Antigypsyism: Foundations of an ideology of hatred towards Roma

Roma communities represent the largest ethnic minority in Europe (European Parliamentary Research Service, 2021), dating their presence from the fourteenth century onwards (Council of Europe [CoE], 2012a; CoE n.d.-a; End, 2012).¹Accord-ing to the Council of Europe, it is estimated that the population of Roma citizens living currently in Europe is around 10 to 12 million (CoE, 2012a). Despite their long-standing presence in European countries, Roma are hated within their own countries. From Eastern to Western Europe, animosity towards Roma centres on public acceptance of stereotypes of their criminality and lifestyles, leading to this minority group experiencing the most bias-motivated crime and discrimination in Europe (James, 2015, p. 237). As the Council of Europe notes, Roma communities are “amongst the most deprived of all communities, facing daily discrimination and racial insults, living in extreme poverty and exclusion from the normal life that other people take for granted” (CoE, n.d.-b).In order to appreciate how and why hate against Roma has manifested, and been systematically ignored, it is necessary to consider how antigypsyism has been conceptualised over time.²Throughout this chapter, documentary evidence from academic research, public policy, and civil society reports are analysed and presented to unpack the hateful ideology against Roma. The chapter therefore provides a comprehensive and in-depth outline of the hatred suffered by Roma and argues for its importance as part of scholarship on racism and hate. Thus, the chapter addresses the current conceptualisation and theorisation of the phenomenon of hatred known as antigypsyism.