Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:03:05.480Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The International and Historical Dimensions of Romani Migration in Central and Eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

David M. Crowe*
Affiliation:
Elon University, U.S.A. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This article analyses how migration has affected the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) since they entered both regions in the Middle Ages. It explores the importance of migration in the culture and history of the Roma and looks at how forced migration has harmed the Roma and helped build some of the negative stereotypes and prejudices that have haunted them until today.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. M. I. Isaev, Sto tridtsat' ravnopravnykh (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo “Nauka,” 1970), p. 73; George C. Soulis, ‘The Gypsies in the Byzantine Empire and the Balkans in the Late Middle Ages,‘’ Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 15, 1961, pp. 144–147; Angus Fraser, The Gypsies (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), p. 46.Google Scholar

2. Eva Davidová, ‘The Gypsies in Czechoslovakia, Part I: Main Characteristics and Brief Historical Development,‘’ trans. D. E. Guy, Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, Series 3, Vol. 69, Nos 3–4, 1970, p. 88; Willy Guy, “Ways of Looking at Roms: The Case of Czechoslovakia,” in Farnham Rehfisch, ed., Gypsies, Tinkers and Other Travellers (New York: Academic Press, 1975), pp. 205–206; Fraser, The Gypsies, pp. 63, 75–76; Emília Horváthová, Cigáni na Slovensku (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1964), pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

3. Victor S. Mamatey, Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 1526–1815 (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971), pp. 32–33; Stanford Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol. I: Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280–1808 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 101–102; Fraser, The Gypsies, pp. 111, 156.Google Scholar

4. David M. Crowe, A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (New York: St Martin's Press, 1994), pp. 107–121.Google Scholar

5. Viorel Achim, Tiganii în istoria României (Bucharest: Editura Enciclopedicá, 1998), pp. 81–83; Angus Fraser challenges the traditional view that the emancipation of the Romanian slaves was the principle catalyst for Romani migrations in the nineteenth century in his “The Rom Migrations,” Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, Series 5, Vol. 2, No. 2, 1992, pp. 131–145.Google Scholar

6. Elena Marushiakova and Veselin Popov, Tiganite B Osmanskata imperiya (Sofia: Centr'r za tsiganolozhki izsledvaniya Izdatelska K'shcha “Litavra,” 2000), pp. 58–59, 103–104.Google Scholar

7. David M. Crowe, “Muslin Roma in the Balkans,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2000, pp. 93–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Crowe, “Muslim Roma in the Balkans,” pp. 117–118.Google Scholar

9. Fraser, The Gypsies, pp. 55–56, 245–247; Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), pp. 12, 32, 37, 42–43, 104, 106–107.Google Scholar

10. Crowe, History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia, pp. 72–73.Google Scholar

11. Bartolomĕj Daniel, “Kr̆ešení otázky v habsburské monarchii v 50.–60. letech 19. století,” Bulletin Muzea romské kultury, Vol. 4, 1995, pp. 11–13.Google Scholar

12. David M. Crowe, ‘The Roma Holocaust,’' in F. C. Decoste and Bernard Schwartz, eds, The Holocaust's Ghost: Writings on Art, Politics, Law and Education (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2000), p. 182.Google Scholar

13. Fraser, The Gypsies, p. 184.Google Scholar

14. Crowe, ‘The Roma Holocaust,’' pp. 180–182; Ian Hancock, “Gypsy History in Germany and Neighboring Lands: A Chronology Leading to the Holocaust and Beyond,” in David Crowe and John Kolsti, eds, The Gypsies of Eastern Europe (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1991), pp. 11–14.Google Scholar

15. Michael Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid: Die nationalsozialistische “Lösung der Zigeunerfrage”1 (Hamburg: Hans Christians Verlag, 1996), pp. 61–63; Crowe, “The Roma Holocaust,” pp. 182–183.Google Scholar

16. Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid, pp. 61–63; Crowe, “The Roma Holocaust,” p. 183; Henry Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 256Google Scholar

17. The Sinti are native, German-speaking Romani people.Google Scholar

18. Crowe, “The Roma Holocaust,” p. 184; Friedlander, Origins of Nazi Genocide, p. 248; Guenther Lewy, The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 15.Google Scholar

19. Lewy, Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, p. 42; Friedlander, Origins of Nazi Genocide, pp. 258–259.Google Scholar

20. Friedlander, Origins of Nazi Genocide, pp. 24–25, 258–259; Crowe, “The Roma Holocaust,” p. 184.Google Scholar

21. Zimmermann, Rassenutopie und Genozid, pp. 148–149.Google Scholar

22. Ibid.', Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide, pp. 290–295; Lewy, Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies, pp. 52–53, 225; Friedlander and Lewy present two very diverse views on the fate of the Roma during the Holocaust. For a historiographical look at this controversy, see David M. Crowe, “The Holocaust, Historiography, and History,” in Samuel Totten and Stephen Feinberg, eds, Teaching and Studying the Holocaust (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2001), pp. 33–34.Google Scholar

23. Crowe, “The Roma Holocaust,” pp. 188–197.Google Scholar

24. Crowe, History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia, pp. 20, 55, 91–92, 135–136, 222–223.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., pp. 22–26, 56–63, 100–101, 137–142, 223–231.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., pp. 27–28, 64, 100–101, 145–147, 230–231.Google Scholar

27. Jeremy Druker, “Present but Unaccounted for,” Transitions, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1997, p. 23; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, The State of the World's Refugees: A Humanitarian Agenda (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 242.Google Scholar

28. Dan Ionescu, “The Gypsies Organize,” Report on Eastern Europe, 29 June 1990, p. 41.Google Scholar

29. Ionescu, “The Gypsies Organize,” p. 40; Helsinki Watch, Since the Revolution: Human Rights in Romania (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991), pp. 21–23; Helsinki Watch, Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Persecution of the Gypsies in Romania (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1991), pp. 37–73, 88, 117–119; Richard F. Staar and Margit N. Grigory, eds, 1991 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1991), pp. 336–339; Sam Beck, “Violence against Students in Bucharest Has Broad Implications for the Future,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 September 1990, p. B4.Google Scholar

30. Dan Ionescu, “The Exodus,” Report on Eastern Europe, 26 October 1990, pp. 25, 28.Google Scholar

31. According to German authorities, over half of the 35,345 Romanians who entered Germany in 1990 were Roma.Google Scholar

32. Dan Ionescu, “The Exodus,” Report on Eastern Europe, 26 October 1990, pp. 25, 28; Dan Ionescu, “Recent Immigration Figures,” Report on Eastern Europe, 15 February 1991, p. 22; Barbara Marshall, “German Migration Policies,” in Gordon Smith, William E. Paterson, Peter H. Merkle and Stephen Padgett, eds, Developments in German Politics (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992), p. 247; J. F. Brown, Surge to Freedom: The End of Communist Rule in Eastern Europe (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991), p. 147; Marc Fisher, “Germany's Gypsy Question,” Washington Post, 1 November 1992, pp. F1, F5, F7; Ferdinand Protzman, “Germany Fears the Spread of Anti-foreign Violence,” New York Times, 28 August 1992, p. A6; Ferdinand Protzman, “In Rostock, Asylum-Seekers Lived in a Powder Keg,” New York Times, 3 September 1992, p. A6; Marc Fisher, “Bonn, Bucharest Cement Accord to Repatriate Romanian Gypsies,” Washington Post, 25 September 1992, pp. A27, A30; Jack Kelley, “Gypsy Stereotypes Fuel Germany's Hatred,” USA Today, 25 November 1992, p. 8A; “Romanian Gypsies Are Skeptical about Germany's Help,” New York Times, 26 September 1992, p. A3; Stephen Kinzer, “Germany Cracks Down; Gypsies Come First,” New York Times, 27 September 1992, p. E5; “Gypsies in Germany Face Crisis,” Chicago Tribune, 4 October 1992, p. 18; Ferdinand Protzman, “Germany Attacks Rise as Foreigners Become Scapegoat,” New York Times, 2 November 1992, pp. A1, A4; Stephen Kinzer, “Germans in Accord on Law to Limit Seekers of Asylum,” New York Times, 8 December 1992, pp. A1, A6. See also Yaron Matras, “Romani Migrations in the Postcommunist Era,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2000, pp 42–43 for details of this and other readmission agreements.Google Scholar

33. Kelley, “Gypsy Stereotypes Fuel Germany's Hatred,” p. 8A; “Gypsies in Germany Face Crisis,” p. 18; “Romanian Gypsies Are Skeptical,” p. 3.Google Scholar

34. Robert M. Hayden, “The Partition of Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1990–1995,” RFE/RL Research Report, Vol. 2, No. 22, 1993, pp. 2, 6–14; American Committee to Save Bosnia, Convoy BosniaA Summary of the Crisis in Bosnia (London: Minority Rights Group, 1993), p. 1; Druker, “Present but Unaccounted for,” p. 23; Judith Latham, “Roma in the Former Yugoslavia,” Nationalities Papers, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1999, pp. 213–214; Roger Thurow, “Another Country,” Wall Street Journal, 24 August 1999, p. A1.Google Scholar

35. Latham, “Roma in the Former Yugoslavia,” p. 215.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., pp. 216–217; Thurow, “Another Country,” pp. A1, A6.Google Scholar

37. David M. Crowe, “Roma in Eastern Europe: The Wall in the Czech Republic,” in Meaghan Appel O'meara, ed., History behind the Headlines: The Origins of Conflicts Worldwide (New York: Gale Group, 2000), Vol. 1, p. 220.Google Scholar

38. Crowe, “Roma in Eastern Europe,” p. 221. For more details on the migration of Czech Roma to Canada and the measures taken to halt their flow, see Ronald Lee, “Post-communism Romani Migration to Canada,” Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2000, pp. 51–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39. Angela Kóczé, The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe: Legal Remedies or Invisibility? (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Contact Point for Roma and Sinti Issues, 1996), pp. 8–9. For more details see Beata Struharova, “Disparate Impact: Removing Roma from the Czech Republic,” Roma Rights (Budapest), Vol. 1, 1999, p. 47.Google Scholar

40. Crowe, “Roma in Eastern Europe,” p. 221.Google Scholar

41. Ibid. Google Scholar

42. Ibid.; “Czech Pledge to Tear Down Wall,” BBC News, 18 October 1999, pp. 1–2; “Czechs Pull Down Gypsy Wall,” BBC News, 24 November 1999, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar