Historical research indicates that the Roma people (also referred to as Romani or the pejorative “gypsies”) originated in India, contrary to earlier beliefs that they came from Egypt. Linguistic studies have unequivocally confirmed their language’s Indo-Aryan roots and similarities to Sanskrit, Hindi, and other languages of India. Over centuries of migration through Persia, Armenia, and especially Europe, the Roma language has incorporated many words from other languages, particularly Greek, Slavic, Romanian, and Persian. There are now several Roma dialects, and mutual intelligibility with modern Indian languages can be limited to basic words or phrases.

The history of the Roma is one of migration, persecution, and impressive cultural resilience. Their westward migration occurred in waves, starting perhaps as early as the fifth century in response to Islamic invasions, but reaching a peak in the tenth to twelfth centuries. Traveling across Persia and the Byzantine Empire, they reached Europe in the late Middle Ages, where their dark complexions and nomadic lifestyle sparked fascination as well as fear. In some areas they were at first welcomed as musicians, horse traders, or fortune tellers, but mostly they were unwelcome, expelled, persecuted, or enslaved.

The Enlightenment did not diminish the prejudice against them. By the 19th century, the Roma were increasingly being targeted by most national states. This culminated tragically in the 20th century, when the Nazi regarded the Roma, like they did the Jewish people, to be racially inferior and subjected them to forced sterilization and medical experiments, seeking to exterminate them and murdering between 200,000 and 500,000 in concentration camps. Yet only in the 1980s did Germany begin to acknowledge its role in the genocide.

After World War Two, Roma survivors found that attitudes towards them had not changed. The communist regimes in Eastern Europe viewed their traditional lifestyle as incompatible with socialist ideals. Governments banned nomadism, often confiscated horses and wagons, or removed wheels from caravans to physically prevent travel. Most Roma were employed, but almost exclusively in low-skilled, heavy industrial jobs (mining, construction, factory work) that kept them at the bottom of society. Families were moved into segregated concrete “ghetto” apartment blocks, speaking Roma in schools was forbidden, and traditional music or dress was discouraged. In Czechoslovakia (and to a lesser extent Hungary), the state practiced coerced sterilization of Roma women to “control the unhealthy birth rate,” a practice continued well into the post-communist era of the1990s.

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, the Roma were the biggest losers in the transition to capitalism. The safety net collapsed, and Roma workers, who held the lowest-skilled jobs and faced the highest prejudice, were the first to be laid off. As inefficient state factories closed during privatization, unemployment in some Roma communities rose almost overnight to 80–100%. With the police state gone, ethnic tensions flared and violent mobs attacked Roma villages with little police intervention. In 1993 in Romania, a mob burned down Roma houses and killed three people while police stood by. Similar incidents occurred in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria. Without state subsidies, many Roma could not pay rent for their apartments and were evicted and pushed back into shanty towns or remote rural settlements without electricity or running water, recreating the very conditions generations had tried to erase.

Today, the Roma are the largest ethnic minority in Europe (about 10–12 million people). While the European Union has poured millions of euros into “inclusion strategies,” the gap between policy and reality remains vast. The Roma remain the poorest group in Europe, roughly 80% of them living in poverty. In countries like Slovakia and Romania, many settlements still lack clean drinking water and sewage systems. Roma children generally go to inferior schools, limiting opportunities for advancement.

In Western Europe, Roma communities also face prejudice, poverty, and social marginalization. Spain has an estimated 750,000 Roma people, representing up to 1.5% of the population, with nearly half living in Andalusia and known locally as Gitanos. France has up to 300,000 Roma, including Gitans in the south and Manouches/Sinti mainly in Alsace. Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany also have smaller Roma communities. In general, they enjoy better legal protection and have stronger anti-discrimination laws, but they still face inconsistent enforcement and hostility.

Medically, by being excluded from settled societies, the Roma have been forced to camp on the outskirts of towns and denied public sanitation, stable housing, and access to professional medical facilities. These conditions have fostered tuberculosis, parasitic infections, malnutrition, and high maternal and infant mortality rates. Life expectancy is 7–15 years lower than that of the general population, and rates of chronic illness, anemia, diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, and untreated dental disease are high. Early marriage and high fertility patterns continue in some communities, often without adequate prenatal care. Relative social isolation and marriage within the group have also contributed to higher frequencies of certain hereditary myopathies and muscular dystrophies.

Yet, traditionally, Roma communities have not necessarily lacked medical knowledge, and have preserved a rich tradition of herbal medicine, midwifery, and empirical healing practices. Many Roma healers, often women, possess expertise in treating wounds, burns, fevers, and digestive disorders with plants gathered from local environments. Historically itinerant, many Roma groups relied on an oral tradition of herbalism, midwifery, spiritual healing, and preventive rituals. Knowledge of medicinal plants, such as chamomile for stomach ailments, garlic for infections, or rosehip for strengthening the blood, was passed through families and reinforced by close-knit kinship.

Despite European Union laws and free movement rights, the Roma and especially migrants from Eastern Europe continue to be treated as outsiders. Old stereotypes persist, and the Roma have been viewed as thieves or potential criminals, not “part of us,” and best avoided. They have endured bulldozing of camps (notably in France), deportation, and hate crimes. In recent years, efforts to end discrimination against them in Europe have become more structured and visible, but the gap between law and daily life is still wide. Although the European Commission’s bodies are requiring member states to become proactive on discrimination, poverty, education, employment, health, and housing, many of these plans have so far shown little impact. Yet Roma voices are more organized and connected across Europe in legislatures and law courts, and it is to be hoped that in time efforts will be successful.

The Roma have endured and survived centuries of ill treatment and persecution. To read about their history is a reminder of humanity’s capacity for cruelty and offer a hope that society in the future will be more inclusive and free of prejudices than it has been in the past and to some extent continues to be.