Bill New - "In the European Soul, Roma Have a Very Specific Spot as the Bogeyman"

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Oct 13, 2014
by Jonathan Elbaz
Bill New - "In the European Soul, Roma Have a Very Specific Spot as the Bogeyman"

Fellow of "Students at the Margins" discusses historical and ongoing Roma exclusion

Professor New during a panel discussion at the session

Professor Bill New of Beloit College has been researching the Romani people for the last 15 years. Most outsiders know Roma simply as "gypsies," and think of them as a wandering people with loose national ties and a rigid mindset of self-isolation.

During a panel discussion at "Students at the Margins and the Institutions that Serve Them: A Global Perspective," New cleared up many of the stereotypes and ambiguities about Roma, who for the last millennium have been marginalized socially and politically in virtually every place they've inhabited.

The Roma started migrating from India in the eighth and ninth centuries, and later arrived in European countries in the 1500s. Today, there are Roma in most parts of the world, and they share a common language and ethnic background. As New explains in an interview with Salzburg Global, their history is extremely tragic and the exclusionary policies they face in modern Western societies is crippling and severe.