Since the fall of communism, the Gypsies (or Roma) have become a frequent topic of the news in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Indeed, European and North American newspapers have featured more articles about them over the past decade than ever before. Regular readers may well have become weary with the coverage, however, since it rarely departs from the routine portrayal of the astonishing poverty of this or that Gypsy settlement and the anti-Roma biases of East European societies. These images are often reinforced by chance encounters between foreign visitors and at times aggressive Gypsy beggars at the railway stations and tourist spots of East European cities – encounters that seldom leave pleasant memories behind in the minds of the uninitiated. Travelers who were familiar with the region during the communist era may be especially perturbed by the fact that the level of Gypsy destitution has actually increased over the past decade. What happened to the Roma? And why is it that they seem to exist perennially on the margins of societies?

THE UNIQUENESS OF ROMANI MARGINALITY

All ethnic groups, nationalities, or peoples (whatever one's preferred terminology might be) are, by definition, intrinsically unique because their particular cultures, languages, traditions, and historical experiences distinguish them from others. The Roma in many ways comprise a most unusual ethnic group not only in Eastern Europe but also in the larger, global sense.