What kind of group are Gypsies? Why is it discriminated against by many Europeans?

Gypsies like to call themselves "Roma" because "Roma" means "human" in their earliest language. This is an ancient and mysterious nation. Until today, no one can tell clearly where they come from, and no one can tell clearly which country or region they are mainly distributed in.

In Europe, every country has different names for gypsies. The British call them Gypsies, the French call them Bohemians, the Spaniards call them Flamengo, and the Russians call them Zigang. There were also Gypsies in ancient China, who were called "Rory people" or "Rory Hui" by the people of China at that time. Because of this, even if you have read their descriptions in many different documents, it is difficult to immediately realize that they refer to the same nation.

Gypsies are very special in European culture. For most people in China, what makes us curious about Gypsies is the classics from abroad. Gypsies often appear in foreign masterpieces, such as Esmeralda in Notre Dame de Paris, a girl stolen and raised by gypsies. Carmen, the protagonist in Carmen, is a gypsy woman. Another example is the mysterious gypsy who predicted the fate of the entire Bo Nevitt family in One Hundred Years of Solitude. There are also Alexa's childhood sweetheart "Little Cuokan" in Soviet literature, Pushkin's long poem "Cuokan People" and so on.

Gypsies appear in these works for two reasons: first, their wandering lifestyle can enrich the life experiences of characters and minimize the restrictions of geography and environment on people. And their experiences are either torture or fantasy, but they are all wonderful, vivid and attractive.

The second reason is that gypsies, especially women, have always maintained and passed on a traditional skill, that is, divination. Although in real life, this so-called skill is regarded as a way of deception and fraud. However, in artistic literary works, this nation with unique divination can usually add mystery to the works and lay the groundwork for the subsequent plot progress.

In literary works, Gypsies are optimistic, simple, warm and kind. But in the real society, they are not accepted and welcomed by people. Although they are found in almost every country in Europe, although they have existed in Europe for a long time, they have always been regarded as "foreigners" by Europeans because of their anarchic social organization and wandering and migrating lifestyle.

Gypsies do not produce, farm, weave, have no fixed foothold, no fixed work unit, and of course no fixed income. Gypsies do not intermarry with foreigners, but rely on blood relationship and some long-established habits to maintain this unique group. Sometimes they walk on a busy street, just like an island. And the most unique skills they once relied on for survival: divination, singing and dancing, metallurgy and street juggling, have also been spurned by Europeans in modern civilization. They often live on welfare, often associate with thieves and beggars, or live an embarrassing life in exile like fugitives. In France, "Gypsies" are directly regarded as synonymous with thieves and liars, which is obviously an insult.

Gypsies wander around, sometimes inadvertently bringing some infectious diseases from one place to another. Therefore, many Europeans associate Gypsies with diseases, disasters and other events, which makes them more discriminated against.

In 2005, in the spirit of humanitarianism, in order to reduce the burden on the government, the EU launched the "Ten-year Integration Plan for Roma (Gypsies)". They let Roma enter regular schools, train their skills and provide them with job opportunities, hoping to improve their education level and employment rate within ten years. Let gypsies abandon their original way of life and integrate into modern civilized society. But in the end, this huge project ended in failure.

Wandering seems to be the fate of gypsies. Although they generally live in extreme hardships, you can rarely see confessions of life hardships in their songs and dances. In this nation's unnoticed song and dance, you will always hear the passionate voice of freedom. It is also in this kind of song and dance that people seem to see that all gypsies are stubbornly sticking to their unique understanding of life and freedom.

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