Romani people in Serbia

Part of a series on
Romani people
Culture Names People
Romani people by sub-group Arlije Bergitka Roma Burgenland Roma Boyash Cascarots Crimean Roma Doma (caste) Gurbeti Kalderash Calé Kaale Kalé Lovari Lăutari Machvaya Romanisael Polska Roma Romanichal Ruska Roma Sevlengere Servitka Roma Sinti Ursari Zargari
Romani diaspora by country Albania Argentina Australia Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia-Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Colombia Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Czechoslovakia Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Mexico Montenegro New Zealand North Macedonia Moldova Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine (Crimea) United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela
WikiProject

Romani people, or Roma, are a recognized ethnic minority in Serbia.^[2] According to data from the 2022 census, they are the fourth largest ethnic group in the country, numbering 131,936 and constituting 2% of the total population.^[1] However, owing to various factors, the census figure likely underrepresents the actual population.^[3][4]

Another name used for the Romani people is Cigani (Serbian: Цигани, lit. 'Gypsies'), although the term is today considered pejorative and is not officially used in public documents.

Research on Roma migrations is scarce. Roma often lived on the margins and their presence was often not registered in documents so it is difficult to claim any definite historical path of Roma. On some accounts, Roma arrived in Serbia in several waves.^[5] The first reference to Roma in Serbia is found in a 1348 document, by which Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan donated some Roma slaves to a monastery in Prizren.^[6] In the 15th century, Romani migrations from Hungary are mentioned.^[5]

In 1927, a Serbian-Romani humanitarian organization was founded.^[7] In 1928, a Romani singing society was founded in Niš.^[7] In 1932, a Romani football club was founded.^[7] In 1935, a Belgrade first Romani magazine, Romani Lil, was founded as well as Belgrade Romani association.^[7] In 1938, an educational organization of Yugoslav Romani was founded.^[7]

Romani people in Serbia are divided into subgroups, with different, although related, Romani dialects and history. As there are difficulties with the data collection, historization, and with the questionable familiarity of the Serbian scholars with Roma lives and culture and significant demographic changes and migrations of Roma population, it is difficult to establish one definite division within Roma community. According to the study of scholar Tihomir Đorđević (1868–1944),^[8] main sub-groups include "Turkish Gypsies" (Turski Cigani), "White Gypsies" (Beli Cigani), "Wallachian Gypsies" (Vlaški Cigani), and "Hungarian Gypsies" (Mađarski Cigani).

• Turkish Roma, also known as Arlia, migrated from Turkey.^[9] At the beginning of the 19th century the Turkish Roma lived mainly in southeastern Serbia, in what was at the time Sanjak of Niš.^[10] They are mainly Muslims although the Serbian state attempted their mass conversion to the Eastern Orthodoxy after the conquest of the sanjak in 1878, but without particular success.^[10][10] T. Đorđević noted an internal division between old settlers and new settlers, who had differing traditions, speech, family organization, and occupations.^[8]
• Wallachian Roma migrated from Romania, through Banat.^[11] They have converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and mostly speak Serbian.^[12] They are related to the Turkish Roma.^[11]
• "White Gypsies", migrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the 19th century, later than other Romani groups, and considered sub-group of Turkish Roma.^[11][9] They mostly settled in towns and speak Serbian.^[11][11]
• Hungarian Roma.

The largest concentration of Romani people in are to be found in Southern Serbia, Belgrade, Banat. In some administrative districts in southern Serbia, Romani population exceeds 5% of total population: Jablanica District (5.7%), Pčinja District (5.6%), and Pirot District (5.5%), respectively.

There are some estimates that between 46,000 and 97,000 Romani people in Serbia are internally displaced persons from Kosovo after 1999.^[13][14]

There are two ethnic minority parties representing interests of Romani people in Serbia: the Roma Union of Serbia and the Roma Party.

According to data from the 2011 census, majority of Romani people in Serbia are Christians (62.7%): mainly belonging to the Eastern Orthodoxy (55.9%), followed by the Catholicism (3.3%), and various Protestant denominations (2.5%). There is also a significant Muslim Roma community, with 24.8% of all Roma being Muslim.^[15]

The Romani people in Serbia mainly speak Romani and Serbian. Some also speak the language of other people they have been influenced by: Romanian or Hungarian. In 2005 the first text on the grammar of the Romani language in Serbia was published by linguist Rajko Đurić.

Đurđevdan (or Ederlezi) is a traditional feast day of Romani in Serbia.

Due to a record of discrimination, human rights reporting mechanisms have consistently drawn attention to the treatment of the Romani people in Serbia.^[16][17] The United Nations have reported persistent discrimination and social exclusion as a concern, particularly stemming from poor birth registration and identity documentation for citizens, and inequitable access to education, housing, employment, and legal protections.^[16] The UN has expressed concerns that the state of Serbia has failed to ensure accountability measures that continually monitor and implement these rights.

These persistent challenges cause many Roma to flee Serbia and other Balkan countries for EU countries. There are cases of children from Serbia being granted refugee status in Ireland due to persecution due to Roma identity.^[18] However, with increasingly strict asylum measures in the EU, countries such as Germany are increasingly labeling Serbia and other Balkan countries as “safe countries of origin” despite a lack of measurable improvement in the ability of Roma groups to realize human rights in these countries.^[19][20]

There have been hate-crimes such against Roma community, such as the death of thirteen-year-old Dušan Jovanović (1997),^[21], murder of actor Dragan Maksimović, who was assumed by the perpertrators to be Roma.^[22] Also, there were sporadic attacks by the skinheads.

A significant number of Romani people in Serbia live in segregated areas, often in shanty towns called "cardboard cities", without electricity or water or provision of public services.^[23][24] In 2009, a group of Romani people who had been living in a large shanty town in New Belgrade were evicted on the orders of the mayor of Belgrade. According to the media, bulldozers accompanied by police officers arrived to clear the site early in the morning before the formal eviction notice was presented to the inhabitants. The site was cleared in order to make way for an access road to the site of the 2009 Summer Universiade, to be held in Belgrade later this year. Temporary alternative accommodation in the form of containers had been provided, but some 50 residents of the suburb where they had been located attempted to set fire to three of the containers. Many of the evicted Roma have spent five nights sleeping in the open in the absence of any alternative accommodation.^[25]

• Rajko Đurić, professor, journalist, and politician
• Srđan Šajn, politician
• Boban Marković, trumpeter
• Fejat Sejdić, trumpeter
• Janika Balaž, tamburitza musician
• Šaban Bajramović, folk and jazz singer
• Džej Ramadanovski, folk singer
• Usnija Redžepova, folk singer
• Mina Kostić, pop singer
• Mudja, influencer
• Predrag Luka, football player
• Dejan Osmanović, football player
• Ahmed Ademović, soldier
• Zejna Murkić, pop singer

• Romano-Serbian language
• Gurbeti
• Lovari
• Khrlo e Romengo

• Vlahović, Petar (2004). Serbia: the country, people, life, customs. Ethnographic Museum. ISBN 978-86-7891-031-9.
• IFDT (2005). Umetnost preživljavanja: gde i kako žive Romi u Srbiji. IFDT. ISBN 978-86-17-13148-5.

• Rajko Đurić; Václav Havel (2006). Istorija Roma: (pre i posle Aušvica). Politika. ISBN 978-86-7607-084-8.
• Biljana Sikimić (2005). Banjaši na Balkanu: identitet etničke zajednice. Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, Balkanološki Institut. ISBN 9788671790482.
• Dragoljub Acković (2009). Romi u Beogradu: istorija, kultura i tradicija Roma u Beogradu od naseljavanja do kraja XX veka. Rominterpres. ISBN 978-86-7561-095-3.
• Zlata Vuksanović-Macura; Vladimir Macura (2007). Stanovanje i naselja Roma u jugoistočnoj Evropi: prikaz stanja i napretka u Srbiji. Društvo za Unapređivanje Romskih Naselja. ISBN 978-86-904327-2-1.
• Roma in Serbia. Fond za humanitarno pravo. 2003. ISBN 978-86-82599-45-6.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Romani people in Serbia.

• Romani people in Vojvodina Archived 15 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
• Participation of Romani in the government in Vojvodina