Socio-cultural background of the Romani communities in the Netherlands

From ca. 1500 onwards a minority has been identified in the Netherlands called "Zigeuners", a category to indicate Roma and Sinti, but often also "Travellers", people of non-Roma or Sinti origin, who have to travel for their profession (show-people and performers for fairs and circuses, market-vendors, seasonal workers, et al.).

Until recently this lumping together in one single category was even official policy in the Netherlands, creating a lot of problems for the implementation of policy and projects for the groups, because most of the groups do not want to be treated within that single category.

Only a very small percentage of "Travellers" has actually merged with Sinti through intermarriage. Roma and Sinti, although culturally and ethnically related, consider themselves as different groups, and hardly mingle or intermarriage.

The use of one single category to indicate people with a mobile lifestyle is now highly criticised, and it seems that Dutch officials and policymakers are willing to abandon this top-down categorisation. There is even a tendency among officials and policymakers to accept and respect the distinction which Roma and Sinti are practising amongst each other.

Sinti families (approximately 3.250 people) are living in the Netherlands for more than two centuries. The majority of the Sinti can be found in the Southern part of the Netherlands. They have family ties with Sinti groups in Germany, Belgium, and France.
Sinti groups are more willing to integrate into Dutch civil society than the Roma groups, which have strong family ties with Roma groups in Eastern Europe.

The presence of Roma groups in Dutch society is comparatively recent. The first wave of Roma (approximately 100 people) came to the Netherlands about a century ago. The second wave of Roma (number unknown) came to the Netherlands in the 1960s as migrant workers, following migrant workers from the Balkan.
The third wave consists of approximately 1.000 nomadic Roma who were admitted to the Netherlands in the 1970s.
The fourth wave consists of approximately 20.000 Roma who came to the Netherlands as refugees and asylum seekers during the war in former Yugoslavia.

As in other parts of Europe, Roma and Sinti in the Netherlands are experiencing various forms of discrimination and exclusion from mainstream Dutch society.
Also the closed nature of their culture and their predominant nomadic and mobile way of life does not stimulate integration into mainstream civil society.
Many Roma and Sinti families in the Netherlands are still living in vicious circles of exclusion, segregation of mainstream society, poverty, lack of education, and lack of work and income.

Because Roma and Sinti are very heterogeneous groups, there is also lack of capacity to organise themselves into non governmental or civic organisations for actions, especially if the actions go beyond the boundaries of the own local group.

Most of the NGOs taking care of Roma and Sinti affairs on the regional or national level are founded and run by "Gadje" (non-Roma and non-Sinti) caretakers.

Only since the 1990s a national Sinti organisation came into being (LSO), and a couple of years later some smaller Roma organisations, which claim to operate on a national level, but in fact are only operating on a regional level.
Roma and Sinti organisations in the Netherlands are still lacking the capacity to cope with human rights and minority issues on the European level.

Some church and donor organisations only recently started to focus more on empowerment and capacity building for Roma and Sinti.
In 2002, Cordaid (the Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development) and the United Dutch Protestant Churches, together with representatives of Roma and Sinti, helped to establish a completely by Roma and Sinti owned lobby office in Brussels (ERIO), to enhance empowerment and capacity for these groups also on the EU level.