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Untitled Document THE GYPSIES IN EASTERN EUROPE
The gypsies seem to originate from India and to have later migrated throughout Europe all the way to Spain and even Egypt. Every zone travelled through gave the nomadic group its specificity. The gypsies of Eastern Europe are for the most part named "Roms", and their music was mixed to the traditional Jewish and Slavic musics... The legend tells that when the Gypsies left India, they owned a sacred mirror symbolizing their unity. But one day, in Europe, part of this erring people wished to stop for some time, while others wanted to continue and go on with their journey. A quarrel followed, it came to arms and the mirror was broken into a thousand pieces. Just like the broken mirror, the Gypsies were divided into a thousand smaller groups, each taking with him one piece of the sacred mirror. The legend also tells that when spring comes, the gypsies go to Saint Mary of the Sea, to bring it to Saint Sarah, patronness of the Gypsies...
The exotism of this French tale remains in the background when we spontaneously question the inhabitants of Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, when we meet with associations and personalities to better understand the Gypsy phenomena in Eastern Europe.
 | Zoltan, a young professor who wrote a research paper on the social integration of the Roms in Hungary, felt it important to underline that there is absolutely no unitary Gypsy culture and therefore no unique ethnic "Gypsy" group. The image of multiple mirror pieces is thus not a false one, and the first prejudice to be overcome is a perception of the Roms as an homogenous group. In Hungary, the whole of professional musicians is not very numerous after all, they are only a few privileged Roms to be working in restaurants or hotels. | To this minoritary group we may add a "business" group living off commerce, pottery makers, or construction workers. Apart from these, new groups have been created, for example in Hungary, that of cooperatives for agriculture. Each of these groups was integrated into society more or less superficially, their totality representing 5 to 8% of the Hungarian population. Enough to destroy stereotypes : the Gypsies do not all live off music and belong to different groups susceptible to be rivals... First of all : what is a Gypsy ? Do we recognize one by his culture, his language? If the Gypsies have at least two very own languages (the Lovari or international language of the Gypsies, close to Hindi; and the Olah spoken in Hungary, dating back to the 19th century), 80%of the Roms speak Hungarian… That which makes identifying a Rom all the more difficult, set apart his way of dressing and long hair for men, two rather unsure ways, is the fact that to assume the Gypsy identity for a Rom is rarely serene, due to the multiple rejections this will provoke. And this, even if the notion of a Gypsy identity is gaining more and more importance, after the end of the Communist era, when all identitary sentiment was oppressed.
One element which is important to underline is the violence of the State itself toward the Gypsies. The Hungarian law for example almost leaves policement absolutely free to retain suspects : Gypsies are indeed often detained when small incidents occur, then physically mistreated until one declares himself guilty.
Their discrimination regarding employment, education, health, administrative procedures and other services have become part of daily life and the expressions of hatred toward the Roms spread negative stereotypes which prevale in the opinion of the non Roms of Eastern Europe, although we have met diverse organisations of civil society who are fighting for this minority to be recognized, such as ERRC (European Roma Rights Center) or CEP (Civic Education Project). Their actions are, in practice, very complex to concretize, like integrating the Gypsies to secondary and higher education in order to avoid the creation of a social, economic and geographic ghetto, such as has been seen since the end of the Communist era, or like creating their own government of minorities since 1994, with the problem of legitimity since the Gypsy representatives are elected by the whole of the population, mostly non Gypsy…
How do young non Gypsies feel about this ? The young Hungarians, Slovakians and Romanians that we met repeat the same scheme : the Gypsies do nothing but steal, they are a burden, not an interesting subject to talk about…
What is to be done, then, to try and change laws instead of mentalities? This seems to be a strategic point, at this time when the countries of Eastern Europe aim to adhere to the European Union, to promote the cultural and collective rights of Gypsy minorities, and through this, to enrich the notion of individual rights with the notion of the rights of a community.
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