Rom or Romanian?
Tags: confused, crime, government, illegal, immigrants, initiative, Italia, Italian, Newspapers, Romania
As I wrote a few days back, Italy has taken measures to extradite European Union citizens who have been involved in criminal activities here. The Italian law enforcement spotlight has been shining heavily on those from Romania, and the police have been rounding up Romanians by the dozen in preparation for having them sent back to Romania.
I’ve noticed that the press here has been becoming a little confused, and it is evident that they are not really sure of the difference between Romanians and the ‘Rom’. Just to make matters more confusing, which indeed they are it has to be said, both Rom and Romanians come from Romania! Indeed, one may think that ‘Rom’ is a diminutive form of ‘Romanian’, but this is not the case.
Just in case someone was wondering, the ‘Rom’, who hail from Romania, are really a nomadic gypsy type population, whereas ‘Romanians’ are those from Romania, who, in the main, are not nomadic gypsies. In fact, the ‘real’ Romanians regard their ‘Rom’ counterparts as being something of an unwanted underclass, and Romanians do not really like to be associated with the ‘Rom’. I told you it was confusing.
It becomes worse. Both true, shall we say, Romanian illegal immigrants, and the Rom live in favella type encampments, found, as far as I believe, throughout Italy, but I’m not sure that both Rom and Romanians can be found living side by side in the same shanty towns. Whilst the Romanians are quite recent immigrants, many of the Rom have been in Italy for a long time.
Around Milan, the Rom, not the Romanians, are well organised and raise funds through busking, cleaning car windows, and begging. They, the Rom, are not averse to a little fund raising petty crime either, as anyone who has seen the groups of unkempt kids carrying newspapers and surrounding tourists in an attempt to remove wallets, cash and cameras, will know. I have seen these people in action, and while she was with our son, even my other half was approached, (nothing happened, Cristina is very streetwise) – but this incident illustrates that these little gangs don’t solely prey on tourists. Most travel guides contain warnings about these nasty little gangs. Well, these gangs are part of the Rom network.
‘True’, Romanians have become involved in petty, and more serious crime, but not as a result of falling in with the Rom, at least I do not believe so. In general Romanians come to Italy in search of a better life, whereas the Rom just come here to live and operate as they always have done, in other words, as gypsies. As you may appreciate, distinguishing between these two groups that have the same places of origin can be a little mind boggling at times. Hence the confusion in the some of the Italian press.
The enforcers of law and order on the other hand, are not attempting to differentiate between Rom and Romanians, and are doing their level best to use the recent government initiative to round up and send home both Rom and Romanians. Both are now personae non gratae as far as the Italian authorities are concerned.
With regard to Italians in general, I think it would be true to say that both Rom and Romanians will not be missed particularly. Although this whole thing must be making the lives of the honest established Romanians quite difficult.
We shall see how long this extradition initiative endures, but, as is often the case here, the enthusiasm, if you can call it that, of the authorities will probably wane in a few months time, and it is probable that both Rom and Romanians will creep back into Italy. Back to square one.
I heard about the Rom issue in one of the Radio Due podcasts. As you said, the Italian media itself is confused. The radio host was interviewing a Romanian maid about the differences between Rom(s) and Romanians- Now I haven’t been to Italy but I know a gypsy when I see one- The Romanian maid expressed her prejudice toward the Rom and how they are not considered as Romanians back home. According to her, soon after the communist regime fell, the Roms have been the cause of turbulence in Romania. It’s just a shame that the entire Romanian community is feeling the heat.
Thanks for the post
I should also point out to your readers that the Romanies are originally from India and moved to Europe in the Middle Ages and may be differentiated from The ‘true’ Romanians-as you put it- by their darker features.
Zied,
Thanks for your comments on this confusing issue – I assume that you are Romanian.
I should highlight that to make matters a little worse, the correct term for ‘Rom’ is, apparently (BBC website) ‘Roma’ in English, a word which is even closer to ‘Romanian’.
But one thing I did not point out in my post above, and that my other half mentioned to me, is that not all ‘Roma’ are from Romania, which makes associating ‘Roma’ with Romanians even less accurate.
Alas though, many, including the press in Italy, do not really know this, but non-Roma Romanians are still being confused with Roma, whether or not they come from Romania, and all Romanians are ending up with a bad reputation as a result.
Yes, the whole situation is horribly confusing, and non-Rom/Roma Romanians are suffering the most as a result.
Kind regards,
Alex
Alex,
Actually I’m not even European. I reside in the States. I’ve always considered these groups “Gypsies” or “Zingari” maybe that’s what your partner means. The “Rom” term is new to me, and had to google it after I had heard the abovementioned interview on RadioRai- Which led me to your interesting blog that I’ll be revisiting soon to see what else I can learn from you.
Thanks,
Hi Zied,
Thanks for your reply. So, you are from the States. How come this Rom thing interests you?
Before living in Italy, I had not heard of the Rom thing either, but I did know about gypsies, although where I come from, the UK, gypsies do not appear to come from the Rom population. However, in Italy most of the so-called gypsies are Rom, although I am prepared to be corrected on this, as it is really only my impression. I’m not sure whether the Rom gypsies are to be found in other European countries.
Glad to hear that you find my blog interesting. If you do manage learn something, let me know. In fact, let me know if you don’t, too!
Thanks for dropping in.
All the best,
Alex (also known as ‘admin’, by the way)
good job in distinguishing between Rom (gypsies) and Romanians. As a Romanian, I really appreciate that people stop to think abt these problems and not just put a ’stamp’ and let the situation be. True, I’m having second thoughts abt traveling to Italy for a while though [what Romanian wouldn't?]
Thank you for making the difference between Romanians and Gypsies clearr. They should not be called “roma”, but gypsies.
Also, you should also write about the 1,000,000 Romanians working in construction. 1% of italy’s GNP comes from them, and indeed, everything built in Italy in the last 10-15 years was done with Romanian sweat.
What’s up with Italians wanting to extradite Romanians… which are the same people? It’s gypsies (Roma) who are the cause of most troubles (in BOTH countries actually) and who are INDIAN!!! They are not european!! I guess Italians are turning on their own people now……
So all this anti-romanian crap that is going around is ridiculous! Gypsies aren’t even romanian, they live all throughout europe and a lot of them happend to live in Romania but they’re clearly NOT white!