The Right to Roam

The Right to Roam

2010, Society  -   186 Comments
6.93
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Ratings: 6.93/10 from 28 users.

The Right to RoamUnwanted, marginalised, defiant - the Roma people have become the target of governments across Europe.

In France and Italy they have been thrown out in their thousands - accused of illegally overstaying their welcome and blamed for increases in crime.

They say that in their countries of origin they are victims of discrimination - a minority with few opportunities.

They are now taking advantage of European Union laws that allow freedom of travel to all European citizens - looking West to find a better life, yet reluctant to adapt to Western ways.

The Roma issue has now been forced on EU policy makers - they have to find a balance between the growing hostility and the rights of the Roma.

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Pedro Peaches
Pedro Peaches
5 years ago

I moved to Spain eight years ago with an open mind and I knew very little about gypsies. Over my time here, what I've seen and the stories that other Spaniards have shared, unfortunately leaves me with a very poor opinion about them. Yeah, sure, there is a tax paying, law-abiding contingent, but for the most part very few people want to have anything to do with them. Teachers tell me that many of their gypsy students only come for the required days so that they may collect the money assigned to them in an initiative to integrate them. The stories make you shake your head: a newly wedded 13 year old gypsy girl informing her 9 year old classmates on what she and her husband did before going to bed last night. They do collect recycling materials, which I thought was a little bit redeeming, until I found out that they will deliberately set fire to the recycling bins just to spite other disputing groups of gypsies. Sorry, folks, but the blame does not fall on the government...In this documentary there's a woman who has 10 kids? Sorry, but I have no sympathy for anyone this day and age who sets out to do that, especially in such poor living conditions. That is downright irresponsible.

POZZIMYSTIC
POZZIMYSTIC
11 years ago

While working in a restaurant I had a table of gypsies at my table, weird! They wanted everything for free. The father got caught "peeing" in the restroom >>>All over the walls. The children were obviously not schooled, Sad.

Earvin Barcancel
Earvin Barcancel
11 years ago

give them some borrowed land make them sign contract, teach them how to farm so that they can grow produce locally and organically in that way they would have no excuse to not being able to feed their family and they would have contributed to society.

Steven Schroeder
Steven Schroeder
11 years ago

Note that almost every Romani man in the documentary had a cigarette in his hand and yet bemoaned the inability to feed their families.

Mom
Mom
11 years ago

These people need help, and their main resources should be their own brethren who have apparently made it out of poverty, and who have the means to help, but who ignore the ones who continue to suffer in order to maintain their own rich lifestyles. Their lack of education and ability to empathize is due to lack of motivation. Education is needed much more than sending them out of the country and may lead to the Roma becoming better citizens.

Jai Hind
Jai Hind
11 years ago

These're doings of the jews whose hate Muslims and have turned this world into a discriminating,segregating society globally influencing their ideology.They're everywhere and this exactly is what was tried to get eliminated in the 1940s but unfortunately is resurfacing.

lostbaby
lostbaby
11 years ago

before i used to think european countires r developed as america, england, canada.. while they themselves r moving to america, england, canada, australia to get a better life so y do u treat others like that... europeans r creating the same problem to other deveploed country wat roma ppl r said to be doin to them?

Mitchell Darland
Mitchell Darland
11 years ago

They are -constantly- trying rob everyone in all the busy areas of Paris, always in groups and mostly children, it really ruins the nice atmosphere Paris used to have as you seriously have to be on guard. When I lived in Milan the camp behind the main cemetery was a hot spot for pedophiles as the Roma actually pimp out their children as young as 6 or 7 to predators like it's no big deal... They live in utter poverty but all they want is to have a bunch of children they literally -can't- take care of... I don't get it. Very hard topic to tackle. I feel bad for them but their culture and values seem too different to ever integrate. I mean this problem is literally hundreds of years old...

ewaa
ewaa
11 years ago

Yes, how sad. The "Roma people" are being discriminated.

All I have always seen about the Roma's in various countries in Europe is that is not part of their Gypsy culture/lifestyle to work - obviously they have no intention to find decent work in Romania or France, wherever they go. What they can do is steal, rob and rape - there have been numerous rape reports in Milan and area performed by "Romanians" of Gypsy origin.

I will not sympathize with someone who decides to b be a parasite to society, has the (lack of) decency to pretend that they're handicap or sedate their babies with opium(that's what Gypsy mothers begging in the streets of Poland used to do) to get more money off honest working people. Get a job, for God's sake! Mercy is for those who really need it, who are sick and hopeless but not for those who just choose to live a bum's life.

brutusaurio
brutusaurio
12 years ago

Well, tough issue. Racism always increases when a country has economic problems. It's a funny way of blaming the poorest people about our own problems, and it's what France and Italy are doing in a certain way.
Minorities are an easy target. Maybe the parties that rule in France and Italy will win the next election.

Most gypsies or other minorities don't want to integrate into the Society, but the're not guilty for the global crisis or for the fact that I don't have a job.

It's hard to find a solution about it, but I think France and Italy are not in the right direction.

earthmatters
earthmatters
12 years ago

Need to Check your facts: Romas Along with Jews were persecuted, segregated and placed in encampments to be followed by extermination by Hitler's Nazis with the help of very ordinary citizens in Germany. as Strange, that you would scapegoat Italy as the source - hmmmm!

Frances Ann Cosgrove
Frances Ann Cosgrove
12 years ago

I was robbed by Gypsies in Dublin--2 men & 2 small children. The men broke into our rental car while we were checking into a hotel. They stole our suitcases & hung our camera bags around the children's necks. In recent years, Ireland has cracked down on the Roma population and the result is less crime & cleaner cities/towns. These people are loyal unto themselves. They are not interested in becoming a productive part of any society. They do not want to immigrate legally, work legitimately or pay taxes. I have no pity for them and I do not blame France & Italy for wishing to be rid of them.

- -
- -
12 years ago

Another piece of politically correct bs.Cry me a river! These people have to help themselves first. They avoid any legal decent work, and education. They are a nuissance at best to any host country because their values and way of life are incompatible with that of a modern society.. this is a well known fact to anyone who ever lived anywhere near them. They are just not interested in working and bettering themselves. Preserve yourr culture, language, heritage - by all means. But if you continue to consider work degrading and stealing, begging etc. As the only means you could ever support yourselves Then don't complain about discrimination because it is a result ofyour own behavior.

FranciscoCanales
FranciscoCanales
12 years ago

lakhotason, Mr. Wong and Mr. dmxi, please get inform and tell the people the truth. I being in the EU and what the Romans said is the truth. Here in the USA we have a huge problem with illegal immigrants. I Am Latino and I can't be call racist. my concern is the future of my country the USA. Now the truth about this illegal immigration is the culture of corruption in our government. The ruling class control the Main Stream Media and Washington corrupt politicians that refused to enforce our immigration laws, since George W. Bush this is going on, now Obama is another puppet that is worse than Bush and on the 2012 election none of the candidates will stand for the country's constitution or the rule of law but Dr. Ron Paul but, the Main Stream news media demise Dr. Paul by lying and deceiving the American people. By the way we love Canada and the US will never do any thing to damage our relationship.
God Bless and get inform so you can tell the truth to the people.

FranciscoCanales
FranciscoCanales
12 years ago

We have the same problem here in the USA, We have Mexicans that want to take over the Southwest of the country and many other nationalities that want to implant their way into our culture do not want to learn the language nor our culture. Multiculturalism do not work, it cost the country billions of Dollars and American jobs; but the elite of globalization continue to push their agenda to provide cheap labor for their cronies.

Guest
Guest
12 years ago

The average net monthly salary in Romania is $488 as of Dec 2011. If one knew one could legally go beg in Paris or Rome and make possibly twice as much if not more just by playing music in the street....who knows what one would do in such situation.
I hear begging in the busy street of Vancouver will make you close to $100 a day.
az

Domus Canus.
Domus Canus.
12 years ago

Europe is tired of these people and the rest of the rubbish who flock to our cities. This reporter himself is biased against Europe despite living and making a good living here, perhaps he ought to offer a suggestion on where they should live, like Romania for example. Most of us don't care any more because the problems continue endlessly with little to show for the oceans of cash poured into this nightmare. Europe cannot solve the unsolvable.

dmxi
dmxi
12 years ago

the solution resides in every thinking human being.the first step has been made through world-wide conection via the internet where information roams freely!the second step needs attention which derives from a global denominator which in history mainly consisted out of pain,hunger & other sufferings!rarely did humans bond to change the world when there was comfort to be lost ,except in the sixties & they failed !

Christine Flores-Cozza
Christine Flores-Cozza
12 years ago

and the misspell buy is kind of appropriate.

sumit raghani
sumit raghani
12 years ago

I am debating if I should ignore Wong. Lol. Did he just say give everyone nukes to deter a US infused nuclear war? Carnage !! By no means I am a fan of US having nuclear weapons or any country for that matter of fact. But giving North Korea nuclear weapons would be epic. EPIC. Wong, you keep missing the letter 'R' in your name. It should be Wrong. Did you also just go from being pro-capitalist to communist in a day? I am suddenly fascinated by your intelligence..!

lakhotason
lakhotason
12 years ago

Guess you will.

lakhotason
lakhotason
12 years ago

Oh you've got a real bad problem here Comrade. I may be wrong but little ol' me sees a discrepancy here. What you are saying now doesn't line up to what you said yesterday (so to speak).

So let us hear the Party line again.

lakhotason
lakhotason
12 years ago

Just Washington? I seem to recall other geographic locations but then again I may just have a faulty memory. Damnedest thing that memory. Let me check your past comments and I'll get back to you.

lakhotason
lakhotason
12 years ago

No. You said use them. All anyone need do is look at your comments.

I do see you're still carrying that little red book.

lakhotason
lakhotason
12 years ago

Now suddenly and without warning this is about the USA vs The Peoples Republic of China. Simply amazing and seriously confounding to the Roma.

Lazra Martin
Lazra Martin
12 years ago

Now.. just imagine if they were/are black?

bchachacha
bchachacha
12 years ago

Don't get all upset, Dermot. If you get upset about perceived prejudices you might just start throwing around stereotypes and prejudices of your own, like that people from Kentucky are Neanderthals and that all right wing people are close minded fascists. Let's be real for a minute, my friend.

This isn't a perfect world that we live in, but making the best out of what we have and taking the opportunities we are granted is something that everyone can do.

You can look at everything that's happened and France and deduce that the Roma are unfairly discriminated against. But when you look around Europe and at countries where the gypsies may legally live, work,have rights to free health care and education, you're going to see that gypsies that want to be a part of the system and play by the rules aren't having problems doing so. I think that you need to find out more about these integration problems and the gypsy culture in general, to me it seems like you are poorly informed.

I feel sincere sadness for the gypsy children who are forced out onto the streets and being trafficked for profits, that really makes me sick. If you still think I'm a dickhead, well, whatever.

dmxi
dmxi
12 years ago

i wonder why they weren't granted a little piece of land in the sun in a foreign country ,without asking the 'natives' if it would be OK ,after being persecuted,beaten & 'gassed ' in kz's? no lobby i guess.......

Victor Luchian
Victor Luchian
12 years ago

you idiots! these aren't Roma people... wtf is that?
they are called rroms or better... gypsies. they are never settling anywhere, they live like animals, they do not want to work, also they're very violent... my oppinion is to make a free community of theirs...
i know it's utopia now(no profit) but maybe someday....

bchachacha
bchachacha
12 years ago

I have a lot of sympathy for the less fortunate people of this world, but I would love to see these people who want to extend help to gypsies actually give it a try. While you are giving them a helping hand they will steal your watch, your wallet and anything else that they can get under their skirts. It's obvious that the people who are sympathetic to gypsies have never met one and to put the blame on anyone but the gypsies is just wrong. If they wanted to be a part of European society they could actually send their kids to school or show some respect for other cultures, but everyone knows that they choose to live the way they do and that gypsies only interact with non-gypsies in order to steal from them. If it wasn't this way, then people wouldn't hate them and not want them around, but too bad, it's the way it is because that's the way the gypsies have made it.

Valeriu Bratescu
Valeriu Bratescu
12 years ago

For the record these people of Pakistani origin are called gypsies/gitanes/tigani. Roma is the capital city of Italy. Rroma is not a word.

Tudor Placinta-Salaru
Tudor Placinta-Salaru
12 years ago

@fonbindelhofas
it's sad that people consider that education

fonbindelhofas
fonbindelhofas
12 years ago

@all who talk about education (me to)
it dosnt mean that educated person wears suit and works in some criminal corporation, education is to learn things, think independently, learn how to sustain yourself and your family, how to grow food, how not to get fooled by others, adapt to new conditions... thats education, sad that its not in western scools:(

Krac House
Krac House
12 years ago

i,ve got a question,,DO THEY(ROMAS)LIKE BLACK PEOPLE????????????

StevenLJones
StevenLJones
12 years ago

If they are thieves, it's because nobody will give them a job. It's kind of catch 22 isn't it. Thieve or starve. Tough decision. And we always remember the thieves. And if we think they are thieves we aren't going to give them jobs. And what are they supposed to think? Why should we care for you, nobody has ever given a shite about us. After years of persecution I would imagine it would be something like that. Then there's organized crime, who exploit them, who have many of them under their thumb. Who give them know choice except maybe to run away. I doubt if anyone here has spoken to or attempted to get know them. There was another group in Europe, they were the Jews. Hated everywhere before the second world war. So easy to scapegoat.
I think it's a problem for all of Europe. Education is the key to help them out of poverty. Poverty is the villain and organized crime. They need options opportunity hope not to be kicked around or exterminated. What are we if we believe the latter?

anuragawasthi
anuragawasthi
12 years ago

Many of us do not know that These people have nothing to do with Romania...................They were from India and they left India in 7th century CE to fight the muslim aggression but nobody knows that why they did not came back again to india but instead kept moving west.

They were prosecuted and tortured all over the world and the it still continues today.Even after centuries of so called civilisation the settlers hate the Nomads.

Talorcan
Talorcan
12 years ago

The discrimination and prejudice in these comments is disgusting, and is exactly the thing the Roma face every day, along with forced sterilization, denial of education, removal from any place they COULD potentially settle down, oppression, deprivation of basic human rights, and blame for others' fear. How are they supposed to "go back to their country" when they have none in the first place? They were dispersed hundreds, some say over a thousand, years ago, and to this day, ignorance of who they are and where they come from and why they are in this situation in the first place is more common than the truth.

There is some solace, at least, in the knowledge that their plight is becoming more well known, and that human rights organizations are beginning to stand up for them as a people deserving of equal rights and considerations, despite what the ignorant masses might think.

Maxx Black Butte
Maxx Black Butte
12 years ago

There are a lot of hateful comments about the Roma. It seems that people like to hate on "the other" and that makes them feel better about their own lives in which they live as slaves to capitalism. The amount of money and land being stolen by global corporations is billions of times greater than anything the Roma ever stole, but the executives of global corporations wear nice suits and drive nice cars, so people don't hate them, they want to BE one of them.

fonbindelhofas
fonbindelhofas
12 years ago

@TonyIII
most of the people are perfectly happy about open borders, what do you mean? enouth with walls, if u like em keep em in US:P walls do not solve anything

TonyIII
TonyIII
12 years ago

The European Union is clearly anti-European. No sovereign country can survive with out borders. This documentary insists on packaging open-borders as "human rights".

fonbindelhofas
fonbindelhofas
12 years ago

i bet if you put younger romans in other environment with some decent education and other morals, and wipe all the crap they been trained to, i bet situation would radicaly change in one or two generations. its all about environment and stupid medieval traditions

Akash Jhangiani
Akash Jhangiani
12 years ago

i live in houston texas n america and gypsies are the worst...hate is a strong word and i hate gypsies....they are born into a family that teaches them how to steal/scam from society anywhere they go. they come into stores asking to use your phone and they dial a 1888 number that cost the caller 30 bucks,they go into stores to case them with children and old people needing to use the restroom only to come and steal everything you have, they set up tarot reading places that are store fronts for drugs..these are facts by the way not opinion, word of advice when you see a family wearing jean ankle skirts or of romanian origin watch out they go fom city to city scamming and stealing from everyone.

Bogdan
Bogdan
12 years ago

@fonbindelhofas Totally agree with you...their way of life doesn't fit with our way of life...for example in the city i live the local counselor had built apartment's for them, but in one year they burnt them down and brought animals in the flats to live with them.

fonbindelhofas
fonbindelhofas
12 years ago

the problem with no easy answers, and no easy escape goats, i live in France for some years now and i see roma people alot, mainly at the roadsides, w8ing for red lights to "clean" car windows, and there are alot of posible honest work, poor people from Africa and other countys are doing just fine, gardening, cleaning, construction... whatever but work and opportunities are there... its just i havent heard of a single roma person working any of those jobs. dont get me wrong, i love every single human being, but the reason of poverty is roma people themselfs. the old way of life is not posible anymore, evolve or perish:( thats the truth of nature. they MUST change theyr culture, not nececery to western standarts, but change must happen...
p.s. have u seen any garden or greenhouse in the slums? food dosnt fall from sky:/

Bogdan
Bogdan
12 years ago

I'm from romania and i'm sorry but i don't think deporting them back here would solve anything...nobody likes them here either...education is what could save these people in my opinion...not pushing them around from one country to another

Mercenarry ForHire
Mercenarry ForHire
12 years ago

All governments are starting to feel the pressure and are beginning to break down. (too many people and not enough stuff ect.) Theres no solution but we still have to try...

Marissa Wallin
Marissa Wallin
12 years ago

I must say, that while I am frequently appalled with some European attitudes on Eastern Europeans (I live in Switzerland), the fact that the Roma are living on illegal land for illegal amounts of time fully justifies deportation in my eyes. I don't see why it should be so controversial that Sarkozy decided to enforce an already standing law.

gert2222
gert2222
12 years ago

messed up.

Hoborici Daniel
Hoborici Daniel
12 years ago

You have seen what houses they have in Romania , palaces they construct.

drinker69
drinker69
12 years ago

I hope all Western countries close the doors on these types of people. Your country sucks? Too bad. Change it yourself. Then you can have your own place in the world. Don't come to the West whining, begging, stealing. Fkn bums.