Gypsies in the European Union: marginalized and condemned or change for better?
Gypsies, also know as Roma, live in Europe, most of them in former communist countries, many are also scattered in the Mediterranean area. There is not any clear definition of who they really are. Dictionary describes them as: “Dark-skinned Romany-speaking nomads of Hindu origin”. This definition, however, cannot suit them perfectly. Not all of them are dark-skinned and estimates say that only about 4 million of them speak some kind of Romany. The English equivalent “Gypsy” is derived from “Egyptian” but that is not who they can be referred to either. Some remnants of traditional roaming Gypsy culture prevail in the very small continuously declining scale. The Nazis murdered about 500.000 of them and communist era whose well-intentioned tremendously damaging paternalism made them settle down mostly in industrialized towns was not merciful either. In 2004, countries they largely live in joined the European Union. Is the Community able to meet their challenges better than their “homelands”?
They are at the very bottom of every society, bearing the “stick” of the poorest, the most unemployed, the least educated, the most welfare-dependent, the list could go much farther. Running from the Polish side of Tatra Mountains to the Aegean see they account for approximately 5 to 12 percent of the population. The numbers are rather difficult to acquire as countries refuse to gather ethnic data for public disposal. Their treatment was probably the most crucial civil rights issue in Europe and one that had direct effect on accession talks in 2004.
Vast majority of European 7 to 9 million gypsies live in countries that joined the Community in May 2004. One of the requirements for the membership was the improvement of their living standard. Slovakia, for example, spent billions to build roads, electricity and running water to its Gypsy communities. Hungary was trying to set up educational and anti-discrimination projects and the Czech Republic trained those interested to become police officers. This has not been enough though. Human rights activists worry that they keep being the source of tension and instability. Many never attend any school, police harass them, skinheads beat them, and courts often fail to protect them. Two gypsies were jailed by court in Hungary on false murder charges for 15 months. The judge ruled that their compensation should be reduced because they were too “primitive” to have suffered during their incarceration.
In Hungary and the Czech Republic, gypsies make up around 3 percent of the entire population. Their unemployment rate has skyrocketed over the past ten years running up to 70 percent and more. A study in Ostrava, an industrial city in the northeastern part of the Czech Republic found that a gypsy child was twenty-three times more likely to be placed in the school designed for mentally retarded child than an average intelligent Czech child. Both Czech and Hungarian governments are committed to improve these matters. While mostly merely recognizing the problem without taking any decisive measures they are already doing much better than other EU countries such as Spain, Italy, and especially Greece. Jan Kavan, the former Czech foreign minister said than first effect can be seen in a decade the earliest.
Nowhere is the situation as daunting as in Romania, home of 1.8 to 2.5 million gypsies. Widespread discrimination against them is flagrant. They experience big difficulties of finding any job and many live on less than $4 daily although it is not too far below an average Romanian salary that is $5.8 a day. Since January 2001, all Romanian citizens have to show a minimum of $500 to go to Western Europe and at least $250 to non-EU countries. Some admit they did not have that much money to travel but majority claimed their documents were proper; despite that many were turned back at the border because they were gypsies. Jakab, Romanian gypsy, was a direct victim of discrimination at the Romanian-Hungarian border. His passport was thrown on a ground in front of him and he was not allowed to cross. The border crossing guard denied all charges claiming no racial discrimination.
Now there is a moment when their needs interact with Europe’s interests. Leaders of the EU nations wanted the poor countries to join the union so that they opportunities for them grow at home, to make it less likely that waves of downtrodden will migrate seeking better tomorrows elsewhere on the continent. The EU is by far gypsies´ best ally. On his visit to Slovakia, the EU commissioner for enlargement, Mr. Günther Verheugen, promised about 10 million euros for gypsy development projects in the country. He also claimed: “We cannot expect that a solution to this problem that arouse hundreds of years ago will be found within a few years.” Verheugen was adamant that the gypsy question will not hold up an enlargement but also aware that it desperately needs to be tackled before any agreement on the free movement of labor. Something similar to “gypsies exodus” into the EU would be a political disaster for both expanding countries and the EU itself.
The European Convention of Human Rights that was agreed on in Rome in 1950 along with its five protocols is one of the most powerful documents providing the protection of basic rights of the citizens in the Community, not excluding gypsies´ rights. It guarantees among other things the equality before the law, right to live, and the freedom of thought, religion and conscience. It prohibits any discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, color, language, religion, political opinion, national origin, or association with any national minority. Everybody has the right to seek a remedy in case of violation of any of these rights. National courts as well as European Court of Human Rights have legal obligation to overarch these rights´ protection.
Gypsies do not have any strong political leaders, which might also be one of the sources of their problem. Leadership might be strong at a family and “clan” level but weak at the political level. Politically, gypsies are worse than ghetto blacks in America. They do not have almost any middle class to aspire and pretty much zero political consciousness. There is no any gypsy equivalent of Martin Luther King and probably will not even be in the near future. They keep settled on the margin of political life, only few vote. Gypsy political parties rarely agree among each other. Any attempt to make gypsy coalitions has invariably broken down and similar situation is with gypsy international organizations.
At national and supranational level the situation is steadily the same. Governments are keen to involve gypsies in solving their problems while at the same time frustrated by the lack of leadership on their side. Privately, EU officials claim they do not trust gypsy leaders enough, yet, to let them administer a single euro. Over the centuries, nothing significant has happened.
Sarka Havrankova