Why do they cause discomfort?

Quite out of the blue, the Roma, a relatively small (10-12 million) ethnic group of European citizens, have found themselves at the epicentre of European politics. I remember from my childhood days that the Gypsies (that is what we called them in those times) were always around in and around our neighbourhood even though they always lived at the margins of “normal” society life. The men sold copper pans at the markets and the women told our fortunes from packs of cards or by reading our palms. We found them fascinating because of their colourful clothes, their lively music and their dancing although we were a little afraid of them because they were so different. Our parents used to warn us not to trust them too much, especially in their fortune-telling, because, instead of enjoying the brilliant futures predicted for us, we were far more likely to lose our money. We knew that they could “gypsy” us, in other words, deceive us. But what fascinated us most was their nomadic way of life. In those days they used to travel around in horse-drawn wooden caravans, the only housing they ever knew. Children still had to be watchful in order not to be trapped into becoming permanent members of their camps.The Gypsies whom I remember from my childhood did not go around begging. They were respectable and took pride in being different. It was only after the fall of Communism and the opening up of national frontiers that the Roma people emerged begging for a living. Not only were their customs different, it was also difficult to communicate with them because they found it difficult to learn our language. Whenever they turned up in city streets, this provoked negative reactions. People would prefer that they just went away. In fact, it would take just one day for their camp on the banks of the River Vistula to empty and after the spring snow would melt, we would see no trace of them any more. They disappeared as suddenly as they came.However, a number of questions remain unanswered. Do Roma also have the right to free movement inside the territory of the European Union? Do their cultural differences and above-average crime-related statistics give us justification to apply the principle of collective responsibility? Can good men be found amongst their numbers? To what extent in Europe can anyone uphold the right to be different? Can we put up with people who, through their chosen life-style, challenge the desire for material comforts that most of us feel? When so many people are fighting for the right to a fixed home address, is there also any room for people claiming the right not to have a fixed address? Do we dislike them because they are a nuisance or are they really assuming the role of a scapegoat on whose head we vent all our own frustrations? Should we not – in the light of the historical experience of Europe – be more cautious when letting our negative emotions loose because it is so easy to lose control of them? Should each Member State be required to look for its own solutions or do we need a common European approach? Nevertheless there is still a deeper sense of community that unites us. “Travellers”, as we may call them, remind us that man is by his very nature a “homo viator”, who will one day be obliged to leave every possession behind him in order to find the way towards his true homeland.