The Czech Republic is the European country with the 8th highest population of Gypsies/Roma. Estimates come to 250 - 300 thousand Roma from their total European population of approximately 7 million. (Roma's population in Europe) Roma came to Europe in migrating caravans of dark-skinned people with mysterious culture, clothes, language. Although no one really knows for sure whey this ethnicity came from, based on the linguistic, social and anthropological studies, it is believed that early Roma (mostly referred as "gypsies")descent from Asian continent, probably from India.
more details on the Roma history in Europe
During the Medieval
times they slowly spread around the Middle East, Mediterranean
and consequently to Europe. The exact time, when Roma came to
the Czech lands is not known, but the earliest estimates come
to the mid 13th century. In those times they were quite popular
known to the local habitant especially by their distinctive culture
and more over by their nomadic way of life. In the earlier Medieval
Age they were considered as a penitent Christian Pilgrims and
generally well accepted, although never really integrated into
local population mostly because of their own close community life
style and cultural differences.
Only lately starting in the 15th to 16th century Gypsies fallen
in the general opinion, since they were officially excommunicated
from the Christina Church and at the same time started to be feared
as Tatar's spies (thanks to their similar physical looks).
During the most of the late Middle Age Gypsies were strongly persecuted and discriminated which culminated in 1697, when by the Imperial decree Gypsies were placed outside law in the Czech Lands and could be even killed without any punishment. The situation for Czech Gypsies brightened a bit in the 18th century, when they became recognized as an official separate ethnicity, but on the other hand since then assimilation attempts, including a forbiddance of nomadic life and usage of Romani language, were continuously carried out until the recent times.
Another landmark in
the Czech Roma's history was the World War II, when the Nazi racial
theories considered them inferior people in very much the same
way as Jews. Accordingly Gypsies were being sent to work camps
or just exterminated. According to the census of August 2, 1942,
more than 6,500 Roma from the Protectorate were rounded up.
After the war the original Czech Roma population was almost annihilated
and waste majority of recent Czech Roma came from Hungary, Romania
and Eastern Slovakia and became quickly dispersed throughout Bohemia
and Moravia, mostly in industrial cities.
During the Communistic
regime and the social state economy ('48-'89), the assimilation
forces were again prominently carried out in the name of egalitarianism.
Gradual dissolution of the traditional Romani ways of life and
population growth also deepened the levels of poverty and social
backwardness of the Roma, and thus the growth in their crime-rate.
That is why also Roma were dealt with as a socially backward group
of the population, and the state's remedies were confined to various
forms of social support, which helped the Roma survive, but also
taught them to rely completely on the state, and not on their
own devices.
more details on the Roma History in the Czech Lands
After the 1989 Velvet revolution, which brought the Czech Republic to transition into democratic and capitalistic society, Roma started to face high unemployment after the collapse of the social safety net, as a consequence of their low skill levels and the general prejudice they face from the "white" population. Furthermore, the occurrence of racial acts of violence became more frequent and severe as some of the xenophobic and racist groups emerged; the two most prominent are the Czech Republican Party and moreover the Skinhead movement.