Take a look at this intriguing article published in a very unlikely venue (the _Journal of Democracy_ is an organ of the National Endowment for Democracy).
***** Journal of Democracy 9.3 (1998) 142-156 Orphans of Transition: Gypsies in Eastern Europe Zoltan Barany
For the approximately six million Roma (Gypsies) who live in Eastern Europe, the transition from communism has been an altogether deplorable experience. 1 Though entire sections of society (unskilled laborers, pensioners, and so on) have been hurt by the marketization processes that began nearly a decade ago, none has been more adversely affected than the Roma....
Reliable estimates put the world's Gypsy population at about 10 million. As Table 1 shows, Europe is home to about 8 million Roma, almost three-fourths of whom reside in Eastern Europe. Another million live in the United States. In a number of Western democracies, the Roma continue to suffer discrimination--some of it de jure, but most of it de facto. 3 Even though the Roma of Western Europe tend to be at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale in the countries where they live, their standards of living are far superior to those of their East European brethren....
Discrimination and exclusion have been a constant feature of the Romani experience. The conservative societies of Eastern Europe regarded Gypsies as alien and exotic intruders, a group to be feared and despised at the same time. The Roma seemed all the more different and dangerous because of their steadfast refusal to integrate--let alone assimilate--with the populations surrounding them. Even though entire peoples were absorbed by larger, socioculturally more powerful ethnic groups in the region throughout the Middle Ages, the Roma managed to maintain their singularity.
The societal response to the Gypsies' resolute independence has oscillated between persecution and indifference. Throughout most of its existence, the Hapsburg Empire simply ignored its Gypsy population. The exception to this longstanding pattern was the reigns of Maria Theresa (1740-80) and her son Joseph II (1780-90). These "enlightened" absolute monarchs embarked on a campaign to "civilize" the Roma and transform them into supposedly useful members of society. These objectives were to be attained through forced labor, the breakup of Gypsy families, prohibitions on travel, the banning of the Romani language, and the assigning of a designation--"new peasants"--to Gypsy communities. The dismal failure of this enterprise discouraged further imperial attempts at social engineering. The Ottoman Empire concerned itself primarily with maximizing tax revenues from the Roma, forcing Muslim Gypsies to pay substantially higher taxes than their fellow believers, but eschewing Hapsburg-style assimilation efforts. The East European states of the interwar era either ignored the Roma (Hungary) or limited their political liberties to forming cultural organizations and printing newspapers (Czechoslovakia and Romania). The onset of fascism in the region spelled repression for most Gypsies, and physical extermination for nearly a quarter-million of them.
Contemporary observers are often surprised to learn that many Roma have developed an apparent "nostalgia for communist times." A close look at communist rule reveals that the often well-intentioned, if ill-conceived policies of state socialism, in addition to their undeniably damaging effects, brought substantial benefits to Eastern Europe's Romani communities.
The communist states, not surprisingly, wanted above all to bring the "unruly" Gypsy populations under their strict authority. Like the Hapsburgs, the communists tried forcibly to assimilate the Gypsies through the confiscation of their means of travel, coercive settlement, and mandatory employment and education policies. An anticipated consequence of these policies was the Romani communities' widely lamented loss of traditional ways. Yet there is another side to the story that should not be overlooked.
Communist-imposed mandatory schooling (generally up to the age of 16) considerably raised the educational level of the Roma. Although remaining at the bottom according to most measurements of scholastic achievement, they became almost entirely literate. Furthermore, the inconsistently pursued policy of positive discrimination, through which authorities selected "promising" Romani youths for higher education, created a minuscule Gypsy middle class that was to play a crucial role once democratization permitted ethnic mobilization. Compulsory-employment policies helped to raise standards of living and to increase Gypsies' awareness of their own productivity. Moreover, universal and free health-care coverage allowed remarkable increases in Romani life expectancy. Although anti-Gypsy prejudices did not disappear, they were muted by official proscriptions of overt ethnic conflict. To be sure, by the time communism fell, the Roma still occupied the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder--as demonstrated by statistics on education, employment, and housing, as well as on crime and other social ills. But the gains made under communism were equally indisputable. It is these gains that partly explain whatever longing for the old regime is now to be found among the Roma.
The Travails of Postcommunism
Eastern Europe's gradual metamorphosis from an inefficient, centrally planned economic system to a market- and performance-oriented one has essentially reversed whatever socioeconomic headway the Gypsies made under state socialism, and has led to profound and widespread poverty among them. This phenomenon is an unfortunate but logical consequence of the postcommunist economic transition.
In every East European state the full-employment principle of state socialism has been gradually replaced by that of labor rationalization. In practice, this means that individuals whose labor is expendable for a given enterprise or production unit are laid off. People with no marketable skills and weak employment records are hit especially hard. Romani communities have suffered far more from this change than others because the large majority of Gypsies are unskilled laborers whose work performance has often been hampered by irregular attendance and low morale....
In parts of contemporary Eastern Europe, unemployment among Gypsies is staggering. In some particularly underdeveloped regions of Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia it approaches 90 to 100 percent. With unemployment benefits, social security, and welfare payments erratically available at best, many Roma have turned to begging, prostitution, and crime. Roma criminal activities are reported extensively and often unfairly in the media, thereby adding to the Gypsies' alienation.
This situation is expected to get worse, as Romani school attendance has plummeted across the region. Communist social workers often herded reluctant Gypsy children to school, something that most contemporary East European states no longer have the resources to do. The shrinking Romani presence in higher education is also troubling, for it stifles the growth of the nascent Gypsy middle class and robs the Romani community of role models. There have been attempts in Hungary, Slovakia, and elsewhere to finance secondary and postsecondary education specifically for Gypsy children and their teachers from public and private funds. Such efforts have been few in number, however, and are unlikely to provide a satisfactory solution to the issue, particularly given the rapid growth of the Romani population.
The emergence of extreme nationalism since 1989 has at times made the Gypsies (as well as other ethnic and racial minorities) targets of violence. Across the region, "skinheads" and ordinary citizens motivated by Gypsy crimes, by the alleged wealth of a small number of Romani entrepreneurs, and in some cases by pure racism, have killed dozens of Roma and burned down hundreds of their dwellings, in many cases under the eyes of indifferent police authorities. Although in recent years more vigorous police involvement has made such attacks less frequent, the loss of physical security combined with their increasing poverty has driven tens of thousands of Roma to seek asylum in Western Europe and North America, thereby transforming the "Gypsy problem" from a national into an international issue. In 1997 alone, thousands of Roma from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia requested political asylum in Canada, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, straining relations (resulting in renewed visa requirements) between their countries of origin and of destination.
Another profound and, for once, positive change in Romani marginality in the postcommunist period has been the diminution of their political exclusion. Like other previously disenfranchised groups, the Gypsies have sought to capitalize on the opportunity to organize and gain interest representation through participation in the political process. For a number of reasons, however, they have been remarkably unsuccessful in furthering the Romani cause.
Successful ethnic political mobilization is contingent upon several criteria that the Roma do not satisfy at present, nor can be expected to satisfy in the foreseeable future. First, Gypsy ethnic identity is extremely weak. According to a recent monograph on the subject, "with the exception of Gypsy intellectuals who run the Rom[ani] political parties, the Rom[a] do not have an ethnic identity" at all. 9 Even settling on a precise ethnic definition is difficult, since the Roma vary considerably in language, dialect, lifestyle, occupation, socioeconomic status, and religion. Most Gypsies do not consider themselves part of a cohesive ethnic group, but identify instead with the subgroup to which they belong. In northeastern Bulgaria alone, there are nineteen Romani tribes, each with its particular customs, traditional trades, and other distinctive features. A large proportion of East European Gypsies (at least 80 percent in Hungary, for instance) speak no Romani at all. Furthermore, until a few years ago, Romani was not even a written language, which helps to explain most Gypsies' ignorance about and lack of interest in their background. Second, the Roma have neither a history of mobilization nor a set of political resources to draw upon. Third, when it comes to the highly important "conventional" factors that determine a group's political success (leadership, programs and objectives, party organizations and participation), the Roma have thus far been singularly ineffectual....
Zoltan Barany, associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, has written extensively on East European politics, ethnic issues, and military affairs. He is presently at work on Pariahs and Politics, a book about regime change, ethnopolitics, and the Gypsies of Eastern Europe.
[The full text of the article is available at <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_democracy/v009/9.3barany.html> if you have individual or institutional access to the Project Muse.] ***** -- Yoshie
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