French regional news service Le Progrès has asked why Roma communities are ending up living in camps around Lyon and sent a reporter to Romania to talk to families about their lives and their reasons for heading to France. “We live better there, even in the slums. Here there is no work,” said Victor, who lives in Romanian city Oradea and is of Roma ethnicity.

He went on to say that many Roma in the area, including him, had been to France at least once. Victor described going to Lyon, Marseille and Paris, where he and his family begged and collected and resold scrap metal. When they had made EUR 200, they returned to Romania.

Le Progrès also describes the desperate living conditions and poverty facing Roma, crammed into makeshift shacks lacking in basic amenities and woefully inadequate for Romania's cold winters. The French article also quotes some Romanians from the area, who use the derogatory expression 'ţigani' for Roma people, say they are unhygienic and express the common Romanian paranoia over Western Europeans confusing Roma and Romanians and believing they are one and the same.

“We have nothing in common,” said a young Romanian man to Le Progrès. The article also quotes a French national living in Romania, who believes that many Romanians consider Roma people “subhuman.”

Read Le Progrès article. (in French)

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com