Рома в Румынии: История, миграция и рабство.

Ethnic group
For example, in 2007 the Council of Europe estimated that approximately 1.85 million Roma lived in Romania, based on an average between the lowest estimate (1.2 to 2.2 million people) and the highest estimate (1.8 to 2.5 million people) available at the time. This figure is equivalent to 8.32% of the population.

Linguistic and historical data indicate that the Roma arrived in the Balkans following a long period within the Byzantine Empire, and that this most likely occurred around 1350. This date coincides with a period of instability in Asia Minor due to the expansion of the Ottoman Turks, which may have been a contributory factor in their migration. It is, however, worth noting that the dates above relate principally to the first arrival of Roma in future Romanian territories, waves of migration from the south continued up until the 18th century, when the northward migration of the Roma, some of whom were Turkish speaking Muslims, was still occurring. The institution of Romani slavery also existed in Transylvania, especially in regions which had undergone a period of control by Wallachian or Moldavian princes, but the majority of Transylvanian Roma were not slaves. Public discussion of Roma slavery remains something of a taboo in modern Romania, Textbooks and the Romanian school curriculum either minimise this and other aspects of Roma history or exclude it entirely. Princely slaves were obliged to perform labour for the state and pay special taxes, according to a system based on tradition. These obligations were steadily increased over the period of Roma slavery and were sometimes partially extended to slaves owned by monasteries and boyars. A parallel legal system administered by local Romani leaders and sheriffs existed, as Roma had no access to the law, and any damages caused by Roma to the property or persons of non Roma were legally the responsibility of their legal owners. Killings of Roma were technically punishable by death, but boyars who killed a slave seem never to have been executed in practice and a Roma who killed another would usually simply be offered to the victim's master as compensation. As part of this modernisation, boyars owning slaves began to exploit their labour more intensively in a more capitalistic fashion. Romani slaves were employed in agricultural tasks during the summer months, which had not been common practice, forced to work on building sites and even in the factories of the nascent industrial sector. Private owners of slaves, monasteries and even the state frequently hired out their slave workforce for large sums of money. This new capitalistic system of exploitation transformed slaves into goods in the full sense of the term, whereas in the past slaves tended to be sold only in extremis, mass auctions of slaves became commonplace. As a result of this new mode of exploitation, the nomadic lifestyle of the Roma of Moldavia and Wallachia was no longer possible, and, like Transylvanian rom, they became a largely sedentary population. The exact slave population of Wallachia and Moldavia at this time is a matter of some debate, but historian Viorel Achim puts the figure at around 400,000, or 7% of the population. while important communities remained in Soroca, Otaci and the surroundings of Cetatea Albă, Chișinău, and Bălți.

The liberation of the Roma improved the legal status of Romania's Roma, however, they retained their position as the most marginalised sector of Romanian society. During the first thirty years following liberation, a notable phenomenon of urbanisation occurred, with many Roma who were expelled from their former owners' estates, or who did not wish to adopt a lifestyle which would thrust them into poverty, migrating to towns. This contrasted the situation noted in some other groups of Roma, who adapted fully to this new condition and assimilated into the peasant population, losing their status as Roma both culturally and officially. The traditional Roma economic activities of metalwork and crafts became less tenable during this period, as ethnic Romanians began to adopt trades such as woodworking and competition from manufactured goods increased. The few Roma who retained a nomadic lifestyle tended to abandon their traditional crafts and adopt the role of pedlars, and their traditional lifestyle was made very difficult by police refusal to allow them to camp near villages. These economic and social changes reduced the strength of the traditional clan system and, despite the social and linguistic differences between Roma groups, fostered a common Roma identity.

During 1940, Romania was forced to cede territory to Hungary and the Soviet Union, an event which led to the military coup which installed general Ion Antonescu, first in concert with the fascist Iron Guard, and later as a predominantly military fascist dictatorship allied with Nazi Germany. Antonescu persecuted Roma with increasing severity until the invasion of Romania by the Soviets and his overthrow by the King in 1944. The mistreatment of Romania Roma during World War II has received scant attention from Romanian historians, despite the wide ranging historical literature detailing the history of the Antonescu regime. Discrimination by Hungary against Roma had been common throughout the 1930s, and biannual police raids on Romani settlements were mandated by law. During the course of the war, Hungarian Roma were progressively expelled from urban areas or forced to live in ghettoes. In March 1944, Hungary was occupied by Nazi Germany, Hungary stepped up its persecution of the Roma and Jewish population, with countless Jewish people deported to concentration camps and many Roma organised into forced labour battalions. Of a population of around 100,000 Roma in Hungary, around 50,000 were subjected to forced labour.

Sometimes the authorities tried to cover up crimes related to racial hatred, so as not to raise the social tension. An example of this is the crime committed by a truck driver named Eugen Grigore, from Iași who, in 1974, to avenge the death of his wife and his three children caused by a group of Roma, drove his truck into a Roma camp, killing 24 people. This fact was made public only in the 2000s. After the fall of communism in Romania, there were many inter ethnic conflicts targeting the Roma community, the most famous being the 1993 Hădăreni riots. Other important clashes against Roma happened, from 1989 to 2011, in Turulung, Vârghiș, Cuza Vodă, Bolintin Deal, Ogrezeni, Reghin, Cărpiniş, Găiseni, Plăieşii de Sus, Vălenii Lăpuşului, Racşa, Valea Largă, Apața, Sânmartin, Sâncrăieni and Racoş. During the June 1990 Mineriad, a group of protesters organized a pogrom in the Roma neighborhoods of Bucharest. According to the press, the raids resulted in the destruction of apartments and houses, beatings of men and assaults of women of Roma ethnicity. Later in 2020, during a TV show, Băsescu expressed objections about the use of the term "Roma" instead of "Gypsy", which according to him was "artificially created during the 90s" and "produces confusion with Romanians living abroad". He added that the Roma people created a bad image of Romania, and that the "(criminal) Gypsy groups need to understand that they cannot be tolerated with their way of life". In November 2011, the mayor of the city of Baia Mare, Cătălin Cherecheș, decided to build a wall in a neighborhood inhabited by a Roma community. The National Anti Discrimination Council fined the mayor in 2011 and in 2020 for not demolishing the wall, despite the several orders in this regard. Also in 2020, the mayor of Târgu Mureș, Dorin Florea, complained that Mureș County has the biggest number of Roma and that they are "a serious problem for Romania". Sorin Lavric, a senator member of the far right AUR party, stated that the Roma are "a social plague". A 2000 EU report about Romani said that in Romania the continued high levels of discrimination are a serious concern and progress has been limited to programmes aimed at improving access to education. Various international institutions, such as the World Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), and the Open Society Institute (OSI) launched the 2005 2015 Decade for Roma Inclusion. To this, followed the EU Decade of Roma Inclusion
to combat this and other problems. The integration of the Roma is made difficult also due to a great economic and social disparity; according to the 2002 census, Roma are the ethnic group with the highest percentage of illiteracy (25.6%), with only the Turkish minority having a similarly high percentage (23.7%). Within the Romanian education system there is discrimination and segregation, which leads to higher drop out rates and lower qualifications for the Romani students. The life expectancy of the Romani minority is also 10 years lower than the Romanian average. However, the next population census in 2011 showed a substantial rise in those recording Romani ethnicity. According to some studies, Roma people make 17% of the adult prison population and 40% of the juvenile inmates in Romania. This over representation makes this group a favorite target for mass media attacks and discriminatory practices. Another study conducted in six Romanian prisons found that 21% of the inmates were Roma, many more than expected based on any official or unofficial statistics on ethnic composition. The Pro Democrația association in Romania revealed that 94% of the questioned persons believe that the Romanian citizenship should be revoked to the ethnic Roms who commit crimes abroad. Another survey revealed that 68% of Romanians think that Roma people commit most crimes, 46% think that they are thieves, while 43% lazy and dirty, and 36% believe that the Roma community might become a threat to Romania. In another survey made in 2013 by IRES, 57% respondents stated that they generally don't trust people of Roma ancestry and only 17% said to have a Roma friend. Still, 57% said that this ethnic group is not discriminated in Romania, 59% claimed that the Roma should not receive help from the state, and that Roma people are poor because they don't like to work (72%) and that most of them are thugs (61%). In the context of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, there are some reports of discrimination against Ukrainian Roma who took refuge in Romania.

County Romani population (2011 census) % Mureș 46,947 8.52% Călărași 22,939 7.48% Sălaj 15,004 6.69% Bihor 34,640 6.02% Giurgiu 15,223 5.41% Dâmbovița 27,355 5.27% Ialomița 14,278 5.21% Satu Mare 17,388 5.05% Dolj 29,839 4.52% Sibiu 17,946 4.52% Buzău 20,376 4.51% Alba 14,292 4.17% Bistrița Năsăud 11,937 4.17% Mehedinți 10,919 4.11% Arad 16,526 4.04% Ilfov 15,634 4.02% Covasna 8,267 3.93% Vrancea 11,966 3.52% Brașov 18,519 3.37% Cluj 22,531 3.26% Galați 16,990 3.17% Argeș 16,476 2.69% Brăila 8,555 2.66% Maramureș 12,211 2.55% Bacău 15,284 2.48% Prahova 17,763 2.33% Olt 9,504 2.18% Teleorman 8,198 2.16% Timiș 14,525 2.12% Gorj 6,698 1.96% Suceava 12,178 1.92% Vâlcea 6,939 1.87% Hunedoara 7,475 1.79% Harghita 5,326 1.71% Caraș Severin 7,272 1.70% Tulcea 3,423 1.61% Vaslui 5,913 1.50% Iași 11,288 1.46% Neamț 6,398 1.36% Bucharest 23,973 1.27% Constanța 8,554 1.25% Botoșani 4,155 1.01% Total 621,573 3.09 %

According to the 2011 census, 69.9% of Roma are Orthodox Christians, 18.4% Pentecostals, 3.8% Roman Catholics, 3% Reformed, 1.1% Greek Catholics, 0.9% Baptists, 0.8% Seventh Day Adventists, while the rest belong to other religions such as Islam and Lutheranism.

Notable Romanian Romani musicians and bands include Grigoraş Dinicu, Johnny Răducanu, Ion Voicu, Taraf de Haïdouks, Connect R, Andra and Nicole Cherry. The musical genre manele, a part of Romanian pop culture, is often sung by Romani singers in Romania and has been influenced in part by Romani music, but mostly by Oriental music brought in Romania from Turkey during the 19th century. Romanian public opinion on the subject varies from support to outright condemnation.