European Roma's Perpetual Residence: Examining Their Cultural Identity Within the Continent
The Roma community, a group that has been living in Europe since at least the 11th century, faced a dark chapter in their history during the Holocaust. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that victims of the Roma Holocaust began to receive compensation payments.
In April 1855-1856, the abolition of Roma slavery marked a significant event in their history. However, this emancipation was followed by exclusion from land ownership, leading to dramatic inequality between the emancipated Roma and the rest of the population. This exclusion made it difficult for them to settle permanently and find a place in society.
The enslavement of the Roma on the territory of present-day Romania from at least 1385 until 1856 was another significant event in their history. After emancipation, a migration wave of primarily nomadic Roma to Western Europe took place, leading to them being subjected to control, suspicion, and accusations of crimes or illegality.
During World War II, the Roma genocide is rarely mentioned in public discourse and has not yet been sufficiently investigated. Scholars estimate that at least half a million Roma from all over Europe died during the Roma Holocaust. Many others were victims of the so-called Einsatzgruppen, with the exact number of Roma who were killed in this way not known.
On Good Friday 1980, Roma rights activists led by Romani Rose resorted to a hunger strike in a desperate attempt to move the German state to recognise the persecution of Roma on racial grounds. This struggle for recognition culminated in the European Parliament adopting a resolution in 2015, recognising the genocide and establishing 2 August as European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day.
The lack of attachment to place, lack of property ownership, and practice of an economy of services offered on a peripatetic basis have been seen as facilitating a kind of rite of reversal that subverts the status quo. This nomadic lifestyle has often led to the Roma being perceived as the "perpetual foreigner" or "stranger" in European societies.
Georg Simmel, a German sociologist, described the Roma as living next to us, but being near and far at the same time. This paradoxical perception is reflected in the attitudes towards the Roma, which can be defined by a measure of "romantic sympathy", but negative stereotypes are revived when social tension arises, as noted by Roma expert Jean-Pierre LieΜgeois.
Nationalism and xenophobia began to influence the parameters of mobility of Roma groups from the beginning of the 20th century. This was evident in mutual expulsions between countries such as France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, demonstrating anti-Roma sentiments.
In recent years, national initiatives and European Union-funded projects have been implemented to improve the status of the Roma and ensure equal European citizenship rights. These include research and documentation projects addressing Roma persecution during the Nazi era and promoting education against right-wing extremism, legislative reforms on asylum and human rights to better protect vulnerable populations, and policies exploring the effects on Roma and other groups.
Despite these efforts, the image of the Roma remains marred by distortion, as argued by literary theorist Klaus-Michael Bogdal, who suggests that the Roma are a modern European invention. However, the recognition and remembrance of the Roma Holocaust are crucial steps towards justice and equality for this historically marginalised community.
