Romi v Evropi, ljudstvo brez doma in brez groba

Povzetek

Although the Roma have been living in Europe for centuries, they still face rejection by majority populations, being treated as undesirable strangers in almost all European countries. Written evidence of their arrival can be traced back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There are many legends and myths about their origins and reasons for emigrating from their country of origin. Until recently, the Roma transmitted their own history only as oral tradition. One of the best-known contemporary Roma intellectuals, journalist and writer Rajko Djurić, picturesquely explains the importance of the Romany language for further exploration of Roma culture and their origin: “Romany is the only book they brought from India; it constitutes their collective memory and reflects the views of this people, to themselves, to the world, and to other peoples. Their language is an inventory of the material and spiritual culture to which they once belonged, and contains elements of culture of other peoples that they came into contact with during their long and yet insufficiently studied journey.” When the Roma arrived in Europe, their lifestyle differed significantly from that of other European peoples. As a result, majorities and other groups in Europe intervened in their lives for centuries. They were forced to abandon their nomadic way of life. In the past, authorities often expelled them from their territory and they did not enjoy legal protection when violence or crimes were committed against them. Living in isolated settlements, excluded from social life, segregated, and discriminated against by others, they lived on the margins as a people without a home or a grave. At the same time, they established their parallel world as a system of social norms valid within their community, and within it all non-Roma were perceived as gadje ‘outsiders’. Roma legends explain the reasons for their nomadic way of life: they contain stories of persecution and conflicts within the Roma community, which resulted in part of the community being forced to leave and start an eternal journey, and the romantic interpretation that the Roma follow the sun and, because the sun constantly moves, they must also move. Over four decades ago, the European Roma movement demanded recognition of their status as a “European nation without territory” with a specific ethnic identity, collective symbols, culture, and language. According to the objectives of this movement, such a status grants them the constitutive status of a European nation within the process of European integration and requires permanent representation of the Romany community at the international level within the European integration process. In addition to general respect for human and minority rights and respect for cultural diversity, the new process of political mobilization of the Roma in Europe emphasizes the importance of the political participation of the Roma at the national and international levels.