The Gypsies vicious circles and the threat to the EU

Our world is becoming more and more interesting and dynamic. The fast development of the telecommunications and Internet is giving an impression of disappearing of the borders, at least from personal point of view.

The freedom to speak and to express one’s opinion is considered as a fundamental one in our days. Many barriers to travel also are dropped and soon the Europeans will remember it as a reference for another epoch.

In parallel, the new trends in the European development posed some problems, considered unpopular even to be discussed in public. Among them one of the sharpest is related with the Gypsies population of the new members of the European Union (EU).

As it is well known in Europe, the Gypsies are represented not as homogeneous and nationally organized compact masses. The main characteristics of a nation, as common language, common territory, and common alphabet are almost completely absent from the structure of the Gypsies society. With the exception of couple of hundreds common words, the other main characteristics of a nation are not available. So, the question arises: “What’s the reason for the continuing existence of a group of people, who continue to describe themselves as a member of the same ethnic group? Without any doubt it is the traditions and the group memory. The Gypsies had survived during so many years as a community because they have constantly refusing to accept major changes in their life style. This is exactly opposite to the adaptability as a quality. Strangely it doesn’t provoke the disappearance of the ethnos, as it has happened with many others during the past centuries.

For the gypsies the freedom to move from place to place was for centuries the most important quality of their life. Evidently, because of the changing life-conditions in Europe and the establishment of strict national borders, they had to give up that, but still they have preserved the consequences of the nomad psychology. The first one is their derogatory attitude toward the material culture of the others. Be given the fact that the Gypsies simply did not organize a production or creation of the socially significant object, they do not respect the production of the others either. For me, it is one of the main reasons why so many Gypsies are willing to look at the robbery the way the others look at their job.

It is out of my intentions to make here a fundamental analysis of the Gypsies and their life. My goal is to try to find at list the way of thinking out of the vicious circle based on the perceptions that:

1. Gypsies do not respect our social life and our laws
2. They do not want to work and prefer to live on the periphery of the society
3. They do not accept the values of the Western type of society, including the respect for the private property and democracy
4. They are simply not able to learn how to implement some major changes in their life style.

Ergo, they do not have place in the modern society. Ooops! They are human beings, so they have the inner right of the same treatment as anybody else. But, here arise the big question. How to make the rest of the society more supple and adaptive in his judgment toward the Gypsies? The reason to have so little credits for their behavior is that our life is changing and accelerating all the time. Face to the growing complexity of our every day life, the contemporary European citizen has little if any capacity to be indulgent to someone who is behaving anti-socially, at least at the first view.

The growing gap between the two cultures is representing the other reason for rejection. For a mainly Christian based Europeans it is hard and near to impossible to understand the Gypsies moral. For example, the reason for the tradition to married Gypsies girls at so early ages is due on the imperative expectation that the bride must be virgin. Point! The only way to diminish the risk of unwanted sexual relationships before the marriage is… to anticipate the moment of the physical maturity. Consequently, sometime we witness a marriage at age of 12 and even 10. It really sounds as a horror story from the traditional European point of view, but this is the reality. The crucial cultural differences do not stop here. After the marriage, the husband becomes a kind of owner of the bride. So, it is up to him to decide what should be her further destiny. It is not rare a cases when he decide to make her a prostitute. According to the traditional Gypsies law it is not a crime and is absolutely acceptable.

The early marriage is among the main reasons to see so many young girls to drop their education. Evidently, it is not possible to visit school and to become mother at age of 13, for example. So, another one vicious circle is closing around. Usually the main argument of the defendants of thesis for Gypsies’ isolation in the society is that they do not have equal material chances with the others. But it should be reasonable to ask the opposite also. It is hard to imagine in our highly competitive society someone who decides to stop learning at age of 12 to become a successful example of social realization.

Now we arrived to the point. During the last couple of years, many of the existent frontiers in Europe have gone. Only this fact itself could be enough to provoke the interest of the Gypsies to restart their moving. On top of that, the United Europe is the wealthier part of the continent. So, we should expect to witness a sort of Gypsies flood in this direction. Actually it has happened. The problem was that the Western European populations are not quite happy to see their cities inundated with prostitutes, thieves and drug merchants. From the other site, this process poses a huge problem for the Eastern European countries like Bulgaria and Romania. Their acceptance in EU depends heavily of the overall impression the European population should have for them. Evidently, the presence of compact masses of relatively young people without any education and professional qualification from these countries does not help the cause of the acceptance.

The problem related with the Gypsies population from Eastern Europe is becoming so sharp, that it needs urgent and effective measures. It is even possible that the Gypsies become one of the main reasons for the refusal by the general population of the next EU enlargement. If it happen, the social reaction in the two candidate countries is not difficult to imagine. It is well known that the sharpness of the economical problems there is so strong that the indulgency and willingness for social patience is almost nonexistent.

From the other site, it is absolutely understandable the position of the Western European countries to restrict the access of these population to them. If we have to be short, and exact into the definition of the situation one can say that the Eastern European Gypsies are not welcome anywhere, neither in EU, nor in their countries of origin. So, where is the solution of the problem?

It is becoming imperative now, urgently to invest into the Education of this population. It is necessary to force the major changes in the way they look at the world around them and interact with it, and to make it clear that the times have changed and at the glance is the very existence of this population. It is time for us also to understand that to postpone a problem is only a way to make it deeper and more difficult to be resolved. If all nations in Europe do not invest immediately into the Gypsies education, and to create the necessary circumstances for the social implementation and acceptance of the general Gypsies population, we shall witness another wave of unwanted migration, related with all the consequences and even violence. The problem is that the time is pressing us and the possibilities for maneuvering become limited.

It is time for United Europe also to show a proof for real democracy and to avoid the fruitless discussions. The actual EU policy to transfer the resolution of the problem back to the Eastern European countries is futureless. The restrictive measure simply doesn’t work and they shouldn’t work in the future also. Countries like Bulgaria and Rumania simply do not have necessary resources to resolve it. They need the financial help and collaboration from the others.

Other ways, it becomes questionable the very reason for the existence of the EU. Does the Union exist only to assure the luxury being of the powerful old countries-members or the reason is to be helpful for all its members? It is pretty clear, it’s a crucial question.