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A Home for Roma

When Roma first migrated to Europe from the Indian subcontinent nearly 1,000 years ago, no welcoming committee greeted them. Roma, usually known by the term Gypsies, have been persecuted since their arrival — through slavery, mass extermination in the Holocaust, and rampant discrimination. Today there are an estimated 8 million Roma (most live in Europe). ...

By Brad Amburn

November 17, 2009, 4:05 PM

When Roma first migrated to Europe from the Indian subcontinent nearly 1,000 years ago, no welcoming committee greeted them. Roma, usually known by the term Gypsies, have been persecuted since their arrival -- through slavery, mass extermination in the Holocaust, and rampant discrimination. Today there are an estimated 8 million Roma (most live in Europe). They are Europe's largest minority, yet most remain cut off from a larger Roma community. The Internet offers Roma a place to connect and provides information about Roma to others.

When Roma first migrated to Europe from the Indian subcontinent nearly 1,000 years ago, no welcoming committee greeted them. Roma, usually known by the term Gypsies, have been persecuted since their arrival — through slavery, mass extermination in the Holocaust, and rampant discrimination. Today there are an estimated 8 million Roma (most live in Europe). They are Europe’s largest minority, yet most remain cut off from a larger Roma community. The Internet offers Roma a place to connect and provides information about Roma to others.

For example, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) provides carefully researched information on Romani legal issues. The ERRC is a public interest law organization that monitors the human rights situation of Roma and pressures people or countries that discriminate against them. In 1997, the ERRC launched a Web site to disseminate its country reports, quarterly journal, press releases, and petitions. Thanks to the ERRC, Web surfers can now read the facts of cases brought by or on behalf of Roma to the European Court of Human Rights. The site received an average of almost 3,900 daily hits in August 2001, and many of the visitors were likely non-Roma. The ERRC’s Operations Director Nora Kuntz says, "It is hard to reach Romani people directly. [But] we just started translating our publications into Romani and posting them on the site."

Those looking for an extensive history of Roma should investigate the Patrin Web Journal. The site has so much information, including a detailed timeline beginning in A.D. 400, that numerous other Romani sites link to it. It even features a guestbook where visitors can sign in to connect with other Roma or find Roma cultural organizations. From May 2000 to September 2001, more than 600 people — from Costa Rica to Macedonia — signed in.

Isabel Fonseca, author of Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey, says it is not difficult to see why "the Internet would be a natural tool for Roma to replicate their networks, [because] the sharing of information is the only tool they have."