I recently traveled through the Czech Republic, and Czechs I spoke with regularly asked me whether I was aware of the "Roma situation."
The only thing I knew about the Roma was that they were often called Gypsies and had a tomato named after them. But apparently there's more to them than that.
It seems to be a widely held view in Czech that the Roma are a massive (and willing) burden on the country's social welfare system, and the "Roma issue" is now a key political issue in that country. Apparently Roma unemployment in Czech is about 70% (as compared to 6% for all other groups taken together), and it was the flow of Roma refugee claimants to Canada that resulted in our government imposing visa restrictions on Czech visitors (restrictions about which there is much resentment among non-Roma Czechs).
Roma migrants are now being targeted by France for expulsion from that country, and it appears that
Canadian representatives will be attending a French-initiated summit that will tackle the issue of Roma migrants.
From what I can tell, the Roma don't seem to have a collective voice, and if they do it's hard to hear it over the clamour of all these complaints and accusations being made about them - usually describing them as a group that is either inherently criminal, or inherently lazy, leeching, and opportunistic.
What's particularly concerning is the freedom with which people seem to express negative attitudes towards the Roma, and what appears to be almost a consensus among a very large number (in some countries, a majority) of continental Europeans as to the problematic nature of this ethnic group.
I've only started to learn a bit about the Roma (their background, history, and social status in Europe), and am interested to know if anyone has any insight into who they are, and how things have come to this point.
So, what do you know about the Roma?