Bohémiens, Calés / Kalés, Gens du voyage, Manouches, nomades, Rom / Roma, Romanichels, Sinti, Tsiganes, Yéniches

 

Les Tsiganes dans le monde

Selon les estimations, de 8 à 9 millions de Tsiganes vivent en Europe, ce qui représente 85 % de leur effectif mondial

En France

Leur nombre a augmenté dans ce pays depuis 1965 en raison d'un afflux de Roms de Yougoslavie, puis de Roumanie. Le total, avec une forte concentration dans la banlieue parisienne, est évalué à près de 450,000 hommes, femmes et enfants, dont 45 % vivent dans logis de fortune. Les itinérants se heurtent au mauvais vouloir des communes, qui leur refusent fréquemment des aires de stationnement. Leur situation administrative s'est améliorée depuis la suppression, en 1969, du carnet anthropométrique. En 1983 a été créé un Office national des affaires tsiganes ONAT, 93bis rue de la Chapelle 95100 Argenteuil.

Tsiganes en France : 150 000 à 250 000. Environ 97 % sont Français, 70 % sont analphabètes, 2/3 sont sédentarisés (dans des conditions souvent mauvaises), 1/3 voyagent. 15 000 adultes sont baptisés par la Mission évangélique des Tsiganes. 5 000 fréquentent cette Église.

CALÓ

[RMR] 10,000 to 20,000 in France.  Southern France. Alternate names: GITANO, IBERIAN ROMANI.  Dialects: BASQUE CALO, CATALONIAN CALO, SPANISH CALO.  Classification: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian, Castilian. 
More information.

ROMANI, BALKAN

[RMN] 10,500 in France, including 10,000 Arlija, 500 Dzambazi.   Dialects: ARLIJA, DZAMBAZI.  Classification: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Romani, Balkan. 
More information.

ROMANI, SINTE

[RMO] 10,000 to 30,000 in France.   Alternate names: SINTI, ROMMANES, TSIGANE.  Dialects: MANOUCHE (MANUCHE, MANUSH).  Classification: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Romani, Northern. 
More information.

ROMANI, VLAX

[RMY] 10,000 in France, including 8,000 Kalderash, 2,000 Lovari.   Alternate names: ROMENES, ROM, TSIGANE, VLAX.  Dialects: KALDERASH, LOVARI.  Classification: Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Central zone, Romani, Vlax. 
More information.

 
LES ETHNIES
TSIGANE 1-ROM
2-MANOUCHE OU SINTE
3-GITANOS OU KALE

VOYAGEUR NON TSIGANE BARAQUI
QUINQUI
TATARE
TINKER
TRAVELLER
YENISCHE OU BARENGRE

 Extrait de "Mutation Tsigane" de LIEGEOIS Jean-Pierre

 ETHNIE
ROM
SOUS GROUPE LANGUE DIALECTE
KALDERASH ROMANI KALDERASH
LOVARA ROMANI LOVARA
TCHOURARA ROMANI TCHOURARI

 

 ETHNIE
MANOUCHE OU SINTE

SOUS GROUPE
LANGUE
DIALECTE
VALSHTIKE MANOUCH SINTE FRANCAIS SINTO MANOUCHE
GATHSKENE MANOUCH SINTE ALLEMAND SINTO SINTO D'ALSACE
PIEMONTESI SINTE ITALIEN SINTO SINTOPIEMONTAIS
PRAJSHTIKE MANOUCH SINTE PRUSSIEN SINTO SINTO PRUSSIEN

 

 ETHNIE
KALE OU GITANOS
SOUS GROUPE LANGUE DIALECTE
CATALAN KALO OU CALO CATALAN
ANDALOU KALO OU CALO CALO

Recels. 1982 : 15 148 délits enregistrés ; 85 : 26 209 ; 87 : 35 983 ; 88 : 26 963 ; 89 : 29 180 ; 90 : 30 872 ; 91 : 32 213 ; 92 : 34 089 ; 93 : 34 244 ; 94 : 37 865.

 

Jonathan Fox (106), 1/19/95

Update

Michelle C. Boomgaard, 11/22/99

Roma (Gypsies) in France

Total Area of France: 543,965 sq. km.

Capital: Paris.

Country Population: 58,805,000 (1998 U.S. Census Bureau estimate)

Group Population: 312,000 (0.53%)

Overview

The history of the Tsiganes, as the Roma are called in France, shows that their form of social organization, incompatible with that of the modern nation-state, has not changed much since the biblical times of wandering tribes. By the Middle Ages they had reached eastern Europe from their native India and were promptly forced into slavery in the region that is now Yugoslavia and Romania. In 1418, the Bohemian emperor Sigmund accorded them protection - hence the name "Bohemians." (The word "Tsiganes" is from the Greek "astiganos," for a heretic sect of musicians from Asia; "Gypsy" is a form of "Egyptian.") The first Tsiganes in France arrived in Paris in 1427, and in Britain shortly after. The biggest Tsigane migration to France came after the defeat by the Prussians in 1870, as many Gypsies were in Germany at the time, most of them musicians and peddlers. The most recent Tsigane influx into France, in the 1970s, came from Yugoslavia. In fact, most of the bothersome beggars and pickpockets in central Paris today are from Yugoslavia.

Until now, European governments have not recognized the Tsiganes as citizens of their countries. In fact, according to the 1954 Geneva Convention, they are "stateless people." The problem is not wholly the fault of national governments, however. For as long as the Tsiganes remain nomadic and do not pay taxes (a fundamental condition of citizenship) it is difficult to provide them with the same social benefits - such as education and health care - to which other citizens are entitled. The French government, with its powerful and monolithic administration that has integrated numerous peripheral local cultures over the past century, has consistency failed with the Tsiganes. The government recently attempted to offer the Gypsies the minimum living allowance but the Tsiganes could never stay in one place long enough to deal with the administrative paperwork to collect the allowance. Also, despite the fact that 95% of the Roma in France have French passports, the majority of them do not consider themselves French.

The Tsiganes call non-Gypsies "Gadzo," a contemptuous pejorative term. Sociologists who have studied the Tsiganes say they have a strong us-and-them taboo against "contamination" by Gadzos, who are viewed as "unpure." In fact, Tsiganes have virtually no social or political contact with the non-Tsigane world. For the most part, their only form of interaction with non-Gypsies is economic, whether through begging and stealing or hawking items for sale.

The Tsiganes have no written language. They speak various dialects of the same Sanskrit-based language. Each of the dozen dialects has absorbed words from the numerous languages with which they have been in contact throughout the centuries.

Chronology

23 May 1990: French courts order far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen to pay a token fine of one franc (20 cents) for making remarks in 1987 that "cast doubt or made commonplace the persecution and suffering inflicted by the Nazis on deportees, in particular Jews and Gypsies, during the Second World War."

18 March 1991: On appeal, French Courts increase Le Pen's fine to 900,000 Francs (163,000 dollars).

30 March 1992: According to a government Survey, the French are becoming increasingly hostile to North Africans, Southern Europeans, Gypsies and blacks.

October 1992: The lawyer for 3 Gypsies on trial for an orgy of looting, rape and murder in the Rhone valley four years ago says that they are the victims of anti-Gypsy discrimination and claims that the true culprits were 3 deserters from the Foreign Legion who were questioned and cleared by the police. They are eventually convicted and sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. When in jail, the 3 Gypsies cut their pinkies off of their left hands in protest.

5 March 1993: The mayor of a northern Paris suburb abandons plans to move about 159 Gypsies to a town in eastern France in the face of an angry reaction by the townsfolk who do not want them as neighbors. The residents of Neuville-sur-Ain organize themselves into brigades armed with clubs and knives and riot in protest against the Gypsies coming. The town's mayor promises to oppose the "invasion."

July 1993: About 400 Yugoslav Gypsies are turned back at the French-German border because they have no visas. They protest against France's refusal to give them political asylum.

30 December 1993: France deports about 2,000 Romanian Gypsies, some of whom had been in France since 1989.

27 July 1994: French police in Nice crack down on Gypsy children operating as pickpockets.

3 January 1995: A policeman is shot dead when police intervene in a shootout between Gypsies and North Africans in a poor suburb of Nice. A Gypsy man is arrested for the shooting.

12 June 1995: Amnesty International protests the expulsion of 50 Romanian illegal immigrants, mostly young Roma men, from France. France has been trying to stem the tide of illegal Roma immigrants from Romania who are highly visible in Paris where they live by begging. Several other expulsions of Romanian Roma occur after this.

24 August 1995: French authorities reject a request for political asylum from a group of Moslem Roma from Serbia who had originally claimed to be Bosnians. An 8-year-old boy from the group was shot dead earlier by French border police as the group tried to sneak into France.

Update: 11/22/99

8 November 1996: In its annual report from Paris, the Centre for Research, Information and Documentation on Racism (CRIDA) declared that racism was on the rise throughout Europe, and that the plight of the Gypsies needed the most attention in light of events in Eastern Europe. The problem of racism and right-wing political parties was most acute France, Italy and Austria, according to the report. (Agence France Presse 11/8/96)

18 November 1998: At the end of a two-day international conference of Gypsies in Lodz, Poland, a spokesman declared that the Roma should seek official status as a national minority in all European countries. The declaration was based on the discrimination and segregation faced by Roma throughout Europe, and the fact that Rom is still not recognized as an official language. (Agence France Presse 11/18/98)

Risk Assessment

The Tsiganes are among the poorest in France. They usually live a nomadic lifestyle and dwell in makeshift hovels or caravans on the fringes of cities. The police frequently shoo them away, at times finding stacks of stolen car stereos in the wake. Now and then, French newspapers report that a farmer has shot a Gypsy stealing crops in his fields. Sometimes a fight among Gypsies ends in murder. In short, for French authorities the Tsiganes are not only a constant nuisance but a serious social problem.

As is the case elsewhere, the Roma in France are despised by much of the French population. They are viewed as a marginal sub-class of beggars, thieves and pickpockets who neither work nor pay taxes, and hence do not belong in French society. Also, as is the case elsewhere, the prejudices against the Roma in France fuel the social conditions that lead to the justifications for those prejudices. Recently these prejudices have entered the political arena through various right-wing parties. On the local level, deputies and Mayors throughout France repress the Tsiganes and take measures to drive them away. They are the only minority in the country given a different identity card from the rest of the French, which obliges them to present themselves every three months to the police. France is also the only country in the European Community which opposed the recommendation of the Council of Europe to recognize the Gypsies as "a non-territorial cultural minority."

References

Lexis/Nexis: All news articles form 1990 to 1999.

 

Retour à Saint Denis