Roma

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Roma (plural male, sometimes also Rome ; singular male: Rome , singular female: Romni , plural female: Romnija ) is the generic term for a number of population groups who share a language, the Indo-Aryan Romani , and presumably also a historical-geographical origin ( Indian subcontinent ) are common. Most of them have been at home in Europe for at least 700 years . They are always minorities in their respective home countries, regardless of their size . Overall, they do not form a closed community, but are divided into numerous different groups with diverse peculiarities shaped by the language , culture and history of the respective dominant society.

Roma make up the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Many members of the Roma are marginalized on the basis of ethnic attributions as well as their social situation and thus stand at the intersection of two forms of social exclusion that are mutually reinforcing. In some European countries, they have recently been or are still exposed to open persecution beyond a social marginal position .

Roma is used in German, for example in the word pair Sinti and Roma, to distinguish it from the subgroup of Sinti , as a term for Eastern European Roma or with diffuse content.

Designations

Self-designations

Roma

In the general understanding and in a broad definition, "roma" (Sg. M. Rom , Pl. M. Next to roma also rom ; Sg. F. Romni , Pl. F. Romnija ; rom ; a German adjective derived from the Romanes noun does not exist) across groups based on the self-designation in the Romani language, the members of the overall minority.

"Rom" and "romni" are historically documented in the German- speaking area for the first time in 1726 in the Waldheim lexicon of the "Rothwelschen" and "Gypsy languages" by an unknown author with the translation "man-person" and "woman". In a representation of “Gypsies” in Prussian-Lithuania from 1793 the author asks the question “So what do the Gypsies call themselves?” He answers with “Rome or Romma in several numbers; Rome in the simple. ”He writes that the knowledge of his informant goes back several decades; it should therefore come from the middle of the 18th century. The Romani project of the University of Graz assumes that Roma represent "a basic - probably the most original - and all inclusive autonym" of the members of the minority. Roma brought this name with them from India.

On the recommendation of its language commission, the world umbrella organization recognized by the United Nations, the International Roma Union (IRU), advocates "Roma" (or English also: Romani) as a designation for all people of Roma origin. The first world congress of the international Roma civil rights movement in London in 1971 officially established the designation “Roma” as an overall category for the various sub-groups. The second international umbrella organization of Roma organizations, the Roma National Congress (RNC), also uses the term “Roma” as an umbrella term.

In 1998, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recommended to the member states of the Council of Europe with its General Political Recommendation No. 3 (“Combating Racism and Intolerance against Roma / Sinti”) to ensure that the various particular groups of the The name used by Roma is "by which the respective community wants to be referred to".

The implementation of Roma -partikularen proper names ( Aschkali , Boyash , Burgenland Roma , Lalleri , Kalderash , Lovara , Manouches , Gypsy , Xoraxane , ...) or regionally conventional double labels ( Gypsy or Roma and Sinti ) in the medial, semi-official and official use of language goes back to the efforts of the self-organizations of the Roma and the civil rights movement for the social recognition and integration of the minority, which came into being in the 1970s . The Romanes own names should help to question the disparaging view of the majority of society, as it finds discriminatory expression in Gypsies . They should promote social recognition and integration of the minority.

In the meantime, the establishment of a “minority divided into numerous subgroups” is beginning to assert itself against older essentialist and often hereditary-racist or cultural-racist concepts. There is therefore no self-contained culture of the Roma, but a diversity of Roma cultures. The different groups are shaped by the majority societies - which are also diverse in comparison with one another and in which they are based or in which they were in the course of migration movements. This view goes hand in hand with an increased emphasis on the individual groups with their own names. Nevertheless, the Sinto Romani Rose, as chairman of the umbrella organization of German Sinti and Roma, takes the position with regard to the double designation “Sinti and Roma” chosen by his association, which emphasizes individual groups, “the generic term is actually Roma because the 10 to 12 million members of our minority describe themselves as Roma. "

Important categories of the self-definition of a subgroup, the demarcation from other groups and the self-naming are (historical) professional groups ( Kalderasch , Lovara ), the language (e.g. Turkish in Southeast Europe), the religious affiliation (e.g. Muslim in a Christian environment: Xoraxane ) or attribution of geographical origin ( Egyptians , Sinti Extraixaria [= Austrian Sinti ]).

In addition to the systematic use of Roma as a general term for the overall Romance-speaking minority, the term appears in some applications with diffuse content in different, often disparate rankings:

  • again as a collective label, but below "overall minority" (whoever is included in "Roma" is always unnamed)
  • as an equal subgroup label together with narrowly defined subgroup titles (where in Europe or globally these "Roma" are to be found is always unmentioned)
  • up to tsiganological , sociographic or anthropological definitions of "gypsies" oriented disparate group compositions with unexplained geographical and other situation of Roma.

Examples of the first two cases would be e.g. B .: "Roma, Sinti and Kále", "Sinti, Roma, Lalleri, Lowara or Manusch", "Roma" and "the Sinti groups, which includes the Romanichals, the Cale of Spain, and other such", "Roma, Sinti, Manuš, Kalé , Gitanos, Cinganos, ... “. "Roma and their conational Sinti, Kale, Manouches and Romanichals".

An example for the third case would be: “Roma, Gypsies, Manouches, Kalderash, Machavaya, Lovari, Churari, Romanichal, Gitanoes [see above!], Kalo, Sinti, Rudari , Boyash, Travelers, Ungaritza [see above!], Luri, Bashalde , Romungro, Yenish, Xoraxai, and other groups ".

This does not rule out that “Roma” is also seen and used as an umbrella term for the groups mentioned. In each case, it is an individual, singular usage of an author, there are no naming conventions in these cases.

The literary scholar Klaus-Michael Bogdal uses a hybrid form with the overall title “Romvölker” derived from the self-designation. According to a criticism with reference to the 19th century, it is a " neologism " that stands in the tradition of the construction of "peoples".

Sinti and Roma / Roma and Sinti

The collective term Sinti and Roma or Roma and Sinti moves apart from the European Convention . It corresponds to the terminology of the member associations of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma or, in reverse order of precedence, the terminology of Austrian self-organizations such as the cultural association of Austrian Roma. Outside of the German- speaking area , the double name is largely uncommon.

With the word pair are meant

  • on the one hand the relatives of the Sinti living in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, northern Italy and south-eastern Europe (French-speaking area: Manouches ). In Austria , Sinti form a small minority within the overall minority, hence the second place there.
  • and, secondly, indefinitely, either regionally limited all Romance-speaking Eastern European groups or all other Romance-speaking groups worldwide with the exception of the Sinti.

In addition, there is a narrow interpretation of Sinti and Roma by German self-organizations, mostly determined by Sinti, who speak of “German Sinti and Roma”. According to citizenship as part of a German nation, firstly “autochthonous” Sinti and secondly Eastern European Roma who migrated to Germany in the middle of the 19th century are brought together. This does not include the Eastern European Roma who migrated to Germany in several batches in the 20th century. B. as "guest worker Roma" also have German citizenship.

In Germany and Austria, the word pair is established in public usage alongside “Roma”, although it is

  • is conceptually inconsistent: a designation for a subgroup ("Sinti") is equated with an overall designation ("Roma"),
  • Causes false statements: Flamenco as "music of the Sinti and Roma", "Albanian Sinti and Roma",
  • territorially limited minority political interests.

“Sinti” appears in the variant “Sende” in the Sulzer Gypsy List in 1787 , then with “Sinte is also called this people” again in the above-mentioned source from 1793. Again, it relates to all members of the minority, albeit subordinate to Roma .

Kale

An old collective name that is also widespread throughout Europe and is hardly known among non-Roma is Kale . The word is derived from kalo , Romanes for "black", and is also one of the self-names known from the 18th century for all members of the minority, albeit subordinate to Roma . It can be found throughout Europe for Albanian Ashkali , Finnish Kale , Iberian Calé of different regional allocation, Bohemian Lalere Kale or Welsh Kaale ( Welsh Kaale / Volsenenge Kale ).

Gitanos

Gitanos / / ⁠ xitaːnos ⁠ / / (singular male Gitano , female Gitana female majority Gitanas ) called Spanish Roma.

Nonroma in Romanes

The preferred Romani word for members of the majority population is gadzo (f. Gadzi ). The transcription of the spoken word is different due to different pronunciation and different normalization. Literally translated it means "farmer". It is explained by the pre-modern world as well as by a need to distinguish itself from the majority society and often has a negative connotation.

Another term that is less oriented towards the stereotype of a contrast between the “non-settled” and the local life-world, although it is delimiting but not meant to be derogatory, is the Sinti raklo (f. Rakli ) in Romanes . In Spain, Wales and Southeast Europe, too, raklo means boy or lad or journeyman, servant; rakli according to girl or maid, maid (Bernhard Helzle-Drehwald: Der Gitanismo in the Spanish Argot).

History: hypotheses of origin

As far as migration of Roma or their historical predecessor groups can be determined, it is classified as a normality that can generally be observed in the history of population groups. Migration is not a specific feature of Roma or of individual Roma groups.

Since the second half of the 18th century, linguistic studies have suggested that the early ancestors of the European Roma can be traced back to population groups formerly living in the north-west of the Indian subcontinent. Today's Romani linguistics specifies this hypothesis on "Central India, emigration to the northwest and a longer stay there". Population genetic assumptions, as they occasionally appear in the daily media, are of no importance for the technical discussion.

"Origin, time and causes of the emigration of the ancestors of the Roma ... [are] still disputed." Due to a lack of evidence, no reliable statements could be made on the respective cultures. Lively connections to the regions of origin of the Indian subcontinent have not existed for centuries; they cannot exist with the population groups who lived there at the time. A common group of origin of today's Roma and today's Middle Eastern cathedral , also with a language of Indo-Aryan origin and with a “nomadic” way of life (as it is really untypical for Roma) is considered speculative. The attempts to relate the origin of the Roma to the origin of individual Indian population groups today, such as Dom, Jat, Zott or Luri, lack convincing evidence.

The reference to India is therefore particularly important as a myth of origin . He has a firm position in the minority, in the majority of society's everyday thinking as well as in scientific specialist discourse. It is shaped by analogies to the majority social construct of "gypsies" or "gypsies" ("nomad people", marginalization and discrimination as " pariah ", outpatient acquisition, frequent music making, etc.). Therefore, corresponding references are considered questionable by some specialists.

The data on the migration of the predecessors of today's Roma to Europe are also hypothetical. There is roughly a consensus that they have been living in Southeastern Europe since the 14th century at the latest. Assumptions about several different access routes are now considered to be refuted by the linguistic findings. According to the historian Karola Fings (2016), the fact that the hereditary vocabulary of Romanes does not contain any Arabic words shows that these people came to Europe “with a single migration movement” and not additionally via a “southern route” leading through Arabic-speaking areas. Twenty years earlier, the ethnologist Katrin Reemtsma did not mention this second route, which was sometimes considered based on an “Egyptian” and “Oriental” myth of origin, in her overview.

The reconstruction of the history of the Roma in the early period is still “hypothetical and incomplete”. "Linguists", according to a Dutch migration researcher, "will never be able to give conclusive answers to all those questions that concern the reconstruction of the history of the Gypsies [in the original:" Gypsies "]."

Since the predecessors of the European Roma migrated to very different geographical and cultural areas and they were each a minority there, their history has been shaped for centuries by the respective surrounding societies, which means that there is no single, uniform "history of the European Roma" a variety of different stories. In particular, the older history of the respective groups has hardly been an object of historiography to this day.

language

The language of the Roma - the novel - is widely spoken more than 3.5 million people to more cautious estimate. The term “Romani” has been used in English-language academic literature since the 19th century, which, like “Romanes”, has now replaced the word “Gypsy language” that has long been used in German-speaking countries. Linguistics counts Romani as one of the New Indian languages ​​within the Indo-Aryan language group and assigns it to central India, but not to the northwest of the Indian subcontinent as the group's long assumed original region of origin before its further western migration. Since then, their language has developed independently of the other Indian languages, but under the strong influence of surrounding and contact languages, and has developed very different dialect variants in this way.

The documentation of the novel began in the 16th century with the publication of word lists and individual sentences, mainly in Western Europe, and later also in Southeast Europe. The comparative study Language and Origin of the Gypsies from India by Johann Christian Christoph Rüdiger from 1782 provided an initial indication of the Indian origins of Romanes and thus of the Roma .

Romani has nowhere the status of an official language, it is not standardized, so it does not have a standardized written form and is mainly spoken in group-internal communication - family associations, neighborhoods. In some subgroups of the Roma - such as the Sinti - the language has a protective role from the point of view of traditionalist speakers and should not be communicated to non-Roma.

Until well into the 20th century, Romani was largely non-written. Since the 1970s and with the emergence of a minority political movement, Roma intellectuals in particular have tried to make their language written in writing, not least in order to support the emancipation of the minority as a whole. As a result of the state disintegration processes in Eastern Europe, this endeavor lost its influence. Since then, standardization has increasingly taken place within a limited regional framework.

Adult novelists are always multilingual. You have the language of at least the local population and communicate with it in their language. They are also referred to this because non-Roma seldom learn Romani, not least because of the social status of the Romani speakers. In some cases, however, a “language taboo” applies - especially among Sinti - which prohibits Romani to relatives of the Majority society (Gadsche). The disposal of Romani is different within the overall minority. It ranges from the literary use of the language by Roma writers to a variety known as Para-Romani , which only has a partial Romani dictionary, to a complete loss of language.

The Romany language of the various speaker groups is - as is generally the case with the respective culture - shaped by the respective regional surrounding society. There is an extensive non-Indian vocabulary borrowed from the contact languages ​​and a syntax influenced in the same way . Medieval Greek lexemes have enriched Romani with little phonetic change, such as drom (street), foro (city), okto (eight) and other loanwords that have survived to this day. Lexemes such as grast (horse) or bov (oven) are of Armenian origin .

Borrowings from Romani into colloquial German can be seen as evidence of everyday contact between the Central European Sinti and the German-speaking majority population. Due to the small size of the minority in Central Europe, it is a small number. These include: “Bock” (meaning “to be up for something”) as a borrowing of bok for “hunger”; "Dump" as borrowing from there or gaw for "village"; "Coal" (in the sense of "money") as a borrowing from kalo for "black" via the Rotwelsche "to be burned down", "to be black"; “Kaschemme” borrowed from katčima for “ tavern ”; " Trash " as a borrowing from skunt for "dirt", "dirt"; “Zaster” as a loan from sáster for “iron”.

The methodical recording of the loanwords served to reconstruct the migration movements of the Roma, but this is only possible to a limited extent. After all, linguistics has now found a useful way of classifying the various dialects of Romani. Due to the strong differentiation of the overall ethnicity into numerous particular subgroups, there are around 60 dialects . The regionally specific "Sinti dialects" of the Romanes or unifying "the German Romanes" are also referred to as Sintikanes (sintengheri tschib) .

Widespread foreign ideas and their criticism

From a folkloric and exoticizing perspective, viewers from the majority society perceived and perceive the ethnic group as a homogeneous nomadic “tribal society”. "Gypsies" are generally incapable of adapting to changing socio-economic and political conditions. A collective and uncontrollable, either genetic or archaic cultural heritage makes them fundamentally incapable of development and forces them to “migrate” forever. This look overlooks

  • that the vast majority of European Roma are by no means "nomadized", but have lived in a fixed location for a long time and, unlike other regional populations, can look back on a long history of permanent settlement in regional areas. The idea of ​​the “ nomadic people ” has no empirical basis.
  • that migration has structural, but not ethnic, causes. The compulsion to permanent migration, as it was imposed in the early modern period on a large part of the majority population as well as the Jewish and "Gypsy" population groups, which are much smaller in number, inevitably resulted in the economic, legal and social exclusion that with one general ban on residence. It was punishment and forced.
  • that this corresponded to a connection of the majority population to the place and territory enforced from above until the middle of the 19th century, which, however, could not prevent considerable mobility, mainly due to employment.

In everyday thinking, the polarizing cliché of a “nomadic minority” here and an allegedly immobile “ sedentary majority” there is still alive.

The anti- Gypsy stereotype of eternally wandering “Gypsies” corresponds in content and popularity with the anti-Semitic stereotype of the “ eternal Jew ”.

Most Roma in Europe (especially Eastern Europe and Spain ) have lived for many generations - in some cases, as in Slovakia or Burgenland , for centuries - just as tied to a place as the majority population. A small, hardly quantifiable proportion live mainly in Western and Central Europe, as it always applied to parts of the majority population in the same way and still applies today, in different mixed forms of local stability and a usually temporary absence from a reference domicile. As early as 1893, state censuses for Hungary and Slovakia showed a demographically inconspicuous proportion of 3.3% of so-called "wandering gypsies" without a longer permanent stay in the total number of those classified as "gypsies" compared to the population groups. The figures from the 1960s and 1970s are similarly low for Slovakia and the CSSR.

The already minority share of traditional “travelers” and the duration of the “journey” continue to decrease. Today, the proportion of the Roma who migrate seasonally or permanently in the total global Roma population is estimated at a maximum of five percent, which is not remarkable in view of the high level of mobility in the surrounding society.

In the context of intra-European labor migration since the 1960s, a large number of Roma came to Western, Central and Northern Europe from Southeastern and Southern European countries. This form of migration remained inconspicuous because the Roma migrants did not appear as such, but as members of their respective states.

In the context of increasing unemployment , poverty and war in the south- east European countries after the system upheaval, numerous Roma families have migrated to southern, western, central and northern Europe as civil war refugees and labor migrants since the 1990s .

Discrimination and Persecution

Antigypsy demonstration in Sofia , 2011

In the 700-year history of the Roma in Europe, the minority has been exposed to numerous forms of discrimination and persecution since the beginning of the 16th century at the latest. At the time of National Socialism , an unknown number of Roma were victims of genocide (see section under Porajmos ) comparable to the extermination of European Jews ( Shoah ).

Even today the Roma are subject to defamation, discrimination and social, economic and political marginalization and in many countries they are a minority that the majority population does not want. In some south-eastern European countries, Roma have faced open persecution at times over the past two decades. During the war in Kosovo, for example, entire settlements of Roma, Ashkali and Balkan Egyptians (these two are also part of the Roma ethnic group) were looted and burned by members of the Albanian majority population and the residents were driven out. Most of the Roma were expelled from Bosnia in the course of “ ethnic cleansing ”, which affected all ethnic groups. Many died as victims of assault during the civil war.

To this day, European politicians, using traditional antigypsy stereotypes and catchphrases (“flood”, “migration of peoples”), call for the exclusion and deportation of Roma. As a rule, this refers to Roma from Eastern Europe, primarily from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and North Macedonia. Such phenomena became known in western Europe from Switzerland, Italy, Austria and France far beyond the borders of the respective countries.

The Eastern European Roma are also subject to social disadvantage and considerable repression, including open persecution, in their home countries, where antigypsy attitudes are widespread among the majority population.

Culture of remembrance in Germany

The time of National Socialism shaped the culture of remembrance, which was always also a story of persecution, most strongly within the minority. The majority culture of remembrance, however - unlike the history of the Jewish minority or the persecution of political or church opponents of the National Socialists - is poorly developed. Street names, monuments, memorial plaques, public events or other signs or places of remembrance are only very rarely dedicated to the topic.

Ravensburg , memorial in memory of Sinti from Ravensburg who were deported to Auschwitz and murdered in Porajmos.
Paradeplatz in Würzburg: Memorial to the memory of the Würzburg Sinti. Inscription on Romanes.

After decades of silence about the crimes and continued defamation and discrimination practices since the end of the 1970s, it was initiatives by those affected themselves that brought about a certain change, at least in the politico-official sphere and in the media. In 1979, the first international memorial rally of Roma and supporters from the majority population took place in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . At Easter 1980 a Sinti group carried out a hunger strike in the Dachau concentration camp, which received worldwide attention . These and subsequent actions by initially smaller groups not only changed the media and the political perspective on the minority, they also contributed significantly to the collection of a large part of the minority, which was split up into subgroups and family associations, in the regional associations and member organizations of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma (Heidelberg) as well as in smaller interest groups with regional importance.

In addition, there are self-organized activities aimed at drawing attention to the situation of Eastern European Roma migrants, demanding a right to stay and referring to the pan-European persecution of Roma under National Socialism. In 1989, for example, Roma protested against the deportation of asylum seekers by occupying the grounds of the former Neuengamme concentration camp , where Roma were also imprisoned. In 1993 there was a "march" of Southwest German Roma to Baden-Baden and to the Dachau concentration camp memorial . These and other activities related to the law of residence were instructed and accompanied by the Hamburger Rom and Cinti Union.

Artistic and documentary references in public space are known from Bad Berleburg (North Rhine-Westphalia), Bergen-Belsen, Bremen, Dreihausen (Hesse), Düsseldorf, Flensburg, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Hildesheim, Kiel, Koblenz, Cologne, Leipzig , Magdeburg, Mannheim, Marburg, Merseburg, Mulfingen , Nürtingen, Ravensburg, Magdeburg , Wiesbaden and Würzburg.

In the 1990s, the Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma in Heidelberg set up the only permanent exhibition on the "National Socialist genocide of the Sinti and Roma". A corresponding traveling exhibition could be shown in many places in the Federal Republic.

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism in Berlin

In 1992 the federal government decided to erect a memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe who were murdered under National Socialism, who were persecuted, imprisoned and killed as "gypsies" and who were subjected to collective extermination in Porajmos , the equivalent of the Shoah . The Israeli artist Dani Karavan submitted a draft. However, the realization was delayed for years because the associations of those affected initially did not agree on the content of the dedication text. At the end of 2007, the Federal Council decided that it should be drawn up and decided on on the basis of suggestions from the associations and in cooperation with the Institute for Contemporary History (Munich / Berlin) and the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne . The symbolic start of construction took place in February 2008. On October 24, 2012, the inauguration took place in Berlin with a festive ceremony.

Demographics

Roma do not constitute the majority of the population in any country in the world. The largest communities live in Europe, especially in Southeastern Europe , East Central Europe , Southwestern Europe and Russia , as well as outside of them: in the USA , Brazil and Turkey .

According to consistent information from both the state administration and the Central Council, around 70,000 members of the minority with German citizenship live in Germany as descendants of the historical immigrants of the past 600 years.

But there is also the estimate by the renowned specialist Katrin Reemtsma, who in 1998 spoke of "around 40–60,000 Sinti and Roma with German citizenship ". The “number of former third generation labor migrants in Germany and refugees with permanent right of residence from the former Yugoslavia” was set to be just as high as that of long-time residents, i.e. also between 40,000 and 50,000. In addition, from the context of the Central Council in 2011 there is again the indication of 80,000 to 120,000 "Sinti and Roma" - in the Central Council definition, long-established German citizens - and with reference to a UN estimate from 2006, 50,000 of them can be distinguished as "refugees and so on called migrant workers ”referred to Roma.

Deviating from the above-mentioned special case of exceptionally consistent information between the state and self-organization, it can generally be stated that state administrations tend to give low figures, while Roma organizations tend to give high figures. They are always “political figures”. State censuses are consistently no more reliable than the information from self-organizations or NGOs ,

  • because some of the Roma in the country do not have citizenship, but only the citizens are counted,
  • because the question of ethnic origin is not allowed and is therefore valued according to dubious criteria with great leeway,
  • because a commitment to ethnicity is a requirement for counting, but is refused by many Roma for social and historical reasons,
  • because the meters question third parties (e.g. neighbors) in view of the unreliability of the information provided by presumed Roma,
  • because members of the minority, despite a (partial) origin from the Roma minority, are now classifying themselves into other nationalities (mainly those who are in the majority in their environment) in the course of assimilation processes or
  • because evictions due to the civil war made even more recent figures obsolete.

Due to the different approaches and the special conditions of demographic surveys on Roma and in view of the usually large differences in time and official or unofficial sponsorship in the results, figures on the percentage of the population of the minority are usually without serious informative value. The following examples include:

  • In the 1980s, the European Roma population was once summed up to between 1,988,000 and 5,621,000 and another time to between 3,421,750 and 4,935,000. For the Netherlands 1,000 Roma were claimed, then between 30,000 and 35,000, for Sweden 1,000 to 8,000, but also between 60,000 and 100,000.
  • About 25 years later (2010) the Council of Europe presented a comparative overview of states with minimum and maximum information. He grouped Roma and travelers, that is, “travelers” from the majority of society, regardless of the fact that the vast majority of Roma do not “drive” and have never “driven” and that Roma have no other historical or cultural similarities with the second group. The Council of Europe named a minimum of 6.4 and a maximum of 16 million Roma and travelers.
  • In 2011, the Council of Europe put the number of Roma in Europe at 10 to 12 million. According to the Council of Europe, the proportion of Roma in the total population is:
    • 10.3% in Bulgaria (4.9% according to its own 2011 census)
    • 9.6% in North Macedonia (2.7% according to our own 2002 census)
    • 9.2% in Slovakia (2.0% according to our own 2011 census)
    • 8.3% in Romania (3.0% according to our own 2011 census)
    • 8.2% in Serbia (excluding Kosovo; 2.1% according to our own 2011 census)
    • 7.1% in Hungary (3.2% according to our own 2011 census)
    • 3.8% in Turkey
    • 3.2% in Albania (0.3% according to our own 2011 census)
    • 2.5% in Greece
    • 1.5% in Spain
  • In Albania, only 8,301 Roma were counted in the last census results in 2011, although in this census 390,938 people out of 2,800,138 preferred not to give an answer on their ethnic origin.
  • According to the Statista portal , the number of Roma in individual European countries is estimated as follows:
  • The Greek government estimates the number of Roma at 200,000, experts at up to 350,000.
  • In the former states of the Soviet Union should
    • According to estimates, over 400,000 Roma live in Ukraine in 2001 and
    • in Russia by 250,000
    • in Belarus around 7,000 (2009 census)
    • in Moldova maybe around 25,000
    • in Latvia around 4,500
    • in Lithuania at 3,000
    • around 1,250 Roma live in Estonia

The global number of Roma shows that it cannot be reliably quantified. The existing estimates illustrate the problem: they range from two to twelve million. Reliable information on the proportion of the population - be it regional, be it Europe-wide or universal - is therefore also generally difficult to obtain.

Recent political developments

International alliances

Roma flag : blue for heaven, freedom, spirituality and eternity; Green for nature, earth, fertility and life; the wheel for caravans, mobility, progress and the Indian roots.

In 1967 the International Gypsy Committee was founded . In 1971, at the first World Rome Congress in London, the term Roma was adopted, a flag, the anthem Gelem, Gelem and International Roma Day on April 8th.

As an international association of Roma, the International Romani Union (IRU) was founded in 1978 at the second World Romani Congress (WRC) in Geneva , based on Romanes Romano Internacionalno Jekhetanipe , as an umbrella organization for regional and national interest groups.

Today (2014) the situation is confusing. Both an institution renamed the International Roma Union and an International Romani Union that still bears the original name claim global representation.

As a non-governmental organization ( NGO ) , the IRU has been a member of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations since 1979 and has advisory status in UNESCO . She has been a member of UNICEF since 1986. A second international association is the Roma National Congress (RNC). Honorary President of the IRU was the well-known actor Yul Brynner in the founding phase . He played an active role in the efforts of the Roma to unite internationally and gain international recognition in the 1970s.

The European Roma and Travelers Forum (ERTF) has existed for Europe since 2005, and its spokespersons represent both associations. It is linked to the Council of Europe through a partnership agreement . It not only campaigns for Roma, but also for non-Roma groups such as Pavee or Yeniche in similar social, economic and educational problems.

Organizations in Germany

In 1972 the Sinto Anton Lehmann was shot dead by a police officer in Heidelberg, numerous Sinti took part in a demonstration, and the Association of German Sinti was then established. In 1982 its regional associations and independent local associations merged to form the umbrella organization Central Council of German Sinti and Roma , whose headquarters are in Heidelberg. It is the state-recognized top representation of Roma with German citizenship and is financed by the Federal Ministry for Youth, Women and Family. Its state associations are funded as projects of the state ministries. The long-time chairman of the Central Council, the German Sinto Romani Rose , was one of the leading activists of the civil rights movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

In contrast to the Central Council, the Rome and Cinti Union (Hamburg) and the Roma-Union-Frankfurt have organized Roma who have migrated to the Federal Republic of Germany in recent decades and represent their interests in terms of residence and asylum law. Rudko Kawczynski , stateless Hamburg Rome and well-known representative of the Rome and Cinti Union, was one of the leading figures of the civil rights movement, as it emerged in the north of Germany through public activities. A “Federal Roma Association” has existed for a number of years with the intention of “bringing as many existing Roma associations, initiatives and groups as possible under one roof”. He also addresses Roma who migrated from Eastern Europe to the Federal Republic.

Smaller self-organizations with regional significance and without origin from the social and civil rights movement are the Sinti Alliance Germany (Göttingen), which maintains a website, or the Roma Union Grenzland (Aachen). Important associations supported jointly by Roma and people from the majority population with a focus on socio-political and social work, which, including migrant workers and refugees, address all Roma groups, are regionally the Rom e. V. (Cologne) and the Förderverein Roma (Frankfurt am Main). The Center of Integration, Affirmation and Emancipation of the Roma in Germany - Roma-Union e.V. also sees itself as representing the interests of the Roma who immigrated to Germany as civil war refugees. V. (Essen).

Legal and state-political recognition in Germany

Four national minorities have been recognized in the Federal Republic of Germany since the end of the 1990s, after the Federal Republic ratified the Framework Convention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of National Minorities in 1997 and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages ​​in 1998 : Danes, Frisians, Sorbs and "the German Sinti and Roma ". Protection as a national minority therefore only extends to Sinti and Roma of German nationality. According to the principle of descent, it is also restricted to the “long-established residents”, ie it does not include Roma of German nationality with family origins from Southeastern Europe or Spain.

On November 14, 2012, Schleswig-Holstein was the first federal state to include the German Sinti and Roma as a minority in the state constitution alongside the Danes and Frisians. The Association of German Sinti and Roma e.V. fought for 22 years. V. - Landesverband Schleswig-Holstein with its state chairman Matthäus Weiß about recognition as a minority. During this time, six motions to amend the constitution were introduced to the state parliament. They failed five times because of the necessary two-thirds majority. On August 23, 2012, the parliamentary groups of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen , SPD , the SSW parliamentarians and the pirates and FDP parliamentary groups again introduced a bill to amend the constitution of Schleswig-Holstein. The state parliament referred this by a plenary resolution to the Home and Legal Affairs Committee and to the Europe Committee for an opinion. After the committee recommended the unchanged adoption of the draft law to the state parliament with abstention of the votes of the parliamentary group of the CDU, the decision on the amendment of the state constitution was passed unanimously on November 14th 2012 in the plenary session of the state parliament Schleswig-Holstein. After previous concerns, the CDU parliamentary group finally agreed.

Article 5 of the constitution of Schleswig-Holstein now states: "The national Danish minority, the minority of the German Sinti and Roma and the Frisian ethnic group are entitled to protection and support."

In 2013 in Baden-Württemberg , Daniel Strauss, representing the Association of German Sinti and Roma State Association of Baden-Württemberg and Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann signed a state treaty for the state of Baden-Württemberg that, among other things, strengthens the cooperation between the state and the minority and the dialogue with Sinti and Roma Put Baden-Württemberg on a reliable socio-political basis, broaden it and establish joint action against antiziganism. To this end, it stipulates binding funding. This state treaty was passed by the state parliament in the same year.

Organizations in Austria

On July 15, 1989, the first Roma association in Austria was founded in Oberwart. In 1999 a Roma adult education center was established as a sub-organization of the Burgenland adult education centers, also in Oberwart.

During this time, on February 4, 1995, the multiple bomber Franz Fuchs killed 4 Roma in Oberwart - by a booby trap on a sign saying “Roma back to India”.

Legal and state-political recognition in Austria

In the Republic of Austria, in addition to the ethnic groups of Croats, Slovaks, Slovenes, Hungarians and Czechs, the Roma have also been recognized within the meaning of the National People's Group Act since 1993 . Roman (es), the local variety of Romani, is a recognized minority language here , which means that there is a right to school instruction in the mother tongue, certain use of the language in official courses and representation in the public media. The ethnic group uses to refer to itself as (Austrian) Roma or Roma and Sinti .

This protection of autochthonous minorities with their own mother tongue and nationality only affects the Burgenland Roma , Sinti and Lovara , who have been living in what is now Austria for a long time, at least before the founding of the republic (Hungarian-Burgenland Roma since the 15th century, mostly Czech and Southern German Sinti and Slovak Lovara in the late 19th century). Of the approx. 8,000 Roma registered in Burgenland in the 1930s, only a few hundred had survived the Nazi genocide. There are also guest workers in the 1960s , but also after the fall of the iron curtain from the 1990s as refugees or illegally immigrated Kalderaš and Gurbet (Serbia) as well as Arlije ( North Macedonia) and members of other groups who do not come under this protection. The last census by Statistics Austria in 2001 recorded 6,273 novelists, 4,348 of whom were Austrian citizens. There are no later dates, there is no obligation to prove membership of an ethnic group (Section 1 (3) National Ethnic Groups Act). Overall, the number of all Roma in Austria is estimated at around 40,000 (25,000–50,000). The recognized minority is therefore only a small part of the Roma in Austria.

One of several self-organizations that represent the minority in Austria is the Austrian Roma Cultural Association in Vienna, which was founded in 1991 and is also represented in the national minority council (according to the national minority law).

In April 2011 Roman - the language of the Burgenland Roma - was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage in Austria by the Austrian Commission for UNESCO (for Burgenland), October 2011 also the songs of Lovara (Vienna and Burgenland). The purpose of this designation is binding protection as a living cultural tradition.

The Austrian Roma are now consistently integrated in a sedentary way. For the few travelers there are two officially supervised transit points (Braunau and Linz), others are being considered due to the EU strategy to include the Roma by 2020 .

Special case of Southeastern Europe and the Visegrad countries

The vast majority of the European Roma population lives in the south-east European countries and the so-called Visegrád states . During the socialist phase, a number of individual opportunities for qualification and social advancement opened up for Roma. "Roma elites with high qualifications developed as they are not to be found in Western Europe." In the meantime, the living situation of the Southeastern European Roma has changed due to the political and socio-economic disintegration and reforming processes of the 1990s and the associated ethnicization and new nationalisms triggered conflicts and repressions fundamentally worsened.

In general, the recapitalization of agricultural and industrial production, the mass layoffs and the emergence of an unregulated labor market resulted in high unemployment and general impoverishment and impoverishment of the Roma. The layoffs in the countryside and in the smaller towns led to increased rural exodus to the already overpopulated and poorly equipped Roma quarters (“Mahala”) in the large cities. The Southeastern European Mahala have a ghetto character. So z. For example, the schools in the Bulgarian Roma district are described as "extremely neglected today". The illiteracy among young Roma was increasing rapidly. Those excluded from the productive sphere try to escape their impoverishment above all with combined emergency livelihoods: small trade, collecting and processing leftovers, casual activities. This is accompanied by the typical social consequences of such processes, such as drastically decreasing educational opportunities, alcoholism and drug risks.

The notion of a typical minority delinquency, which is a traditional element of the “gypsy image” in the majority society, cannot be substantiated with numbers.

  • On the one hand, the official crime statistics in no European country differentiate according to “ethnic groups”, nationalities or primary languages: “That crime and belonging to a minority have nothing to do with each other is one of the standard assumptions of modern [police] investigative work.” Ethnic profiling is beyond that frowned upon, if not prohibited. So there are no numbers.
  • On the other hand, such figures would have to be compared with those of groups under similar social conditions, which do not exist anywhere else in Europe.

Similar living conditions exist in South African or South American slums. The risk of crime is far lower in every respect in the south-east European Roma quarters, notes the south-east Europe expert Norbert Mappes-Niediek . "In the large Roma quarters, in Shuto Orizari in Skopje , Ferentari in Bucharest , Stolipinowo in Plovdiv or Faketa in Sofia , every visitor can move freely and undisturbed."

In Yugoslavia, too, there was a relative integration of the Roma and thus comparatively good educational opportunities until the state collapsed. Many Roma were able to obtain higher school qualifications and some even a university degree. In the meantime, the minority has fallen back to the pre-socialist level of educational discrimination. In the course of the state's decline and the ensuing ethno-nationalist-inspired civil war-like clashes, massive aggression was also directed against the respective Roma population. She was exposed to collective attacks by members of the majority ethnic group, destruction and looting of her homes with the aim of displacement. One example is the Romska Mahala of Mitrovica ( Kosovo ), looted and burned down by Albanian nationalists in 1999 , which was inhabited by 5,000 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians ("RAE"). Against this background, many Southeastern European Roma fled to Western and Central Europe or to North America.

Social organization, culture

The cultural traditions, the cultural past and present of the European Roma show extremely important regional differences, and “the Gadje's view of the Sinti and Roma is also different. a. closely related to their share in the respective society as a whole and to the presence or absence of other cultural minorities. ”The influence of the majority of society on the development of the minority culture produced historically and regionally different results. Nevertheless, some similarities can be determined, whereby the question must remain open to what extent they are due to a common ethnic “heritage” or similar or common structural conditions.

Since the second half of the 20th century, Roma and Sinti have acted in autobiographies and novels on an autobiographical basis “visibly as historical subjects”. This group includes, for example, the German Philomena Franz , the Slovak Ilona Lacková , the Austrian Ceija Stojka , the French Matéo Maximoff , the Hungarian Menyhért Lakatos and the German Otto Rosenberg . By reflecting on their own history, they subvert stereotypes in their publications . Persecution, generation and role conflicts, identity , upheaval and tradition are discussed as well as the position in current society.

The importance of the extended family

The cohesion of the Roma community is traditionally created through extended family relationships, as they mostly still existed in the European surrounding societies until a few generations ago. It is unknown whether or to what extent this still applies today in the forms described decades ago.

Economic and social organization

At the beginning of the 1980s, the ethnologist Rüdiger Vossen described the loosely structured kumpania as a typical romantic economic, social and political union “with a group-related economic and moral control function”. To what extent this statement is still correct today must remain open. The widely recognized information offered by the rombase website of the University of Graz now reduces the importance of this form of organization to the sub-group of calderas and emphasizes the aspect of diversity. The ethnologist Katrin Reemtsma does not address the kumpania at all and refers to the general change in employment structures, which in the case of the Kalderash also resulted in the abandonment of the traditional, often outpatient blacksmith's trade and the change to other professions that were carried out in a fixed location. According to rombase , the Roma, who have lived permanently in Kosovo since the 12th century, founded recognized trade associations at an early stage, comparable to the Central and Western European craft guilds. The site emphasizes the importance of the Arlije Roma for economic and social self-organization.

Only a few Roma, whatever sub-group, practice a travel profession as market feeders, showmen, performers, circus professionals or entrepreneurs, etc. They share this characteristic with a majority of people of other "ethnic" attributions, as they mostly come from the majority population. In one case, as in the other, this generally does not exclude a fixed center of life, but includes it.

In many European countries, for example in Bulgaria or Serbia, the Roma are among the population groups most severely affected by marginalization. Their social situation is often characterized by poverty, a mostly low level of education and employment as well as social stigmatization. This life situation particularly affects Roma women, who suffer from a lack of social prospects as well as from patriarchal family structures.

Purity and avoidance regulations

Some traditionalist Roma value the distinction between pure and unclean in a figurative sense. For example, women are subject to their own ideas of purity in such cases. Menstruation and childbirth are then considered to be “impure” with the consequence of special ways of dealing with them. Similar ideas of purity and impurity can also be found in traditionalist forms of Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, for example in Catholicism in the "Blessing of the woman who has recently given birth", derived from the Old Testament and cultivated in German-speaking countries until at least the 1970s, or in Mary Light meas .

religion

The religious affiliation of Roma corresponds to a large extent with the surrounding majority religion. However, there are always exceptions to the rule and syncretistic overlaps. The ethnologist Katrin Reemtsma substantiated this finding in the 1990s with the following cases:

  • Kalderash described them as predominantly Christian Orthodox. In the USA, however, they also profess the Roman Catholic faith.
  • Xoraxans, who lived in the former Ottoman parts of the former Yugoslavia, would be considered Muslim Roma, but also celebrated the Christian-Orthodox holidays, practicing “a liberal form of Islam up to Islamic-Christian-Orthodox syncretism combined with non-Christian ones and non-Muslim elements ”in very different intensities.
  • The majority of German Sinti are Catholic . A small minority is evangelical or assigned to free church communities like the Pentecostal movement .

literature

Overview displays:

Especially for contemporary history:

  • Herbert Heuss, Arnold Roßberg (Ed.): Protection for the murderer? The judicial treatment of Nazi genocide crimes and their significance for society and the legal culture in Germany (= Central Council of German Sinti and Roma series; 9). Heidelberg 2015.
  • Norbert Mappes-Niediek: Poor Roma, bad gypsies. What is true about the prejudices about immigrants. Links, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86153-684-0 .
  • Michael Zimmermann: Racial Utopia and Genocide. The National Socialist "solution to the gypsy question" (= Hamburg contributions to social and contemporary history; 33rd). Christians, Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-7672-1270-6 .
  • Michael Zimmermann (Ed.): Between Education and Destruction. Gypsy Policy and Gypsy Research in Europe in the 20th Century. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-515-08917-3 .

Especially for Germany:

  • Oliver von Mengersen (Ed.): Sinti and Roma. A German minority between adaptation and exclusion (= series of publications by the Federal Agency for Civic Education; 1573). Bonn 2015, ISBN 978-3-8389-0573-0 .

Especially for Austria:

  • Dieter W. Halwachs . Roma and Romani in Austria. In: Romani Studies 5/15/2 (2005), pp. 145-173.

Specific to the Ottoman Empire:

  • Kai Merten: Among each other, not next to each other: The coexistence of religious and cultural groups in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century . tape 6 of Marburg's contributions to the history of religion. LIT Verlag , Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12359-6 , 9. The Roma ("Gypsies") in the Ottoman Empire, p. 265–279 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Broadcast reports

Web links

Wiktionary: Roma  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Roma  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roma integration in the EU accessed on April 4, 2020
  2. ^ Yaron Matras, The Language of the Roma. A historical outline, in: ders./Hans Winterberg / Michael Zimmermann (ed.), Sinti, Roma, Gypsies. Language - History - Present, Berlin 2003, pp. 231–261, here: pp. 232 f.
  3. ^ Friedrich Kluge: Rotwelsch. Sources and vocabulary of rogue language and related secret languages ; Strasbourg 1901 (ND 1987), p. 187 f.
  4. ^ Johann Erich Biester: About the Gypsies; especially in the Kingdom of Prussia , in: Berlinische Monatsschrift, vol. 21, 1793, pp. 108–165, 360–393, here: p. 364 ff.
  5. ↑ See: Rombase, Untergruppen der Roma, University of Graz, [1] .
  6. ↑ See also: Archived copy ( Memento from August 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 11 kB). Since Romani is primarily a spoken language, there are occasionally deviating, dialect-related spellings such as “rroma”, “romma” or “rommenes” even for key terms.
  7. ↑ See Roma project at the University of Graz: Archived copy ( Memento from May 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ General political recommendation No. 3 by ECRI: Combating racism and intolerance against Roma / Sinti, March 6, 1998, see: [2] (PDF; 830 kB).
  9. ↑ See: Rombase, Untergruppen der Roma, University of Graz, [3] .
  10. ↑ Karola Fings , Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann , Glossary, in: dies. (Ed.), Gypsy persecution in the Rhineland and Westphalia 1933–1945. History, processing and memory, Paderborn 2012, pp. 337–359, here: p. 350.
  11. ↑ ZB: Max Matter, On the situation of the Roma in Eastern Europe, in: ders. (Ed.), The situation of the Roma and Sinti after the EU enlargement, Göttingen 2005, p. 9–28, here: p. 14 f .; Rajko Djuric / Jörg Becken / Bertolt A. Bengsch, Without a home - without a grave. The history of the Roma and Sinti, Berlin 1996.
  12. ↑ See: "Antiziganism is socially acceptable". Conversation with Romani Rose, chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, in: Wolfgang Benz, Sinti and Roma: The undesirable minority, Berlin 2014, pp. 49–63, here: p. 50.
  13. ↑ Reetta Toivanen / Michi Knecht (eds.), European Roma - Roma in Europe, p. 7, in: Berliner Blätter. Ethnographic and ethnological contributions (published by the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Society for Ethnography), Münster 2006, issue 39; Rajko Djuric, gypsy of the lexicon. The Roma in reference works. A suggestion for correction [1999], in: Archived copy ( Memento of June 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  14. ↑ Information boards of the memorial for the Sinti and Roma of Europe murdered under National Socialism , quoted in to: Documentation and Cultural Center of German Sinti and Roma (ed.), Sinti and Roma press kit, DENKMAL WEITER, cultural events for the inauguration of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, 19. – 25. October 2012, p. 16 (see also: [4] ).
  15. ↑ [5] .
  16. ↑ Marco Solimene, The challenge of, Defining the object of study. The case study of a group of bosnian roma, Reykjavík 2012, see: Archived copy ( Memento of October 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  17. ↑ Francesco Melfi, Immigrants, Roma and Sinti unveil the “National” in Italian Identity, Cleveland 2014, p. 9, see: [6] .
  18. ↑ European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), Roma and Travelers in Public Education. An overview of the situation in the EU Member States, May 2006, p. 16.
  19. ↑ Wolfgang Aschauer, sense and nonsense of ethnic categorizations. Review essay [on] Klaus-Michael Bogdal, Europe invents the gypsies. A story of fascination and contempt, Berlin 2011, see: [7] .
  20. ↑ See HP Central Council: [8] .
  21. ↑ See e.g. B. the HP of the Austrian Roma Cultural Association: Archived copy ( Memento from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
  22. ↑ Sinti in Southeastern Europe are little known, but can also be found there, see: Aleksandar (Sándor) Hercenberger, Secanje na Sinte. Emlékezés a Szintókra [= memory of Sinti], Novi Sad 2006.
  23. ↑ The state recognition as an Austrian ethnic group took place in 1993 under the umbrella term "Roma", see: Gerhard Baumgartner, Bernhard Perchinig: Minority policy in Austria - the policy of the Austrian minorities. ( Memento from May 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) See also: Emmerich Gärtner-Horvath: 10 year association Roma. Summary and outlook. , in: Romani Patrin, 1999/2, Oberwart 1999 (PDF; 22 kB).
  24. ^ Michael Zimmermann: Racial Utopia and Genocide. The National Socialist "Solution to the Gypsy Question". Hamburg 1996, p. 17 ff .; Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann: “Don't be a goat tuna, but an imperial cornet.” Sinti in the 17th and 18th centuries. Berlin 2007, p. 31 f .; [9] .
  25. ↑ Karola Fings / Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann, Glossary, in: dies. (Ed.), Gypsy persecution in the Rhineland and Westphalia 1933–1945. History, processing and memory, Paderborn 2012, pp. 337–359, here: pp. 351 f.
  26. ↑ Send : ibid, p. 252; Sinte : Johann Erich Biester: About the Gypsies; especially in the Kingdom of Prussia , in: Berlinische Monatsschrift, vol. 21, 1793, pp. 108–165, 360–393, here: p. 364 ff.
  27. ↑ Johann Erich Biester, About the Gypsies; especially in the Kingdom of Prussia, in: Berlinische Monatsschrift, vol. 21, 1793, pp. 108–165, 360–393, here: p. 364 ff. Biester's informant was a Protestant pastor in Lithuania who was in close contact with residents there Members of the minority stood. See: http://www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/cgi-bin/navtif.cgi?pfad=/diglib/aufkl/berlmon/122931&seite=00000391.TIF&scale=4  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de  
  28. ↑ Stéphane Laederich, Who are the Rroma ?, Zurich 2008, p. 9, see also: Archived copy ( Memento from October 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.6 MB)
  29. ↑ Romani Linguistics and Romani Language Projects, Manchester, see: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk
  30. ↑ Gitano . In: duden.de
  31. ↑ Gitana . In: duden.de
  32. ↑ On this as well as the previous section: Ulrich F. Opfermann: “You old gypsy, see to it that you win land!” Conceptual stories, in: Nevipe. News and articles from Rome e. V., 2/2012 (PDF; 1.8 MB), pp. 14–18.
  33. ↑ `` Gadscho '' in: Siegmund A. Wolf, Large Dictionary of the Gypsy Language, Hamburg 1993, p. 89.
  34. ↑ Ulrich Friedrich Opfermann: Seye no goat tuna, but imperial cornett. Sinti in the 17th and 18th centuries. An investigation based on archival sources. Berlin 2007, p. 311; Siegmund A. Wolf: Large dictionary of the gypsy language. Hamburg 1993, p. 192.
  35. ↑ Klaus J. Bade et al. (Ed.), Encyclopedia Migration in Europe. From the 17th century to the present, Paderborn 2007.
  36. ^ Yaron Matras, The Language of the Roma. A historical outline, in: ders./Hans Winterberg / Michael Zimmermann (ed.), Sinti, Roma, Gypsies. Language - History - Present, Berlin 2003, pp. 231–261, here: pp. 233 f.
  37. ↑ Quotes: Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti and Roma. History, culture, present, Munich 1996, p. 17.
  38. ^ Yaron Matras, The Language of the Roma. A historical outline, in: ders./Hans Winterberg / Michael Zimmermann (ed.), Sinti, Roma, Gypsies. Language - History - Present, Berlin 2003, pp. 231–261, here: pp. 233 f.
  39. ^ Karola Fings, Sinti and Roma. Language, origin, designations, in: Esther Quicker / Hans-Peter Killguss (eds.), Sinti and Roma between exclusion and self-assertion. Voices and background to the current debate, Cologne 2013, 38–41, here: p. 39.
  40. ↑ See the overview at: Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti und Roma. History, culture, present, Munich 1996, p. 16 f.
  41. ↑ Lev Tcherenkov / Stéphane Laederich, The Rroma, Vol. 2: History, language and groups, Basel 2004, pp. 11–33.
  42. ↑ Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti and Roma. History, culture, present, Munich 1996, pp. 13–26.
  43. ↑ Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti and Roma. History, culture, present, Munich 1996, pp. 13-17.
  44. ^ Wim Willems, In Search of the True Gypsy. From Enlightenment to Final Solution, London 1997, p. 308.
  45. ↑ All information, unless otherwise stated in individual cases, according to: Yaron Matras: The language of the Roma. A historical outline. In: ders., Hans Winterberg, Michael Zimmermann (eds.): Sinti, Roma, Gypsies: Language - History - Present. Berlin 2003, pp. 231-261.
  46. ↑ Harald Haarmann: The Indo-Europeans: Origin, Languages, Cultures. Munich 2010, p. 98.
  47. ↑ All information in this section with the exception of the last documented in: Yaron Matras: The language of the Roma. A historical outline. In: Yaron Matras, Hans Winterberg, Michael Zimmermann (eds.): Sinti, Roma, Gypsies. Language - history - present. Berlin 2003, pp. 231-261, here: pp. 231-235.
  48. ^ Yaron Matras: The language of the Roma. A historical outline. In: Yaron Matras, Hans Winterberg, Michael Zimmermann (eds.): Sinti, Roma, Gypsies. Language - history - present. Berlin 2003, pp. 231–261, here: pp. 231–235, 260.
  49. ^ Siegmund A. Wolf: Large dictionary of the gypsy language (romani tšiw). Hamburg 1993, p. 62.
  50. ↑ Ibid., P. 89.
  51. ^ Siegmund A. Wolf: Dictionary des Rotwelschen. Hamburg 1985, 2nd edition, p. 178.
  52. ^ Siegmund A. Wolf: Dictionary des Rotwelschen. P. 154.
  53. ^ Siegmund A. Wolf: Large dictionary of the gypsy language (romani tšiw). P. 133.
  54. ^ Siegmund A. Wolf: Large dictionary of the gypsy language (romani tšiw). P. 202.
  55. ^ Yaron Matra: The language of the Roma. A historical outline. In: Yaron Matras, Hans Winterberg, Michael Zimmermann: Sinti, Roma, Gypsies: Language, History, Present. Berlin 2003, pp. 231–261, here: p. 259.
  56. ↑ Reinhold Lagrene: Das deutsche Romanes: History of a non-codified language. In: Christel Stolz (ed.): In addition to German: The autochthonous minority and regional languages ​​of Germany. Bochum 2009, pp. 87-102, passim.
  57. ↑ The fairy tale of the Bremen Town Musicians addresses this general experience of people in the lower segments of the social hierarchy of the majority society.
  58. ↑ Rombase, University of Graz ( Memento of 18 May 2013, Internet Archive )
  59. ↑ Rombase, University of Graz ( Memento of 18 May 2013, Internet Archive )
  60. ↑ In this context, caution is advised with regard to numbers; Rombase, University of Graz: Archived copy ( Memento from May 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  61. ↑ József Jekelfalussy (written on behalf of the Royal Hungarian Minister of Commerce and edited by the Royal Hungarian Statistical Bureau), results of the Gypsy Conscription carried out in Hungary on January 31, 1893 , Budapest 1895 (=  Hungarian Statistical Communications, New Series , Volume IX), facsimile print with an Engl. Explanation by István Hoóz, JPTE, Pécs 1992.
  62. ↑ See: David M. Crowe, A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia , St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1996, p. 41; see. also Willy Guy: Ways of Looking at Roms: The Case of Czechoslovakia. in: Farnham Rehfisch (Ed.): Gypsies, Tinkers and Other Travelers. Academic Press, London 1975, pp. 201-229, p. 211. The source for both is Emília Horváthová, Cigáni na Slovensku , Bratislava: Vytadel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1964.
  63. ↑ Rombase, University of Graz ( Memento of 18 May 2013, Internet Archive )
  64. ↑ For the history of this migration movement from the perspective of the third generation, see z. B .: Nadine Michollek, silence for fear of prejudice. Young Roma in Germany have to struggle with centuries-old stereotypes , in: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, November 27, 2011, p. 50.
  65. ↑ In general ("The history of the Roma is largely a history of persecution, discrimination and marginalization. Even today Roma are in most countries in Europe (and not only Europe) at the bottom of society."): Rombase / University of Graz, see: [10] ; Europe-wide: communications from the [European] Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. EU framework for national strategies for the integration of the Roma up to 2010, from 5 April 2011, see: [11] (PDF; 117 kB); Roma migrants in Germany: Reinhard Marx, Roma in Germany from an immigration law perspective, in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte , No. 22–23 of May 30, 2011, see: Archived copy ( Memento of May 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); Hungary, economic marginalization: Rainer Deppe / Melanie Tatu: Reconstitution and Marginalization. Frankfurt am Main, p. 66.
  66. ↑ 650 years of Roma culture in Kosovo and its destruction: Das Pogrom , Cologne, no year.
  67. ^ Rajko Djuric, Jörg Becken and A. Bertolt Bengsch: Without a home - without a grave. The history of the Roma and Sinti ; Berlin 1996; P. 116.
  68. ^ On Switzerland: Tagesanzeiger, January 30, 2008 ( memento of June 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ); on Italy: Le Monde, November 4, 2007 , [12] . In 2008 the Italian government announced that it would systematically fingerprint Roma, including children. These plans met with harsh criticism from human rights organizations; In particular, such a measure contradicts the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Italy : David Charter: Italian Government's 'Mussolini methods' anger human rights groups. The Times, July 5, 2008, accessed August 19, 2010 . ; During the negotiations in the European Parliament in July 2008, the Dutchman Jan Marinus Wiersma said: “We too are dismayed by the measures recently announced by the Italian government to solve the so-called Roma problem in Italy. It is a great shame that we have to have such a debate here today. [...] The package recently announced by the Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, with which he wants to take action against the "Roma emergency", as the government has now called it, leaves a bitter aftertaste. The creation of a database of the fingerprints of Roma children is in no way compatible with the EU principles of non-discrimination, equality before the law and the protection of minorities. […] The European Commission is in a situation that, to my knowledge, has never been seen before ” (Debates of the European Parliament, Monday 7 July 2008, p. 34 ); on Austria: Kleine Zeitung: "Roma and Sinti: Haider warns of" mass migration "from Italy" ( Memento of February 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ); About France: In 2010 riots broke out in France after the police shot a Rom ( Susanne Götze : “We are just as French as everyone else”. www.heise.de, August 5, 2010, accessed on August 19, 2010 . Sascha Lehnartz: representatives of Roma throw Sarkozy of racism. Welt online, July 23, 2010 accessed 19 August 2010 . ). The French president then announced tougher repression against the Roma . France's policy met with sharp criticism from European institutions, see the section on this in the article “EU Roma Policy” .
  69. ↑ See z. B. the page "Rombase" of the University of Graz: [13] .
  70. ↑ See in detail on the whole of Europe: Michael Stewart: The Gypsy "Menace". Populism and the new anti-Gypsy politics. Hurst, London 2012, ISBN 1-84904-220-9 (English).
  71. ↑ Sinti and Roma in the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on October 27, 1979. Documentation by the “Society for Threatened Peoples” and the “Association of German Sinti”, Göttingen 1980.
  72. ↑ Michael Frost et al. a .: Hostility to the Roma in foreign-friendly milieus. Theses on a specific racism. In: Joachim S. Hohmann (Ed.): Sinti and Roma in Germany. Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 1995, pp. 231-251; see also: Archived copy ( Memento from May 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  73. ↑ Category: Memorials to the Sinti and Romani people in Germany
  74. ↑ [14] .
  75. ↑ See: First report of the Federal Republic of Germany according to Article 25 paragraph 1 of the Framework Convention of the Council of Europe for the Protection of National Minorities. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 17, 2011 ; accessed on June 8, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Berlin 1999, and the. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmi.bund.de
  76. ↑ Katrin Reemtsma: Exotism and homogenization - reification and exploitation. Aspects of ethnological considerations of the Gypsies in Germany after 1945. In: State Center for Political Education Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): Between Romanticization and Racism. Sinti and Roma 600 years in Germany. Stuttgart 1998, pp. 63-72, here p. 63 ( online ).
  77. ^ Daniel Strauss (ed.): Study on the current educational situation of German Sinti and Roma. Documentation and research report. Marburg 2011, p. 4 ( PDF ( Memento from July 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )).
  78. ↑ Cf. on the number games: Angus Fraser, The Gypsies, Malden (MA) 2007, 15th edition, p. 299 ff.
  79. ^ Angus Fraser: The Gypsies. Malden (MA) 2007, 15th edition, p. 300. Fraser refers to: Rüdiger Vossen: Zigeuner. Frankfurt am Main 1983, pp. 157-162, and Jean-Pierre Liégeois: Gypsies. London 1986, p. 47.
  80. ^ Document prepared by the Council of Europe Roma and Travelers Division, in: [15] , there under Statistics.
  81. ^ Council of Europe: Protection of the rights of the Roma .
  82. ↑ Census Albania 2011 ( Memento from April 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Albanian; PDF; 6.5 MB), last accessed on May 10, 2013
  83. ↑ Estimated number of Roma in European countries
  84. ↑ a b c d e f The Austrian Roma. In: Dieter Halwachs : [romani] PROJEKT , Karl Franzens University Graz (romaniprojekt.uni-graz.at, accessed January 29, 2019).
  85. ↑ a b www.nchr.gr # 99 ( Memento from September 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  86. ↑ Estimates by the World Romani Union and the Council of Europe
  87. ↑ See: Encyclopaedia Britannica article "Rome" ; very different from this, but also in the online edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica Erika Schlager: The Roma — Europe's Largest Minority. (No longer available online.) In: Encyclopædia Britannica . Archived from the original on May 18, 2013 ; accessed on June 8, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Ian Hancock: The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Romani Slavery and Persecution ; Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers, University of Graz 1987. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bridica.com
  88. ^ A b Donald Kenrick, Grattan Puxon: Sinti and Roma. The annihilation of a people in the Nazi state ; Göttingen 1981; P. 155.
  89. ↑ Comment on the schism: [16] .
  90. ↑ [17] .
  91. ↑ University of Graz website ( Memento from November 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  92. ↑ ERTF self-presentation ( memento from September 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on September 19, 2016.
  93. ↑ BundesRomaVerband self-presentation , accessed on September 19, 2016.
  94. ↑ On these two sections see: Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti und Roma. History, Culture, Present, Munich 1996, pp. 136–144; Yaron Matras, The Development of the Romani Civil Rights Movement in Germany 1945–1996, in: Susan Tebbutt (Ed.), Sinti und Roma. Gypsies in German-Speaking Society and Literature, New York / Oxford 1998, pp. 49-63.
  95. ↑ See e.g. B. Federal Ministry of the Interior, National Minorities in Germany, Berlin 2010, 3rd edition, p. 21, see also archived copy ( Memento from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 754 kB).
  96. ↑ Printed matter 18/93 new (PDF; 19 kB)
  97. ↑ Printed matter 18/290 (PDF; 19 kB)
  98. ↑ Protection of minorities. State treaty signed with Sinti and Roma, in: Website of the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg, press office, accessed on June 30, 2014
  99. ^ The state of Baden-Württemberg signs state treaty with the Sinti and Roma, in: Website of the Association of German Sinti and Roma, Landesverband Baden-Württemberg e. V., accessed June 30, 2014
  100. ^ Draft of the State Treaty, Landtag printed paper 15/4128 of October 8, 2013, accessed on June 30, 2014 ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  101. ↑ Ulrike Bäuerlein: Sinti and Roma. State Parliament passes historic law on the State Treaty, in: Staatsanzeiger, dated December 18, 2013, accessed on October 30, 2014 ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  102. ↑ The Association ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Roma Verein Oberwart, Verein-roma.at, accessed December 2, 2019. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.verein-roma.at
  103. ↑ 30 Years of the Roma Movement in Austria orf.at, December 2, 2019, accessed December 2, 2019.
  104. ↑ a b minorities (politics). Democracyzentrum.org (accessed March 31, 2016).
  105. ↑ a b c d e f g h About 40,000 Roma and Sinti live in Austria. medienservicestelle.at, undated (accessed January 29, 2019).
  106. ↑ Entry on Burgenlandroma in the Austria Forum
  107. ↑ cf. z. B. Documentation u. Information center. Austrian Roma Cultural Association (kv-roma.at), accessed January 29, 2019.
  108. ↑ Gurbet. In: Dieter Halwachs: [romani] PROJEKT - Rombase , Karl Franzens University Graz (rombase.uni-graz.at).
  109. ↑ Arlije. In: Dieter Halwachs: [romani] PROJEKT - Rombase , Karl Franzens University Graz (rombase.uni-graz.at).
  110. ↑ Parliament declares. The rights of the ethnic groups. Austrian Parliament (parlament.gv.at), undated: (accessed January 29, 2019)
  111. ^ Roman - the language of the Burgenland Roma. And songs of Lovara. Austrian Commission for UNESCO: Directory of the intangible cultural heritage in Austria (immaterielleskulturerbe.unesco.at).
  112. ↑ Places of transit for Sinti and Roma: "Upper Austria is a role model" . In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten online (nachrichten.at), February 4, 2015.
  113. ↑ “Places of transit” for Roma and Sinti. volksgruppen.ORF.at, undated (2014, accessed January 19, 2019).
  114. ↑ Herbert Heuss, Civil Society, Desegregation, Antiziganismus , in: Herbert Uerlings / Iulia-Karin Patrut (ed.): "Gypsies" and Nation. Representation - Inclusion - Exclusion , Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 2008, pp. 469-481, here p. 472.
  115. ↑ Wolfgang Aschauer, Unworthy poverty as a form of social relationships - the example of the Hungarian Roma , in: Geographische Revue 13 (1–2) / 2011, pp. 45–72; ders .: "The gypsy life is funny" - image and reality of the south- east European Roma , in: Südosteuropa-Mitteilungen 46 (4) / 2006; Pp. 56-71
  116. ↑ Herbert Heuss, Civil Society, Desegregation, Antiziganismus, in: Herbert Uerlings / Iulia-Karin Patrut (ed.): "Gypsies" and Nation. Representation - Inclusion - Exclusion , Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 2008, pp. 469-481, here p. 473.
  117. ↑ Information and quotation from: Norbert Mappes-Niediek, poor Roma, evil gypsies. What is true about the prejudices about immigrants, Berlin 2012, 2nd edition, p. 76 f.
  118. ↑ Information and quotation from: Norbert Mappes-Niediek, poor Roma, evil gypsies. What is true about the prejudices about immigrants, Berlin 2012, 2nd edition, p. 78.
  119. ^ NGO statement: [18] ; UNMIK statement on the start of resettlement in 2007 ( PDF  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.unmikonline.org  
  120. ↑ See e.g. B. Daniela Jetzinger, The Basic Right to Property in the Transition States of the Balkans [on events in Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania ], Munich 2006; Bosnia-Herzegovina: Wolfgang Petritsch , in: Romano Centro Nr. 32, 03/2001 Tilman Zülch , rape, concentration camp, murder and displacement. In: gfbv.de. Retrieved June 8, 2019 . ; Kosovo: Stephan Müller, Human Rights and the European Union. On the situation of the Roma in Kosovo ( online ( Memento from October 30, 2013 in the Internet Archive )); Rome e. V. (Ed.), 650 years of Roma culture in Kosovo and its destruction, Cologne no year (2002); Destination country Canada: “Hungarian flood” at Hudson Bay ( Memento from July 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in Pester Lloyd from January 20, 2010, accessed on February 20, 2010.
  121. ↑ Herbert Uerlings / Julia-Karin Patrut, "Zigeuner", Europa und Nation , in: dies., "Zigeuner" and Nation. Representation - Inclusion - Exclusion , Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 2008, pp. 9–63, here p. 49.
  122. ↑ a b c Karola Fings : Sinti and Roma. History of a minority. Beck Verlag Munich, 2016, p. 119
  123. ↑ See: Vossen, p. 204 ff .; [19] Rajko Djuric: Gypsies of the Lexicon. Djuric is a cultural scientist and former president of the International Roma Union; Cristina Kruck, Rroma Traditions, in: Helena Kanyar Becker (Ed.), Jenische, Sinti und Roma in der Schweiz, Basel 2003, pp. 163–176.
  124. ↑ Vossen, p. 207 ff.
  125. ↑ Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti and Roma. History, culture, present, Munich 1996, p. 63 f.
  126. ↑ All information, unless otherwise stated, see: University of Graz website ( Memento from November 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  127. ↑ Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti and Roma. History, culture, present, Munich 1996, p. 60.
  128. ↑ George von Soest, Gypsies Between Persecution and Integration, Weinheim 1979, p. 56 ff.
  129. ↑ Cf. on the blessing of the woman who has recently given birth: Rüdiger Vossen, Zigeuner. Roma, Sinti, Gitanos, Gypsies. Between persecution and romanticization, Frankfurt am Main / West Berlin / Vienna 1983, p. 243 ff .; Siglinde Clementi / Alessandra Spada (eds.), The single Un-Wille: on the history of single women in modern times, Bozen / Vienna 1998, p. 185 ff .; M. Monika Niermann, German Childhood in the Dobrudscha, Marburg 1996, p. 62 ff .; Oswald A. Erich / Richard Beitl, Dictionary of German Folklore, Stuttgart 1974, 3rd edition, revised. by R. Beitl with the assistance of K. Beitl; Edith Saurer [ed.], The religion of the sexes. Historical aspects of religious mentalities, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 1995, p. 9 f.
  130. ↑ Katrin Reemtsma, Sinti and Roma. History, culture, present, Munich 1996, p. 63 f.