The author, himself a Romani, speaks directly to the gadze (non-Gypsy) reader about his people, their history since leaving India one thousand years ago and their rejection and exclusion from society in the countries where they settled, their health, food, culture and society.

Who are the Romani people? -- Romani society -- Customs and traditions -- The Romani language -- The Roms among the nations -- Between romanticism and racism -- A modern Romani identity -- Appendix: The mosaic of Romani groups.

Ilona Klímová-Alexander brings Europe's largest transnational and most marginalized ethnic minority, the Roma (Gypsies), into the discourse of international relations. The book describes and analyzes the attempts of the Romani activists to gain voice in world politics by interacting with the United Nations (UN) system and explores their capabilities and impact. This study has three objectives: it provides an introduction to global Romani activism in terms of its anatomy, history, political manifestos, goals and activities; it establishes the extent and essence of the Romani voice in world politics and its influence on the UN discourse on Roma; furthermore, it looks at how interacting with the UN system has affected the organizational structure of the global Romani activism and its discourse. Based largely on primary resources and fieldwork, this book will engage international relations scholars, political scientists and those concerned with social movements and ethnic and racial studies.

Gypsy history and life. Professionals working with Gypsies and migrant Roma from the CEE will also find it invaluable."--BOOK JACKET.

One of the greatest challenges during the enlargement process of the European Union towards the east is how the issue of the Roma or Gypsies is tackled. This ethnic minority group represents a much higher share by numbers, too, in some regions going above 20% of the population. This enormous social and political problem cannot be solved without proper historical studies like this book, the most comprehensive history of Gypsies in Romania. It is based on academic research, synthesizing the entire historical Romanian and foreign literature concerning this topic, and using lot of information from the archives. The main focus is laid on the events of the greatest consequence. Special attention is devoted to aspects linked to the long history of the Gypsies, such as slavery, the process of integration and assimilation into the majority population, as well as the marginalization of Gypsies, which has historic roots. The process of emancipation of Gypsies in the mid-19th century receives due treatment. The deportation of Gypsies to Transnistria during the Antonescu regime, between 1942-1944, is reconstructed in a special chapter. The closing chapters elaborate on the policy toward Gypsies in the decades after the Second World War that explain for the latest developments and for the situation of this population in today's Romania.

Using the framework of genocide, this volume analyzes the patterns of persecution of the Roma in Nazi-dominated Europe. Detailed case studies of France, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, and Russia generate a critical mass of evidence that indicates criminal intent on the part of the Nazi regime to destroy the Roma as a distinct group. Other chapters examine the failure of the West German State to deliver justice, the Romani collective memory of the genocide, and the current political and historical debates. As this revealing volume shows, however inconsistent or geographically limited, over time, the mass murder acquired a systematic character and came to include ever larger segments of the Romani population regardless of the social status of individual members of the community.

*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading "We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams." - Old Romani Proverb In the 21st century, cultural differences and individuality are often celebrated and protected across much of the world, and given society's conscientious awareness of such phenomena, it is therefore all the more surprising when considering the ignorance or indifference that the world at large exhibits towards the Romani people. Otherwise known as the "Roma," or by their popular misnomer, "the gypsies," the members of this highly undervalued and grossly misrepresented community have long been considered outcasts. More often than not, the Romani are branded by even those who fancy themselves liberals as "pikeys," "gyppos," and "gips." There's also a regrettably common term, "gypped," meaning "to cheat, or swindle," which perpetuates the damaging stereotype that the Roma are dishonest nuisances and societal pests. Even well-intentioned attempts to shine the spotlight on the community have sometimes been counterproductive, for they are often reduced to no more than exotic, whimsical entertainers for the privileged. According to a shocking email authored by an anonymous whistleblower in 2012, the staff at the Laurieston Job Center in Glasgow's Southside regularly referred to their Romani customers as "gypos, scum, beggars, suicide bombers, thieves, and [pedophiles]." The whistleblower cited the staff's disturbing comments regarding an unnamed Romani woman, who had brought her two children along to the job center: "The staff were all joking and saying they should sanction her for claiming whilst pimping out her kids. They then went on to make horrible remarks about the children, saying they were 'mongs.'" On August 5th of the same year, over 700 far-right "activists" stormed the heavily Romani-populated Hungarian village of Devescer. "Gypsy criminals," the mob chanted as they hurled rocks, paving stones, and other projectiles at the homes of their prey. "We will set your homes on fire. You will burn inside your homes!" The police, who were called to the scene, supposedly stood on the sidelines with their arms crossed, unwilling to intervene. The dangerous blanket statements issued by various European politicians in recent years are also a cause for concern. In 1992, Bert Karlsson, a prominent member of the Swedish New Democracy Party, claimed that "Gypsies [were] responsible for 90% of crime against senior citizens." In June 2008, the conservative Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ordered the fingerprinting of the 150,000 Romani, children included, as a way to crack down on street crime. In France, political parties from either end of the spectrum have blamed the Romani for the nation's problems, economic and otherwise. The Gypsies, asserted one interior minister, were responsible for one in every 10 crimes. It's fair to wonder why the abhorrent treatment of the Romani continues to slip below the radar of many social justice warriors, particularly in this age of globalization. This is all the more confounding given that many are aware of the ways the Roma have been persecuted over several centuries, most notoriously during the Holocaust. The Roma: The History of the Romani People and the Controversial Persecutions of Them across Europe examines their history, from their origins to today. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Roma like never before.