Roma minority in Romania: Article and Information about Roma minority in Romania

The Roma (Roma in Romani; Romi, Rromi or Ţigani in Romanian) constitute one of the major minorities in Romania. According to the 2002 census, they number 535,250 people or 2.5% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians.¹ The Roma are, however, also Romania's most socially and economically disadvantaged minority, with high illiteracy levels, and unofficial sources claim that there are between 0.7 and 2.5 million Roma in the country,²³⁴⁵ or approximately 3 to 11% of the total population. This may be caused either by the fact that many Roma do not declare their ethnicity in the census, or do not have an identity card or birth certificate.⁶ Since 2007 members of this ethnic group have migrated in Spain, France and Italy.

Religion

Terminology

In Romani, the native language of the Roma, the word for people is (phonemically) /roma/ or /ʀoma/ depending on dialect (/rom/ or /ʀom/ in the singular). Starting from the 1990s, the word has also been officially used in the Romanian language, although it has been used by Romani activists in Romania as far back as 1933.⁸

There are two spellings of the word in Romanian: rom (plural romi), and rrom (plural rromi). The first spelling is preferred by the majority of Romani NGOs.⁹ The two forms reflect the fact that for some speakers of Romani there are two different "r-like" phonemes: /r/ and /ʀ/ ¹⁰. In the government-sponsored (Courthiade) writing system /ʀ/ is spelt rr. The final i in rromi is the Romanian (not Romani) plural.

The traditional and colloquial Romanian name for Roma, also widely used by the press^{citation needed}, is "ţigani" (cognate with Hungarian cigány, Greek ατσίγγανοι (atsinganoi), French tsiganes, Portuguese ciganos, Dutch zigeuner, German Zigeuner). The term is considered to be highly pejorative in Romania ¹¹¹²

Demographic history

The presence of the Roms within the territory of present-day Romania dates back to the 14th century. The population of Roms fluctuated depending on diverse historical and political events.

Before 1856

Until their liberation on February 20, 1856, most Roms lived in slavery. They could not leave the property of their owner (the boyars and the orthodox monasteries). In the first half of the XVIII-th century, 102,000 Roma lived in the Danubian Principalities, comprising 2.7% of the population (90,000 or 4.1% in Wallachia and 12,000 or 0.8% in Moldavia).¹³ Other sources claim that around 200,000 to 250,000 Roms (approx. 7% of the country's population) lived in slavery.¹⁴

Between 1856 and 1918

After their liberation in 1856, a significant number of Roms left Walachia and Moldavia.

In 1886 the number of Roms was estimated at around 200,000, or 3.2% of Romania's population.¹⁵ The 1899 census counted around 210,806 "others", of whom roughly half (or 2% of the country's population) were Roma.

Between 1918 and 1945

The 1918 union with Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina and Bessarabia increased the number of ethnic Roma.

The first census in interwar Romania took place in 1930. 242,656 persons (1.6%) were registered as Gypsies (ţigani).

The territory lost in 1940 caused a drop in the number Roma, leaving a high number especially in Southern Dobrouja and Northern Transylvania.

The Romanian government of Ion Antonescu deported 25,000 Roma to Transnistria; of these, 11,000 died.¹⁷ In all, from the territory of present-day Romania (including Northern Transylvania), 36,000 Roma perished during the Second World War.¹⁸

Between 1945 and 2007

Though the persecution of Roma ended after 1945, their social situation didn't improve substantially. According to various census data, their number was:

	Roma
1956	104,216 (0.6%)
1966	64,197 (0.3%)
1977	227,398 (1%)
1992	409,723 (1.8%)
2002	535,250 (2.4%)

The reason for the small number of registered Roms in 1966 is unknown. The 1966-census data is suspected to be manipulated.¹⁹

Estimations put a higher number of Roma in Romania. According to a study of the Research Institute for Quality of Life from 1998 and published in 2000, there are 1,452,700 to 1,588,552 heteroidentified Roms (of whom 922,465 to 1,002,381 autoidentified).¹⁹ Some other estimations put a number of 700,000²⁰-760,000²¹ to 1,800,000-2,500,000²² though the authors don't justify those numbers.

After 2007

The accession of Romania to the European Union in 2007 determined many members of the Romani minority, the most socially disadvantaged ethnic group in Romania, to migrate in masses to various Western countries (mostly to Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, France) hoping to find a better life. The exact number of emigrants in unknown. Florin Cioabă, an important leader of the Romani community (also known as the "King of all Gipsies") declared in an interview that he worries that Romania may lose its Romani minority.²³ The next population census will take place in 2011.²⁴

Cultural influence

Romani music has had a significant influence in Romanian culture, as most lăutari (wedding and party musicians) are of Romani ethnicity.²⁵²⁶ Renowned Romanian Romani musicians and bands include Grigoraş Dinicu, Johnny Răducanu, Ion Voicu and Taraf de Haïdouks. In recent years, some Romani artists have started to publish traditional Romani music in albums as a measure of ethnic preservation.

The musical genre manele, a part of Romanian pop culture, is often sung by Romani singers in Romania and has been influenced in part by Romani music, but mostly by Oriental music brought in Romania from Turkey during the 19th century. A subject of controversy, this kind of music is both considered to be low-class kitsch by some people in Romania and enjoyed by others as fun party music.

Integration in Romanian society

According to a 2009 report of the European Fundamental Rights Agency, the discrimination perception of the Romani community of Romania is lower than that of the other EU countries covered by the report. The perceived discrimination levels given by the report are:

Based on this report, Romanian newspapers have stated that the Romani minority in Romania is the 'least discriminated Romani minority in Eastern Europe' .²⁷

However, the same report suggested that the favorable responses from Bulgaria and, to a lesser extent, Romania be regarded with caution, as the low levels of reported discrimination might be a result of the high levels of segregation between Roma and non-Roma:

A 2000 EU report about Roma said that in Romania… the continued high levels of discrimination are a serious concern.. and progress has been limited to programmes aimed at improving access to education.²⁹

Self-proclaimed "Romani royalty"

Early age marriage scandal

On September 27, 2003, Ana Maria Cioabă, the 12-year-old daughter of Florin Cioabă (the King of Roma) was forced to marry Mihai Birita, a 15-year-old boy. Since both were below Romania's legal age of marriage (set at 16), no official marriage ceremony was performed. Ana Maria Cioabă fled from the wedding, but her father brought her back and she was forcibly married.³⁵ Particularly controversial was the fact that the groom showed the wedding guests a bloodied bed sheet to prove that the marriage had been consummated; in Romania, the age of consent is 15 years old, so sexual contact with the 12-year-old girl was illegal under Romanian law. A friend of her, Ms Dana Chendea, said "She told me it was the worst thing that ever happened to her. She felt like a huge rock fell on her."³⁵

Baroness Emma Nicholson, the European Parliament rapporteur for Romania, said that it was a rape and the child must be given over to foster care. Subsequently, the Romanian authorities decided that Ana-Maria Cioabă and Mihai Birita must live separately and must not have any sexual relationships until the legal age of marriage. Ana-Maria was not, however, sent to foster care.³⁶

Florin Cioabă said that he believes, also, that there shouldn't be marriages between Romani children anymore, but he argued that hundred years old traditions cannot be changed over night.³⁹

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