Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Late Arrivals at the Nationalist Games: Romani Mobilisation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia

  • Chapter
Ethnonational Identities

Abstract

With numbers estimated between seven and eight-and-a-half million in Europe alone, Roma (or Gypsies) form the continent’s largest ethnic grouping without a nation-state of its own or even a distinct homeland.1 Almost three-quarters live in the former Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) (Liégeois and Gheorghe, 1995: 7), where Roma have been characterised as ‘the poorest, most disadvantaged and despised of all East Europeans’ (Barany, 1994: 246).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Acton, T. (1974) Gypsy Politics and Social Change (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul).

    Google Scholar 

  • Acton, T. (1998) Authenticity, expertise, scholarship and politics: Conflicting goals in Romani studies, Inaugural Lecture by Thomas Acton, Professor of Romani Studies, Greenwich: University of Greenwich, 11 June.

    Google Scholar 

  • Acton, T. and Klimovâ, I. (2001) The International Romani Union — An East European answer to West European questions? Shifts in the focus of World Romani Congresses, 1971–2000, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 155–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balogh, A., (1998) Untitled and unpublished paper for ‘New Directions in Romani Studies’ conference, Greenwich: University of Greenwich, 11 June.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barany, Z. D. (1994) Nobody’s children: the resurgence of nationalism and the status of Gypsies in post-Communist Eastern Europe, in J. Serafin (ed.) East-Central Europe in the 1990s (Oxford: Westview Press), pp. 235–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barany, Z. D. (1998) Ethnic mobilisation and the state: the Roma in Eastern Europe, Ethnic and Racial Studies 21 (2): 308–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barany, Z. D. (2000) Politics and the Roma in state-socialist Eastern Europe, Communist and Post-Communist Studies 33, 421–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barth, F. (1994) Enduring and emerging issues in the analysis of ethnicity, in H. Vermeulen and C. Govers (eds) The Anthropology of Ethnicity: Beyond ‘Ethnic Groups and Boundaries’ (Amsterdam: het Spinhuis).

    Google Scholar 

  • Charter 77 (1979) Dokument 23 o situace Cikánů v Československu, Listy 2, 47, Prague: Charta 77. Translation by M. Jackson in Labour Focus, 1979 March/April (Charter 1979a) and May/June (Charter 1979b).

    Google Scholar 

  • Clébert, J.-P. (1967) The Gypsies (Harmondsworth: Penguin).

    Google Scholar 

  • Czech Government (1997) Report on the Situation of the Romani Community (known as the Bratinka Report), Prague: Office of Minister without Portfolio, accepted 29 October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czech Government (1999) Information about Compliance with Principles set forth in the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities according to Article 25, Paragraph 1 of this Convention, Government of the Czech Republic, April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czechoslovak Socialist Government (1959) Práce mezi cikánským obyvatelstvem (Work among the gypsy population), Handbook for local authorities- ’for official use only’, Edice časopisu Národní výbory, Prague: Úřad předsednictva vlády.

    Google Scholar 

  • ČTK (1995) Racism in Czech Republic: profile, ČTK News Archive, backgrounder 64, Czech News Agency Internet posting, 18 May.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidová, E. (1970) The Gypsies in Czechoslovakia I: Main characteristics and brief historical development, trans. W. Guy, Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society 3 (49): 3–4, July/October, 84–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidová, E. (1995) Romano Drom/Cesty Romů 1945–1990 (Romani Roads) (Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého).

    Google Scholar 

  • Duijzings, G. (1997) The making of Egyptians in Kosovo and Macedonia, in C. Govers and H. Vermeulen (eds) The Politics of Ethnic Consciousness (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press — now Palgrave).

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (2000a) Regular Report on the Czech Republic’s Progress towards Accession, Brussels: European Commission, 8 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (2000b) Regular Report on Slovakia’s Progress towards Accession (Brussels: European Commission), 8 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ficowski, J. (1991) The Gypsies in Poland: History and Customs (Warsaw: Interpress).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, A. (1992) The Gypsies (Oxford: Blackwell).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gheorghe, N. (1997) The social construction of Romani identity, in T. Acton (ed.) Gypsy Politics and Traveller Identity (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press), pp. 153–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gheorghe, N. and Acton, T. (1994) Dealing with multiculturality: minority, ethnic, national and human rights, ODIHR Bulletin 3, 2, winter 1994/95, Warsaw: OSCE, 18–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gheorghe, N. and Acton, T. (2001) Citizens of the world and nowhere: Minority, ethnic and human rights for Roma during the last hurrah of the nation state, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001), 54–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, T. (1993) The world overlooks Czech bigotry, Prague Post, 27 October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, T. (1994) A blot on the conscience: Czech attitudes on citizenship for gypsies come under fire, Financial Times, Supplement on Czech Republic, 19 December.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grulich, T. and Haišman, T. (1986) Institutionální zájem o cikánské obyvatelstvo v Československu v letech 1945–1958, Česky’Lid 73, (2): 72–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (1970) Czechoslovakia’s assimilation policy, unpublished paper for ‘Gypsies and Travellers’ conference, Oxford: Nuffield College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (1975a) Ways of looking at Roma: the case of Czechoslovakia, in F. Rehfisch (ed.) Gypsies, Tinkers and Other Travellers (London: Academic Press), reprinted in D. Tong (ed.) (1998), 13–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (1975b) Historical text (no pagination), in J. Koudelka, Gypsies (New York: Aperture).

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (1977) The Attempt of Socialist Czechoslovakia to Assimilate its Gypsy Population, unpublished PhD thesis, Bristol: University of Bristol.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (1998) Afterword 1996, in D. Tong (ed.) (1998), 48–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (2001a) Romani identity and post-Communist policy, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 3–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (2001b) [The Roma of] the Czech lands and Slovakia: Another false dawn?, in W. Guy (ed.) (200le), 285–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (2001c) Introduction, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), xiii-xvii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (200Id) No soft touch: Romani migration to the UK at the turn of the 21st century, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 14 (3), Autumn-Winter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guy, W. (ed.) (2001e) Between Past and Future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Haišman, T. (1999) Romové v Československu v letech 1945–1967: Vývoj institu- tionálního zájmu a jeho dopady’, in H. Lisá (ed.) (1999), 137–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, I. (1991) The East European roots of Romani nationalism, in D. Crowe and J. Kolsti (eds) The Gypsies of Eastern Europe (London: M. E. Sharpe), pp. 133–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, D. (2000) East: Poor Conditions for Roma Harm all Citizens, reporting statement by J. Verspaget, head of the Council of Europe Specialist Group on Roma, Prague: RFE/RL, 27 January.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horváthová, E. (1964) Cigáni na Slovensku (Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hübschmannová, M. (1968) ‘cikáni = Cikáni?’, Reportérova ročenka 1968 (Prague: Reportér), pp. 32–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights Watch (1996) Roma in the Czech Republic: Foreigners in their Own Land, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Report, 8, 11(D), New York: Human Rights Watch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamnická-Šmerglová, Z. (1955) Dějiny našich cikánů (Prague: Orbis).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jurová, A. (1993) Vývoj romské problematiky na Slovensku po roku 1945, Spoločenskovednýústav SAV n Košiciach (Bratislava: Goldpress).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalibová, K. (1999) Romové z pohledu statistiky a demografie, in H. Lisá (ed.) (1999), 91–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kálmán, A. (1946) A Magyar cigányok problémaja (The problem of Hungarian Gypsies), Tarsadalmi Szemle 8–9: 656–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kauerová, V. (1984) Některé demografické, ekonomické a kulturní charakteristiky cikánshého obyvatelstva v ČSSR 1980 (Some demographic, economic and cultural characteristics of the Gypsy population in the ČSSR 1980), Demografie 26 (2): 161–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kavan, Z. (1996) Democracy and nationalism in Czechoslovakia, in B. Einhorn, M. Kaldor and Z. Kavan (eds), Citizenship and Democratic Control in Contemporary Europe (Cheltenham/Vermont: Edward Elgar).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kawczynski, R. (1997) The politics of Romani politics: wresting the Romani future from the majority, Transitions 4 (4): 24–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenrick, D. (2001) [The Roma of] Former Yugoslavia: a patchwork of destinies, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 405–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenrick, D. and Puxon, G. (1972) The Destiny of Europe’s Gypsies (London: Chatto Heinemann).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kostelancik, David J. (1989) The Gypsies of Czechoslovakia: political and ideological considerations in the development of policy, Studies in Comparative Communism, XXII, 4: 307–21, Winter.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kovats, M. (1997) The good, the bad and the ugly: three faces of ‘dialogue’ — the Roma in Hungary, Contemporary Politics 3 (1): 55–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kovats, M. (2001a) The emergence of European Roma policy, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 93–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kovats, M. (2001b) [The Roma of] Hungary: Politics, difference and equality, in W. Guy (ed.) (200le), 333–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka, W. (2000) Nation-building and minority rights: comparing West and East, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 26 (2): 183–212, April.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lacková, I. (1999) A False Dawn: My Life as a Gypsy Woman in Slovakia (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press/Centre de Recherches Tsiganes).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemon, A. (2001) [The Roma of] Russia: politics of performance, in W. Guy (ed.) (200le), 227–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liégeoise, J.-P. and Gheorghe, N. (1995) Roma/Gypsies: A European Minority, Minority Rights Group International Report 95/4 (London: MRG).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lisá, H. (ed.) (1999) Romové v České republice 1945–1998, Prague: Socioklub.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marushiakova, E. and Popov, V. (2001a) Historical and ethnographic background: Gypsies, Roma, Sinti, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 33–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marushiakova, E. and Popov, V. (2001b) [The Roma of] Bulgaria: ethnic diversity - a common struggle for equality, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 370–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Y. (1998) The development of the Romani civil rights movement in Germany 1945–1996, in S. Tebbutt (ed.) Sinti and Roma: Gypsies in German-speaking Society and Literature (Oxford: Berghahn), pp. 49–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Y. (2000) Roma migrations in the post-Communist era: their historical and political significance, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, vol. XIII, no. 2, spring-summer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirga, A. and Gheorghe, N. (1997) The Roma in the Twenty-First Century: a Policy Paper, Project on Ethnic Relations policy paper (Princeton NJ: PER).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mróz, L. (2001) [The Roma of] Poland: The clash of tradition and modernity, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 252–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naegele, J. (1999) Slovak authorities suspect ‘ploť behind Romany exodus to Finland’, Radio Free Europe, 14 July.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okely, J. (1983) The Traveller-Gypsies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Orgovánová, K. (1994) Prepared statement, Human Rights Abuses of the Roma (Gypsies), Hearing before the Subcommittee on International Security, International Organisations and Human Rights of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Washington DC: US Government. Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • PER (1992) The Romanies in Central and Eastern Europe: Illusions and Reality, Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) report on roundtable discussions in Stupava, Slovakia (30 April–2 May) (Princeton NJ: PER), September.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plichtová, J. (1993) Czechoslovakia as a multi-cultural state in the context of the region: 1918–92, in Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe, Minority Rights Group International Report, 93/1 (London: MRG).

    Google Scholar 

  • Romano L’il (1973) Romano Vil, Zpravodaj 2 (Brno: Svaz Cikánů-Romů v ČSR).

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlager, E. (1998) Roma in the Czech Republic: the path of Martin Luther King or Malcolm X?, CSCE Digest 21 (4), April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, M. (1997) The Time of the Gypsies (Boulder, CO: Westview Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, M. (2001) Communist Roma policy 1945–1989 as seen through the Hungarian case, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 71–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Šidlo, J. (1999) ‘Od ohně ke svobode[e]’, Respekt 47, 15–21 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • Šiklová (1999) Romové a nevládní, neziskové romské a proromské občanské organizace přispívající k integraci tohoto etnika, in H. Lisá (ed.) (1999), 271–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tebbutt, S. (2001) [The Roma and Sinti of] Germany and Austria: The ‘Mauer im Kopf or virtual wall’, in W. Guy (ed.) (2001e), 268–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tong, D. (ed.) (1998) Gypsies: An Interdisciplinary Reader, New York: Garland.

    Google Scholar 

  • UlČ, O. (1969) Communist national minority policy: the case of the Gypsies in Czechoslovakia, Soviet Studies, April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vašečka, M. (1999) Put down in the under-class, The New Presence 10, October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vašečka, M. (2001) ‘Roma’, in G. Mesežnikov, M. Kollár and T. Nicholson (eds) Slovakia 2000: A Global Report on the State of Society (Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs).

    Google Scholar 

  • Vermeersch, P. (2000) Minority rights for the Roma and political conditionality of European Union accession: the case of Slovakia, unpublished paper for ‘Conference 2000: New Directions in Roma Studies’, University of Greenwich/University of Birmingham, 28 June–1 July.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vermeersch, P. (2001) Roma identity and ethnic mobilisation in Central European politics, unpublished paper for European Consortium for Political Research, Grenoble, 6–11 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verspaget, J. (1995) The Situation of Gypsies (Roma and Sinti) in Europe, report adopted by the CDMG (Strasbourg: Council of Europe), 5 May.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vertovec, S. (1999) Conceiving and researching transnationalism, Ethnic and Racial Studies 22 (2): 447–61, March.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willems, W. (1997) In Search of the True Gypsy: From Enlightenment to Final Solution (London: Frank Cass).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Will Guy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bristol, UK

    Steve Fenton (Professor of Sociology) (Professor of Sociology)

  2. University of Waikato, New Zealand

    Stephen May (Foundation Professor and Chair of Language and Literacy Education) (Foundation Professor and Chair of Language and Literacy Education)

Copyright information

© 2002 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Guy, W. (2002). Late Arrivals at the Nationalist Games: Romani Mobilisation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia. In: Fenton, S., May, S. (eds) Ethnonational Identities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403914125_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation