Roma the in Netherlands and their integration into the Dutch society.

In this paper I would like to answer the question in what conditions and way the Romani and Sinti population are living in the Netherlands.

In the first part we will take a closer look in who exactly the Roma and Sinti are. Since when are they living in the Netherlands and why? Of course it is important to know what the Dutch government for policies adopted in the past years. Is this separation, assimilation or just ignoring? Do they give the Romani population some special attention or help? In what way do they organise themselves, and are they allowed to organise themselves? We will see the school results of the children and also take a look at the occupations the people have. The Roma are known in the Netherlands for car trading and dealing marihuana so we try to find a statement for or against this prejudice. Because the Netherlands is just a small country we will also discuss the role of the European integration in the Romani aspect.

Hopefully we can reach an answer on the question how the Roma and Sinti live in the Netherlands and what outcome the Dutch policy has had.

Origins of Roma and Sinti in the Netherlands

In the following paper I will use the terms Roma, Sinti and Gypsy. The term Roma is mostly used in is science and the rest of Europe. The term Gypsy is widespread known among most people as well. In the Netherlands, the government and the Roma themselves, use the term Sinti besides Roma. They are two different groups, Roma is used for the people who immigrated to Holland in the 19th and 20th century and have origins in Eastern Europe. The Kaldarash, Ursari and other groups are now called Roma and they consider themselves also in that way. The only distinguished other group is the Sinti; they speak also a dialect from the Romani language. Sinti are considered to be people from Western Europe and most of them came to Holland already before the First World War. [1]

It is impossible to say exactly when and where the Roma arrived in the Netherlands.
First I will give a general overview of the origin of Roma and Sinti, which is accepted by most researchers[2]. Several scientist believe that Roma left in 11, 12th century the North and middle of India. Some of them argue that it were 18 different people who found their way to Persia and Europe. During the migration the Romani people had lived in Persia and many of them lived in Balkan or Eastern Europe for a long time.
Of course there had been contacts with local people and mixed marriages where not really uncommon. They different Romani communities mixed and scattered all over the continent, it is not one single community, it is important to realise that local circumstances have a lot of influence on the Romani culture. To be more precise: “Gypsies form a specific ethnic community – “an intergroup ethnic community” – which has no parallel among other European nation”[3]

The scientists[4] have many reasons to believe that the Roma and Sinti come from the north and middle of India; I will deal with that reasons shortly. The Romani languages show some important similarities with languages spoken in North India nowadays[5]. In the 19th century some scientists were taking blood tests in India and as well at the Romani population in Europe, the results proved that Roma people in Europe are descents from the north of India.

Nieuwenhuizen writes that the biggest Romani group in the Netherlands is Sinti. Approximately 4000 people. They are said to be from the region at Sind river; a region in Pakistan en North India. The Roma is the smaller group in Holland, about 2000 people. They are said to be from Southern regions. He further argues that the Roma are with 7 to 10 million in Europe, but exact numbers are hard to tell. Liegeois mentions numbers between 7 and 8, 5 million[6] for example.

The first Gypsies are known to be in Holland in 1420, in Deventer. The people were called Egyptians “Gypsies” because in that period (after the crusades) everybody with dark skin and mysterious behaviour was associated with Egypt. The newcomers in the Netherlands and the rest of Western Europe were first openly welcomed. Their most common profession was working as an artist or in a circus. They also traded in horses and did fortune telling. As Guy argues: “Roma made a living by skilfully utilising niches that generally required nomadism within developed capitalist economies”[7]. After a few ages the Western European governments started to stigmatize the Gypsies as beggars, criminals. From the beginning of the 16th century on they wanted to get rid of them. They created a very strict policy and the Dutch government was sure that there were no Gypsies living in their country in the period from 1750 to 1868. [8]

Kaldarash were the first group of Roma who arrived again after the expulsion from the Netherlands in the 19th century. Since then also the discussion at academic level started about the origins of the Roma[9]. Already before these newcomers, the Sinti arrived, just like a group of Lowara, Hungarian horse-traders. These two groups had western European passports so the Dutch government did not consider them like Roma, they were not unpopular. On the opposite the Kaldarash and later on also the Ursari (from Bosnia) were not very popular with the Dutch people. A government report form 1903 says: “Roma are thieves, even the little children. Everybody who is living in a caravan is not a good person[10]”

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century a group of autochthonous Dutch people also decided to live in caravans. They were attracted to the free life and were travelling through the country. These people are considered as woonwagenbewoners[11].

The Roma and Sinti people in the Netherlands accept these people but they are not one of them. They have of course a lot in common, they both live in caravans and both groups have a lot of trouble with the policy of the government and with the society in general, which they call gadje society.

During the Second World War many Roma and Sinti were killed by the Nazis, after this war the population was decimalized. Since that time the Roma and Sinti are fighting for their rights to be recognised as a distinct ethnic group. If they are not recognised that way they do not have any prove for being persecuted for being another race/ethnic group like the Jews in the Nazi theory.

Dutch policy towards Roma and Sinti

As discussed before the first policy was acceptance, till the beginning of the 16th century. After that time there was a strict rejection against the so called Gypsies.

We will start this paragraph with the beginning of the 20th century. This new era was one of a renewed bureaucratic policy. The Dutch government was organising itself and in a well organised society there was not longer place for the gypsies who were considered to be singing criminals. The national policy was to restrict their way of life and forced assimilation. On the other hand Roma were not unpopular by local leaders, and the Dutch society. They had useful jobs for society and that is why the Roma were accepted on the local level. The cities gave them a place to live and also “proof of being Dutch”.

The trend that also autochthonous Dutch people wanted this lifestyle was too much for the national government, so they decided to have a law on woonwagens in 1918. It was no longer allowed to live in a woonwagen without a special permit. This permit was only given to people who could prove they had enough money. The stigma was that people in woonwagens were lazy and did not want to work.[12]

After the Second World War the travelling forbid was repealed, though the government was still very keen on making policy. They tried to involve the Sinti and Roma in the social welfare system. Before this time it was the area of churches and voluntary welfare groups.

The next big step was in 1968 when the new woonwagen-law was implemented. The new law only gave permission to people who have been living in a woonwagen to go on with that the creation of new woonwagen communities was not allowed anymore. The government planned 50 regional campsites where the Roma were due to live. These centres would also have a school and doctor. They planned to establish laws in which you need permission to move to another camp. Of course this new law was the reason for a serious break up with the government and the Romani community. The Romani community protested against it and that is why the government abolished this law. The new policy planned also some special centres but not only 50 big ones.

These measures were followed till 1990, from that date the Dutch government decided to normalize the situation according to Roma. The Roma were not longer considered as a special minority group, so they have no special treatment and rights anymore. The same happened to the woonwagenbewoners, who are of Dutch origin as said before. Of course all the years of being a distinct group have left their traces. The Dutch society still does not fully accept the Roma and the Roma have serious distrust against the Dutch society in general and towards the government in particular.

Roma and Sinti culture in the Netherlands

In order to make an end to the distrust and prejudices the Roma and Sinti had at least one initiative. The Landelijke Sinti Organisatie (LSO)[13] is an organisation whose goal is to make the Roma and Sinti more emancipated. They argue that emancipation is a logical consequence of the fact that most Roma and Sinti are living in the Netherlands for generations and almost all have Dutch passports.

Still they are not fully accepted by the majority of people. The most common prejudices are that Roma are lazy because a lot of them are in need of social welfare. LSO argues that this is true but due to the government. After the prohibition on travelling the government made the Roma jobless, their jobs required a travelling way of living. The government promised them to give social welfare instead of a travel permit.

The magazine “Samen”[14] is meant for being read by Roma, Sinti as well as the woonwagenbewoners. Another purpose of the magazine is that the outside world can read what is going on in the camps; they want to reach more openness.

Education and employment for Dutch Roma

As discussed earlier Romani people have a big distrust in the Dutch government and society. The education system is one of the representatives so the Romani people have fear to send their children there. In the policy during the 60-ies the Dutch government established special schools on the woonwagen campsites. In the period between 1976 and 1996 the schools were closed down one by one and the Roma had to attend the regular schools.
When they were involved there it became really clear that there was a big gap between school results. The special school attendance is about four times higher than the average and most Romani children are in the lowest levels of the secondary school. The reason for this can be found in the fact that for their traditional jobs children do not need an exam so they are not so willingly to learn. Another reason is that the Dutch school system is really different to the home situation and children often feel misunderstood. Of course there is also the language problem. The Dutch government is now trying to start with pre-school projects in which the Romani children can learn the language already so they will have better school results. [15]

Employment is also a problem for the Roma when they are grown up. The employment rate is much higher and the average income is also lower. The Roma and Sinti are a strong group; they are still able to survive in the Netherlands. They are not in need of Dutch papers and will find their way of making money anyway. Erdmann found out that it is rather common for Gypsies to make their living anyway. “`the Gypsies as an exotic and pariah group function in various types of economy in which non-Gypsies dominate”. [16] A similar trend is to be seen in Hungary and the United States he argues.

Woonwagenkamp Vinkenslag, little actual case

Common prejudices of Dutch people are that all Roma and other woonwagenbewoners are trading in cars and produce marihuana. We will have to look at the facts about this.

The campsite Vinkenslag is the biggest location for car trading in the whole Europe[17]. Since 2004 due to a new mayor there is a strict policy towards the people living at Vinkenslag. They have to give openness about their accountancy for their companies. It is no longer allowed to pay the tax rate of 3% but they have to pay the same amount of taxes which caused a lot of anger among the Roma and Sinti. The city also wants the people to move, because of the pollution in the area. Roma and Sinti feel that they have to leave for racist reasons because they are not all allowed to returning after cleaning up the area. The plan is now that the population should move to smaller campsites which will be ready in 2007. So the policy is still forced movements and the mayor argues that it is easier to find the criminal activities of some inhabitants instead of blame it to the whole community. [18]

They reacted on this strict policy by blocking the highway with some 100 people and the result was the total destruction of the woonwagenkamp the next morning. The story is still going on because last month the police in Maastricht found an amount of marihuana in the Vinkenslag area which was supposed to cost 6 million euro. The people were using the electricity illegally. The electricity company was afraid to take steps against them, but the police did a very large raid in Vinkenslag and found a lot of marihuana. It is not clear what will happen now; forced settlements or maybe everything will change with a new mayor.