Cudza Roma

cudza Roma – "foreign Roma". Roma who belong over the (flexible) amare Roma border.

In the course of history, it has often happened that "foreign Roma" either came to or, for some reason, were forced into, a locality where settled Roma lived with their non-Roma neighbours. They usually upset the balance of cohabitation between Roma and non-Roma. The entire Roma community often suffered for the occasional transgressions of "foreign Roma".

One of many examples of this is the flood of Sinti and Roma to Bohemia when their lives were threatened by Nazism in Germany at the end of the 1930's. In the new, unknown land, they had no opportunity to make a living with their traditional crafts and were forced to beg, some even to steal. The result was an escalation of anti-Gypsy measures which affected all Roma.

Repeated experiences throughout history have led to the fact that relations between amare Roma and cudza Roma have become, a priori, filled with suspicion and even enmity.

Reserved relations towards foreign Roma have also come from traditional distances between castes. This tradition has its roots in India.