Roma (Romani)

Romani:

The Romani people, also referred to as the Roma, are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group with ancestry from Northern India living primarily in Europe, North America, and South America. In many English-speaking countries, the racial slur "gypsies" has been used to refer to the Romani people. 

Learn more about the Romani

Each tribe has historically had a different dialect of the Romani language, often influenced by the dominant language in each community's location. Historically, Romani has been described as having two major dialect branches, Vlax and non-Vlax, with the term Vlax referring to the group of Romani whose ancestors lived in slavery in Romania, and speak dialects influenced by Romanian. At present, Romani is typically considered to have four major dialect groups:

• Northern Romani (spoken primarily in the UK, Scandinavia, Northern Germany, and Northern Russia),  

• Central Romani (spoken primarily in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia)

• Balkan Romani (spoken primarily in Greece, Kosovo, Ukraine, Macedonia, Northeastern Iran, and Northern Turkey)

• Vlax Romani (spoken primarily in Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Italy, Russia, and the U.S.)

  • Some specific Vlax dialects have been used for inter-tribal communication, including the following: Drindarja (dr˘andar ‘carder’), Parpulja (aka Burgurdzides), Arli, Erli, Sepeci, Paspatian

Roma in Oregon

According the 2000 U.S. census, Oregon is the state with the largest Romani population. Around 1850, a large number of Romanichal, a Romani subgroup that had been living in the U.K., immigrated to the United States. Many Eastern European Romani groups immigrated to the United States in the following decade, subsequent to their liberation from slavery in Romania in the 1850s.

The majority of Romani Americans have Romanichal or Vlax Romani ancestry, and speak dialects influenced by English, Romanian, and Hungarian. 

Roma of Bulgaria

• Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Russia have the largest Roma populations in Europe  (Bakker & Kiuchukov, 2000, pp. 39).  

• According to the 2001 Bulgarian national census, there were 370,908 Roma Bulgarians documented (Vassilev, 2007) .

• While the names “Roma” and “Sinti” are preferable, they are commonly, and controversially referred to as “Tsigane” aurally and via governmental documentation by both outsider Bulgarians and Bulgarian-Roma populations (Bakker & Kiuchukov, 2000 pp. 9).

Origins:

The origin of the Roma people is debated. Current theories suggest that the Roma may have arrived in Europe during the Byzantine Empire, however, analysis of the Romani language have supported the most recent theory is their origins may be from India. Marginalization may also attributed to Europeans regarding their customs as inherently foreign (Bakker, 2000, pp. 13). The Roma people were known to be a roaming culture originally (Bakker, 2000).

Bulgarian-Roma Political Representation:

The Democratic Romany Union, claiming to represent over 50,000 Bulgarian-Roma populations, was formed in 1989 and represented by Manush Romanov. However, the Democratic Romany Union was prevented from voting in parliamentary elections and the status of electoral parties as this was claimed to “violate the constitutional prohibition on parties with a racial, ethnic, or religious basis” as part of the post-communist Bulgarian Constitution of 1991. This controversial constitutional legislation makes Bulgaria the only Eastern European country where the Roma can not participate in elections through their own political parties (Vassilev, 2007, p. 43). It should also be noted that Bulgaria’s “Movements for Rights and Freedoms” political party is commonly known to represent Bulgarian-Turkish population values, and yet votes freely in electoral campaigns (Vassilev, 2007, pp. 44).  

Bulgarian-Roma Culture & Establishment of Civil Rights:

The fall of the Bulgarian communist government in 1989 saw a rise in the ability to self-identify as Roma, including publications in Roma magazines, newspapers, and radio programs. Freedom to express and celebrate Roma as a culture saw a rise in representation of the Romani language within the education system. However, these resources are not available in every town and village. The Bulgarian Socialist Party in 1995 created a group on protecting the constitutional rights of the Roma people. This was followed by the publication of a Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society in 1999 by Prime Minister Ivan Kostov. These policies included:

(1) desegregation of Romani schools; 

(2) ending the widespread practice of sending Romani children to be educated in remedial schools for the mentally disabled; 

(3) eliminating manifestations of racism in the classroom; 

(4) ensuring the opportunity to study the Romany language at school;

(5) increasing the number of Roma with university of college education;

(6) setting up adult education programs for the Roma population. (Roma Rights 2000, as cited by Vassilev, 2007)

The Bulgarian-Roma continue to experience severe infringement on their civil rights. This includes preventing political involvement as well as frequent police raids of Mohalla communities.

Roma-Bulgaria & Marginalization:

The self and public identification of Roma is highly controversial. The Roma have been one of Bulgaria’s largest marginalized population and ethnic minority for many years. Evidence suggests that  there is a prevalent racism throughout europe, and especially within post-communist bloc  countries. Roma-identity has been associated with skin color, speech, culture, family name, poverty and lifestyle (Csepeli & Simon, 2007). Though the Roma have been present in Bulgaria both before and after the fall of communism, they have continuously faced substandard conditions as well as both self and societal initiated social isolated from mainstream Bulgaria (Vassilev, 2007). As a member of the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria legislature included periodic name-changing drives to encourage assimilation into the dominant slavic-based culture and government. However, additional attempts to provide Roma populations with welfare allocations under the communist government also resulted in the building of new housing projects separate from those of the Bulgarians, further dividing the two cultures (Vassilev, 2007, pp. 43). In addition, western european discrimination against Roma populations has also theorized to have influenced Roma migration to Bulgaria as well as other Eastern bloc countries; in the summer of 2010, for example, France targeted the Roma community directly by clearing 300 illegal Roma camps and homes, resulting in thousands displaced Roma, many of whom have resettled in Bulgaria (Korando, 2012).

Bulgarian-Roma neighborhoods are more commonly secluded or separated from the city centers in Bulgarian towns and villages. This is representative of the Roma culture’s value of maintaining a culture separate from that of the governing body. Bulgarian-Roma neighborhoods, often referred to as “Mahallas” (neighborhood) often consist of homes built by the Bulgarian-Roma families and may or may not have running water or electricity provided by the city center government, as they are self-built and often from remnant materials available. In addition, evidence suggests that the lack of available heatlth care in Roma communities attributes to their being documented to have more severe health conditions than other Bulgarian ethnic groups (Masseria, C., Mladovsky, P., Hernandez-Quevedo, C., 2010).  Bulgarian-Roma are more commonly candidates for Bulgarian welfare programs (***CITATION). According to a “Deliberative Poll” taken by Stanford University showed that 64% of adult Roma live under the poverty line, living on approximately $2 per day. Further, more than half of all adult Roma have no regular job and are reliant on other sources of income.

Education:

Many Roma languages are orally based and do not have a written form. This is particularly true within Bulgarian-Roma populations, where the language includes many Turkish and Bulgarian words as well as native Romani. The illiteracy rate among Roma were recorded to be between 12-20% by the United Nation’s National Statistical Institute.

Implications for the SLP:

Given the degree of racial discrimination toward the Roma by the Bulgarian majority

• Bulgarian-Roma families may be reluctant to seek out resources for children and adults with speech, language and communication disorders

• Maintaining the Romani language is extremely important for Bulgarian-Roma people