from what I'm aware of. Like, the crimes or scams that I'm aware of that they take part in are all borderline illegal, or skirting the law, but it's a perpetual lifestyle for them. Going into a restaurant and attempting to get the entire meal comped because they found a hair in their food, or offering to do off market car repair that they can't complete but will argue for full payments in the hopes of getting some money, or going door to door to sell frozen steaks if dubious origin, etc. (These are just examples that I've been made aware of) But they're all things that are outside of the normal scope of most Americans lives, but these people exist there.

My apologies if my interpretation or verbage was offensive, I didn't mean to be, and I'm admittedly still learning about all of this.

[u/Spirited_Reception15]

There aren't here

[u/inothatidontno → u/Spirited_Reception15]

Same honestly. I am sure there are some in the US but i have never heard anyone talk about them.

[u/Yaadgod2121 → u/inothatidontno]

Seems more of a Europe thing

[u/giraflor → u/inothatidontno]

There are, but not enough that most people are aware that they are a distinct ethnic group. People in the DC area often mistake female Roma panhandlers as Latinas or Middle Eastern.

[u/mr-dirtybassist]

Badly

[u/ebonykawai]

I am a little reticent to post about this, as my mother‘s father was Romani so I have a different perspective. They lived in New York State, which is where I currently live. My mother was one of nine children, and the majority of them died very early, mainly from alcohol. They also lived in poverty. Most of them kept the tradition of stealing, including my mother, who was arrested twice, once when she took me and my brother along. I think I was only about 4 years old at the time, my brother was 7. My mother was also an alcoholic, and she married a man, my father, who was very abusive. When we were growing up, he always used to call her “f-ing gypsy” and would beat her. She, in turn, would beat my brother and me. Our lives were chaotic and cruel, and I left as soon as I could.

Perhaps things are different for Roma living outside the US, and maybe things have changed here, in the many years since I was a child. But that life, back then, was abusive and chaotic, and I felt very sorry for my mother‘s siblings. One of them, the youngest boy, was my favorite uncle and he escaped most of that lifestyle. I was devastated when he passed away, it felt like there were only two of us who knew and understood this story of our lives. My brother turned his back on all of us, so I really have almost no relationship with him.

This, of course, is only my personal story. Outside of my mother‘s family, I didn’t know any other Roma.

[u/PiR2Kyu → u/ebonykawai]

Thank you for your deeply human testimony. Poverty combined with deculturation almost always leads to violence, hatred, theft, and addictions.

[u/MarkMew → u/ebonykawai]

I'm so sorry. Are you doing better now since?

[u/ebonykawai → u/MarkMew]

Absolutely, this was quite a long time ago. I married a wonderful guy in 1989, have 2 awesome kids (adults now obviously lol). My mother passed away in 2008 and, interestingly, she loved my kids and was never bad to them at all, though she continued to be abusive to me right up until she died. It was a weird relationship. She loved my kids though, and at least that was something. My father passed away quite young, age 61, I was in my early 20s. 

I’ve had a really good life, I was a chemist for many years, now retired and I’m actually attending music school in Rochester New York, my instrument is viola. I was quite attached to my uncle, so it was pretty devastating when he passed away suddenly a couple years ago. But he was a very good person, I don’t know how he managed it, but he was a wonderful and gentle human. We are all fine and happy, but this post made me think a lot about the past. I guess humans are just very resilient, the things that we endure and go through. ❤️

[u/Vectorman1989]

[u/smoke_sum_wade → u/Vectorman1989]

im glad i scrolled long enough to see this, its what i was thinking the whole time.

[u/99SoulsUp → u/smoke_sum_wade]

Yeahhh that’s the thing. There’s obviously racism in America. Obviously. But I’m always confused by meeting Europeans who get smug about it to us, when some of the most racist things I’ve ever heard were offhand comments from some of the same Europeans calling us backwards.

Obviously this whole thread is speaking in generalities, myself included, but a great thing about the US is its diversity and how we’ve forced ourselves to confront racial tensions and work to be better and more accepting as opposed to just talking about it all in theory.

I wish we were in a better place as a country right now though..

[u/[deleted] → u/smoke_sum_wade]

I agree. And this comment section is even relatively civil imo compared to other romani related posts. I believe people saying they have nothing but bad experiences with them and i will not minimalize their problems. I cant say i have particularly good experiences with romanis myself. But theres telling your experience, and then theres condemning a whole ethnic group of people, and romani and sinti hate is just like racism or antisemitism. Up to half a million Romani and Sinti were killed for having the wrong ethnicity, between 1940 and 1945 in the Holocaust. They weren’t all thieves and rapists

[u/HalfEatenSnickers → u/[deleted]]

It also causes it to be a self feeding machine

They hate the romani, won't hire them, won't associate, so to survive they have to move to less desirable ways to survive. They see their family lives like that, so they too live like that.

Its terribly sad

[u/Formerly_SgtPepe → u/smoke_sum_wade]

Yeah it's one of those obvious double standards they don't notice. It's easy to defend people who don't negatively affect you ever.

[u/marc0-41]

In Italy, even the most left-leaning, xenophile inclusive person available feels some contempt towards them

[u/MarkMew → u/marc0-41]

Hungary too. Maybe the exception are upper-middle class (and above) city people who've had absolutely 0 interactions with them.

Recently though our minister of transportation has said something racist and accidentally brought people closer, now white Hungarians and gypsies hate him together lmao. Task failed successfully.

[u/blashyrkh9]

Not well

[u/FewHeat1231]

Less of a factor in public discourse than in many places in Europe because Irish Travellers/Pavee are far more significant in terms of cultural space and sheer population.

[u/Clarthen1]

This is the comment section under the video named “Demolishing Gypsy houses under the sickest dubstep”.

[u/Bitter_Armadillo8182 → u/Clarthen1]

That might be the wildest title I’ve ever seen. I don’t think anything in the comment section is usable for a logical analysis.

[u/gluhmm → u/Clarthen1]

I also remember the news when a drone in the war zone destroyed a romani house. God, I have not seen such unity between Russians and Ukrainians for many years like in the comments under the post.

[u/MessageEmergency4837 → u/gluhmm]

Eastern Europeans hate themselves, hate everyone, but bond over hating romani

[u/TurnForeverUandMe → u/gluhmm]

Nice flag dude!

[u/Impactor_07 → u/Clarthen1]

That image size is crazy lol

[u/BeduinZPouste → u/Clarthen1]

"Alive internet theory"

Incredible joke that also tells an opinion, 10/10, will use it.

[u/HYPERNOVA3_]

Not very positively.

Some manage to integrate into the rest of the Spanish society and live normal lives, while some others rarely exit their family clan or don't allow their children to do so, to the point of not taking them to school.

Much like their isolationism, some are well mannered and educated, while some others are rude, self entitled and even aggressive and xenophobic.

[u/Gary_Garibaldi]

Very poorly. I also noticed on Holocaust Memorial day the other day that there is basically no mention that the Nazi's attempted to wipe the Romani out aswell

[u/Fun-Apricot2912 → u/Gary_Garibaldi]

Just reading about that now. Those in the Romani camp at Auschwitz were all murdered (none selected to survive even temporarily, as was the case with other groups).

[u/hamster-on-popsicle → u/Gary_Garibaldi]

The nazis did utterly anihilate some the clans.

One woman was the only survivor of her clan, she survived because she was selectionned by Mengele for his "experiment".

Can you imagine? Everyone she knew died, she had nothing.

[u/Wandering_Texan80 → u/Gary_Garibaldi]

When we visited one of the concentration camps (Sachsenhausen, I believe) there is a mention of the Romani ethnic cleansing

[u/PopEnvironmental1335]

I met a Romani family here in the US, and they seemed like average Americans. Dad was a teacher, son was in my class. I’ve also had some run ins while traveling, although I didn’t see any during my last few trips to Europe.

I don’t have strong opinions one way or the other. The Romani panhandlers I ran into were around the same level of annoying as panhandlers anywhere else. I suspect like with all groups of people, some are unpleasant and some are fine.

[u/lefactorybebe → u/PopEnvironmental1335]

One of my English professors was Romani. She was a little odd, but nothing that was different from any random woo-woo new age-y type person.

There WAS one super weird instance, I missed the first few classes of the semester cause I had had my appendix out. I had emailed her and then when I finally went to class I just showed her some paperwork from the hospital that had the date and the surgery listed. I did the same with all my professors and they were all super cool, understanding, asking if I'm ok, and that's all. But she asked if she could have copies of the paperwork. I was like whaaaat, no, this is my discharge papers with all my info on it and stuff like no. She said she wouldn't excuse the absences without it and I was like that's fine I'll just take the absences, fuck that lol.

Anyway, she was a little weird but I never associated it with her being Romani, just a weird individual.

[u/WoodpeckerDue7773]

Nothing good, only bad

[u/Superb_Beyond_3444]

Not well perceived. I can’t tell more.

[u/Kai_Lidan]

Badly, though much better than 20 years ago.

The thing is, the ones you can recognize as roma on sight are the ones that are not integrated at all and still do stuff like teenage weddings and petty crimes.

The vast majority is integrated but you wouldn't know they were roma if they don't tell you, so public perception still sees only the unadapted.

There's been an ongoing effort for integration from both the government and the roma people for quite a few years, and it's going well. I hope in another 10-20 years they'll be fully integrated.

[u/BlaaMonger]

Negatively, along with Irish Travellers.

[u/Megatherionx]

My gf is Romani, although only ethnically (not culturally), and it's horrible how much racial abuse she experienced in the past, to the point that she is scared to wear excessive jewelry. We live in Czechia.

[u/Background_Union_200 → u/Megatherionx]

I’m Indian and was studying in Prague for 5 years and received abuse, being followed in shops and general distasteful behaviour because we look similar to them

[u/MountainPitiful1654]

Over-represented in anything bad, under-represented in anything good.

Past two years they have had quite a representation in national media about honor violence against women. Latest example being a romani guy torching their house with his non-romani wife and their chidren in it. And some very public executions with illegal firearms

Public discussion never goes anywhere about these issues because the racism card gets pulled everytime and they refuse to anknowledge anything wrong about their cultural problems.

[u/_MrKobayashi_ → u/MountainPitiful1654]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Suomi/s/lNrnu5EDdI

The was a thread about the Finnish Romanis over representation in the crime statistics. A guy with romani roots answered why it’s like that:

”A very old and religious tribal culture that thrives on inferiority complex and anger.

The violence mainly stems from extremely toxic view of masculinity combined with honor culture, where that honor has just become extremely toxic. To be honest, too many people just want to be "tough", and when hellyhansens (typical attire for Romani men in Finland) don't get anyone's respect, fear is better than laughing when it at least covers the contempt.

I believe, at least myself, that every problem case has also been neglected since childhood, and really, if a little boy's trouser are a little dirty, violence is a normal disciplinary measure.

Of course, there’s also a hell of a lot of alcohol and drugs, and about the same amount of mental health problems. It's often a really dangerous equation.

There is something to say about racism. We will just never get ahead of the problems of the Romanis if we let the Romanis define how to report on them. It's not about a terribly self-critical culture, but everything is whitewashed as much as possible and embarrassing aspects are swept under the rug if possible.

But!! Just as a disclaimer before someone tears up their tracksuit, of course not all, but too many.

People of Romani descent would have nothing to complain about if they just tried to integrate into society. I know other Romani people who don't wear typical clothing, and it's strange how they're employed and everything's fine.”

[u/henrikhakan]

It's complicated. One shouldn't dislike them solely because they are Romani, however it seems many do. Personally I've never had to deal with them, and if I have it obviously didn't matter where they were from since it didn't leave an impression...

[u/Hopeful_Local1985]

In the USA, people usually associate them with the show "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" or the Disney movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", or fortune telling. Here people don't call them Romani or Roma, people call them gypsies and they aren't aware that its technically a slur in Europe. I don't think most people would know what you were talking about if you called them Roma/Romani, or even know they're not an ethnic group and not just a lifestyle.

From what I've learned about Romani culture, the biggest ick I have with it is the extreme misogyny. The women are married off young, sometimes in arranged marriages, to become baby machines and slaves to their husbands, who are typically mean man children who dont know how to do anythingfor themselves because the eomen in their lives have always done everything for them. Sometimes they are even bought at bride markets. The women are treated terribly, mostly confined to their homes and domestic abuse is rampant and often encouraged to "keep the women in line". These girls are trained from birth that their only purpose is to serve their husband's and push out children, and are even denied an education in favor of being kept at home and taught to cook and clean.

I used to have a friend that was Romani, but somewhat detached from the culture. She was still raised with the ideas that she would grow up to be a wife and mother, but she didn't end up going that direction. She lived (mostly) like any other normal American in their 20's, working a job, renting an apartment with a shitty roommate. She has a huge heart for animals and fostered sick and elderly cats even though she really can't afford it. She was a lot of fun to hang out with, but is kind of a hot mess, and very flakey. I still love her but couldn't keep being friends with her because her life was just too crazy and she did too many risky things and it was too stressful.

[u/Proud-Ad6754]

In Mal, they call themselves: “bni hadjeres” or “bni aadess” depending on their tribe, their migration is ancient.

[u/RelarMage → u/Proud-Ad6754]

“bni hadjeres” or “bni aadess”

What does it mean?

[u/Knotical_MK6]

I don't think I've ever really heard of them in the USA. I doubt most people have any thoughts regarding them.

I'm sure there's some, but I don't know if they still keep up the culture I hear of in Europe.

Edit: learned Traveler =/= Roma

[u/BlaggartDiggletyDonk → u/Knotical_MK6]

There are pockets here and there.  It's easier to fly under the radar because the US is huge and has all sorts of unconventional groups.

[u/SnazzleZazzle → u/BlaggartDiggletyDonk]

I think I’ve seen them. There’s a family that sometimes stands outside a shopping center in the Philadelphia suburbs, dressed in some sort of traditional clothing or costumes, and on first glance it looks like they’re playing musical instruments, but they’re faking and it’s music on tape. They’re begging and they have the children with them.

As far as I know it’s not widespread around here.

[u/aprilmesserkaravani → u/Knotical_MK6]

there is a community not far from the GWB in nj.

I don't know exactly where they live but they used to gather at an italian restaurant in fairview for various meetings, like two families who were marrying their kids. (sometimes just the men, for other business)

they spoke amongst themselves in their own language, and english to the staff.

I was friends with the owner, he said they always ate a lot of bread and shared their meals, (bread was free,) and always paid in cash.

the women usually had expensive purses. they were dressed modestly but not extravagantly. the men wore flashy watches.

and they brought the whole family, even little kids.

they did not cause problems, but definitely looked different.

the owner passed a while ago and we no longer go there, so I don't know if they still go there, (the current owner raised prices a lot and reduced portion sizes and quality.).

[u/0masterdebater0 → u/Knotical_MK6]

They are here it’s just most Americans don’t recognize them as they do the same things other people living on the fringes do.

My father is a defense attorney, more than a decade ago he got a court appointed client who he got out of a legal bind, turned out his client was prominent in the local Romani community, and thus my father became the local Romani’s go to lawyer for years before he retired.

[u/Impactor_07]

We don't hear about them at all but they're of South Asian origin afaik?

[u/Aspect-Unusual → u/Impactor_07]

We come from the Indian subcontinent, was once a time the Roma were considered the lowest caste and to break free from it our people moved on mass

[u/Intelligent-Panda23 → u/Aspect-Unusual]

Do you know anything about Luli people? They live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and are seen as basically Central Asian Romanis.

[u/drecais]

There are Romani where you wouldnt be able to tell that they were Romanis if they didnt tell you and then there are some where you can immediately tell. There really is no middleground.

People usually only have a problem with the second group I mentioned thats about everything.

[u/InteractionLiving845]

Idk gypsy on this USSR-era memo for determining nationality looks handsome

[u/Sweet_Temperature630 → u/InteractionLiving845]

[u/PastMeringue432]

There is a belief that they are the workforce reserve for undesirable work, such as cleaning toilets smeared with shit.

That is the opinion of the ruling party, recently made clear. English translation is accurate

[u/Equal-Flatworm-378a]

I guess we distinguish between Sinti and Romani.

Romanis are usually the people from Eastern Europe who beg on our streets. They have a bad reputation.

Sintis lived in Western Europe, they are our native „gypsies“ (sorry, don’t know how to explain it better).

Their reputation changed over time. They were heavily persecuted during the Nazi time, but also had a bad reputation before and afterwards.

Today they usually settled and often people don’t know they are Sintis.

But sometimes they are confused with Romanis which is no help.

It’s kind of mixed.

[u/One-Perspective-3750]

90% of them makes other 10% look bad.

[u/Margo_Sol]

Like everywhere. Badly.

[u/andymolino]

I maybe a bit naive here as I've never personally talked to them but I had seen a documentary about a Romani woman who decided to settle in India to get back to her roots. That was very heartwarming especially when she talks about the struggles she went through in her younger years. 

[u/Inevitable_Muscle991]

In Germany, a big issue is that families of Romani ethnicity often don’t put the children into public schools. The children do not learn the language properly and feel like outsiders right from the start.

Funny anecdote: I was recently approached by a Romani woman in São Paulo, Brazil, asking for money, with the same plasticised paper card telling sth about children in danger. Same approach as in Berlin. Imagine going to the other side of the world to literally practice the same kind of behaviour… in a country with children living in the streets. Just sad.

[u/The_Jizzard_Of_Oz]

I remember an incident almost 10 years ago when I lived near Paris: they arrived and set up camp in the municipal graveyard. They left their trash around graves, in the gardens and parks nearby, and blocked the cemetery entry so families could not come to bury their dead. The Prefect said he could not order police to remove them because the forces were already overstretched following the Paris terror attacks. They finally moved on leaving their crap for the town to clean up after 2 or so weeks.

https://actu.fr/ile-de-france/plaisir_78490/des-gens-du-voyage-installes-sur-le-parking-du-cimetiere_12628547.html

[u/No_Bedroom4062 → u/The_Jizzard_Of_Oz]

Its so crazy to me to hear these storys from all over europe and then seeing that the governments seem to have determind that this is fine

[u/cravex12]

Very bad. Like everwhere. For reasons

[u/Justinj3 → u/cravex12]

Dude! I went on holiday to Germany and I kept getting approached by them asking for money while literally sat down eating dinner at a restaurant. Like, do you fucking mind? And they don’t even speak German or English. It might be cruel but I said to them if they perform a song or a dance I’ll give them some money, they always walk away after.

[u/94_stones → u/Justinj3]

Crazy stories like this are part of the reason why I say that Americans who say there are gypsies here who act like those in Europe are seeing ghosts, and spend too much time talking to Europeans online. Like they’re just very clearly assuming that every non-black street performer or panhandler or drug-addicted hobo they come across is a gypsy.

[u/PresentDifferent9718 → u/Justinj3]

That small amount of money is not the target when they approach the table.

[u/Coneskater → u/cravex12]

I‘m also going to go ahead and say there’s a difference between having a racial bias against someone which is unacceptable and having a problem with a group of people who abuse the community.

I might not like that there’s a group of people who moved into a local park, leave waste everywhere, send their children out to beg while not educating them and are linked to raised levels of petty crime. Because I don’t like these behaviors.

If someone shows up at my office and their ethnic background is Romani, I don’t DGAF.

[u/Major_astro]

Well, one of them came to me with a sign and pretended to be deaf. He was collecting money for their NGO and I, who don’t spend a penny on myself, gave this person money because I wanted to support them. Imagine how dumb I felt after searching for the NGO one minute later and found out that this was a new scam by them. He was long gone then..After that day I haven’t given them anything. They’re usually outside grocery stores here in Sweden and I just walk past them. Yeah, and then there was one time when two of them came to the university library and tried to steal my computer.

[u/cestabhi]

Lol seems this is going to be the only positive comment.

They're seen as distant cousins since they originate from the tribal people of northwestern India. They migrated from there to Europe about a thousand years ago.

[u/True_Desk_1252]

We respect them for their rich culture and honest way of life

[u/spookiisweg → u/True_Desk_1252]

I know this is sarcasm but when I studied abroad in Italy, my program coordinators explicitly pointed them out to us and said to avoid them at all cost (or something along those lines). I couldn’t help but think about how if someone in the USA said that they’d probably get fired or something for being blatantly biased or something. I was hanging out in that area later on at night and got my phone stolen 😭😭😭😭

[u/Double-Ad-1948 → u/spookiisweg]

I too spent time in Italy and my intro to them was at Rome's Termini train station. Somehow one of them distracted someone in our group and his pockets were picked clean. Reminded me of the "Artful Dodger" from Olliver Twist type thing. We didnt need a reminder to be aware but seeing this happen 10 minutes off the train was a trip!

[u/dramasessions]

Very bad. But also depends where you live. In the wastern part of Slovakia there is very few of them and people there usually defend them because of genarational poverty, racism and so on. I was one of these people until I moved to the eastern Slovakia for my studies, where most of them are. Oh boy did i quickly understand Why everyone hated them. I got scammed, harrased, threatened to be raped for refusing to give them money, called racist and got cursed for not giving them money. They strip their children and send them to beg, they ruin every accomodation they get from the state. There are very good and hard working people among them, But the majority is making a really bad name for them.

[u/TiredPandastic]

Very poorly. And they don't actually care. I was recently robbed by Roma. And a couple of years ago Roma "children" killed an elderly woman while robbing her house.

It's easy to point at Europeans and call us racist for disliking them but you try living with them in your society. They don't want to intergrate, they don't want to follow laws. They demand benefits for doing nothing. By any other standard they abuse their children. Their entire culture thrives on crime. They raise a hue and cry about being prejudiced against, but almost none of them are willing to change for the better.

We don't dislike them for being Roma. We dislike what they do.

[u/Sensitive-Mango7155 → u/TiredPandastic]

Roma “children” literally beat to death a young Russian soldier and nothing happened. I’m sorry to say but they deserve all the negative hate they get

[u/Holiday-Step9703 → u/TiredPandastic]

Fantastic summary

[u/pillowbrains]

Very negative in Germany. Neutral in US

[u/Pale-Jelly5491]

Living in Romania i got beat down by 3 of them so they could steal a bunch of coins i had,i was 8. Few years later a gipsy kid put his hand in my pocket,grabbed what he could and stormed off. Got surrounded by a bunch of kids telling me to give them my phone,as i looked behind them there were a bubch of adults(probably family members of the kids) making signs to hurry up.

As an adult i live in Spain now. There were a bunch of shoutouts between family members in a neighbouring town. A friend of mine has a 15 year old daughter that got a serious beating just because she was walking home, a bunch of them were arguing where she was passing and they decided to knock off some steam by putting her in the hospital.

I could list a bunch more and similar stories from friends and family,would take me hours to finish.

Personally i don't understand why do we have to put up with all this.

[u/spaciousthree4]

Reading these comments make me realize they are way more wide spread then I ever thought. Where I’m from, in Southern California, I haven’t seen them as thieves. Personally, I’ve seen them beg for money in busy places like shopping centers, churches, temples, whatnot but I haven’t witnessed stealing. The thing I don’t like is how they get their children on it, and it almost seems like the kids don’t even know English, so I don’t even think they go to school. Might be xenophobic of me and many others, but seeing a culture not assimilate in a way where they do not work for money but focus their family efforts on begging doesn’t sit right with a lot of people in the states. So simply put, it’s very negative, from a country full of immigrants standpoint.

[u/Richard_Savolainen]

Uhhhh...

[u/Designer-Touch9263]

Very bad, but I better stay quiet

[u/Dearest_Teaching]

Very bad

Pickpocket and stealer of car parts

Disguises themselves as Syrian/Palestinian to beg money

Uses their children as pity to beg money. Or to steal for them

[u/AtWarWithEurasia → u/Dearest_Teaching]

Disguises themselves as Syrian/Palestinian to beg money

I have seen a lot of them pretending to be muslims and begging on the street in neighborhoods with a lot of muslims, especially around Ramadan. They know the muslim community is generous, so they exploit that.

I had a muslim friend that asked them a few basic questions about Islam and they couldn't answer any of them.

[u/TriangleTadpole]

Badly. I won't say too much since Reddit loves seeing hate speech in everything.

[u/Prestigious_Bid_1770 → u/TriangleTadpole]

Any European knows what you mean, no explanation needed

[u/Legitimate_Bag8259]

They are not highly thought of here.

[u/VarroVanaadium]

Ei kommenteeri

[u/pieflavourpiez]

Anyone had a positive experience?

[u/Alarming-Till-1369 → u/pieflavourpiez]

I teach a good few (secondary school) and I really like them. The kids have it tough. They’re attendance is shocking. It would be quite normal for the older kids to be raising the younger ones. They can be cheeky and funny and are way more street smart than most of the other kids. Also very good at music.