Romani people

{{Main|Names of the Romani people}}

The English word Rom derives from Romani Rom, meaning 'man, husband' (plural romá). The etymology of the word is unclear. The Oxford English Dictionary says it likely derives from Sanskrit ḍomba, meaning 'lower-caste person working as a wandering musician', itself deriving from a Dravidian word, such as domba, ḍomba ('caste of acrobats, jugglers, clowns'). The development of the word was also influenced by Byzantine Greek Ῥωμ- (for example Ῥώμη 'a name of Rome and Constantinople').“Rom, N. (2) & Adj.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1117377491.

In English, the form Roma is often reinterpreted as singular and a new plural, Romas, is formed.

Romani is the feminine adjective, while Romano is the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as an ethnic name, while others (such as the Sinti, or the Romanichal) do not use this term as a self-description for the entire ethnic group.{{sfn|Hancock|2002|p=xix}}

Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a double r, i.e., rrom and rromani. In this case rr is used to represent the phoneme Uvular trill (also written as ř and rh), which in some Romani dialects has remained different from the one written with a single r. The rr spelling is common in certain institutions (such as the INALCO Institute in Paris), or used in certain countries, e.g., Romania, to distinguish from the endonym/homonym for Romanians (sg. român, pl. români).{{sfn|Hancock|2002|p=xxi}}

In Norway, Romani is used exclusively for an older Northern Romani-speaking population (which arrived in the 16th century) while Rom/Romanes is used to describe Vlax Romani-speaking groups that migrated since the 19th century.{{cite web |title=Romani og romanes |url=https://www.sprakradet.no/Spraka-vare/Minoritetssprak/romani-og-romanes/ |website=Språkrådet |language=nb}}

In the English language (according to the Oxford English Dictionary), Rom is both a noun (with the plural Roma or Roms) and an adjective. Similarly, Romani (Romany) is both a noun (with the plural Romani, the Romani, Romanies, or Romanis) and an adjective. Both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy.OED "Romany" first use 1812 in a slang dictionary; "Rom" and "Roma" as plural, first uses by George Burrow in the Introduction to his The Zincali (1846 edition), also using "Rommany" Romani was sometimes spelled Rommany, but more often Romany, while today Romani is the most popular spelling. Occasionally, the double r spelling (e.g., Rroma, Rromani) mentioned above is also encountered in English texts.

The term Roma is increasingly encountered{{Citation |page=52 |first1=Elena |last1=Marushiakova |first2=Vesselin |last2=Popov |contribution=Historical and ethnographic background; gypsies, Roma, Sinti |editor-first=Will |editor-last=Guy |title=Between Past and Future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe [with a Foreword by Dr. Ian Hancock] |year=2001 |publisher=University of Hertfordshire Press}}{{Citation |page=13 |first1=Illona |last1=Klimova-Alexander |title=The Romani Voice in World Politics: The United Nations and Non-State Actors |year=2005 |place=Burlington, VT |publisher=Ashgate}} as a generic term for the Roma.{{cite web |first=Xavier |last=Rothéa |title=Les Roms, une nation sans territoire? |url=http://www.theyliewedie.org/ressources/biblio/fr/Rothea_Xavier_-_Les_roms.html |website=Theyliewedie.org |access-date=31 July 2008 |language=fr}}{{cite book |first=Bryan A |last=Garner |title=Dictionary of Legal Usage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwLiALrHLCEC&pg=PA400 |year=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-538420-8 |page=400}}{{cite book |last=O'Nions |first=Helen |title=Minority rights protection in international law: the Roma of Europe |year=2007 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-9092-0 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lN1Nj_IjUiUC&pg=PA6}}

Because not all Roma use the word Romani as an adjective, the term became a noun for the entire ethnic group.{{sfn|Hancock|2002|p=xx}} Today, the term Romani is used by some organizations, including the United Nations and the US Library of Congress.{{sfn|Hancock|2002|p=xxi}} However, the Council of Europe and other organizations consider that Roma is the correct term referring to all related groups, regardless of their country of origin, and recommend that Romani be restricted to the language and culture: Romani language, Romani culture.{{Citation |contribution-url=http://www.inotherwords-project.eu/content/project/media-analysis/terminology/terminology-concerning-roma |contribution=Roma, Sinti, Gypsies, Travellers...The Correct Terminology about Roma |title=In Other Words project |publisher=Web Observatory & Review for Discrimination alerts & Stereotypes deconstruction |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005191238/http://www.inotherwords-project.eu/content/project/media-analysis/terminology/terminology-concerning-roma |archive-date=5 October 2012}} The British government uses the term "Roma" as a sub-group of "White" in its ethnic classification system.{{Cite web |title=List of ethnic groups |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/ethnic-groups#2021-census |access-date=2022-05-26 |website=ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk |language=en}}

The standard assumption is that the demonyms of the Roma, Lom and Dom, share the same origin.{{cite web |url=http://imeu.net/news/article004439.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070523142528/http://imeu.net/news/article004439.shtml |archive-date=23 May 2007 |title=Dom: The Gypsy community in Jerusalem |publisher=The Institute for Middle East Understanding |date=13 February 2007 |access-date=17 September 2010}}{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Romany |title=Etymology of Romani |dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary |first=Douglas |last=Harper |date=13 February 2007 |access-date=17 September 2010}}

In English, the exonym Gypsy (or Gipsy) is the most commonly used word for the group. It originates from the Middle English {{lang|enm|gypcian}}, short for {{lang|enm|Egipcien}}. The Spanish term {{lang|es|Gitano}} and French {{lang|fr|Gitan}} have similar etymologies. They are ultimately derived from the Greek {{transliteration|grc|Aigyptioi}} ({{lang|grc|Αιγύπτιοι}}), meaning 'Egyptian', via Latin. This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Roma, or some related group (such as the Indian Dom people), were itinerant Egyptians.{{Citation |last=Soulis |first=G. |year=1961 |title=The Gypsies in the Byzantine Empire and the Balkans in the Late Middle Ages |series=Dumbarton Oaks Papers |publisher=Trustees for Harvard University |pages=15, 141–165}}{{cite journal |url=http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/goudenhoorn/72karin.html |title=Metal-workers, agriculturists, acrobats, military-people and fortune-tellers: Roma (Gypsies) in and around the Byzantine empire |first=Karin |last=White |year=1999 |journal=Golden Horn |volume=7 |issue=2 |access-date=26 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010320210002/http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/goudenhoorn/72karin.html |archive-date=20 March 2001}} This belief appears to be derived from verses in the Book of Ezekiel (29:6, 29:12–13) which refer to the Egyptians being scattered among the nations by an angry God. According to one narrative, they were exiled from Egypt as punishment for allegedly harbouring the infant Jesus.{{sfn|Fraser|1992}} In his book The Zincali, George Borrow notes that when they first appeared in Germany, it was under the character of Egyptians doing penance for their having refused hospitality to Mary and her son. As described in Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, the medieval French referred to the Romanies as {{lang|fr|Égyptiens}}.

These exonyms are sometimes written with capital letter, to show that they designate an ethnic group.{{Cite book |first=Ian |last=Hancock |title=A Handbook of Vlax Romani |publisher=Slavica Publishers |year=1995 |page=17}} While some Roma use the term, some Roma consider it derogatory because of negative and stereotypical associations."In Romania in 2009, following an IMAS study, at the demand of the National Agency for the Roma (NAR), sixty-six percent of respondents identified themselves as "gypsies," thirty percent as "Roma," and the remaining four percent did not know or refused to answer. The situation is similar with other countries. The natural question, starting from these results, is whether, in the unifying process (one name, one people, one history), the Roma leaders and organizations take into account the desire of the community as it is expressed in censuses or surveys." Iov, Claudia Anamaria. 2020. Rethinking (In)Security in the European Union: The Migration-Identity-Security Nexus, p. 119. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.{{cite book |title=Pocket guide to English usage |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-87779-514-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersp00merr/page/178 178] |publisher=Merriam-Webster |location=Springfield, MA |url=https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersp00merr}}{{cite book |last1=Wedeck |first1=H. E. |last2=Baskin |first2=Wade |title=Dictionary of gypsy life and lore |publisher=Philosophical Library |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8065-2985-1 |year=1973}}{{Citation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105000222/http://www.paveepoint.ie/pdf/Roma_Report.pdf |archive-date=5 November 2013 |publisher=Pavee point |url=http://www.paveepoint.ie/pdf/Roma_Report.pdf |title=Report in Roma Educational Needs in Ireland}} The Council of Europe consider that "Gypsy" or equivalent terms, as well as administrative terms such as "Gens du Voyage" are not in line with European recommendations. In Britain, many Roma proudly identify as "Gypsies",{{cite web |title=Tackling inequalities faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities |last=House of Commons Women & Equalities Committee |date=5 April 2019 |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmwomeq/360/full-report.html#heading-6 |publisher=UK Parliament |access-date=13 May 2021}} and, as part of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller grouping, this is the name used to describe all para-Romani groups in official contexts.{{cite web |title=Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller ethnicity summary |url=https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/summaries/gypsy-roma-irish-traveller#the-gypsy-roma-traveller-group |website=gov.uk |publisher=His Majesty's Government |access-date=24 May 2023}} In North America, the word Gypsy is most commonly used as a reference to Romani ethnicity, though lifestyle and fashion are at times also referenced by using this word.{{cite web |title=Gypsy |website=The Free Dictionary |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=gypsy}}

Another designation of the Roma is Cingane (alternatively Çingene, Tsinganoi, Zigar, Zigeuner, Tschingaren), likely deriving from the Persian word {{lang|fa|چنگانه}} ({{lang|fa-Latn|chingane}}), derived from the Turkic word {{lang|trk|çıgañ}}, meaning poor person.{{cite web |url=https://www.nisanyansozluk.com/kelime/%C3%A7ingene |title=Etymology of the Turkish word Çingene |website=Nişanyan Sözlük}} It is also possible that the origin of this word is Athinganoi, the name of a Christian sect with whom the Roma (or some related group) could have become associated in the past.{{Citation |last=Starr |first=J. |year=1936 |title=An Eastern Christian Sect: the Athinganoi |series=Dumbarton Oaks Papers |publisher=Trustees for Harvard University |pages=29, 93–106}}{{cite web |url=http://www.sca.org/ti/articles/2002/issue144/rom.html |title=A Brief History of the Rom |first=Karina |last=Bates |access-date=26 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810161445/http://www.sca.org/ti/articles/2002/issue144/rom.html |archive-date=10 August 2007}}{{cite journal |url=http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/index/9Y2PJM6YAYT1UVHW.pdf |title=Book Reviews |journal=Population Studies |volume=48 |issue=2 |date=July 1994 |pages=365–72 |doi=10.1080/0032472031000147856}}

There is no official or reliable count of the Romani populations worldwide.[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-02-01-roma-europe_x.htm "European effort spotlights plight of the Roma"], USA Today, 1 February 2005 Many Roma refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for a variety of reasons, such as fear of discrimination.{{cite web |last=Chiriac |first=Marian |date=29 September 2004 |title=It Now Suits the EU to Help the Roma |url=http://www.other-news.info/2004/09/it-now-suits-the-eu-to-help-the-roma/#more-172 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915070340/http://www.other-news.info/2004/09/it-now-suits-the-eu-to-help-the-roma/#more-172 |archive-date=15 September 2017 |access-date=14 September 2017 |publisher=Other-news.info}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE57C04G/ |title=FACTBOX: Eastern Europe's Roma people |date=13 August 2009 |work=Reuters}} Others are descendants of intermarriage with local populations, some who no longer identify only as Romani and some who do not identify as Romani at all. Then, too, some countries do not collect data by ethnicity.

File:Francisco Iturrino Two Gypsies.jpg]]

Despite these challenges to getting an accurate picture of the Romani dispersal, there were an estimated 10 million in Europe (as of 2019),{{cite news |title=Roma integration in the EU |url=https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/roma-and-eu/roma-integration-eu_en |publisher=European Commission |access-date=18 April 2022}} although some Romani organizations have given earlier estimates as high as 14 million.{{cite web |url=http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/Documentation/strategies/statistiques_en.asp |title=Compilation of population estimates |publisher=Council of Europe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070622154153/http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/documentation/strategies/statistiques_en.asp |archive-date=22 June 2007}}{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091006045453/http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/Documentation/strategies/statistiques_en.asp|date=6 October 2009|title="Roma Travellers Statistics"}}, Council of Europe, compilation of population estimates. Archived from [http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/Documentation/strategies/statistiques_en.asp the original], 6 October 2009. Significant Romani populations are found in the Balkans and throughout Europe. In the European Union, there are an estimated 6 million Roma.{{cite news |title=Roma ghettos in the heart of the EU |url=https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/09/06/inenglish/1567776057_755361.html |work=El País |date=6 September 2019}}

Outside Europe there may be several million more Roma, particularly in the Americas, following migrations from Europe beginning in the late 19th century.{{cite book |last1=Pan |first1=Christoph |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gRU_AQAAIAAJ |title=National Minorities in Europe: Handbook |last2=Pfeil |first2=Beate Sibylle |publisher=Braumüller |year=2003 |isbn=978-3-7003-1443-1 |page=27f}}{{Citation |last=Liégois |first=Jean-Pierre |title=Roms en Europe |year=2007 |publisher=Éditions du Conseil de l'Europe}}

File:Kolme romaninaista.jpg Romani women in Helsinki, Finland, 1930s]]

Romani people may belong to distinct subgroups based in part on territorial, cultural and dialectal differences, and self-designation.{{sfn|Hancock|2001|p=2}}{{sfn|Matras|2002|p=5}}{{cite web |last=Dosoftei |first=Alin |date=24 December 2007 |title=Names of the Romani People |url=http://desicritics.org/2007/12/24/012125.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507070621/http://desicritics.org/2007/12/24/012125.php |archive-date=7 May 2008 |access-date=30 January 2009 |publisher=Desicritics}}{{Citation |last1=Bessonov |first1=N |title=Ethnic groups of Gypsies |url=http://zigane.pp.ru/history14.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429083140/http://zigane.pp.ru/history14.htm |place=RU |publisher=Zigane |archive-date=29 April 2007 |last2=Demeter |first2=N}}

Romani subgroups may have more than one ethnonym. They may use more than one endonym and be commonly known by an exonym or erroneously by the endonym of another subgroup. The only name approaching an all-encompassing self-description is Rom.{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}} Even when subgroups do not use the name, they all acknowledge a common origin and a dichotomy between themselves and Gadjo (non-Roma).{{sfn |Hübshmanová|2003}} For instance, while the main group of Roma in German-speaking countries refer to themselves as Sinti, their name for their original language is Romanes.

Subgroups have been described as, in part, a result of the castes and subcastes in India, which the founding population of Rom almost certainly experienced in their south Asian urheimat.{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}{{cite book |last=Horvátová |first=Jana |title=Kapitoly z dějin Romů |publisher=Lidové noviny |place=Praha |url=http://www.varianty.cz/cdrom/podkapitoly/d01kapitoly.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050312184629/http://www.varianty.cz/cdrom/podkapitoly/d01kapitoly.pdf |archive-date=12 March 2005 |year=2002 |language=cs |page=12 |quote=Mnohočetnost romských skupin je patrně pozůstatkem diferenciace Romů do původních indických kast a podkast. [The multitude of Roma groups is apparently a relic of Roma differentiation to Indian castes and subcastes.]}}

File:Debret casa ciganos.jpg: Interior of a gipsy's house in Brazil (c. 1820)]]

File:Gypsies camping - probably Swansea (8678055650).jpg Roma near Swansea in Wales, 1953]]

Many subgroups use names derived from the Romani word kalo or calo, meaning "black" or "absorbing all light". This closely resembles words for "black" or "dark" in Indo-Aryan languages (e.g., Sanskrit काल kāla: "black", "of a dark colour").{{sfn |Hübshmanová|2003}} Likewise, the name of the Dom or Domba people of north India—with whom the Roma have genetic,[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048477 N. Rai et al., 2012, "The Phylogeography of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup H1a1a-M82 Reveals the Likely Indian Origin of the European Romani Populations"] (23 September 2016) cultural and linguistic links—has come to imply "dark-skinned" in some Indian languages.Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey, Random House, p. 100. Hence, names such as kale and calé may have originated as an exonym or a euphemism for Roma.

File:Romi z medvedom v Šmarci leta 1934.jpg Roma in Šmarca, Slovenia, 1934]]

Other endonyms for Roma include, for example:

• Arlije (also Erlides, Yerli, meaning "local", from the Turkish word Yerli) in the Balkans and Turkey to describe sedentary Muslim Roma.
• Bashaldé – Hungarian-Slovak Roma diaspora in the US from the late 19th century.{{cite book |first=Ian |last=Hancock |title=Danger! Educated Gypsy: Selected Essays |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HOycWJwdyLgC&pg=PA130 |year=2010 |publisher=Univ of Hertfordshire Press |isbn=978-1-907396-30-4 |pages=130–}}
• Bergitka Roma (also Carpathian Roma), Poland, mainly Goral lands. {{See also|Romani people in Poland}}
• Çerge also Čergarja (nomad), Nomadic Lifestyle Muslim Roma in the Balkans and Turkey.
• Calé, the endonym used by both the Spanish Roma ({{lang|es|gitanos}}) and Portuguese Roma (ciganos). Caló is the language spoken by the Calé.
• Dasikane or Daskane, meaning "slaves" or "servants"; a religionym and confessionym for Orthodox Christian Roma in the Balkans.{{sfn |Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Garachi Shia Islam followers Roma people in Azerbaijan
• Gurbeti Muslim Roma in Northern Cyprus, Turkey and Balkans.
• Horahane or Xoraxai, also known as "Turkish Roma" or "Muslim Roma", a religionym and confessionym in the Balkans for Muslim Roma.{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Kaale or Kàlo in Finland and Sweden.{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Kale, Kalé, Kalá, or Valshanange – a Welsh English endonym used by some Roma in Wales.{{efn|The Welsh language alphabet lacks the letter k.}} (Romanichal also live in Wales).
• Lalleri, from Austria, Germany, and the western Czech Republic (including the former Sudetenland).{{Cite web |title=RomArchive |url=https://www.romarchive.eu/en/ |access-date=2022-06-12 |website=romarchive.eu}}{{cite journal |last=Wisely |first=Andrew |title=War against "Internal Enemies": Dr. Franz Lucas's Sterilization of Sinti and Roma in Ravensbrück Men's Camp in January 1945 |year=2019 |journal=Central European History |volume=52 |issue=4 |access-date=21 September 2022 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/D56988948967F9F49F9CD2750EE56DEA/S0008938919000852a.pdf/war-against-internal-enemies-dr-franz-lucass-sterilization-of-sinti-and-roma-in-ravensbruck-mens-camp-in-january-1945.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920165350/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/central-european-history/article/abs/war-against-internal-enemies-dr-franz-lucass-sterilization-of-sinti-and-roma-in-ravensbruck-mens-camp-in-january-1945/D56988948967F9F49F9CD2750EE56DEA |archive-date=20 September 2022 |page=654 |doi=10.1017/S0008938919000852 |s2cid=214237801}}{{Cite journal |last=Lewy |first=Guenter |date=April 1999 |title=Himmler and the 'Racially Pure Gypsies' |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002200949903400202 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |language=en |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=201–214 |doi=10.1177/002200949903400202 |pmid=21977563 |s2cid=37085059 |issn=0022-0094 |quote=One spokesman was to serve the Lalleri Gypsies, a closely-knit tribe originally from the German-speaking part of Bohemia and Moravia that in 1939 had become a German protectorate.|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |title=GENOCIDE OF EUROPEAN ROMA (GYPSIES), 1939–1945 |url=https://romacenter.org/en/genocide-of-european-roma-gypsies-1939-1945/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220714181901/https://romacenter.org/en/genocide-of-european-roma-gypsies-1939-1945/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=14 July 2022 |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=Romacenter.org |language=en |quote=In the autumn of 1941, German police authorities deported 5,007 Sinti and Lalleri Gypsies from Austria to the ghetto for Jews in Lodz, where they resided in a segregated section}}
• Lovari, chiefly in Central Europe, speaking a dialect of Romani influenced by Hungarian;{{cite web |url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/romany.htm |title=Romani language and alphabet |publisher=Omniglot |access-date=10 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606010750/http://www.omniglot.com/writing/romany.htm |archive-date=6 June 2013}} known in Serbia as Machvaya, Machavaya, Machwaya or Macwaia.{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Lyuli, in Central Asian countries.
• Polska Roma, largest Romani subgroup in Poland. {{See also|Romani people in Poland}}
• Rom in Italy.
• Roma in Romania, commonly known by ethnic Romanians as țigani, including many subgroups defined by occupation:
• Argintari "silversmiths."{{cite web |author=Research Directorate |title=Romania: Traditional Roma name for the various Roma clans and description of their traditional occupations; whether these occupations still exist today; distinguishing characteristics of the clans |location=Canada |publisher=Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |year=2001 |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4be9c20.html |access-date=July 27, 2021}}
• Aurari "goldsmiths."
• Boyash, also known as Băieși, Lingurari, Ludar, Ludari, or Rudari, who coalesced in the Apuseni Mountains of Transylvania. Băieși is a Romanian word for "miners." Lingurari means "spoon makers",{{Cite book |title=A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia |last=Crowe |first=David |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |year=1995 |isbn=978-1-349-60671-9 |location=New York |page=123}} and Ludar (sing.), Ludari (pl.), and Rudari may mean "woodworkers" or "miners".{{Citation |title=Dicționarul etimologic român |language=ro}}, quoted in {{Citation |url=https://dexonline.ro/definitie/rudar |title=DEX-online}} (see lemma rudár (sing.), rudári (pl.) followed by both definitions: "gold-miner" and "wood crafter"). (There is a semantic overlap due to the homophony or merging of lemmas with different meanings from at least two languages: the Serbian rudar "miner", and ruda "stick", "staff", "rod", "bar", "pole" (in Hungarian, rúd,{{Citation |title=Sztaki |place=HU |url=http://dict.sztaki.hu/dict_search.php?L=ENG%3AHUN%3AEngHunDict&O=ENG&flash=&E=1&sid=86b98964fc5d964f0ee812b299c28fd5&vk=&in_form=1&W=rúd&M=1&P=0&C=1&T=1}} and in Romanian, rudă.){{Citation |url=http://dexonline.ro/definitie/rudă |title=Dex online |place=RO}}
• Churari{{cite web |url=http://globalrecordings.net/research/dialect/16036 |title=Vlax Romani: Churari (Speech variety #16036) |publisher=Global recordings |access-date=10 December 2013}} (from Romanian ciurari "sieve-makers")
• Colari "carpet dealers"{{cite web |url=https://rm.coe.int/factsheets-on-romani-culture-1-7-romani-group-names/1680aac36b |title=Romani group names}}
• Florari "flower-sellers."
• Kalderash, from Romanian căldărar, literally "bucket-maker", meaning "kettle-maker", "tinsmith", "tinker"; also in Poland, Moldova and Ukraine.
• Lăutari "musicians" (lăută = lute).
• Ungaritza (blacksmiths, bladesmiths).
• Ursari ""dancing bears" trainers" (from Romanian urs "bear").{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Zlătari "goldsmiths."{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Roma or Romové, Czech Republic.
• Roma or Rómovia, Slovakia.{{cite web |url=https://www.gitanos.org/la_comunidad_gitana/roma_community_europe.html.en |title=Roma people in Europe}}
• Romanichal, in the United Kingdom,{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}} emigrated also to the United States, Canada and Australia.{{Citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0XPJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT492 |title=Exploring Contemporary Migration |first1=Paul |last1=Boyle |first2=Keith H. |last2=Halfacree |first3=Vaughan |last3=Robinson |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-89086-7}}

File:Great Dorset Steam Fair 2007 - 1331363507.jpg vardo pictured at the Great Dorset Steam Fair in 2007, England]]

• Romanisæl, in Norway and Sweden.
• Romanlar, Turkish-speaking Muslim Roma in Turkey, also called Çingene or Şopar, with all subgroups, who are named after their professions, like:
• Ayıcı (bear-leader)
• Cambaz (acrobatics and horse trading)
• Çiçekçi (flower-seller)
• Demirci (blacksmith)
• Kalaycı (tinsmith)
• Kuyumcu (goldsmith)
• Müzisyen (musician)
• Sepetçi (basket-maker)
• Subaşı (soldier or butler)
• Sünnetçi (circumciser)
• Şarkıcı (singer) etc., but the majority of Turkish Roma work as day laborers too.{{sfn |Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Roms or Manouche (from manush, "people" in Romani) in France.{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}{{cite journal |last=Jurová |first=Anna |title=From Leaving The Homeland to the First Assimilation Measures |year=2003 |journal=Čačipen Pal O Roma – A Global Report on Roma in Slovakia |access-date=7 September 2013 |url=http://www.eurac.it/en/research/institutes/imr/Documents/romaglob_final.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203125146/http://www.eurac.it/en/research/institutes/imr/Documents/romaglob_final.pdf |archive-date=3 December 2013 |page=17 |editor1-last=Vaščka |editor1-first=Michal |editor2-first=Martina |editor2-last=Jurásková |editor3-first=Tom |editor3-last=Nicholson |place=Slovak Republic |quote=The word "manush" is also included in all dialects of Romany. It means man, while "Manusha" equals people. This word has the same form and meaning in Sanskrit as well, and is almost identical in other Indian languages.}}
• Romungro or Carpathian Roma from eastern Hungary and neighbouring parts of the Carpathians.{{Citation |url=http://www.forrayrkatalin.hu/doski/PTE_gypsystudies_23_beliv.pdf |title=Gypsy Studies – Cigány Tanulmányok |publisher=Forraykatalin |place=HU |access-date=9 July 2015 |archive-date=13 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513231913/http://www.forrayrkatalin.hu/doski/PTE_gypsystudies_23_beliv.pdf}}
• Sepečides, meaning "basket-maker"; Muslim Roma in West Thrace, Greece.
• Sinti or Zinti, predominantly in Germany,{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}{{cite journal |last=Jurová |first=Anna |title=From Leaving The Homeland to the First Assimilation Measures |year=2003 |journal=Čačipen Pal O Roma – A Global Report on Roma in Slovakia |access-date=7 September 2013 |url=http://www.eurac.it/en/research/institutes/imr/Documents/romaglob_final.pdf |page=17 |editor1-last=Vaščka |editor1-first=Michal |editor2-first=Martina |editor2-last=Jurásková |editor3-first=Tom |editor3-last=Nicholson |place=Slovakia |quote=the Sinti lived in German territory, the Manusha in France, the Romanitsel in England, the Kale in Spain and Portugal, and the Kaale in Finland. |archive-date=3 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203125146/http://www.eurac.it/en/research/institutes/imr/Documents/romaglob_final.pdf |url-status=dead}}{{cite journal |last1=Kalaydjieva |first1=Luba |last2=Gresham |first2=David |last3=Calafell |first3=Francesc |title=Genetic studies of the Roma (Gypsies): A Review |journal=BMC Medical Genetics |date=2 April 2001 |volume=2 |issue=5 |page=5 |doi=10.1186/1471-2350-2-5 |pmid=11299048 |pmc=31389 |doi-access=free}} and northern Italy; while Sinti are a Romani subgroup, they do not refer to themselves by the name Roma.{{sfn|Hübshmanová|2003}}
• Zargari people, Shia Muslim Roma in Iran, who once came from Rumelia/Southern Bulgaria from the Maritsa Valley in Ottoman times and settled in Persia.

{{Main|Romani diaspora}}

[[File:Romani people around the world.svg|thumb|Countries with a significant Romani population according to unofficial estimates.

{{Legend|#004d77|+ 1,000,000}}

{{Legend|#007fc6|+ 100,000}}

{{Legend|#48d0ff|+ 10,000}}]]

File:Visiting Romani - The Australasian 1898.png, 1898]]

The Romani people have a number of distinct populations throughout Europe.{{cite journal |last1=Mendizabal |first1=Isabel |last2=Lao |first2=Oscar |last3=Marigorta |first3=Urko M. |last4=Wollstein |first4=Andreas |last5=Gusmão |first5=Leonor |last6=Ferak |first6=Vladimir |last7=Ioana |first7=Mihai |last8=Jordanova |first8=Albena |last9=Kaneva |first9=Radka |last10=Kouvatsi |first10=Anastasia |last11=Kučinskas |first11=Vaidutis |last12=Makukh |first12=Halyna |last13=Metspalu |first13=Andres |last14=Netea |first14=Mihai G. |last15=de Pablo |first15=Rosario |last16=Pamjav |first16=Horolma |last17=Radojkovic |first17=Dragica |last18=Rolleston |first18=Sarah J.H. |last19=Sertic |first19=Jadranka |last20=Macek |first20=Milan |last21=Comas |first21=David |last22=Kayser |first22=Manfred |title=Reconstructing the Population History of European Romani from Genome-wide Data |journal=Current Biology |date=December 2012 |volume=22 |issue=24 |pages=2342–2349 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2012.10.039 |pmid=23219723 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2012CBio...22.2342M |hdl=10230/25348 |hdl-access=free}}{{cite news |author=Sindya N. Bhanoo |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/science/genomic-study-traces-roma-to-northern-india.html?_r=0 |title=Genomic Study Traces Roma to Northern India |work=The New York Times |date=11 December 2012}}

In the 19th century, Roma began migrating from Europe to the Americas. However, Romani slaves were first shipped to the Americas with Columbus in 1498.Peter Boyd-Bowman (ed.), Indice geobiográfico de cuarenta mil pobladores españoles de América en el siglo XVI, vol. 1: 1493–1519 (Bogota: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1964), 171. Spain sent Romani slaves to their Louisiana colony between 1762 and 1800.The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery, Volume 1; Volume 7

By Junius P. Rodriguez An Afro-Romani community exists in St. Martin Parish due to intermarriage between freed African American and Romani slaves.{{cite book |title=We are the Romani People |page=27}}

In Brazil, the Roma are mainly called ciganos by the non-Romani population. Most of them belong to the Calés (Kale) subgroup. Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazil's president from 1956 to 1961, was 50% Romani by his mother's bloodline. Washington Luís, the last president of the First Brazilian Republic (1926–1930) also had Romani ancestry.{{Cite web |url=https://romea.cz/en/world/brazil-fatal-altercation-between-police-and-romani-family-launches-campaign-of-mass-murder-against-local-roma/ |title=Brazil: Fatal altercation between police and Romani family launches campaign of mass murder against local Roma |date=26 July 2021 |website=Romea.cz – Everything about Roma in one place}}

The Romani population in the United States is estimated at more than one million.{{efn|"Today, estimates put the number of Roma in the U.S. at about one million."}} There are between 800,000 and 1{{nbsp}}million Roma in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the 19th century from Eastern Europe. Brazilian Roma are mostly descended from German/Italian Sinti (in the South/Southeast regions), and Roma and Calon people. Brazil also includes a notable Romani community descended from Sinti and Roma deportees from the Portuguese Empire during the Portuguese Inquisition.{{cite web |last=Corrêa Teixeira |first=Rodrigo |title=A história dos ciganos no Brasil |url=http://www.dhnet.org.br/direitos/sos/ciganos/a_pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718044951/http://www.dhnet.org.br/direitos/sos/ciganos/a_pdf/teixeira_hist_ciganos_brasil.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-18 |access-date=9 November 2017 |website=Dhnet.org.br}}

Persecution against the Roma has led to many of the cultural practices being extinguished, hidden or modified to survive in a country that has excluded them ethnically and culturally. The very common carnivals throughout Brazil are one of the few spaces in which the Roma can still express their cultural traditions, including the so-called "carnival wedding" in which a boy is disguised as a bride and the famous "Romaní dance", picturesquely simulated with the women of the town parading in their traditional attire.{{cite book |access-date=2022-12-10 |date=2014-10-15 |first=Fernanda Pattaro |language=es |last=Amaral |publisher=Clube de Autores |title=A Orillas Del Mar |isbn=978-1-5024-2120-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_xJEAAAQBAJ&q=pueblo+gitano+brasil}}

{{Main|History of the Romani people}}

Genetic findings reveal a South Asian origin of the Romani people, likely in the regions of present-day Punjab, Rajasthan and Sindh. Because Romani groups did not keep chronicles of their history or have oral accounts of it, most hypotheses about early Romani migration are based on linguistic theory.{{cite web |url=http://rombase.uni-graz.at//cgi-bin/artframe.pl?src=data/hist/origin/origin.en.xml |title=Origin of Roma |first=Milena |last=Hübschmannová |year=2002 |website=RomBase |publisher=Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz |access-date=3 September 2013 |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407162014/http://rombase.uni-graz.at//cgi-bin/artframe.pl?src=data%2Fhist%2Forigin%2Forigin.en.xml}}

According to a legend reported in the Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh, the Sasanian king Bahrām V Gōr learned towards the end of his reign (421–439) that the poor could not afford to enjoy music, and so he asked the king of India to send him ten thousand luris, lute-playing experts. When the luris arrived, Bahrām gave each one an ox, a donkey, and a donkey-load of wheat so they could live on agriculture and play music for free for the poor. However, the luris ate the oxen and the wheat and came back a year later with their cheeks hollowed by hunger. The king, angered with their having wasted what he had given them, ordered them to pack up their bags and go wandering around the world on their donkeys.{{cite encyclopedia |last=Digard |first=Jean-Pierre |title=GYPSY i. Gypies of Persia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |access-date=22 July 2013 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gypsy-i}}

Linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that the roots of the Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a large part of the basic lexicon.{{Citation |last1=Šebková |first1=Hana |last2=Žlnayová |first2=Edita |year=1998 |url=http://rss.archives.ceu.hu/archive/00001112/01/118.pdf |title=Nástin mluvnice slovenské romštiny (pro pedagogické účely) |place=Ústí nad Labem |publisher=Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem |page=4 |isbn=978-80-7044-205-0 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024041/http://rss.archives.ceu.hu/archive/00001112/01/118.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016}}

Romani and Domari share some similarities: agglutination of postpositions of the second layer (or case-marking clitics) to the nominal stem, concord markers for the past tense, the neutralisation of gender marking in the plural, and the use of the oblique case as an accusative.{{sfn|Matras|2002|p=48}} This has prompted much discussion about the relationships between these two languages. Domari was once thought to be a "sister language" of Romani, the two languages having split after the departure from the Indian subcontinent—but later research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as two separate branches within the central zone (Hindustani) group of languages. The Dom and the Rom, therefore, likely descend from two migration waves from India separated by several centuries.{{cite web |title=What is Domari? |publisher=University of Manchester. Romani Linguistics and Romani Language Projects |url=http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/atmanchester/projects/domari.shtml |access-date=23 July 2008 |archive-date=10 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160410044633/http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/atmanchester/projects/domari.shtml |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |title=On romani origins and identity |url=http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_origins&lang=en&articles=true |publisher=Radoc |access-date=23 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717140132/http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_origins&lang=en&articles=true |archive-date=17 July 2011}}

In phonology, the Romani language shares several isoglosses with the Central branch of Indo-Aryan languages, especially in the realization of some sounds of the Old Indo-Aryan. However, it also preserves several dental clusters. In regards to verb morphology, Romani follows exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers, lending credence to the theory of their Central Indian origin and a subsequent migration to northwestern India. Though the retention of dental clusters suggests a break from central languages during the transition from Old to Middle Indo-Aryan, the overall morphology suggests that the language participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages.

{{Rom-Dom numerals}}

Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Roma originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group.{{cite web |url=http://www.livescience.com/40652-facts-about-roma-romani-gypsies.html |title=5 Intriguing Facts About the Roma |website=Live Science |date=23 October 2013}} According to the study, the ancestors of present scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations of northern India, traditionally referred to collectively as the Ḍoma, are the likely ancestral populations of modern European Roma.{{cite journal |author1=N Rai |author2=G Chaubey |author3=R Tamang |author4=A K Pathak |author5=V K Singh |year=2012 |title=The Phylogeography of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup H1a1a-M82 Reveals the Likely Indian Origin of the European Romani Populations |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |number=11 |page=e48477 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0048477 |display-authors=etal |pmid=23209554 |pmc=3509117 |bibcode=2012PLoSO...748477R |doi-access=free}}

In December 2012, additional findings appeared to confirm that the "Roma came from a single group that left northwestern India about 1,500 years ago".{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/492156c |title=Romani have Indian ancestry |journal=Nature |year=2012 |volume=492 |issue=7428 |page=156 |s2cid=256746341 |doi-access=free}}{{cite web |url=https://www.livescience.com/25294-origin-romani-people.html |title=Origin of the Romani People Pinned Down |website=Live Science |date=6 December 2012}}{{cite journal |pmc=6779411 |year=2019 |last1=Font-Porterias |first1=N. |last2=Arauna |first2=L. R. |last3=Poveda |first3=A. |last4=Bianco |first4=E. |last5=Rebato |first5=E. |last6=Prata |first6=M. J. |last7=Calafell |first7=F. |last8=Comas |first8=D. |title=European Roma groups show complex West Eurasian admixture footprints and a common South Asian genetic origin |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=15 |issue=9 |pages=e1008417 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008417 |pmid=31545809 |doi-access=free}} According to the study, they reached the Balkans about 900 years ago and then spread throughout Europe. The team also found that the Roma displayed genetic isolation, as well as "differential gene flow in time and space with non-Romani Europeans".

Genetic research published in the European Journal of Human Genetics "has revealed that over 70% of males belong to a single lineage that appears unique to the Roma".{{Citation |first1=Luba |last1=Kalaydjieva |first2=Francesc |last2=Calafell |first3=Mark A |last3=Jobling |first4=Dora |last4=Angelicheva |first5=Peter |last5=de Knijff |first6=Zoe H |last6=Rosser |first7=Matthew |last7=Hurles |first8=Peter |last8=Underhill |first9=Ivailo |last9=Tournev |first10=Elena |last10=Marushiakova |first11=Vesselin |last11=Popov |title=Patterns of inter- and intra-group genetic diversity in the Vlax Roma as revealed by Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA lineages |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=97–104 |url=http://genetics.stanford.edu/hpgl/publications/EJHG_2001_v9_p97.pdf |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200597 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209205422/http://genetics.stanford.edu/hpgl/publications/EJHG_2001_v9_p97.pdf |archive-date=9 December 2014 |year=2011 |pmid=11313742 |s2cid=21432405 |doi-access=free}}

Genetic evidence supports the medieval migration from India. The Roma have been described as "a conglomerate of genetically isolated founder populations", while a number of common Mendelian disorders among Roma from all over Europe indicates "a common origin and founder effect". A 2020 whole-genome study confirmed the northern Indian origins, and also confirmed substantial Balkan and Middle Eastern ancestry amongst Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. The study also included a sample of Roma from Spain and Lithuania, which revealed significantly higher levels of European ancestry.{{cite journal |last1=Bianco |first1=Erica |last2=Laval |first2=Guillaume |last3=Font-Porterias |first3=Neus |last4=García-Fernández |first4=Carla |last5=Dobon |first5=Begoña |last6=Sabido-Vera |first6=Rubén |last7=Sukarova Stefanovska |first7=Emilija |last8=Kučinskas |first8=Vaidutis |last9=Makukh |first9=Halyna |last10=Pamjav |first10=Horolma |last11=Quintana-Murci |first11=Lluis |last12=Netea |first12=Mihai G. |last13=Bertranpetit |first13=Jaume |last14=Calafell |first14=Francesc |last15=Comas |first15=David |year=2020 |title=Recent Common Origin, Reduced Population Size, and Marked Admixture Have Shaped European Roma Genomes |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=37 |issue=11 |pages=3175–3187 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msaa156 |pmid=32589725 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=2066/229486}}

A study from 2001 by Gresham et al. suggests "a limited number of related founders, compatible with a small group of migrants splitting from a distinct caste or tribal group".{{Cite journal |last1=Gresham |first1=D |last2=Morar |first2=B |last3=Underhill |first3=PA |last4=Passarino |first4=G |last5=Lin |first5=AA |last6=Wise |first6=C |last7=Angelicheva |first7=D |last8=Calafell |first8=F |last9=Oefner |first9=PJ |title=Origins and Divergence of the Roma (Gypsies) |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=69 |issue=6 |pages=1314–31 |year=2001 |pmid=11704928 |pmc=1235543 |doi=10.1086/324681 |last10 = Shen|first10 = Peidong |last11=Tournev |first11=Ivailo |last12=De Pablo |first12=Rosario |last13=Kuĉinskas |first13=Vaidutis |last14=Perez-Lezaun |first14=Anna |last15=Marushiakova |first15=Elena |last16=Popov |first16=Vesselin |last17=Kalaydjieva |first17=Luba}} The same study found that "a single lineage... found across Romani populations, accounts for almost one-third of Romani males". A 2004 study of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe and Spain by Morar et al. concluded that the Romani population "was founded approximately 32–40 generations ago, with secondary and tertiary founder events occurring approximately 16–25 generations ago".{{cite journal |last1=Morar |first1=Bharti |last2=Gresham |first2=David |last3=Angelicheva |first3=Dora |last4=Tournev |first4=Ivailo |last5=Gooding |first5=Rebecca |last6=Guergueltcheva |first6=Velina |last7=Schmidt |first7=Carolin |last8=Abicht |first8=Angela |last9=Lochmüller |first9=Hanns |last10=Tordai |first10=Attila |last11=Kalmár |first11=Lajos |last12=Nagy |first12=Melinda |last13=Karcagi |first13=Veronika |last14=Jeanpierre |first14=Marc |last15=Herczegfalvi |first15=Agnes |last16=Beeson |first16=David |last17=Venkataraman |first17=Viswanathan |last18=Warwick Carter |first18=Kim |last19=Reeve |first19=Jeff |last20=de Pablo |first20=Rosario |last21=Kučinskas |first21=Vaidutis |last22=Kalaydjieva |first22=Luba |title=Mutation History of the Roma/Gypsies |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=October 2004 |volume=75 |issue=4 |pages=596–609 |doi=10.1086/424759 |pmid=15322984 |pmc=1182047}}

Haplogroup H-M82 is a major lineage cluster in the Balkan Romani group, accounting for approximately 60% of the total. Haplogroup H is uncommon in Europe but present in the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka.

A study of 444 people representing three ethnic groups in North Macedonia found mtDNA haplogroups M5a1 and H7a1a were dominant in Romanies (13.7% and 10.3%, respectively).{{cite journal |title=Mitochondrial DNA control region analysis of three ethnic groups in the Republic of Macedonia |journal=Forensic Science International. Genetics |date=16 June 2016 |pmc=4234079 |pmid=25051224 |doi=10.1016/j.fsigen.2014.06.013 |volume=13 |pages=1–2 |last1=Jankova-Ajanovska |first1=R |last2=Zimmermann |first2=B |last3=Huber |first3=G |last4=Röck |first4=AW |last5=Bodner |first5=M |last6=Jakovski |first6=Z |last7=Janeska |first7=B |last8=Duma |first8=A |last9=Parson |first9=W}}

Y-DNA composition of Muslim Roma from Šuto Orizari Municipality in North Macedonia, based on 57 samples:{{cite journal |last1=Peričić |first1=Marijana |last2=Lauc |first2=Lovorka Barać |last3=Klarić |first3=Irena Martinović |last4=Rootsi |first4=Siiri |last5=Janićijević |first5=Branka |last6=Rudan |first6=Igor |last7=Terzić |first7=Rifet |last8=Čolak |first8=Ivanka |last9=Kvesić |first9=Ante |last10=Popović |first10=Dan |last11=Šijački |first11=Ana |last12=Behluli |first12=Ibrahim |last13=Đorđević |first13=Dobrivoje |last14=Efremovska |first14=Ljudmila |last15=Bajec |first15=Đorđe D. |last16=Stefanović |first16=Branislav D. |last17=Villems |first17=Richard |last18=Rudan |first18=Pavao |title=High-Resolution Phylogenetic Analysis of Southeastern Europe Traces Major Episodes of Paternal Gene Flow Among Slavic Populations |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |date=October 2005 |volume=22 |issue=10 |pages=1964–1975 |pmid=15944443 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msi185 |doi-access=free}}

• Haplogroup H – 59.6%
• Haplogroup E – 29.8%
• Haplogroup I – 5.3%
• Haplogroup R – 3.%, of which the half are R1b and many are R1a
• Haplogroup G – 1.8%

File:Bihari Sándor Bíró előtt.jpg makes a complaint to a local magistrate in Hungary, by Sándor Bihari, 1886]]

Y-DNA Haplogroup H1a occurs in Roma at frequencies 7–70%. Unlike ethnic Hungarians, among Hungarian and Slovakian Roma subpopulations Haplogroup E-M78 and I1 usually occur above 10% and sometimes over 20%, while among Slovakian and Tiszavasvari Roma, the dominant haplogroup is H1a; among Tokaj Roma it is Haplogroup J2a (23%); and among Taktaharkány Roma, it is Haplogroup I2a (21%).{{cite web |url=http://s009.radikal.ru/i308/1411/9e/fcf1cc38d1fa.png |format=PDF |title=Y chromosonal haplogroup distributionanddiversities in seven populations investigated |website=S009.radikal.ru |access-date=20 December 2016 |archive-date=26 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926061221/http://s009.radikal.ru/i308/1411/9e/fcf1cc38d1fa.png}}

Five rather consistent founder lineages throughout the subpopulations were found among Roma – J-M67 and J-M92 (J2), H-M52 (H1a1), and I-P259 (I1). Haplogroup I-P259 as H is not found at frequencies of over 3% among host populations, while haplogroups E and I are absent in south Asia. The lineages E-V13, I-P37 (I2a) and R-M17 (R1a) may represent gene flow from the host populations. Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek Roma are dominated by Haplogroup H-M82 (H1a1), while among Spanish Roma J2 is prevalent.{{cite journal |last1=Martínez-Cruz |first1=Begoña |last2=Mendizabal |first2=Isabel |last3=Harmant |first3=Christine |last4=de Pablo |first4=Rosario |last5=Ioana |first5=Mihai |last6=Angelicheva |first6=Dora |last7=Kouvatsi |first7=Anastasia |last8=Makukh |first8=Halyna |last9=Netea |first9=Mihai G |last10=Pamjav |first10=Horolma |last11=Zalán |first11=Andrea |last12=Tournev |first12=Ivailo |last13=Marushiakova |first13=Elena |last14=Popov |first14=Vesselin |last15=Bertranpetit |first15=Jaume |last16=Kalaydjieva |first16=Luba |last17=Quintana-Murci |first17=Lluis |last18=Comas |first18=David |title=Origins, admixture and founder lineages in European Roma |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |date=June 2016 |volume=24 |issue=6 |pages=937–943 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2015.201 |pmid=26374132 |pmc=4867443}} In Serbia among Kosovo and Belgrade Roma Haplogroup H prevails, while among Vojvodina Roma, H drops to 7 percent and E-V13 rises to a prevailing level.{{cite journal |last1=Regueiro |first1=Maria |last2=Stanojevic |first2=Aleksandar |last3=Chennakrishnaiah |first3=Shilpa |last4=Rivera |first4=Luis |last5=Varljen |first5=Tatjana |last6=Alempijevic |first6=Djordje |last7=Stojkovic |first7=Oliver |last8=Simms |first8=Tanya |last9=Gayden |first9=Tenzin |last10=Herrera |first10=Rene J. |title=Divergent patrilineal signals in three Roma populations |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |date=January 2011 |volume=144 |issue=1 |pages=80–91 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.21372 |pmid=20878647}}

Among non-Roma Europeans, Haplogroup H is extremely rare, peaking at 7% among Albanians from Tirana{{cite journal |last1=Bosch |first1=E. |last2=Calafell |first2=F. |last3=Gonzalez-Neira |first3=A. |last4=Flaiz |first4=C. |last5=Mateu |first5=E. |last6=Scheil |first6=H.-G. |last7=Huckenbeck |first7=W. |last8=Efremovska |first8=L. |last9=Mikerezi |first9=I. |last10=Xirotiris |first10=N. |last11=Grasa |first11=C. |last12=Schmidt |first12=H. |last13=Comas |first13=D. |title=Paternal and maternal lineages in the Balkans show a homogeneous landscape over linguistic barriers, except for the isolated Aromuns |journal=Annals of Human Genetics |date=July 2006 |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=459–487 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-1809.2005.00251.x |pmid=16759179 |s2cid=23156886}} and 11% among Bulgarian Turks. It occurs at 5% among Hungarians, although the carriers might be of Romani origin. Among non-Roma-speaking Europeans, it occurs at 2% among Slovaks,{{cite journal |last1=Petrejcíková |first1=Eva |last2=Soták |first2=Miroslav |last3=Bernasovská |first3=Jarmila |last4=Bernasovský |first4=Ivan |last5=Sovicová |first5=Adriana |last6=Bôziková |first6=Alexandra |last7=Boronová |first7=Iveta |last8=Gabriková |first8=Dana |last9=Švícková |first9=Petra |last10=Maceková |first10=Sona |last11=Cverhová |first11=Valéria |title=The genetic structure of the Slovak population revealed by Y-chromosome polymorphisms |journal=Anthropological Science |date=2010 |volume=118 |issue=1 |pages=23–30 |doi=10.1537/ase.090203 |s2cid=83899895 |doi-access=free}} 2% among Croats,{{cite web |url=http://www.draganprimorac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Croatian-national-reference-Y-STR-haplotype-database_.-Molecular-biology-reports-2012.pdf |title=Croatian national reference Y-STR haplotype database |website=Draganprimorac.com |access-date=20 December 2016}} 1% among Macedonians from Skopje, 3% among Macedonian Albanians,{{cite web |url=http://www.bjmg.edu.mk/UploadedImages/pdf/11-18.pdf |title=Y Chromosome Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Typing by SNaPshot Minisequencing |website=Bjmg.edu.mk |access-date=20 December 2016}} 1% among Serbs from Belgrade, 3% among Bulgarians from Sofia,{{cite journal |pmc=3590186 |pmid=23483890 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0056779 |volume=8 |issue=3 |title=Y-chromosome diversity in modern Bulgarians: new clues about their ancestry |year=2013 |journal=PLOS ONE |pages=e56779 |last1=Karachanak |first1=S |last2=Grugni |first2=V |last3=Fornarino |first3=S |last4=Nesheva |first4=D |last5=Al-Zahery |first5=N |last6=Battaglia |first6=V |last7=Carossa |first7=V |last8=Yordanov |first8=Y |last9=Torroni |first9=A | last10 = Galabov | first10 = AS |last11=Toncheva |first11=D |last12=Semino |first12=O |bibcode=2013PLoSO...856779K |doi-access=free}} 1% among Austrians and Swiss,{{cite web |url=http://www.eupedia.com/europe/germany_austria_switzerland_dna_project.shtml |title=Participate to the DNA ancestry project for Germany, Austria and Switzerland |website=Eupedia.com |date=10 January 2014 |access-date=20 December 2016}} 3% among Romanians from Ploiești, and 1% among Turks.

The Ottoman occupation of the Balkans also left a significant genetic mark on the Y-DNA of the Roma there, creating a higher frequency of Haplogroups J and E3b in Romani populations from the region.{{cite journal |last1=Bánfai |first1=Zsolt |last2=Melegh |first2=Béla I. |last3=Sümegi |first3=Katalin |last4=Hadzsiev |first4=Kinga |last5=Miseta |first5=Attila |last6=Kásler |first6=Miklós |last7=Melegh |first7=Béla |title=Revealing the Genetic Impact of the Ottoman Occupation on Ethnic Groups of East-Central Europe and on the Roma Population of the Area |journal=Frontiers in Genetics |date=13 June 2019 |volume=10 |page=558 |doi=10.3389/fgene.2019.00558 |pmid=31263480 |pmc=6585392 |doi-access=free}}

{{See also|Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia}}

File:Haplogroup H map.png.]]

A full genome autosomal DNA study on 186 Roma samples from southeastern, northeastern and southwestern Europe in 2019 found that modern Romani people in these areas are characterized by a common south Asian origin and a complex admixture from Middle Eastern, Caucasus, Balkan and wider European-derived ancestries. Earlier admixture dates amongst Roma in the Balkans supports that they migrated into Europe via the Balkans. The autosomal genetic data links the proto-Roma to groups in northwest India (specifically Punjabi and Gujarati samples), as well as, Dravidian-speaking groups in southeastern India (specifically Irula). The paternal lineages of Roma are most common in southern and central India among Dravidian-speaking populations. The authors argue that this may point to a founder effect among the early Roma during their ethnogenesis or shortly after they migrated out of the Indian subcontinent. In addition, they theorized of a possible low-caste (Dalit) origin for the Proto-Roma, since they were genetically closer to the Punjabi cluster that lacks a common marker characteristic of high castes, which is West Euroasian admixing.{{Cite journal |last1=Font-Porterias |first1=Neus |last2=Arauna |first2=Lara R. |last3=Poveda |first3=Alaitz |last4=Bianco |first4=Erica |last5=Rebato |first5=Esther |last6=Prata |first6=Maria Joao |last7=Calafell |first7=Francesc |last8=Comas |first8=David |date=2019-09-23 |title=European Roma groups show complex West Eurasian admixture footprints and a common South Asian genetic origin |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=15 |issue=9 |pages=e1008417 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008417 |issn=1553-7390 |pmc=6779411 |pmid=31545809 |doi-access=free}}

File:Movimiento gitano.jpg

The Roma may have emerged from what is the modern Indian state of Rajasthan, migrating to the northwest (the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent) around 250 BCE.{{sfn|Marinov|2019}} Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed to have occurred beginning in about 500 CE.

It has also been suggested that emigration from India may have taken place in the context of the raids by Mahmud of Ghazni. As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the Byzantine Empire.{{cite book |title=The Roads of the Roma: a PEN anthology of Gypsy Writers |first1=Ian |last1=Hancock |first2=Siobhan |last2=Dowd |first3=Rajko |last3=Djurić |year=2004 |publisher=University of Hertfordshire Press |location=Hatfield, United Kingdom |isbn=978-0-900458-90-3 |pages=14–15}} The author Ralph Lilley Turner theorised a central Indian origin of Romani followed by a migration to northwest India as it shares a number of ancient isoglosses with central Indo-Aryan languages in relation to realization of some sounds of Old Indo-Aryan. This is lent further credence by its sharing exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as Kashmiri and Shina through the adoption of oblique enclitic pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of New Indo-Aryan languages, thus indicating that the proto-Roma did not leave the Indian subcontinent until late in the second half of the first millennium.{{cite web |title=Romani |url=http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/downloads/2/Matras_Rmni_ELL.pdf |website=Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics |publisher=Oxford: Elsevier |access-date=30 August 2009 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011141138/http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/downloads/2/Matras_Rmni_ELL.pdf |url-status=dead}}{{Cite book |title=Another Darkness Another Dawn |last=Taylor |first=Becky |publisher=Reaktion Books Ltd. |year=2014 |location=London UK |pages=22 |isbn=978-1-78023-257-7}}

The first Romani people are believed to have arrived in Europe via the Balkans in the 13th or 14th century. Romani people began migrating to other parts of the continent during the 15th and 16th centuries.{{Cite web |title=Migrations of the Romani People |url=https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/romani_MIG.pdf |access-date=16 May 2024 |website=The National Geographic Society}}{{Cite web |last=King |first=Arienne |date=2023 |title=Romani Migration in the Middle Ages |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16922/map-of-romani-migration-in-the-middle-ages/ |access-date=16 May 2024 |website=World History Encyclopedia}}

In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, then Indian Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj stated that the people of the Romani community were children of India.{{cite news |url=http://www.india.com/news/india/romas-are-indias-children-sushma-swaraj-943499/7/ |title=Romas are India's children: Sushma Swaraj |publisher=India.com |date=12 February 2016 |access-date=3 September 2017}} The conference ended with a recommendation to the government of India to recognize the Romani community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.{{cite web |title=Can Romas be part of Indian diaspora? |publisher=khaleejtimes.com |url=http://www.khaleejtimes.com/international/india/can-romas-be-part-of-indian-diaspora |date=29 February 2016 |access-date=4 March 2016}}

Even though genetic studies confirmed that the Romani people originated in South Asia{{cite journal |title=Refining the South Asian Origin of the Romani people |date=2017 |pmc=5580230 |last1=Melegh |first1=B. I. |last2=Banfai |first2=Z. |last3=Hadzsiev |first3=K. |last4=Miseta |first4=A. |last5=Melegh |first5=B. |journal=BMC Genetics |volume=18 |issue=1 |page=82 |doi=10.1186/s12863-017-0547-x |doi-access=free |pmid=28859608}}{{cite journal |title=Origins, admixture and founder lineages in European Roma |date=2016 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2015.201 |last1=Martínez-Cruz |first1=Begoña |last2=Mendizabal |first2=Isabel |last3=Harmant |first3=Christine |last4=De Pablo |first4=Rosario |last5=Ioana |first5=Mihai |last6=Angelicheva |first6=Dora |last7=Kouvatsi |first7=Anastasia |last8=Makukh |first8=Halyna |last9=Netea |first9=Mihai G.|last10= Pamjav|first10= Horolma |last11=Zalán |first11=Andrea |last12=Tournev |first12=Ivailo |last13=Marushiakova |first13=Elena |last14=Popov |first14=Vesselin |last15=Bertranpetit |first15=Jaume |last16=Kalaydjieva |first16=Luba |last17=Quintana-Murci |first17=Lluis |last18=Comas |first18=David |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=24 |issue=6 |pages=937–943 |pmid=26374132 |pmc=4867443}} and their language is an Indo-Aryan language,{{Sfn|Matras|2002|p=240}} they have a long history of taking on different identities of various ethnic groups.

With the Roma fleeing the Muslim conquest of Mahmud of Ghazni in Northern India in the early 11th century,{{cite book |last1=Ahmad |first1=Dr Aijaz |title=New Dimensions of Indian Historiography : Historical Facts and Hindutva Interpretation |date=6 March 2022 |publisher=K.K. Publications |page=145 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AttiEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA145 |language=en}} they arrived in the Eastern Roman Empire by the 12th century.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tQKyAAAAQBAJ&pg=PR37 |last=Kenrick |first=Donald |title=Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies) |edition=2nd |publisher=Scarecrow Press |date=5 July 2007 |page=xxxvii |isbn=978-0-8108-6440-5}} The name Roma/Romani is similar to Romaei ({{lang|el|Ῥωμαῖοι}}), or Rhomaioi/Romioi (Ῥωμαῖοι/Ῥωμηοί/Ρωμιοί, "Romans") (the endonym for the Eastern Romans/Byzantines) from which the name could have originated. Roma is also similar to their original Sanskrit word {{lang|sa|डोम}} ({{transliteration|sa|ḍoma}}) meaning "drummer", with the Doma being dancers and musicians and a sub-group of the Dalit caste.{{cite web |title=Study shows Roma descended from Indian 'untouchables' |url=https://www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile.php?story=20121207171926304}}{{cite book |title=Scavenger in Indian Society: Marginality, Identity, and Politicization of the Community |isbn=978-81-85880-70-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v_aZm_MQjygC&q=Scavenger+in+Indian+Society%3A+Marginality%2C+Identity%2C+and+Politicization+of+the+Community |last1=Sharma |first1=Rama |date=28 January 1995 |publisher=M.D. Publications Pvt.}}

In the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire the Roma also took on the identity of the ethnic religious group, the Athinganoi (Greek: Αθίγγανοι). They were a Manichaean sect2010, Gabriela Brozba, Between reality and myth: A corpus-based analysis of the stereotypic image of some Romanian ethnic minorities, page 42 regarded as Judaizing heretics who lived in Phrygia and Lycaonia but were neither Hebrews nor Gentiles. They kept the Sabbath, but were not circumcised. They were Shomer nagia.{{Cite web |title=Athinganoi |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095431528 |access-date=2021-07-28 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en}} The word "Athiganoi" is where the Turkish name {{lang|tr|Ciganos}} as well as the Romanian name {{lang|ro|țigani}} come from, as the Ottoman Empire had some linguistic and cultural influence on the neighbouring medieval Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. The Turkish Ottomans conquered the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century, hence they ruled over the Roma (Ciganos) as well. Today, Turkey has the highest Romani population.{{cite web |url=http://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=0900001680088ea9 |title=Roma and Travellers Team. Tools and Texts of Reference. Estimates on Roma population in European countries (excel spreadsheet) |work=rm.coe.int Council of Europe Roma and Travellers Division}}

Some terms for the Romani people trace their origin to conflation with Egyptians. The English term Gypsy (or Gipsy) originates from the Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien. The Spanish term {{lang|es|Gitano}} and French {{lang|fr|Gitan}} have similar etymologies. They are ultimately derived from the Greek {{lang|grc|Αιγύπτιοι}} ({{transliteration|grc|Aigyptioi}}), meaning "Egyptian", via Latin. This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Roma, or some related group (such as the Indian Dom people), were itinerant Egyptians.

The Roma from Bohemia (today Czech Republic) were called Bohemian ({{lang|fr|bohémiens}} in French) because they were believed to have originated ethnically in Bohemia and later came to Western European countries such as France in the 16th century.[https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Bohemian Bohemian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814035941/https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Bohemian |date=2018-08-14 }} in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. The term bohemian came to mean carefree, artistic people. The Roma were musicians and dancers as well as circus performers that moved place to place, having an adventurous nomadic lifestyle, away from society's conventional norms and expectations. This lifestyle inspired the 19th-century European artistic movement, Bohemianism{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Bohemian |title=Bohemian etymology |access-date=2008-12-27 |last=Harper |first=Douglas |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary |date=November 2001}} as well as the hippie movement of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States.Dudley, William, ed. (2000), The 1960s (America's decades), San Diego: Greenhaven Press, pp. 193–194

Because Irish Travellers, a sub-group of the Irish (having the same ancestral genetics from within the general population of Ireland{{cite news |title=Travellers as 'genetically different' from settled Irish as Spanish |newspaper=Irish Times |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/travellers-as-genetically-different-from-settled-irish-as-spanish-1.2969515}}) lived as nomads,{{Cite web |last=Refugees |first=United Nations High Commissioner for |title=Refworld {{!}} World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples – Ireland : Travellers |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/49749d0541.html |access-date=2022-12-26 |website=Refworld |language=en}} the Roma and the Irish travellers came to be conflated with each other and in time some of the Roma mixed with some of the native Irish travellers (beginning in the 1650s) because of proximity and similar nomadic traditions.{{cite book |last=Gmelch |first=Sharon |year=1991 |orig-year=1986 |chapter=Preface |title=Nan: The life of an Irish Travelling woman |type=Biography |edition=Reissue with changes |location=Long Grove, IL |publisher=Waveland Press |isbn=978-0-88133-602-3 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9foVAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |pages=11–14}}

Similar to the Irish Travellers, the Yenish people were confused with the Roma because they were nomadic and itinerant people. The Yenish people have origins in Western Europe, mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium. The Yenish descended from members of the marginalized and vagrant poor classes of society in Germanic-speaking regions in Europe in the Late Middle Ages. Most of the Yenish became sedentary in the course of the mid-19th to 20th centuries.Leo Lucassen: "A Blind Spot: Migratory and Travelling Groups in Western European Historiography". In: International Review of Social History 38 (1993), 209–23. The culture of the Irish Travellers and the Yenish people in Western Europe and the culture of the Roma are different while having the nomadic and itinerant similarity.{{cite book |last=Matras |first=Yaron |year=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YfQ9BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |title=The Romani Gypsies |page=27 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-36838-5}}{{Sfn|Sutherland|1986|page=14}}{{cite web |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Romani |title=Romani - World History Encyclopedia |website=World History Encyclopedia |access-date=27 January 2024}}

Forced sterilisation carried out in several European countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic and Slovakia, in the mid to late 20th century led to a decrease in Roma populations in those countries.{{cite web |title=Sterilization in Norway – a dark chapter? |date=9 April 2003 |url=https://www.eurozine.com/sterilization-in-norway-a-dark-chapter/}}{{cite web |title=Racism's cruelest cut: coercive sterilisation of Romani women and their fight for justice in the Czech Republic (1966–2016) |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/racisms-cruelest-cut-coercive-sterilization-of-roman/}}{{cite web |title=Body and Soul: Forced Sterilization and Other Assaults on Roma Reproductive Freedom |date=June 2003 |url=https://reproductiverights.org/body-and-soul-forced-sterilization-and-other-assaults-on-roma-reproductive-freedom/}} Countries in South Eastern Europe that had not carried out forced sterilisation, such as Romania and Bulgaria, experienced steady increases of Roma birth rates during the 20th century that continue to this day, mainly because of the Roma tradition to marry young (in their early teens).{{Cite news |date=2003-10-02 |title=Gypsy child couple separated |language=en-GB |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3159818.stm |access-date=2022-08-08}} Once communism fell in Eastern Europe and travel restrictions were lifted as well as Eastern European countries joining the European Union in the 2000s, it was easier for the Eastern European Roma to mass migrate to Western Europe. Often, Romania is wrongly identified as the place of origin of the Roma because of the similar name Roma/Romani and Romanians. Romanians derive their name from the Latin romanus, meaning "Roman",{{cite web |url=http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=rom%C3%A2n |title=Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language, 1998; New Explanatory Dictionary of the Romanian Language, 2002 |publisher=Dexonline.ro |access-date=25 September 2010 |language=ro |url-status=live |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160517200517/http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv%3Drom%25C3%25A2n |archive-date=17 May 2016}} referencing the Roman conquest of Dacia. (The Dacians were a sub-group of the Thracians.) Romanian genetics show ancient Balkan ancestry (Thracian ancestry)Karachanak et al., 2012. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00414-011-0589-y Karachanak, S., V. Carossa, D. Nesheva, A. Olivieri, M. Pala, B. Hooshiar Kashani, V. Grugni, et al. "Bulgarians vs the Other European Populations: A Mitochondrial DNA Perspective." International Journal of Legal Medicine 126 (2012): 497.] as well as Slavic ancestry{{cite journal |last1=Kushniarevich |first1=A |last2=Utevska |first2=O |last3=Chuhryaeva |first3=M |last4=Agdzhoyan |first4=A |last5=Dibirova |first5=K |last6=Uktveryte |first6=I |last7=Möls |first7=M |last8=Mulahasanovic |first8=L |last9=Pshenichnov |first9=A |last10=Frolova |first10=S |last11=Shanko |first11=A |last12=Metspalu |first12=E |last13=Reidla |first13=M |last14=Tambets |first14=K |last15=Tamm |first15=E |display-authors=29 |year=2015 |title=Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=10 |issue=9 |pages=e0135820 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1035820K |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0135820 |pmc=4558026 |pmid=26332464 |doi-access=free |last16=Koshel |first16=S |last17=Zaporozhchenko |first17=V |last18=Atramentova |first18=L |last19=Kučinskas |first19=V |last20=Davydenko |first20=O |last21=Goncharova |first21=O |last22=Evseeva |first22=I |last23=Churnosov |first23=M |last24=Pocheshchova |first24=E |last25=Yunusbayev |first25=B |last26=Khusnutdinova |first26=E |last27=Marjanović |first27=D |last28=Rudan |first28=P |last29=Rootsi |first29=S |last30=Yankovsky |first30=N}} and not Indian ancestry like the Roma.

{{Main|History of the Romani people}}

{{See also| Timeline of Romani history}}

According to a 2012 genomic study, the Roma reached the Balkans as early as the 12th century. A document of 1068, describing an event in Constantinople, mentions "Atsingani", probably referring to Roma.{{cite book |last1=Bereznay |first1=András |title=Historical Atlas of the Gypsies: Romani History in Maps |date=2021 |publisher=Méry Ratio |isbn=978-615-6284-10-5 |page=18/1}}

Later historical records of the Roma reaching southeastern Europe are from the 14th century: in 1322, after leaving Ireland on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Irish Franciscan friar Symon Semeonis encountered a migrant group of Roma outside the town of Candia (modern Heraklion), in Crete, calling them "the descendants of Cain"; his account is the earliest surviving description by a western chronicler of the Roma in Europe.{{cite web |url=https://rm.coe.int/arrival-in-europe-factsheets-on-romani-history/16808b1908 |title=Arrival in Europe}}

In 1350, Ludolph of Saxony mentioned a similar people with a unique language whom he called Mandapolos, a word possibly derived from the Greek word mantes (meaning prophet or fortune teller).{{cite newsgroup |title=gypsies |first=Linda |last=Anfuso |date=24 February 1994 |newsgroup=rec.org.sca |message-id=PaN9Hc2w165w@tinhat.stonemarche.org |url=http://www.florilegium.org/files/CULTURES/Gypsies-msg.html |access-date=5 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824232640/http://www.florilegium.org/files/CULTURES/Gypsies-msg.html |archive-date=24 August 2007}}

In the 14th century, Roma are recorded in Venetian territories, including Methoni and Nafplio in the Peloponnese, and Corfu. Around 1360, a fiefdom called the Feudum Acinganorum was established in Corfu, which mainly used Romani serfs and to which the Roma on the island were subservient.{{cite book |first1=Charles |last1=Keil |first2=Dick |last2=Blau |first3=Angeliki |last3=Keil |first4=Steven |last4=Feld |title=Bright Balkan Morning: Romani Lives and the Power of Music in Greek Macedonia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPxA6JA49B4C&pg=PA50 |date=9 December 2002 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=978-0-8195-6488-7 |pages=50–51}}

By the 1440s, they were recorded in Germany;{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ee5eOkd62BEC&pg=PA11 |title=Ethnicity and Education in England and Europe: Gangstas, Geeks and Gorjas |author1=Dr Ian Law |author2=Dr Sarah Swann |page=11 |date=28 January 2013 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |access-date=20 December 2016 |isbn=978-1-4094-9484-3}} and by the 16th century, Scotland and Sweden.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfQ4iFhXx4YC&pg=PA42 |title=Language Contact: Theoretical and Empirical Studies |author=Ernst Hĺkon Jahr |page=42 |access-date=20 December 2016 |isbn=978-3-11-012802-4 |year=1992 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter}} Some Roma migrated from Persia through north Africa, reaching the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. The two currents met in France.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoworl00simo |url-access=registration |title=World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East |publisher=Rough Guides |author1=Simon Broughton |author2=Mark Ellingham |author3=Richard Trillo |page=[https://archive.org/details/roughguidetoworl00simo/page/148 148] |access-date=20 December 2016 |isbn=978-1-85828-635-8 |year=1999}}

File:Spiezer Schilling 749.jpg in the 15th century, described by the chronicler as getoufte heiden ("baptized heathens") and wearing Saracen-style clothing and weapons.{{cite book |title=Spiezer Schilling |title-link=Spiezer Schilling |place=Bern |date=1480s |last=Schilling |first=Diebold the Elder |author-link=Diebold Schilling the Elder |page=749}}]]

File:Carl d´Unker-Gipsy Family in Prison.jpg. An actual imprisoned family in Germany served as the models. The reason for their imprisonment remains unknown.]]

Their early history shows a mixed reception. Although 1385 marks the first recorded transaction for a Romani slave in Wallachia, they were issued safe conduct by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund in 1417. Roma were ordered expelled from the Meissen region of Germany in 1416, Lucerne in 1471, Milan in 1493, France in 1504, Catalonia in 1512, Sweden in 1525, England in 1530 (see Egyptians Act 1530), and Denmark in 1536. From 1510 onwards, any Rom found in Switzerland was to be executed, while in England (beginning in 1554) and Denmark (beginning of 1589) any Rom who did not leave within a month was to be executed. Portugal began deportations of Roma to its colonies in 1538.{{Cite book |first=Donald |last=Kenrick |title=Historical Dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanis) |edition=2nd |publisher=Scarecrow Press |date=5 July 2007 |pages=xx–xxii |isbn=978-0-8108-6440-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/atozofgypsiesrom0000unse}}

A 1596 English statute gave Roma special privileges that other wanderers lacked. France passed a similar law in 1683. Catherine the Great of Russia declared the Roma "crown slaves" (a status superior to serfs), but also kept them out of certain parts of the capital.{{cite book |first=Norman |last=Davies |title=Europe: A History |author-link=Norman Davies |isbn=978-0-19-820171-7 |year=1996 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/europehistory00davi_0/page/387 387–88] |title-link=Europe: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press}} In 1595, Ștefan Răzvan overcame his birth into slavery, and became the Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia.

Since a royal edict by Charles II in 1695, Spanish Roma had been restricted to certain towns.{{cite web |url=http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/roma/Source/FS2/3.3_roundup-spain_english.pdf |author=Antonio Gómez Alfaro |title=The Great "Gypsy" Round-up in Spain |page=4}} An official edict in 1717 restricted them to only 75 towns and districts, so that they would not be concentrated in any one region. In the Great Gypsy Round-up, Roma were arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish Monarchy in 1749.

During the latter part of the 17th century, around the Franco-Dutch War, both France and the Dutch Republic needed thousands of men to fight. Some recruitment took the form of rounding up vagrants and the poor to work the galleys and provide the armies' labour force. With this background, Roma were targets of both the French and the Dutch.{{cite web |url=https://rm.coe.int/western-europe-factsheets-on-romani-history/16808b19e4 |title=Western Europe}}

After the wars, and into the first decade of the 18th century, Roma were slaughtered with impunity throughout the Dutch Republic. Roma, called 'heiden' (‘heathens’) by the Dutch, wandered throughout the rural areas of Europe and became the societal pariahs of the age. Heidenjachten, translated as "heathen hunt" happened throughout the Dutch Republic in an attempt to eradicate them.{{Cite book |title=Another Darkness Another Dawn |last=Taylor |first=Becky |publisher=Reaktion Books Ltd. |year=2014 |location=London UK |pages=72 |isbn=978-1-78023-257-7}}

Although some Roma could be kept as slaves in Wallachia and Moldavia until abolition in 1856, the majority traveled as free nomads with their wagons, as alluded to in the spoked wheel symbol in the Romani flag.{{sfn|Hancock|2001|p=25}} Elsewhere in Europe, they were subjected to ethnic cleansing, abduction of their children, and forced labour. In Britain, Roma were sometimes expelled from small communities or hanged; in France, they were branded, and their heads were shaved; in Moravia and Bohemia, the women were marked by their ears being severed. As a result, large groups of the Roma moved to the East, toward Poland, which was more tolerant, and Russia, where the Roma were treated more fairly as long as they paid the annual taxes.{{Citation |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8136812.stm |first=Delia |last=Radu |title='On the Road': Centuries of Roma History |publisher=BBC |newspaper=World Service |date=8 July 2009}}

File:Romani palm reading, Santiago, Chile, 1944.png in Chile, 1944]]

Roma began emigrating to North America in colonial times, with small groups recorded in Virginia and French Louisiana. Larger-scale Roma emigration to the United States began in the 1860s, with Romanichal groups from Great Britain. The most significant number immigrated in the early 20th century, mainly from the Vlax group of Kalderash. Many Roma also settled in South America.{{cite web |url=https://web.sas.upenn.edu/earlyamericanstudies/2022/03/16/romani-history-is-american-history |title=Romani History is American History |website=EAS Miscellany |access-date=27 January 2024}}

{{Main|Romani Holocaust}}

File:Bundesarchiv R 165 Bild-244-52, Asperg, Deportation von Sinti und Roma.jpg and other Roma about to be deported from Germany, 22 May 1940]]

During World War II and the Holocaust, the Nazis committed a systematic genocide against the Roma. In the Romani language, this genocide is known as the Porajmos.{{cite web |url=http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles=true |title=Romanies and the holocaust: a reevaluation and an overview |website=Radoc.net |first=Ian |last=Hancock |access-date=14 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305105001/http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles=true |archive-date=5 March 2016}} Romanies were marked for extermination and sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment in concentration camps. They were often killed on sight, especially by the Einsatzgruppen (paramilitary death squads) on the Eastern Front.{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005130 |title=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=2 December 2012}} The total number of victims has been variously estimated at between 220,000 and 1,500,000.{{Cite book |chapter=True Romanies and the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation and an overview |chapter-url=http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles= |last=Hancock |first=Ian |title=The Historiography of the Holocaust |isbn=978-1-4039-9927-6 |pages=383–96 |year=2005 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |access-date=14 February 2009 |archive-date=9 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190609233028/http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en&articles=}}

The Roma were also persecuted in Nazi puppet states. In the Independent State of Croatia, the Ustaša killed almost the entire Romani population of 25,000. The concentration camp system of Jasenovac, run by the Ustaša militia and the Croat political police, was responsible for the deaths of between 15,000 and 20,000 Roma.{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005219 |title=GENOCIDE OF EUROPEAN ROMA (GYPSIES), 1939–1945 |publisher=Holocaust Encyclopedia |access-date=27 January 2018}}

In Czechoslovakia, they were labeled a "socially degraded stratum", and Romani women were sterilized as part of a state policy to reduce their population. This policy was implemented with large financial incentives, with threats of denying future welfare payments, with misinformation, or after administering drugs.{{Sfn |Silverman |1995}}{{Sfn |Helsinki Watch |1991}}

An official inquiry from the Czech Republic, resulting in a report (December 2005), concluded that the Communist authorities had practised an assimilation policy towards Roma, which "included efforts by social services to control the birth rate in the Romani community. The problem of sexual sterilisation carried out in the Czech Republic, either with improper motivation or illegally, exists," said the Czech Public Defender of Rights, recommending state compensation for women affected between 1973 and 1991.{{cite news |date=12 March 2007 |first=Marina |last=Denysenko |title=Sterilised Roma accuse Czechs |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6409699.stm |work=BBC News |access-date=15 September 2017}} New cases were revealed up until 2004, in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland "all have histories of coercive sterilization of minorities and other groups".{{cite web |url=http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/August/200608171045451CJsamohT0.678158.html |first=Jeffrey |last=Thomas |date=16 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213203349/http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/August/200608171045451CJsamohT0.678158.html |archive-date=13 February 2008 |title=Coercive Sterilization of Romani Women Examined at Hearing: New report focuses on Czech Republic and Slovakia |website=Washington File |publisher=Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State}}

{{Main|Romani society and culture}}

File:A Gipsy Family Fac simile of a Woodcut in the Cosmographie Universelle of Munster in folio Basle 1552 (no caption).png (1552), "A Gipsy Family", The Cosmographia (facsimile of a woodcut), Basle]]

File:Auguste Raffet, Famille tsigane en voyage en Moldavie, 1837.jpg, 1837]]

The traditional Romanies place a high value on the extended family. Traditionally, virginity is essential in unmarried women. However, Eastern European Roma are more likely to find it acceptable for girls to have sex before marriage compared to other Eastern Europeans.{{Cite journal |last1=Želinský |first1=Tomáš |last2=Gorard |first2=Stephen |last3=Siddiqui |first3=Nadia |date=2021-05-19 |title=Increasing understanding of the aspirations and expectations of Roma students |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2021.1872366 |journal=British Journal of Sociology of Education |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=588–606 |doi=10.1080/01425692.2021.1872366 |issn=0142-5692}} Both men and women usually marry young; there has been controversy in several countries over the Romani practice of child marriage. Romani law amongst some Roma, particularly the Kalaidzhi, establishes that the man's family must pay a bride price to the bride's parents, but only traditional families still follow it.

Once married, the woman joins the husband's family, where her main job is to tend to her husband's and her children's needs and take care of her in-laws. The power structure in the traditional Romani household has at its top the oldest man or grandfather, and men, in general, have more authority than women. Women gain respect and power as they get older. Young wives begin gaining authority once they have children.{{cite tech report | last=Surdu | first=Laura | last2=Surdu | first2=Mihai | title=Broadening the Agenda: The Status of Romani Women in Romania | year=2006 | jstor=resrep27094.9 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep27094.9 | page=31–42}}

Traditionally, as can be seen on paintings and photos, some Romani men wear shoulder-length hair and a mustache, as well as an earring. Romani women generally have long hair, and Xoraxane Romani women often dye it blonde with henna.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1niHEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT87 |title=Gypsies, Roma and Travellers: A Contemporary Analysis |first=Declan |last=Henry |date=7 September 2022 |publisher=Critical Publishing |isbn=978-1-915080-05-9 |via=Google Books}}

File:Jan van de Venne - Gypsy camp - M.Ob.524 MNW - National Museum in Warsaw.jpg, in the early 17th century]]

Romani people have traditionally displayed a desire to live in alignment with the natural world.{{Cite web |last=Dumitrescu |first=Cristian |date=2010 |title=The Stranger in Our Midst, the Gypsies |url=https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=jams |website=Andrews University |format=PDF}}{{Cite web |date=2022-02-08 |title=The ground beneath our feet {{!}} New Internationalist |url=https://newint.org/features/2021/12/07/ground-beneath-our-feet-roma-community |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=newint.org |language=en}} Cooking was often done outdoors over open fires, using hunted or foraged ingredients.Fonseca, I. (1995). Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey. Alfred A. Knopf. Many Roma in England historically lived and travelled around the English countryside in vardos, while others settled in urban areas.Hancock, I. (2002). We are the Romani People. University of Hertfordshire Press. Today, the vast majority are settled and live in houses.{{Cite web |title=Information about Gypsies and Travellers |url=https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/housing/gypsies-and-travellers/information-about-gypsies-and-travellers#:~:text=Whilst%20this%20is%20historically%20true,and%20heritage%20stays%20with%20them. |access-date=25 May 2025 |website=Cheshire West and Chester Council}} Romani were often portrayed outdoors in rural settings in historical European art and literature.Mayall, D. (2004). Gypsy Identities 1500–2000: From Egipcyans and Moon-men to the Ethnic Romany. Routledge.

Romani social behavior has traditionally been regulated by Indian social customs{{Citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQT2Gp16j68C&pg=PA210 |title=Gypsy Law: Romani Legal Traditions and Culture |page=210 |first=Walter Otto |last=Weyrauch |year=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-22186-4 |quote=Rom have preserved and modified Indian caste system}} ("marime" or "marhime") which are still respected by most Roma (and by most older generations of Sinti). This regulation affects many aspects of life and is applied to actions, people and things: parts of the human body are considered impure, the genital organs (because they produce emissions) and the rest of the lower body. Clothes for the lower body, as well as the clothes of menstruating women, are washed separately. Items used for eating are also washed in a different place. Childbirth is considered impure and must occur outside the dwelling place. The mother is deemed to be impure for forty days after giving birth.{{cite web |url=https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADM192.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027043640/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADM192.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 October 2011 |title=INTRODUCTION TO ROMA CULTURE}}

Death is considered impure, and affects the whole family of the dead, who remain impure for a period of time. In contrast to the practice of cremating the dead, Romani dead must be buried.{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/death.htm |title=Romani Customs and Traditions: Death Rituals and Customs |publisher=Patrin Web Journal |access-date=26 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070821022337/http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/death.htm |archive-date=21 August 2007}} Cremation and burial are both known from the time of the Rigveda, and both are widely practiced in Hinduism today (the general tendency is for Hindus to practice cremation, though some communities in modern-day south India tend to bury their dead).{{cite web |url=http://www.hindugateway.com/library/rituals/ |title=The Journey of a Lifebody |publisher=hindugateway.com |date=1991 |access-date=26 May 2008 |first=David M. |last=Knipe |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930232759/http://www.hindugateway.com/library/rituals/ |archive-date=30 September 2008}} Animals that are considered to be having unclean habits are not eaten by the community.{{sfn|Hancock|2001|p=81}}

File:Cornelis de Wael - Gypsies reading the hand of a young traveler.jpeg, c. 1607-1667]]

File:Antoni Kozakiewicz - Kartomantka.jpg in Poland, by Antoni Kozakiewicz, 1884]]

There are records of Romani women practicing fortune-telling dating back centuries, using techniques such as palm-reading. It often served as a means of income, and was typically passed from mother to daughter. In 1747 and later again in 1824, palm-reading was made illegal in Britain, which lead to it becoming a covert practice.{{Cite web |last=Heppell |first=Sharon |date=2024-09-27 |title=Romany Gypsies and Fortune-telling |url=https://www.travellerstimes.org.uk/features/romany-gypsies-and-fortune-telling-sharon-heppell#:~:text=Romany%20Gypsy%20women%20-%20and%20very,to%20time,%20their%20sons%20too. |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Travellers Times |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=West |first=Tamara |date=2022-10-01 |title=Marginality and Modernity on the South Shore: Blackpool's Fortune Tellers, Authenticity and Belonging |journal=European History Quarterly |language=EN |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=572–592 |doi=10.1177/02656914221097595 |issn=0265-6914|doi-access=free }} Romani fortune tellers were traditionally known as drabardi. While it was practiced as a trade aimed at non-Romani, it was virtually never practiced amongst Romani themselves.{{Cite web |date=2017-07-01 |title=Fortune Telling as Part of the Roma Culture |url=https://rozvitok.org/en/fortune-telling-as-part-of-the-roma-culture/ |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Human Rights Fund Progress |language=en-US}} However, the notion that Romani people have psychic powers and that Romani women are fortune-tellers also functions as a harmful stereotype sometimes still present to this day.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsXYAAAAMAAJ&q=A+stereotype+that+Romani+people+have+psychic+powers|title = Creative Ethnicity: Symbols and Strategies of Contemporary Ethnic Life|isbn = 9780874211481|last1 = Stern|first1 = Stephen|year = 1991| publisher=Utah State University Press }}

{{Main|Romanipen|Gadjo (non-Romani)}}

In Romani philosophy, Romanipen (also romanypen, romanipe, romanype, romanimos, romaimos, romaniya) is the totality of the Romani spirit, Romani culture, Romani Law, being a Romani, a set of Romani strains.{{cite book |title=Inward Looking: The Impact of Migration on Romanipe from the Romani Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kl2jDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 |author=Aleksandar G. Marinov |date=3 October 2019 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-78920-362-2}}

An ethnic Rom is considered a gadjo in Romani society if they have no Romanipen. Sometimes a non-Rom may be considered a Rom if they do have Romanipen. Usually this is an adopted child. It has been hypothesized that this owes more to a framework of culture than a simple adherence to historically received rules.{{cite book |last1=Saul |first1=Nicholas |first2=Susan |last2=Tebbut |title=The Role of the Romanies: Images and Counter-Images of 'Gypsies'/Romanies in European Cultures |editor1-first=Nicholas |editor1-last=Saul |editor2-first=Susan |editor2-last=Tebbutt |publisher=Liverpool University Press |year=2005 |pages=218–219 |isbn=978-0-85323-689-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQw6qOCNj-UC&pg=PA218}}

File:Tziganes aux Saintes-Maries de la Mer.jpg in France, 1980s]]

File:Two Gypsies in Cluj-Napoka, Romania.jpg, Romania]]

File:Gipsy and bear.jpg, Banovo Brdo, 1980s)]]

Most Roma are Christian,{{Cite book |title=The Columbia Encyclopedia |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2018 |edition=8th |location=New York, NY |via=Credo Reference}} but many are Muslims; some retained their ancient faith of Hinduism from their original homeland of India, while others have their own religion and political organization.{{citation |author=G. L. Lewis |contribution=ČINGĀNE |title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=2nd |volume=2 |publisher=Brill |year=1991 |pages=40a–41b |isbn=978-90-04-07026-4 |title-link=The Encyclopaedia of Islam}} In parts of Southeast Europe, particularly in Bulgaria, some Roma who are Muslim identify as ethnic Turks, and over generations have adopted the Turkish language.{{Cite web |last1=Marushiakova |first1=Elena |last2=Popov |first2=Vesselin |date=2018 |title=Roma Communities on the Balkans: History and Identities |url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/15711/MarushiakovaPopov_2018_Balkania_Roma_ENG.pdf;jsessionid=577200CD1437859B3389B0C9E020CD3E?sequence=1 |pages=13–14}} Theravada Buddhism influenced by the Dalit Buddhist movement have become popular in recent times among Hungarian Roma.

Some Roma practice witchcraft.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpfSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA391 |title=The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice |isbn=978-1-119-57210-7 |last1=Palmer |first1=Michael D. |last2=Burgess |first2=Stanley M. |date=13 April 2020 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}

The modern-day Roma often adopted Christianity or Islam depending on which was the dominant religion in the regions through which they had migrated.{{cite web |year=2008–2012 |title=Restless Beings Project: Roma Engage |url=http://www.restlessbeings.org/projects/roma-gypsies |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101021139/http://www.restlessbeings.org/projects/roma-gypsies |archive-date=1 January 2013 |access-date=26 December 2012 |publisher=Restless Beings}} It is likely that the adherence to differing religions prevented families from engaging in intermarriage.{{cite book |last1=Boretzky |first1=Norbert |title=Romani in Contact: The History, Structure and Sociology of a Language |date=1995 |publisher=John Benjamins |location=Amsterdam, NL |page=70}} In Eastern Europe, most Roma are Orthodox Christians, Muslims or Catholics.{{Cite book |last1=Liégeois |first1=Jean-Pierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W7l-fGIA2ZkC&pg=PA89 |title=Roma, Gypsies, Travellers |date=1 January 1994 |publisher=Council of Europe |isbn=978-92-871-2349-7}} In Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Romania and Serbia, the majority of Romani inhabitants are Orthodox Christians. In Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Kosovo, the majority are Muslims. In Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, the majority are Catholics. In Western Europe, the majority of Romani inhabitants are Catholic or Protestant. In Crimea and East Thrace, the majority of Romani inhabitants are Muslim. The majority of the diaspora in the United States adhere to some branch of Christianity.{{Cite book |last=Cortés |first=Carlos E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2MWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1850 |title=Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia |date=2013-08-15 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-1-5063-3278-9 |page=1850 |language=en}}File:Gitanos - Trono.jpg, Spain]]

Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla is recently considered a patron saint of the Roma in Roman Catholicism.{{cite web |title=Blessed Ceferino Gimenez Malla 1861–1936 |url=http://www.savior.org/saints/malla.htm |website=Visit the Saviour |publisher=Voveo |access-date=26 December 2012 |date=December 2012 |archive-date=5 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205130932/http://www.savior.org/saints/malla.htm |url-status=dead}} Saint Sarah, or Sara e Kali, has also been venerated as a patron saint in her shrine at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France.{{cite book |last1=La Bas |first1=Damian |title=The Stopping Places: A journey through Gypsy Britain |date=2018 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=9781784741037 |pages=179 & 190}} Since the turn of the 21st century, Sara e Kali is understood to have been Kali, an Indian deity brought from India by the refugee ancestors of the Roma; as the Roma became Christianized, she was absorbed in a syncretic way and venerated as a saint.

Saint Sarah is now increasingly being considered as "a Romani Goddess, the Protectress of the Roma" and an "indisputable link with Mother India".{{cite web |title=The Romani Goddess Kali Sara |url=http://kopachi.com/articles/the-romani-goddess-kali-sara-ronald-lee/ |website=Romano Kapachi |access-date=26 December 2012 |first=Ronald |last=Lee |year=2002}}{{cite book |chapter-url=http://radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_romanireligion&lang=en&articles=true |author=Ian Hancock |date=2001 |chapter=Romani ("Gypsy") Religion |title=The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature |editor1=Jeff Kaplan |editor2=Bron Taylor |editor3=Samuel S. Hill |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110925154755/http://radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_romanireligion&lang=en&articles=true |archive-date=25 September 2011 |via=Radoc |access-date=12 October 2023 |url-status=live}}

For the Romani communities that have resided in Southeast Europe for numerous centuries, the following apply with regard to religious beliefs:

• Albania – The majority of the Romani population in Albania is Muslim.{{Cite web |last=Koinova |first=Maria |editor-last=Dimitras |editor-first=Panayote |title=Roma of Albania |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/131933442.pdf |website=CORE |publisher=Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe – Southeast Europe |page=3}}
• Bosnia and Herzegovina – The majority of the Romani population in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Muslim.
• Bulgaria – The majority of the Romani population in Bulgaria is Christian (mostly Orthodox). In northwestern Bulgaria, in addition to Sofia and Kyustendil, Christianity is the dominant faith among the Roma, and a major conversion to Eastern Orthodox Christianity among the Roma has occurred. In southeastern Bulgaria, Islam is the dominant religion among the Roma, with a smaller section of the Roma declaring themselves as "Turks", continuing to mix ethnicity with Islam.{{cite web |title=Roma Muslims in the Balkans |url=http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/culture/introduction/roma-muslims-in-the-balkans |website=Education of Roma Children in Europe |publisher=Council of Europe |access-date=26 December 2012 |first1=Elena |last1=Marushiakova |first2=Veselin |last2=Popov |year=2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413184328/http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/culture/introduction/roma-muslims-in-the-balkans |archive-date=13 April 2012}}

File:Dancing-Cansinos-1933.jpg) with her father and dance partner Eduardo Cansino, 1933]]

• Croatia – The majority of the Romani population in Croatia is Christian (mostly Catholic). After the Second World War, a large number of Muslim Roma relocated to Croatia, the majority moving from Kosovo. Their language differs from those living in Međimurje and those who survived Romani Holocaust.
• Greece – The majority of the Romani population in Greece is Christian.{{efn|Muslim Romas were excluded from the Deportation of Muslims from Greece's new conquered territory following the First Balkan War and presently form the majority of Greece's native Muslim population.}} The descendants of groups, such as Sepečides or Sevljara, Kalpazaja, Filipidži and others, living in Athens, Thessaloniki, central Greece and Greek Macedonia are mostly Orthodox Christians, with Islamic beliefs held by a minority of the population. Following the Peace Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, many Muslim Roma moved to Turkey in the subsequent population exchange between Turkey and Greece.
• Hungary – The majority of the Romani population in Hungary is Christian.Kozubik M, Bobakova DF, Mojtova M, Tokovska M, van Dijk JP. Roma Religion: 1775 and 2018 Compared over Time. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 15;19(18):11645. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191811645. PMID 36141906; PMCID: PMC9517071. The country experienced an influx of Muslim Roma during the Ottoman period in Hungary, who later converted to Catholicism.{{Cite thesis |title=Die Baranya in den Jahren 1686 bis 1713: Kontinuität und Wandel in einem ungarischen Komitat nach dem Abzug der Türken |publisher=Universitätsverlag |date=2005 |place=Göttingen |isbn=9783938616321 |first=Claus Heinrich |last=Gattermann |pages=87–88 |language=German}}

File:Muslim Gypsies from Bosnia, illustration, 1901.jpg (around 1900)]]

• Kosovo – The majority of the Romani population in Kosovo are Muslim and Speak Albanian. Some Roma in Kosovo speak Serbian and are Orthodox Christians.{{Cite web |last=Visoka |first=Gezim |title=6. Political Parties and Minority Participation: Case of Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptians in Kosovo |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/147602422.pdf |website=CORE |page=156}}
• Montenegro – The majority of the Romani population in Montenegro is Muslim.
• North Macedonia –The majority of the Romani population in North Macedonia is Muslim.
• Romania – The majority of the Romani population in Romania is Christian (mostly Orthodox).[http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/RPL2002INS/vol1/tabele/t51a.pdf Census 2002, by religion]. (PDF). INS. Retrieved on 2024-05-29. In Dobruja, there is a small community that are Muslim and also speak Turkish.{{cite web |last1=Marushiakova |first1=Elena |last2=Popov |first2=Veselin |year=2012 |title=Roma Muslims in the Balkans |url=http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/culture/introduction/roma-muslims-in-the-balkans |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413184328/http://romafacts.uni-graz.at/index.php/culture/introduction/roma-muslims-in-the-balkans |archive-date=13 April 2012 |access-date=26 December 2012 |website=Education of Roma Children in Europe |publisher=Council of Europe}}
• Serbia – The majority of the Romani population in Serbia is Christian (mostly Orthodox). There are some Muslim Roma in southern Serbia, who are mainly refugees from Kosovo.
• Slovenia – The majority of the Romani population in Slovenia is Christian (mostly Catholic), although a sizeable proportion are Muslim.{{Cite web |last=Stropnik |first=Nada |date=2011 |title=Promoting Social Inclusion of Roma |url=https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=8971&langId=en |website=Peer Review Social Inclusion EU |page=6 |format=PDF}}

File:Stanisław Masłowski (1853-1926) Gypsy Woman Cyganka, watercolour akwarela 3, twice corrected.jpg, watercolour, 1877]]

In Ukraine and Russia, the Romani populations are Christian and Muslim. Their ancestors settled on the Crimean peninsula during the 17th and 18th centuries, but some migrated to Ukraine, southern Russia and the Povolzhie (along the Volga River). These communities are recognized for their staunch preservation of the Romani language and identity.

In the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, Romani populations are Roman Catholic, many times adopting and following local, cultural Catholicism as a syncretic system of belief that incorporates distinct Roma beliefs and cultural aspects. For example, many Polish Roma delay their Church wedding due to the belief that sacramental marriage is accompanied by divine ratification, creating a virtually indissoluble union until the couple consummate, after which the sacramental marriage is dissoluble only by the death of a spouse. Therefore, for Polish Roma, once married, one can't ever divorce. Another aspect of Polish Roma's Catholicism is a tradition of pilgrimage to the Jasna Góra Monastery.{{Cite web |last=Niedźwiecka |first=Dorota |title=Wiara po romsku |url=https://www.przewodnik-katolicki.pl/Archiwum/2016/Przewodnik-Katolicki-40-2016/Wiara-i-Kosciol/Wiara-po-romsku}}

In southern Spain, many Romanies are Pentecostal, but this is a small minority that has emerged in contemporary times. The majority of the Romani people in France are Catholic or Protestant (mostly Pentecostal).{{Cite web |last=Landy |first=Thomas |title=The feast of the Saintes and its meaning for Gypsies and other Gens du Voyage |url=https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/france-feast-saintes-and-its-meaning-gypsies-and-other-gens-du-voyage |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=Catholics and Cultures |language=en}}

{{Main|Romani music}}

File:20090627 Fanfare Ciocarlia group live in Athens at Restistance Festival by KOE 2.jpg live in Athens]]

File:Khamoro Roma Festival 2007 Prague.jpg World Roma Festival in Prague, 2007]]

Romani music plays an important role in central and eastern European countries such as Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania, and the style and performance practices of Romani musicians have influenced European classical composers such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms. The lăutari who perform at traditional Romanian weddings are virtually all Romani.{{cite book |title=Area Handbook for Romania – Volume 550, Issue 160 |page=100}}{{cite book |title=Marketing in a Multicultural World: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Cultural Identity}}

Probably the most internationally prominent contemporary performers in the lăutari tradition are Taraful Haiducilor.{{Cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348596804 |title="Perverting the Taste of the People": Lăutari and the Balkan Question in Romania}} Bulgaria's popular "wedding music", too, is almost exclusively performed by Romani musicians such as Ivo Papasov, a virtuoso clarinetist closely associated with this genre and Bulgarian pop-folk singer Azis.

Many famous classical musicians, such as the Hungarian pianist Georges Cziffra, are Romani, as are many prominent performers of manele. Zdob și Zdub, one of the most prominent rock bands in Moldova, although not Romanies themselves, draw heavily on Romani music, as do Spitalul de Urgență in Romania, Shantel in Germany, Goran Bregović in Serbia, Darko Rundek in Croatia, Beirut and Gogol Bordello in the United States.

Another tradition of Romani music is the genre of the Romani brass band, with such notable practitioners as Boban Marković of Serbia, and the brass lăutari groups Fanfare Ciocărlia and Fanfare din Cozmesti of Romania.{{cite book |title=Gypsy Music: The Balkans and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RHRdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT125 |author=Alan Ashton-Smith |year=2017 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-78023-865-4}}

The distinctive sound of Romani music has also strongly influenced bolero, jazz, and flamenco (especially cante jondo) in Spain.{{cite book |title=Rethinking (In)Security in the European Union: The Migration-Identity-Security Nexus |page=148}}

Dances such as the flamenco and bolero of Spain were influenced by the Roma.{{Citation |last1=Martinez |first1=Emma |title=Flamenco: All You Wanted to Know |date=24 February 2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bzd1CTtnjS8C&pg=PA21 |page=21 |publisher=Mel Bay Publications |format=Google books |isbn=978-1-60974-470-0}} Antonio Cansino blended Romani and Spanish flamenco and is credited with creating modern-day Spanish dance.{{sfn|Hancock|2002|p=129}} The Dancing Cansinos popularized flamenco and bolero dancing in the United States. Famous dancer and actress, Rita Hayworth, is the granddaughter of Antonio Cansino.

European-style gypsy jazz ("jazz Manouche" or "Sinti jazz") is still widely practiced among the original creators (the Romanie People); one who acknowledged this artistic debt was guitarist Django Reinhardt.{{cite book |title=Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing}} Contemporary artists in this tradition known internationally include Stochelo Rosenberg, Biréli Lagrène, Jimmy Rosenberg, Paulus Schäfer and Tchavolo Schmitt.

The Roma in Turkey have achieved musical acclaim from national and local audiences. Local performers usually perform for special holidays. Their music is usually performed on instruments such as the darbuka, gırnata and cümbüş.{{Citation |title=Cümbüş means fun, Birger Gesthuisen investigates the short history of a 20th-century folk instrument |url=http://www.rootsworld.com/turkey/cumbus.html |publisher=RootsWorld}}

{{Main|Romani folklore}}

Paramichia is a term used to refer to Romani legends and folktales. A popular legend among the Vlach Roma is of the hero Mundro Salamon, also known by other Roma subgroups as Wise Solomon or O Godjiaver Yanko.{{Cite web |title=Gypsies |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/people/gypsies |website=Encyclopedia.com}}

Some Roma believe in the mulo or mullo, meaning "one who is dead"; the Romani version of the vampire.{{Cite web |date=17 April 2010 |title=Gypsy Legends on Vampires |url=https://blogs.bgsu.edu/lotag/2010/04/17/gypsy-legends-on-vampires/ |website=BGSU Blogs}} The Roma from Slavic countries believe in werewolves.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LusZMgBAJZQC&pg=PA148 |title=Buckland's Book of Gypsy Magic: Travelers' Stories, Spells, and Healings |first=Raymond |last=Buckland |date=1 May 2010 |publisher=Weiser Books |isbn=978-1-60925-165-9 |access-date=14 December 2023 |via=Google Books}} Roma figure prominently in the 1941 film The Wolf Man and the 2010 remake.

{{Main|Romani cuisine}}

The Roma believe that some foods are auspicious, or lucky (baxtalo), such as foods with pungent tastes like garlic, lemon, tomato, and peppers, and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, pickles and sour cream.{{cite web |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/food/i-am-the-first-generation/ |title=Romani Cuisine and Cultural Persistence |website=Paste |date=27 June 2016}} Hedgehogs are a delicacy among some Roma.{{Cite web |title=Gypsies |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/anthropology-and-archaeology/people/gypsies |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Encyclopedia.com}}

Romani contemporary art emerged at the climax of the process that began in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, when the interpretation of the cultural practice of minorities was enabled by a paradigm shift, commonly referred to in specialist literature as the "cultural turn". The idea of the cultural turn was introduced; and this was also the time when the notion of cultural democracy became crystallized in the debates carried on at various public forums. Civil society gained strength, and civil politics appeared, which is a prerequisite for cultural democracy. This shift of attitude in scholarly circles derived from concerns specific not only to ethnicity but also to society, gender and class.{{cite news |title=Meet Your Neighbors |url=https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/neighbours_20090615.pdf |work=opensourcefoundations.org}}

{{Main|Romani language}}

Most Roma speak one of several dialects of the Romani language,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdtBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |title=Comparative-Historical Linguistics |isbn=978-90-272-7698-8 |last1=Brogyanyi |first1=Bela |last2=Lipp |first2=Reiner |date=6 May 1993 |publisher=John Benjamins}} an Indo-Aryan language, with roots in Sanskrit. They also often speak the languages of the countries they live in. Typically, they also incorporate loanwords and calques into Romani from the languages of those countries and especially words for terms that the Romani language does not have. Most of the Ciganos of Portugal, the {{Lang|es|Gitanos}} of Spain, the Romanichal of Great Britain, and the Romanisael of Sweden and Norway have lost their knowledge of pure Romani, and speak the mixed languages Caló,{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/rmq |chapter=Caló: A language of Spain |publisher=SIL International |editor-first=Raymond G Jr. |editor-last=Gordon |year=2005 |title=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |work=Ethnologue (Free All) |edition=15th |location=Dallas, TX |isbn=978-1-55671-159-6}} Angloromani and Scandoromani, respectively. Most of the Romani language-speaking communities in these regions consist of later immigrants from eastern or central Europe.{{cite web |last=Matras |first=Yaron |title=Romani Linguistics and Romani Language Projects |url=http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/whatis/status/numbers.shtml |website=Humanities |publisher=The University of Manchester |access-date=24 February 2015 |archive-date=6 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106012338/https://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk//whatis/status/numbers.shtml |url-status=dead}}

There are no concrete statistics for the number of Romani speakers, both in Europe and globally. However, a conservative estimate is 3.5 million speakers in Europe and a further 500,000 elsewhere, though the actual number may be considerably higher. This makes Romani the second-largest minority language in Europe, behind Catalan.

In regards to the diversity of dialects, Romani works in the same way as most other European languages.{{cite journal |last=Matras |first=Yaron |title=The status of Romani in Europe |journal=Report Submitted to the Council of Europe's Language Policy Division |date=October 2005 |page=4 |url=http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/downloads/1/statusofromani.pdf |access-date=4 March 2015 |archive-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503035937/https://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk//downloads/1/statusofromani.pdf |url-status=dead}} Cross-dialect communication is dominated by the following features:

• All Romani speakers are bilingual, accustomed to borrowing words or phrases from a second language; this makes it difficult to communicate with Roma from different countries
• Romani was traditionally a language shared between extended family and a close-knit community. This has resulted in the inability to comprehend dialects from other countries, and is why Romani is sometimes considered to be several different languages.
• There is no tradition or literary standard for Romani speakers to use as a guideline for their language use.

{{See also|Slavery in Romania}}

File:Ștefan cel Mare. Danie sălașe de țigani pentru Episcopia Rădăuți.jpg donates a number of sălașe of Romani slaves to the Rădăuţi bishopric]]

One of the most enduring persecutions against the Roma was their enslavement. Slavery was widely practiced in medieval Europe, including the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in the 13th–14th centuries.{{sfn|Achim|2004|p=27}} Legislation decreed that all the Roma living in these states, as well as any others who immigrated there, were classified as slaves.{{Cite book |title=Istoria și tradițiile minorității rromani |page=36 |year=2005 |publisher=Sigma |location=Bucharest |author1-link=Delia Grigore |last1=Grigore |first1=Delia |first2=Petre |last2=Petcuț |first3=Mariana |last3=Sandu |language=ro}} Slavery was gradually abolished during the 1840s and 1850s.{{sfn|Achim|2004|p=27}}

The exact origins of slavery in the Danubian Principalities are not known. There is some debate over whether the Roma came to Wallachia and Moldavia as free people or were brought there as slaves. Historian Nicolae Iorga associated the Roma's arrival with the 1241 Mongol invasion of Europe and he also considered their enslavement a vestige of that era, in which the Romanians took the Roma from the Mongols and preserved their status as slaves so they could use their labor. Other historians believe that the Roma were enslaved while they were being captured during the battles with the Tatars. The practice of enslaving prisoners of war may have also been adopted from the Mongols.{{sfn|Achim|2004|p=27}}

File:Bilet de dezrobire 1848.jpg]]

Some Roma may have been slaves of the Mongols or the Tatars, or they may have served as auxiliary troops in the Mongol or Tatar armies. However, most of them migrated from south of the Danube at the end of the 14th century, some time after the founding of Wallachia. By then, the institution of slavery was already established in Moldavia and it was possibly established in both principalities. After the Roma migrated into the area, slavery became a widespread practice among the majority of the population. The Tatar slaves, smaller in numbers, were eventually merged into the Romani population.{{Citation |first=Ștefan |last=Ștefănescu |title=Istoria medie a României |volume=I |publisher=Editura Universității din București |place=Bucharest |year=1991 |language=ro}}

{{See also|Anti-Romani sentiment}}

Some branches of the Roma reached western Europe in the 15th century, fleeing from the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans as refugees. Although the Roma were refugees from the conflicts in southeastern Europe, they were often suspected of being associated with the Ottoman invasion by certain populations in the West because their physical appearance was exotic. (The Imperial Diet at Landau and Freiburg in 1496–1498 declared that the Roma were spies for the Turks). In western Europe, such suspicions and discrimination against people who constituted a visible minority resulted in persecution, often violent, with attempts to commit ethnic cleansing until the modern era. In times of social tension, the Romani suffered as scapegoats; for instance, they were accused of bringing the plague during times of epidemics.{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/timeline.htm |publisher=Patrin Web Journal |title=Timeline of Romani History |access-date=26 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111142247/http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/timeline.htm |archive-date=11 November 2007}}

On 30 July 1749, Spain conducted The Great Roundup of Roma (Gitanos) in its territory. The Spanish Crown ordered a nationwide raid that led to the break-up of families because all able-bodied men were interned in forced labor camps in an attempt to commit ethnic cleansing. The measure was eventually reversed and the Roma were freed as protests began to erupt in different communities, sedentary Roma were highly esteemed and protected in rural Spain.{{cite web |url=http://web.jet.es/gea21/mteorico/apuntes/anexo3.htm |title=Cap. 2: 2.1 Apuntes sobre la situación de la comunidad gitana en la sociedad Española – Anexo III. 'Gitanos malos, gitanos buenos' |trans-title=Chap. 2: 2.1 Notes on the situation of the gypsy community in Spanish society – Affix III. 'Bad gypsies, good gypsies' |language=es |publisher=The Barañí Project – Roma Women |date=29 February 2000 |access-date=27 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010712072449/http://web.jet.es/gea21/mteorico/apuntes/anexo3.htm |archive-date=12 July 2001}}{{Cite book |title=Another Darkness Another Dawn |last=Taylor |first=Becky |publisher=Reaktion Books Ltd. |year=2014 |location=London UK |pages=105 |isbn=978-1-78023-257-7}}

Later in the 19th century, Romani immigration was forbidden on a racial basis in areas outside Europe, mostly in the English-speaking world. In 1880, Argentina prohibited immigration by Roma, as did the United States in 1885.

File:Romani women in jail, Los Angeles, California, 1940.jpg, Los Angeles, California, 1940]]

File:Bundesarchiv R 165 Bild-244-48, Asperg, Deportation von Sinti und Roma.jpg, Germany, 1940 (photograph by the Rassenhygienische Forschungsstelle)]]

In the Habsburg monarchy under Maria Theresa (1740–1780), a series of decrees tried to integrate the Romanies to get them to permanently settle, removed their rights to horse and wagon ownership (1754) to reduce citizen-mobility, renamed them "New Citizens" and obliged Romani boys into military service just as any other citizens were if they had no trade (1761, and Revision 1770), required them to register with the local authorities (1767), and another decree prohibited marriages between Romanies (1773) to integrate them into the local population. Her successor Josef II prohibited the wearing of traditional Romani clothing along with the use of the Romani language, both of which were punishable by flogging. During this time, the schools were obliged to register and integrate Romani children; this policy was the first of the modern policies of integration. In Spain, attempts to assimilate the Gitanos were under way as early as 1619, when the Gitanos were forcibly settled, the use of the Romani language was prohibited, Gitano men and women were sent to separate workhouses and their children were sent to orphanages. King Charles III took a more progressive approach to Gitano assimilation, proclaiming that they had the same rights as Spanish citizens and ending the official denigration of them which was based on their race. While he prohibited their nomadic lifestyle, their use of the Calo language, the manufacture and wearing of Romani clothing, their trade in horses and other itinerant trades, he also forbade any form of discrimination against them and he also forbade the guilds from barring them. The use of the word gitano was also forbidden to further their assimilation, it was replaced with "New Castilian", a designation which was also applied to former Jews and Muslims.{{ cite book |first=Angus |surname=Fraser |title=Los gitanos |publisher=Ariel |year=2005 |isbn=978-84-344-6780-4}}Texto de la pragmática en la [https://books.google.com/books?id=UnBFAAAAcAAJ&dq=%22Declaro+que+los+que+llaman+y+se+dicen+gitanos+no+lo+son+por+origen+ni+por+naturaleza%2C+ni+provienen+de+raiz+infecta+alguna%22&pg=PA367 Novísima Recopilación. Ley XI], pg. 367 y ss.

Most historians believe that Charles III's pragmática failed for three main reasons, reasons which were ultimately derived from its implementation outside major cities as well as in marginal areas: The difficulty which the Gitano community faced in changing its nomadic lifestyle, the marginal lifestyle to which the community had been driven by society and the serious difficulties of applying the pragmática in the fields of education and work. One author ascribes its failure to the overall rejection of the integration of the Gitanos by the wider population.{{cite web |url=http://rombase.uni-graz.at//cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data%2Fhist%2Fmodern%2Fmaria.en.xml |title=Maria Theresia and Joseph II: Policies of Assimilation in the Age of Enlightened Absolutism |publisher=Karl-Franzens-Universitaet Graz |website=Rombase |date=December 2001 |first=Helmut |last=Samer |access-date=3 October 2015 |archive-date=6 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406004922/http://rombase.uni-graz.at//cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data%2Fhist%2Fmodern%2Fmaria.en.xml}}{{cite web |url=http://www.everyculture.com/Europe/Gitanos-History-and-Cultural-Relations.html |title=Gitanos. History and Cultural Relations |publisher=World Culture Encyclopedia |access-date=26 August 2007}}

Other policies of forced assimilation were implemented in other countries, one of these countries was Norway, where a law which permitted the state to remove children from their parents and place them in state institutions was passed in 1896.{{cite web |last=Kenrick |first=Donald |title=Roma in Norway |url=http://www.reocities.com/~patrin/norway.htm |publisher=Patrin Web Journal |access-date=13 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429054318/http://www.reocities.com/~patrin/norway.htm |archive-date=29 April 2013}} This resulted in some 1,500 Romani children being taken from their parents in the 20th century.{{cite web |url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/central-committee/2002/the-church-of-norway-and-the-roma-of-norway |title=The Church of Norway and the Roma of Norway |publisher=World Council of Churches |date=3 September 2002}}

{{Main|Romani Holocaust}}

During World War II and the Holocaust, the persecution of the Roma reached a peak during the Romani Holocaust (the Porajmos), the genocide which was perpetrated against them by Nazi Germany. In 1935, Roma living in Germany were stripped of citizenship by the Nuremberg laws and subsequently subjected to violence and imprisonment in concentration camps. During the war, the policy was extended to areas under German occupation, and it was also implemented by other axis countries, most notably, by the Independent State of Croatia, Romania, and Hungary. From 1942, Roma were subjected to genocide in extermination camps.{{Cite web |title=Genocide of European Roma (Gypsies), 1939–1945 |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/genocide-of-european-roma-gypsies-1939-1945 |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia}}

Because no accurate pre-war census figures exist for the Roma, the actual number of Romani victims who were killed in the Romani Holocaust cannot be assessed. Estimates range from 90,000 victims to as high as 4,000,000, with a majority falling between 200,000 and 500,000. Lower estimates do not include those Roma who were killed in all Axis-controlled countries. A detailed study by Sybil Milton, a former senior historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, contained an estimate of at least 220,000, possibly as many as 500,000.{{Citation |url=http://www.nyed.uscourts.gov/pub/rulings/cv/1996/685455.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040409001621/http://www.nyed.uscourts.gov/pub/rulings/cv/1996/685455.pdf |archive-date=9 April 2004 |title=Re. Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks) Special Master's Proposals |date=11 September 2000}} Ian Hancock, Director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at the University of Texas at Austin, argues in favour of a higher figure of between 500,000 and 1,500,000.{{Citation |type=article |url=http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en |contribution=Romanies and the Holocaust: A Reevaluation and an Overview |editor-last=Stone |editor-first=D |year=2004 |title=The Historiography of the Holocaust |publisher=Palgrave |place=Basingstoke and New York |access-date=14 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113233924/http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_e_holocaust_porrajmos&lang=en |archive-date=13 November 2013}}

{{Main|Anti-Romani sentiment#Contemporary antiziganism}}

File:Romani population average estimate.png "average estimates", totalling 9.8 million){{cite web |url=http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/documentation/strategies/statistiques_en.asp |title=Council of Europe website |access-date=6 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221234346/http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/documentation/strategies/statistiques_en.asp |archive-date=21 February 2009}} European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF). 2007. Archived from [http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/linkmissing_en.asp#P11_143 the original] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021234409/http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/romatravellers/linkmissing_en.asp#P11_143 |date=21 October 2013}} on 6 July 2007.]]

File:Sap34.jpg, Bulgaria, 2011]]

In Europe, Roma are associated with poverty, high crime rates, and behavior that is considered antisocial or inappropriate by the rest of the European population.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/sunday-review/are-the-roma-primitive-or-just-poor.html |newspaper=The New York Times |type=review |title=Are the Roma primitive or just poor? |date=19 October 2013 |last1=Bilefsky |first1=Dan}} Partly for this reason, discrimination against the Roma has continued to be practiced to the present day,{{cite web |url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/demolita-bidonille-ponte-mammolo.html |title=Demolita la 'bidonville' di Ponte Mammolo |trans-title=The 'slum' of Mammolo Bridge demolished |language=it |place=IT |website=il Giornale |date=5 December 2007 |access-date=14 September 2017}}{{cite news |first=Paola |last=Di Caro |url=http://www.corriere.it/politica/07_novembre_04/intervista_fini_impossibile_integrazione_rom.shtml |title=Fini: impossibile integrarsi con chi ruba |trans-title=Fini: it's impossible to integrate those who steal |language=it |work=Corriere della Sera |date=4 November 2007 |access-date=14 September 2017}} although efforts are being made to address it.{{cite web |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-02-01-roma-europe_x.htm |title=European effort spotlights plight of the Roma |website=USA Today |date=1 February 2005 |access-date=10 May 2013}}

Amnesty International reports continued to document instances of Antizigan discrimination during the late 20th century, particularly in Romania, Serbia,{{cite press release |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2010/04/europe-must-break-cycle-discrimination-facing-roma/ |title=Europe must break cycle of discrimination facing Roma |agency=Amnesty International |date=7 April 2010 |access-date=2 January 2016}} Slovakia,{{cite web |url=http://web.amnesty.org/wire/February2002/Europe_Roma |title=Europe Roma |publisher=Amnesty International |date=February 2002 |access-date=6 May 2009 |archive-date=12 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012191514/http://web.amnesty.org/wire/February2002/Europe_Roma}} Hungary,{{cite web |author=Colin Woodard |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2008/0213/p07s02-woeu.html |title=Hungary's anti-Roma militia grows |website=Christian Science Monitor |date=13 February 2008 |access-date=15 September 2010}} Slovenia,{{cite web |url=http://www.humanrightspoint.si/node/12 |title=Roma |publisher=Human Rights Press Point |place=SI |access-date=6 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310074602/http://www.humanrightspoint.si/node/12 |archive-date=10 March 2012}} and Kosovo.{{cite web |last=Polansky |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Polansky |date=June 2005 |url=http://www.gfbv.de/inhaltsDok.php?id=612 |title=Results of an Enquiry into the Situation of Roma und Ashkali in Kosovo (Dec.2004 to May 2005) – Roma and Ashkali in Kosovo: Persecuted, driven out, poisoned |publisher=GFBV |access-date=6 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806163105/http://www.gfbv.de/inhaltsDok.php?id=612 |archive-date=6 August 2007}} The European Union has recognized that discrimination against Roma must be addressed, and with the national Roma integration strategy they encourage member states to work towards greater Romani inclusion and upholding the rights of the Roma in the European Union.{{cite web |title=National Roma Integration Strategies: a first step in the implementation of the EU Framework |url=http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/com2012_226_en.pdf |publisher=European Commission |date=21 May 2012 |access-date=3 May 2014}}

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|title=Roma estimate percentage of population in European countries{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/romania/10636448/Roma-on-the-rubbish-dump-British-religious-leaders-call-on-Romanian-mayor-to-reverse-forced-evictions.html |title=Roma on the rubbish dump |publisher=CIA World Factbook |access-date=21 February 2014 |date=17 February 2014 |last1=Alexander |first1=Harriet}}

|titlebar=#ddd

|left1=Country

|right1=Percent

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|bars=

{{bar percent|Bulgaria|blue|10.33}}

{{bar percent|North Macedonia|blue|9.59}}

{{bar percent|Slovakia|blue|9.17}}

{{bar percent|Romania|blue|8.32}}

{{bar percent|Serbia*|blue|8.18}}

{{bar percent|Hungary|blue|7.05}}

{{bar percent|Turkey|blue|5.97}}

{{bar percent|Spain|blue|3.21}}

{{bar percent|Albania|blue|3.18}}

{{bar percent|Montenegro|blue|2.95}}

{{bar percent|Moldova|blue|2.49}}

{{bar percent|Greece|blue|2.47}}

{{bar percent|Czech Republic|blue|1.96}}

{{bar percent|Kosovo|blue|1.47}}

*projections for Serbia also include up to 97.000 Roma IDPs in Serbia{{cite journal |first=UN |last=Relief |year=2010 |title=Roma in Serbia (excluding Kosovo) on 1 January 2009 |journal=UN Relief |volume=8 |issue=1 |url=http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/romaidps_desk_review_final.pdf}}

}}

In eastern Europe, Romani children often attend Roma Special Schools, separate from non-Romani children; these schools tend to offer a lower quality of education than the traditional education options accessible by non-Romani children, putting the Romani children at an educational disadvantage.{{cite book |last1=Ringold |first1=Dena |last2=Orenstein |first2=Mitchell Alexander |last3=Wilkens |first3=Erika |title=Roma in an Expanding Europe – Breaking the Poverty Cycle |date=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Usd7XU6a29oC |publisher=World Bank |isbn=0-8213-5457-4}}{{rp|83}}

The Roma of Kosovo have been severely persecuted by ethnic Albanians since the end of the Kosovo War, and for the most part, the region's Romani community has been annihilated.{{cite journal |last1=Cahn |first1=Claude |title=Birth of a Nation: Kosovo and the Persecution of Pariah Minorities |journal=German Law Journal |date=1 January 2007 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=81–94 |doi=10.1017/S2071832200005423 |s2cid=141025735}}

Czechoslovakia carried out a policy of sterilization of Romani women, starting in 1973. The dissidents of the Charter 77 denounced it in 1977–78 as a genocide, but the practice continued through the Velvet Revolution of 1989.{{cite web |url=http://newsdesk.org/2006/06/12/for_gypsies_eug/ |first=Mindy Kay |last=Bricker |title=For Gypsies, Eugenics is a Modern Problem / Czech Practice Dates to Soviet Era |newspaper=Newsdesk |date=12 June 2006}} A 2005 report by the Czech Republic's independent ombudsman, Otakar Motejl, identified dozens of cases of coercive sterilization between 1979 and 2001, and called for criminal investigations and possible prosecution against several health care workers and administrators.{{cite web |url=http://www.ochrance.cz/en/dokumenty/dokument.php?doc=400 |title=Final Statement of the Public Defender of Rights in the Matter of Sterilisations Performed in Contravention of the Law and Proposed Remedial Measures |publisher=The Office of The Public Defender of Rights, Czech Republic |date=23 December 2005 |access-date=15 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128041045/http://www.ochrance.cz/en/dokumenty/dokument.php?doc=400 |archive-date=28 November 2007}}

In 2008, following the rape and subsequent murder of an Italian woman in Rome at the hands of a young man from a local Romani encampment,{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/02/italy.international |title=Italian woman's murder prompts expulsion threat to Romanians |work=The Guardian |date=2 November 2007 |location=London |first=John |last=Hooper |access-date=14 September 2017}} the Italian government declared that Italy's Romani population represented a national security risk and it also declared that it was required to take swift action to address the emergenza nomadi (nomad emergency).{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/mar/30/roma-italy |title=Italy's new ghetto? |work=The Guardian |date=30 March 2009 |location=London |first=Tana |last=de Zulueta |access-date=14 September 2017}} Specifically, officials in the Italian government accused the Romanies of being responsible for rising crime rates in urban areas.{{Cite web |title=Italy fingerprints thousands of Gypsies |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna25520960 |access-date=2022-07-15 |publisher=NBC News |date=4 July 2008 |language=en}}

The 2008 deaths of Cristina and Violetta Djeordsevic, two Romani children who drowned while Italian beach-goers remained unperturbed, brought international attention to the relationship between Italians and Roma. Reviewing the situation in 2012, one Belgian magazine observed:{{blockquote|On International Roma Day, which falls on 8 April, the significant proportion of Europe's 12 million Roma who live in deplorable conditions will not have much to celebrate. And poverty is not the only worry for the community. Ethnic tensions are on the rise. In 2008, Roma camps came under attack in Italy, intimidation by racist parliamentarians is the norm in Hungary. Speaking in 1993, Václav Havel prophetically remarked that "the treatment of the Roma is a litmus test for democracy": and democracy has been found wanting. The consequences of the transition to capitalism have been disastrous for the Roma. Under communism they had jobs, free housing and schooling. Now many are unemployed, many are losing their homes and racism is increasingly rewarded with impunity.{{cite web |url=http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1757331-bleak-horizon |title=Bleak horizon |first=Hellen |last=Kooijman |place=EU |date=6 April 2012 |publisher=Presseurop |access-date=6 April 2012 |archive-date=7 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407105800/http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/1757331-bleak-horizon |url-status=dead}}}}

The 2016 Pew Research poll found that Italians, in particular, hold strong anti-Roma views, with 82% of Italians expressing negative opinions about Roma. In Greece, 67%, in Hungary 64%, in France 61%, in Spain 49%, in Poland 47%, in the UK 45%, in Sweden 42%, in Germany 40%, and in the Netherlands{{cite web |url=http://www.radionetherlandsarchives.org/the-gypsy-in-my-soul-sinti-and-roma-in-the-netherlands/ |title=The gypsy in my soul: Sinti and Roma in the Netherlands |website=Radio Netherlands Archives |date=19 September 1999}} 37% had an unfavourable view of Roma."[http://www.pewglobal.org/2016/07/11/europeans-fear-wave-of-refugees-will-mean-more-terrorism-fewer-jobs/lede-chart-2/ Negative opinions about Roma, Muslims in several European nations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403224749/https://www.pewglobal.org/2016/07/11/europeans-fear-wave-of-refugees-will-mean-more-terrorism-fewer-jobs/lede-chart-2/ |date=3 April 2019 }}". Pew Research Center. 11 July 2016. The 2019 Pew Research poll found that 83% of Italians, 76% of Slovaks, 72% of Greeks, 68% of Bulgarians, 66% of Czechs, 61% of Lithuanians, 61% of Hungarians, 54% of Ukrainians, 52% of Russians, 51% of Poles, 44% of French, 40% of Spaniards, and 37% of Germans held unfavorable views of Roma.{{cite news |title=European Public Opinion Three Decades After the Fall of Communism — 6. Minority groups |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/10/14/minority-groups/ |work=Pew Research Center |date=14 October 2019}} IRES published in 2020 a survey which revealed that 72% of Romanians have a negative opinion about them.{{cite news |title=Sondaj IRES: 7 din 10 români nu au încredere în romi |url=https://romania.europalibera.org/a/sondaj-ires-7-din-10-rom%C3%A2ni-nu-au-%C3%AEncredere-%C3%AEn-romi/30707320.html |work=Radio Free Europe Romania (in Romanian) |date=8 February 2020}}

As of 2019, reports of anti-Roma incidents are increasing across Europe.{{cite news |title=We need to talk about the rising wave of anti-Roma attacks in Europe |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/roma-antiziganist-romani-discrimination-italy-matteo-salvini-ukraine-a9024196.html |work=The Independent |date=28 July 2019}} Discrimination against Roma remains widespread in Kosovo,{{cite news |title=Unemployment keeps Kosovo's Roma on the margins |url=https://www.dw.com/en/unemployment-keeps-kosovos-roma-on-the-margins/a-42522226 |agency=Deutsche Welle |date=17 February 2018}} Romania,{{cite news |title=To Europe's shame, Roma remain stigmatised outsiders – even when they live in mansions |url=http://theconversation.com/to-europes-shame-roma-remain-stigmatised-outsiders-even-when-they-live-in-mansions-95468 |work=The Conversation |date=25 April 2019}} Slovakia,{{cite news |title=Discrimination against Roma remains widespread in Slovakia says Amnesty International report |url=https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20766918/discrimination-against-roma-remains-widespread-in-slovakia-says-amnesty-international-report.html |work=The Slovak Spectator |date=22 February 2018}} Bulgaria,{{cite news |title=Anti-Roma protests take place in Bulgarian city of Gabrovo |url=https://apnews.com/7ade2fc2871e40e7a7396468155a2164 |agency=The Associated Press |date=12 April 2019}}{{cite news |title='Everybody hates us': on Sofia's streets, Roma face racism every day |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/20/bulgaria-sofia-racism-roma-everybody-hates-us-anti-gypsy-abuse |work=The Guardian |date=20 October 2019}} and the Czech Republic,{{cite news |title=Roma ghettos in the heart of the EU |url=https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/09/06/inenglish/1567776057_755361.html |work=El País |date=6 September 2019}}{{Cite web |title=Zpráva o stavu romské menšiny: V Česku bylo loni podle odhadů 830 ghett se 127 tisíci obyvateli |url=https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-domov/zprava-v-cesku-bylo-loni-podle-odhadu-830-ghett-se-127-tisici-obyvateli_1910121847_miz |access-date=28 July 2020 |website=iROZHLAS |date=12 October 2019 |language=cs}} against which the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in Romani advocates' favor on the subject of discriminatory and segregationist education and housing practices.{{Cite web |title=Roma in the Czech Republic |url=https://minorityrights.org/communities/roma-5/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=Minority Rights Group |language=en-US}} Romani communities across Ukraine have been the target of violent attacks.{{cite news |title=Deadly Attack Escalates Violent Trend Against Ukrainian Roma |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-roma-deadly-attack-escalates-violent-trend/29318822.html |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |date=25 June 2018}}{{cite news |title=Attacked and abandoned: Ukraine's forgotten Roma |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/europe/2018/11/attacked-abandoned-ukraine-forgotten-roma-181121121230852.html |work=Al-Jazeera |date=23 November 2018}}

Roma refugees fleeing the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine have faced discrimination in Europe, including in Poland,{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/10/ukraine-roma-refugees-poland |title='Meet us before you reject us': Ukraine's Roma refugees face closed doors in Poland |work=The Guardian |date=10 May 2022 |access-date=18 May 2022}} the Czech Republic,{{cite news |url=https://euobserver.com/world/154968 |title=Roma refugees from Ukraine face Czech xenophobia |work=EU Observer |date=17 May 2022 |access-date=18 May 2022}} and Moldova.{{cite news |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/undocumented-roma-refugees-facing-discrimination-as-they-flee-ukraine/ |title=Undocumented Roma Refugees Facing Discrimination As They Flee Ukraine |work=Vice |date=23 March 2022 |access-date=18 May 2022}}

Concerning employment, a 2019 report by the FRA revealed that, across the European states that were surveyed, on average 34% of Romani men and 16% of Romani women were in paid work.{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=Roma women in nine EU Member States |url=https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/fra-2019-eu-minorities-survey-roma-women_en.pdf |access-date=2024-05-30 |website=European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights |page=27}}

Romani children are overrepresented as victims of human trafficking and have a higher vulnerability to sexual exploitation.{{cite web|url=https://go.efca.org/sites/default/files/resources/docs/2017/10/roma_fact_sheet.pdf|title=Roma fact sheet}}

Many Roma in the EU have no national health insurance and around 57% do not have a job or a form of paid employment. A third of households don’t have tap water, a toilet or a shower.{{cite web|url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20200918STO87401/roma-what-discrimination-do-they-face-and-what-does-eu-do|title=Roma: what discrimination do they face and what does EU do?|date=21 September 2020 }}

{{Main|Expulsion of Romani people from France}}

In the summer of 2010, French authorities demolished at least 51 Roma camps and began the process of repatriating their residents to their countries of origin.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11020429 |title=France sends Roma Gypsies back to Romania |date=20 August 2010 |agency=BBC News |access-date=28 February 2016}} This followed tensions between the French state and Romani communities, which had been heightened after a traveller drove through a French police checkpoint, hit an officer, attempted to hit two more officers, and was then shot and killed by the police. In retaliation a group of Roma, armed with hatchets and iron bars, attacked the police station of Saint-Aignan, toppled traffic lights and road signs and burned three cars.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10681796 |title=Troops patrol French village of Saint-Aignan after riot |date=10 July 2010 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=22 August 2010}}{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11027288 |title=Q&A: France Roma expulsions |date=15 September 2010 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=16 September 2010}} The French government has been accused of perpetrating these actions to pursue its political agenda.{{cite news |title=France Begins Controversial Roma Deportations |date=19 August 2010 |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/sarkozy-finds-a-scapegoat-france-begins-controversial-roma-deportations-a-712701.html |work=Der Spiegel |access-date=20 August 2010}} EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that the European Commission should take legal action against France over the issue, calling the deportations "a disgrace". A leaked file dated 5 August, sent from the Interior Ministry to regional police chiefs, included the instruction: "Three hundred camps or illegal settlements must be cleared within three months, Roma camps are a priority."{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11301307 |title=EU may take legal action against France over Roma |date=14 September 2010 |agency=BBC News |access-date=15 September 2010}}

Some Romani people have been known to assimilate en masse with and even be absorbed by other ethnic groups.{{cite book |last1=Marushiakova |first1=Elena |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_wQtDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA108 |title=Gypsies in Central Asia and the Caucasus |last2=Popov |first2=Vesselin |date=2016 |publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-41057-9 }} Assimilated Romani people often keep their identity a secret from outsiders, so it is very hard to determine the extent to which Romani peoples voluntarily assimilate into Gadjo society.{{cite news |last=Webley |first=Kayla |date=October 13, 2010 |title=Hounded in Europe, Roma in the U.S. Keep a Low Profile |url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2025316,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019220031/http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2025316,00.html |archive-date=2010-10-19 |work=Time Magazine}}

The most notable case of large-scale Romani assimilation is of the Romani Crimean Tatars. Several independent waves of Romani people undertook complete or near-complete assimilation into the Crimean Tatar people.{{cite web |date=3 April 2012 |title=Лидер крымских татар опроверг миф о цыганском попрошайничестве |url=https://islam.in.ua/ru/novosti-v-strane/lider-krymskih-tatar-oproverg-mif-o-cyganskom-poproshaynichestve |website=islam.in.ua}}{{cite journal |last=Kizilov |first=Mikhail |author-link=Mikhail Kizilov |year=2021 |title=Уничтожение цыган Симферополя и «решение» цыганского вопроса в оккупированном Крыму |url=https://www.academia.edu/73013777 |journal=Историческое наследие Крыма |language=ru |issue=32}} Romani Crimean Tatars are the fourth largest subethnic group of the Crimean Tatar nation.{{Cite book |last1=Geisenhainer |first1=Katja |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMcUo-lweX0C&pg=PA430 |title=Bewegliche Horizonte: Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Bernhard Streck |last2=Lange |first2=Katharina |date=2005 |publisher=Leipziger Universitätsverlag |isbn=978-3-86583-078-4 |language=de}} For centuries, the Crimean Roma have worked as artisans, musicians, entertainers, and in a variety of blue-collar professions such as porters and blacksmiths.{{Cite web |date=28 July 2019 |title=Крымские цыгане, или чингене: кто они? |url=https://avdet.org/ru/2019/07/28/krymskie-tsygane-ili-chingene-kto-oni/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190802170505/https://avdet.org/ru/2019/07/28/krymskie-tsygane-ili-chingene-kto-oni/ |archive-date=2019-08-02 |access-date=2019-12-27 |publisher=Avdet |language=ru}} Almost all Romani Crimean Tatars living in Crimea today are legally Gadjo because they are recorded as ethnic Crimean Tatars, not Gypsies, in their internal passports and national censuses and consider their Crimean Tatar identity to be their primary identity.{{Cite journal |last1=Marushiakova |first1=Elena |last2=Popov |first2=Vesselin |date=2004 |title=Segmentation vs. consolidation: The example of four Gypsy groups in CIS |url=https://montescalearning.com/GLOBVillage/files/SMILE/MUS_49_Segmentation.pdf |journal=Romani Studies |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=145–191 |doi=10.3828/rs.2004.6}} Mixed marriages between Romani Crimean Tatars and other Crimean Tatars without Romani backgrounds are accepted by the Crimean Roma. Many prominent Crimean Tatar celebrities are of Romani descent, such as Enver Sherfedinov and Sabriye Erecepova.{{cite news |last=Mamchits |first=Roman |date=20 March 2010 |title=Крымская Атлантида: урмачели Часть I. Племя скрипачей |url=http://www.chaskor.ru/article/krymskaya_atlantida_16096 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329121849/http://www.chaskor.ru/article/krymskaya_atlantida_16096 |archive-date=2010-03-29 |work=chaskor.ru}} Historian Olga Kucherenko postulates that while Crimean Tatars were in exile, additional Romani people of non-Crimean origin were also absorbed into the Romani Crimean Tatars.{{Cite book |last=Kucherenko |first=Olga |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=znicDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA210 |title=Soviet Street Children and the Second World War: Welfare and Social Control under Stalin |date=2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4742-1343-1 |page=210 |language=en}}

In Basque Country, the Erromintxela people are assimilated descendants of a 15th-century wave of Kalderash Roma, who entered the Basque Country via France.Brea, Unai Hiretzat goli kherautzen dinat, erromeetako gazi mindroa Argia, San Sebastián (03-2008) Both ethnically, linguistically, and culturally, they are distinct from the Caló-speaking Romani people in Spain and the Cascarot Romani people of the Northern Basque Country. Over time the Erromintxela replaced many of their Romani customs with Gadjo Basque customs.{{Cite web |title="Erromintxelak erakusten du posible dela elkarbizitza" – Durango |url=https://anboto.org/durango/1387677781059-erromintxelak-erakusten-du-posible-dela-elkarbizitza |website=Anboto.org |language=eu}} Their Erromintxela language is a mixture of Basque and the Romani languages, but there are very few speakers left due to assimilation.{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Becky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgowBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA117 |title=Another Darkness, Another Dawn: A History of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers |date=2014 |publisher=Reaktion books|isbn=978-1-78023-297-3 }} The younger generation of Erromintxela Roma are overwhelmingly shifting away from their Erromintxela language in favor of the Basque and Spanish languages.{{Cite web |last=Beekman |first=Else |date=2024-09-23 |title=This forgotten language in Spain faces extinction |url=https://inspain.news/this-forgotten-language-in-spain-faces-extinction/ |access-date= |website=InSpain.news |language=}}{{Cite web |last=Fundación Goteo |title=Gure Hizkuntza Gure Indarra |url=https://www.goteo.org/project/amari-chib-si-amari-zor |access-date= |website=Goteo.org |language=es}}

In the United States, there are an estimated one million Americans who are of Romani descent, although most are not open about their background and keep a low profile. Most Americans know very little about Romani people, so they face less discrimination in the US than Europe, although they can still be victims of anti-Romani racism.{{cite news |date=6 April 2011 |title=For Roma, Life in US Has Challenges |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/for-roma-life-in-us-has-challenges-119394819/163156.html |work=Voice of America}} Prominent Americans of Romani descent include Charlie Chaplin and President Bill Clinton.{{sfn|Hancock|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MG0ahVw-kdwC&pg=PR13 xiii]}}{{Cite book |last=Solo |first=Romano Yehudi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5tlcnsVf8kC&pg=PA125 |title=Gypsy Pie |date=2001 |publisher=Little Red Apple Publishing |isbn=978-1-875329-20-5 |language=en}}

• World Romani Congress
• European Roma Rights Centre
• Gypsy Lore Society{{cite web |title=The Gypsy Lore Society |format=Journal |url=http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/}}
• International Romani Union
• Decade of Roma Inclusion, multinational project
• International Romani Day (8 April)
• Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues
• National Advisory Board on Romani Affairs (Finland)

{{Main|Romani people in fiction}}

Many depictions of the Roma in literature and art present romanticized narratives of the mystical powers of fortune telling or as people who have an irascible or passionate temper paired with an indomitable love of freedom and a habit of criminality. The Roma were a popular subject in Venetian painting from the time of Giorgione at the start of the 16th century. The inclusion of such a figure adds an exotic oriental flavor to scenes. A Venetian Renaissance painting by Paris Bordone (c. 1530, Strasbourg) of the Holy Family in Egypt makes Elizabeth a Romani fortune-teller; the scene is otherwise located in a distinctly European landscape.{{cite book |last=Jacquot |first=Dominique |title=Le musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg — Cinq siècles de peinture |date=2006 |publisher=Éditions des Musées de Strasbourg |location=Strasbourg |isbn=978-2-901833-78-9 |page=76}}

File:Muchacha Gitana.jpg|Boccaccio Boccaccino: Gypsy Girl (c.1504-1505)

File:The Visit of the Gypsies 01.jpg|An excerpt from The Visit of the Gypsies (c.1510, tapestry from wool and silk), Currier Museum of Art

File:Vouet, Simon - The Fortune Teller.jpg|Simon Vouet: The Fortune Teller (1617)

File:David Teniers (II) - Four gypsies with a child, one telling a peasant his fortune.jpg|David Teniers - Four gypsies with a child, one telling a peasant his fortune (c.1630-1690)

File:Jan van der Venne - Gypsy family.jpg|Jan van de Venne - Gypsy family (c.1631-1651)

File:Sarah Egerton as Meg Merrilies.png|Meg Merrilies from Walter Scott's Guy Mannering, illustrated 1821

File:Pongrácz F Három cigány.jpg|Ferencz Pongrácz: Three Gypsies (1836)

File:Alfred Dehodencq A Gypsy Dance in the Gardens of the Alcázar.jpg|Alfred Dehodencq: A Gypsy Dance in the Gardens of Alcázar (1851)

File:Narcisse Diaz de la Peña - The Gypsy Princesses, San Antonio Museum of Art.jpg|Narcisse Virgilio Díaz: The Gypsy Princesses (c.1865-1870), San Antonio Museum of Art

File:GYPSY Kazimierz Alchimowicz.jpg|Kazimierz Alchimowicz: Gypsy (c.1870-1879)

File:Franz von Defregger Halbbildnis eines Zigeunerjungen.jpg|Franz von Defregger: Half portrait of a gypsy boy (1873, gouache)

File:Gypsy Girl with Mandolin, by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.jpg|Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot: Gypsy Girl with Mandolin (1874)

File:"Famille de gitanos, a Totana" (19911858846).jpg|Gustave Doré: Family of Gypsies, to Totana (1874)

File:Renoir - gypsy-girl-1879.jpg!PinterestLarge.jpg|Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Gypsy Girl (1879)

File:Jozef Van Lerius - Moza, the Gypsy woman.jpg|Jozef Van Lerius: Moza, the Gypsy woman (1880)

File:La Esmeralda from Victor Hugo and His Time.jpg|Esméralda, illustrated 1882

File:Gypsy family (1884 by Mihály Munkácsy.jpg|Mihály Munkácsy: Gypsy Family (1884, oil on canvas)

File:August von Pettenkofen - Gipsy Children - WGA17393.jpg|August von Pettenkofen: Gypsy Children (1885), Hermitage Museum

File:Carmen (Bibliothèque-Musée de lOpéra) (4568143185).jpg|Célestine Galli-Marié as Carmen (1886)

File:Antoni Kozakiewicz - Cygańska Rodzina (01).jpg|Antoni Kozakiewicz: Gypsy Family (c.1886)

File:Vincent van Gogh - Les roulottes, campement de bohémiens.jpg|Vincent van Gogh: The Caravans – Gypsy Camp near Arles (1888, oil on canvas)

File:Nicolae Grigorescu - Ursăreasa din Bolduri.jpg|Nicolae Grigorescu: Gypsy from Boldu (1897), Art Museum of Iași

File:Henri - gypsy-girl-in-white-1916.jpg|Robert Henri: Gypsy Girl in White (1916)

File:Amedeo Modigliani - Gypsy Woman with Baby (1919).jpg|Amedeo Modigliani: Gypsy Woman with Baby (1919)

File:Gypsy, 1928.jpg|Felix Nussbaum: Gypsy (1928)

File:Iványi Gypsies at Balatonlelle 1935.jpg|Béla Iványi-Grünwald: Gypsies at Balatonlelle (1935)

{{Columns-list|colwidth=20em|

• History of the Romani people
• Gitanos
• Gypsy Scourge
• King of the Gypsies
• Romani studies
• Romani society and culture
• Romani literature
• Romani dress
• Romani diaspora
• Racism in Europe
• Ethnic groups in Europe
• Environmental racism in Europe
• Romani folklore
• Romani cuisine
• Sinti people
• The Blond Angel Case

General

• Traveler (disambiguation)
• Itinerant groups in Europe
• Nomadic tribes in India
• Dalit

Lists

• List of Romani people
• List of Romani settlements

Other

• Dom people
• Lom people
• South Asian people
• South Asian diaspora
• Lori people
• Indo-Roman relations

}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Achim |first=Viorel |year=2004 |title=The Roma in Romanian History |place=Budapest |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-9241-84-8}}
• {{Citation |last=Fraser |first=Angus |title=The Gypsies |publisher=Blackwell |place=Oxford, UK |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-631-15967-4}}
• {{citation |last=Hancock |first=Ian |year=2001 |title=Ame sam e rromane džene |publisher=The Open Society Institute |place=New York}}
• {{cite book |last=Hancock |first=Ian |year=2002 |orig-date=2001 |title=Ame Sam E Rromane Dz̆ene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MG0ahVw-kdwC |publisher=Univ of Hertfordshire Press |isbn=978-1-902806-19-8}}
• {{Citation |author=Helsinki Watch |publisher=Helsinki Watch |year=1991 |title=Struggling for Ethnic Identity: Czechoslovakia's Endangered Gypsies |place=New York}}
• {{cite web |last=Hübshmanová |first=Milena |year=2003 |url=http://rombase.uni-graz.at//cgi-bin/artframe.pl?src=data%2Fethn%2Ftopics%2Fnames.en.xml |title=Roma – Sub Ethnic Groups |publisher=Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz |website=Rombase |access-date=3 October 2015 |archive-date=11 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211164439/http://rombase.uni-graz.at//cgi-bin/artframe.pl?src=data%2Fethn%2Ftopics%2Fnames.en.xml}}
• {{cite book |last=Lemon |first=Alaina |year=2000 |title=Between Two Fires: Gypsy Performance and Romani Memory from Pushkin to Post-Socialism |publisher=Durham: Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-2456-0}}
• {{cite book |last1=Matras |first1=Yaron |last2=Popov |first2=Vesselin |year=2001 |title=Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire |publisher=Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press}}
• {{cite book |last=Matras |first=Yaron |year=2005 |title=Romani: A Linguistic Introduction |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-02330-6}}
• {{cite book |last=Matras |first=Yaron |year=2002 |title=Romani: A Linguistic Introduction |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-63165-5}}
• {{Citation |title=Gypsies, The World's Outsiders |newspaper=National Geographic |date=April 2001 |pages=72–101}}
• {{cite book |last=Nemeth |first=David J. |year=2002 |title=The Gypsy-American |publisher=Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen}}
• {{cite book |last=Sutherland |first=Ann |title=Gypsies: The Hidden Americans |publisher=Waveland |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-88133-235-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYQfAAAAQBAJ}}
• {{cite journal |last=Silverman |first=Carol |title=Persecution and Politicization: Roma (Gypsies) of Eastern Europe |journal=Cultural Survival Quarterly |year=1995}}

• Leland, Charles (1891). [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/58465 Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling]
• Leland, Charles (1882). [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/22939 The Gypsies]
• {{cite book |author1=Kalwant Bhopal |author-link1=Kalwant Bhopal |author2=Martin Myers |title=Insiders, Outsiders and Others: Gypsies and Identity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlqFBR50PPMC |year=2008 |publisher=Univ of Hertfordshire Press |isbn=978-1-902806-71-6}}
• {{cite book |author=Werner Cohn |title=The Gypsies |url=http://www.wernercohn.com/Resources/The_Gypsies.pdf |year=1973 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-201-11362-4}}
• {{cite report |last1=De Soto |first1=Hermine |last2=Beddies |first2=Sabine |last3=Gedeshi |first3=Ilir |title=Roma and Egyptians in Albania: From Social Exclusion to Social Inclusion |place=Washington, DC |publisher=World Bank Publications |year=2005 |url=https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/1a560799-6e27-59e8-9e92-aae74c6d3a11}}
• {{cite book |last=Fonseca |first=Isabel |title=Bury me standing: the Gypsies and their journey |url=https://archive.org/details/burymestandinggy00fons |url-access=registration |place=New York |publisher=AA Knopf |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-679-40678-5}}
• {{cite book |author1=V. Glajar |author2=D. Radulescu |title=Gypsies in European Literature and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LZDFAAAAQBAJ |year=2008 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-0-230-61163-4}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=RD |last2=Atkinson |first2=QD |year=2003 |title=Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin |journal=Nature |doi=10.1038/nature02029 |volume=426 |issue=6965 |pages=435–439 |pmid=14647380 |bibcode=2003Natur.426..435G |title-link=Indo-European languages |s2cid=42340}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Gresham |first1=David |last2=Morar |first2=Bharti |last3=Underhill |first3=Peter A. |last4=Passarino |first4=Giuseppe |last5=Lin |first5=Alice A. |last6=Wise |first6=Cheryl |last7=Angelicheva |first7=Dora |last8=Calafell |first8=Francesc |last9=Oefner |first9=Peter J. |last10=Shen |first10=Peidong |last11=Tournev |first11=Ivailo |last12=de Pablo |first12=Rosario |last13=Kuĉinskas |first13=Vaidutis |last14=Perez-Lezaun |first14=Anna |last15=Marushiakova |first15=Elena |last16=Popov |first16=Vesselin |last17=Kalaydjieva |first17=Luba |title=Origins and Divergence of the Roma (Gypsies) |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=December 2001 |volume=69 |issue=6 |pages=1314–1331 |doi=10.1086/324681 |pmid=11704928 |pmc=1235543}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Kalaydjieva |first1=Luba |last2=Calafell |first2=Francesc |last3=Jobling |first3=Mark A |last4=Angelicheva |first4=Dora |last5=de Knijff |first5=Peter |last6=Rosser |first6=ZoëH |last7=Hurles |first7=Matthew E |last8=Underhill |first8=Peter |last9=Tournev |first9=Ivailo |last10=Marushiakova |first10=Elena |last11=Popov |first11=Vesselin |title=Patterns of inter- and intra-group genetic diversity in the Vlax Roma as revealed by Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA lineages |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |date=February 2001 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=97–104 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200597 |pmid=11313742 |s2cid=21432405 |doi-access=free}}
• {{citation |last=Ringold |first=Dena |title=Roma & the Transition in Central & Eastern Europe: Trends & Challenges |place=Washington, DC |publisher=World Bank |year=2000}}.
• {{citation |last=Turner |first=Ralph L |year=1926 |title=The Position of Romani in Indo-Aryan |journal=Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society |series=3rd |volume=5 |number=4 |pages=145–188}}
• {{cite book |last=McDowell |first=Bart |title=Gypsies, wanderers of the world |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0heTAAAAIAAJ |year=1970 |publisher=National Geographic Society. Special Publications Division |isbn=978-0-87044-088-5}}
• Sancar Seckiner's comprehensible book South (Güney), 2013, consists of 12 article and essays. One of them, Ikiçeşmelik, highlights Turkish Romani life. Ref. {{ISBN|978-605-4579-45-7}}.
• Sancar Seckiner' s new book Thilda's House (Thilda'nın Evi), 2017, underlines the struggle of the Romani in Istanbul who have been swept away from nearby Kadikoy. Ref. {{ISBN|978-605-4160-88-4}}.
• {{cite book |author=Radenez Julien |title=Recherches sur l'histoire des Tsiganes |year=2014 |url=http://www.youscribe.com/catalogue/tous/savoirs/recherches-sur-l-histoire-des-tsiganes-2754759}}
• {{Citation |last=Auzias |first=Claire |title=Les funambules de l'histoire |place=Baye |publisher=La Digitale |edition=Éditions la Digitale |year=2002 |language=fr}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}

{{Romani topics}}

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Category:Ethnic groups in South America

Category:Romani people in art

Category:Indian diaspora in Europe

Category:Indigenous peoples of South Asia