Roma kids

Hi all, this is long, so I have included some bold, so you can read the parts that you asked about specifically. OK, the France thing... The French government said they were getting rid of illegal camps of migrants from all kinds of places, some illegal immigrants. But a confidential memo (later leaked) was sent to the local counties directing them to get rid of camps but primarily any Romani camps. The Roma were paradoxically not really illegal migrants. They were from Romania, which is in the EU, and technically they could travel to France. They were there to find work, but it is hard for anyone to find work when they don't have a place to live or education or the language, so they ended up living in these squatter camps. There has been a lot of media noise around it but the key part that is so often lost in the shuffle was that memo. That is why the European Commission is crying "discrimination" because they were going after particularly Romani camps, not just all illegal camps. Western Europe is MUCH better in terms of the day to day discrimination and harassment on the street but there are still anti-Romani attitudes. In Western Europe it is much more like social attitudes toward Black people in the US. Sure, you don't get verbally attacked and spit on every time you walk down the street, but if the police want to have a "clean up crime" spree, they're going to a Black neighborhood, guaranteed. I can't help commenting on the clan system and nomadism things brought up on this thread. Yes, Roma originated in Inida centuries ago. The slowly moved west, first appearing in central Europe around 1300. There are various historical theories about why they moved (hired as musicians en mass by Alexander the Great or forced to leave after their clan lost a battle in Northern India). In any case, they kept getting kicked out of every place they came to. In Europe the various nations generally DID NOT allow them to settle for many centuries, or if they did they tried to get them to settle ELSEWHERE.:) In those areas where Roma were permitted to settle, they generally have been living a non-nomadic life for centuries and are much more integrated. I experienced these communities in Macedonia and Kosovo as a journalist. They said they were shocked when they learned how hard Roma have it elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Very recently (within the last 100 years) some governments did attempt to settle Romani populations forcibly, but this was along the lines of Native Americans forced into reservations - generally they were forced into terrible housing far from other settlements with no hope of employment or families were split up and forced to settle separately. Those policies led to lots of problems. In the Czech Republic proper there were only 600 Roma left after the Holocaust. They had been almost entirely wiped out. So the Communist government brought in young people from impoverished Romani settlements in Slovakia for unskilled labor in the post-war years. That's where most today's "Czech Roma" come from. Many of these young people were forcibly taken from their families and they were cut off from their cultural and family support systems, which are absolutely crucial to Romani identity. This resulted in a breakdown of family, clan and cultural structures that had made the Roma relatively successful up until then. (Even the unsettled groups had employment, covering much of the entertainment, horse trading and metal working markets.) This situation is part of what has led to so many Romani children ending up in orphanages here. The family structures have never really recovered in this country. In areas where Romani cultural structues are more intact there are far fewer children in orphanages and virtually no abandoned elderly or sick people. Romani culture is very strong in taking care of all members of the group. It really varies depending on what the particular group has gone through historically. As far as I understand, like many Indo-European cultures, the Romani culture was traditionally based in a clan and to some extent a profession-based cast system, but there is drastic variation today in whether or not a particular group follows the old traditions or has any real connection with a clan anymore. Some are quite traditional. Some simply speak Romanes, remember some old songs and have little else of the old ways. As for adopting Romani children, I don't think it is common to adopt Romani children to the US from the Czech Republic. Most Romani children adopted abroad from this country go to the Netherlands and Denmark. I don't know that it is impossible to the US but it isn't common. US adoptions of Romani children are often from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and even Kazakhstan. Roma are spread over a wide area. I don't know the agencies at all because our adoption was domestic, even though I am an immigrant here.