Roma Wagon, near Pătrăuţi Monastery, Romania May 2014
Romani people constitute one of Romania's largest minorities. According to the 2011 census, they number 621,573 people or 3.08% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians. There are varying estimates about the size of the total population of people with Romani ancestry in Romania, varying from 4.6 percent to over 10 percent of the population, because a lot of people of Romani descent do not declare themselves Roma.
The Romani people originate from northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian regions such as Rajasthan and Punjab.
Linguistic evidence shows that roots of Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali.
Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group. According to a genetic study in 2012, ancestors of present scheduled tribes and scheduled caste populations of northern India are the likely ancestral populations of modern European Roma.
In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.
In combination with the Mongol invasion of Europe the first Romani had reached the territory of present-day Romania around the year 1241. At the beginning of the 14th century, when the Mongols withdrew from Eastern Europe, the Romani who were left were taken as prisoners and slaves. According to documents signed by Prince Dan I the first captured Romani in Wallachia dates back to year 1385.
Until their liberation on February 20, 1856, most Roms lived in slavery. They could not leave the property of their owners (the boyars and the orthodox monasteries). After their liberation in 1856, a significant number of Roms left Wallachia and Moldavia.
In Bessarabia, annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812, the Roms were liberated in 1861. Many of them migrated to other regions of the Empire, while important communities remained in Soroca, Otaci and the surroundings of Cetatea Albă, Chișinău, and Bălți. The 1918 union with Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina and Bessarabia increased the number of ethnic Romani in Romania.
Following the accession of Romania to the European Union in 2007, the Romani minority continues to be the most socially disadvantaged ethnic group in Romania. Romania has been ordered by the EU to implement a national strategy to better integrate its Roma population. But little progress seems to have been made in this regard.
Roma Wagon, near Pătrăuţi Monastery, Romania May 2014
Romani people constitute one of Romania's largest minorities. According to the 2011 census, they number 621,573 people or 3.08% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians. There are varying estimates about the size of the total population of people with Romani ancestry in Romania, varying from 4.6 percent to over 10 percent of the population, because a lot of people of Romani descent do not declare themselves Roma.
The Romani people originate from northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian regions such as Rajasthan and Punjab.
Linguistic evidence shows that roots of Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines. More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali.
Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group. According to a genetic study in 2012, ancestors of present scheduled tribes and scheduled caste populations of northern India are the likely ancestral populations of modern European Roma.
In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.
In combination with the Mongol invasion of Europe the first Romani had reached the territory of present-day Romania around the year 1241. At the beginning of the 14th century, when the Mongols withdrew from Eastern Europe, the Romani who were left were taken as prisoners and slaves. According to documents signed by Prince Dan I the first captured Romani in Wallachia dates back to year 1385.
Until their liberation on February 20, 1856, most Roms lived in slavery. They could not leave the property of their owners (the boyars and the orthodox monasteries). After their liberation in 1856, a significant number of Roms left Wallachia and Moldavia.
In Bessarabia, annexed by the Russian Empire in 1812, the Roms were liberated in 1861. Many of them migrated to other regions of the Empire, while important communities remained in Soroca, Otaci and the surroundings of Cetatea Albă, Chișinău, and Bălți. The 1918 union with Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina and Bessarabia increased the number of ethnic Romani in Romania.
Following the accession of Romania to the European Union in 2007, the Romani minority continues to be the most socially disadvantaged ethnic group in Romania. Romania has been ordered by the EU to implement a national strategy to better integrate its Roma population. But little progress seems to have been made in this regard.