Roma Integration Efforts

Roma Girl in Romania

The unfortunate failure of social inclusion of the Roma in the Danube region is a direct result of measures taken to address their exclusion. The last decades prove that member states as well as the EU institutions seem to be unwilling and sometimes incapable of designing or implementing measures to bring about change to the increasing alienation and exclusion of Roma citizens. So far the focus has been on “Fixing the Roma problem” through disjointed, small and unsustainable projects. The failure to acknowledge and address anti-Gypsyism, grassroots empowerment and the inability to stimulate active citizenship of both Roma and non-Roma citizens are the main reasons for the current unsatisfactory situation. Awareness of the problem is the first step in addressing it effectively. European societies regard the life style of Roma as a deviation from the established and expected social norms of those living in Europe. The integrated Roma remain invisible and are either perceived as non-Roma or pretend to be non-Roma. Racism against Roma is not a deviation in Europe, but is rather the accepted normality. In that way the rights and responsibilities of citizens in an increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural Europe remain biased or are at the very best ambiguous. In most countries the policy target is to somehow “fix the Roma” or get rid of them. The heterogeneity and the lack of experience in dealing with elections or advancing their interests in the newly created national democracies in CEE after 1989 make Roma almost irrelevant in elections. Infighting, incompetency and corruption of their representatives are some other serious reasons for the present abysmal situation. …

ROMA MUSLIMS ON THE BALKANS PENINSULA

The first arrival of Roma Muslims on the Balkans is connected to the Ottoman invasion and the establishment of the Ottoman Empire in the region during the 14th and 15th century. Some of the Roma Muslims were directly involved in the conquest by participating in auxiliary army units or as craftsmen serving the army. At that time there was already a Roma population on the Balkans who had settled there earlier. The Ottoman Empire dominated the Balkans for five centuries and made a distinct impression on the culture and history of the region. Based on the information from the corpus of law and regulations relating to the population in the province of Rumelia, covering most of the Balkans, from 1475, it is clear that all Roma, whether Muslim or Christian, paid poll tax, only payable by non-Muslims, with some tax benefits for Roma Muslims. Approximately 66,000 “Gypsies” lived in Rumelia then, the majority (47,000) Christians. The Ottoman Empire promoted the adoption of Islam by Roma, mostly through tax benefits, but they were never accepted as “true Muslims”. The ratio between Roma Muslims and Roma Christians continually changed until the balance had radically changed in the course of the 19th century with a ratio of Christian to Muslim as 1:3 or 1:4. The establishment of ethnic-linguistic nation states on the Balkans in the 19th century radically changed the public status and the position of the “Turkish Gypsies”. As a result of this process, complex and heterogeneous communities of Muslim Roma had developed in the Balkans by the second half of the 20th century.…