 Macedonian Romani children (around 1900) | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 46,433 (2021 census) | |
| Languages | |
| Majority Balkan Romani,Macedonian Minority Albanian | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam 75%,Christianity 25%[1] |
Romani people inNorth Macedonia (Macedonian:Македонски Роми,romanized: Makedonski Romi) are one of the constitutional peoples of the country.
According to the last census from 2021, there were 46,433 people counted asRomani, or 2.53% of the population.[2] The majority are Muslim Romani people. Another 3,843 people have been counted as "Egyptians" (0.2%).
Some of the majority groups are theArlije[3] andGurbeti.[4]
Other sources claim the number to be between 80,000[5] and 260 000[6] Roma in North Macedonia or approximately 4 to 12% of the total population.
The municipality ofŠuto Orizari is the only municipality in the world with aMuslim Romani people majority and the only municipality whereBalkan Romani is an official language alongsideMacedonian. The mayor of the municipality, Kurto Dudush, is an ethnic Roma.
In 2009, theGovernment of the Republic of North Macedonia took measures to enlarge inclusion of Romani in the education process.[7]
North Macedonia is theregion's leader in respecting the rights of the Romani people. It is the first country in the region with a minister of Romani ethnicity and also has many Romani in high government positions. However, there is still a lot to be done concerning the education and integration of the Romani.[8]
The Romani people originate fromNorthernIndia,[9][10][11][12][13][14] presumably from the northwestern Indian statesRajasthan[13][14] andPunjab.[13]
The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines.[15]
More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon withHindi andPunjabi. It shares many phonetic features withMarwari, while its grammar is closest toBengali.[16]
Genetic findings in 2012 suggest the Romani originated in northwestern India and migrated as a group.[10][11][17]According to a genetic study in 2012, the ancestors of present scheduled tribes and scheduled caste populations ofnorthernIndia, traditionally referred to collectively as theḌoma, are the likely ancestral populations of the modern European Roma.[18]
In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, theIndian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to theGovernment of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of theIndian diaspora.[19]
The earliest record of Romani presence in North Macedonia dates back to the late 13th century. During theOttoman period, some Romani prospered and were able to become middle-class, especially in urban areas.[20] The population of the Romani declined significantly due to the effects of theBalkan Wars. In the 1930s,Skopje was known as a cultural hub for the Romani, in where their population was estimated to be 10,000 (out of a total 70,000 at the time).[20]
During World War II, the Macedonian Romani allied with theYugoslavi Partisans. For their support,Josip Tito considered creating an autonomous region for the Romani in the Yugoslav Macedonia. Even though the proposal went nowhere, this positive climate would lead to the Macedonian Romani enjoying a cultural renaissance throughout theSocialist era.[20]
In 1971, the Macedonian constitution officially recognized the Romani as an ethnic group. This enabled the sanctioned use of theRomani flag as well as a growth of radio and television broadcasts in the Romani language. In the 1980s, the Romani were pressured to identify as Albanian due to the rise ofKosovar Albanian nationalism.[20] Additionally, the Romani were negatively affected by theYugoslavian Wars. However, the Romani continued to form many associations and groups to express and research their culture and history.[20] In the early 1990s, an independentRomanistan (a state for the Romani people) was proposed by leaders of theParty for the Complete Emancipation of Roma.[21]
In modern times, the Romani in North Macedonia often face discrimination, higher levels of poverty and are often treated as a "underclass" by the wider society. Compared to other Balkan Romani groups, the Macedonian Romani face less harsh treatment and marginalization but issues continue to persist for the community.[20]
The Romani in North Macedonia speak three differentBalkan Romani dialects: Arli (the most prominent of the three), Džambaz, and Burgudži.[22] While 46,433 individuals declared Romani ethnicity in the2021 census, only 31,721 declared Romani as their mother tongue.[23]
.PNG)
The majority areMuslim Romani people who arecultural Muslims and some practisedSufism, with a minority of Christian who belong to theEastern Orthodox Church and a few toEvangelicalism.
Established mainly in the Bronx where they have established two mosques, the Xoraxane are an Islamic population originating in Nort Macedonia and surrounding areas of the Balkans, several hundred families of whom came to America beginning in the late 1960s. They maintain minimal ties with other Romani American populations, include engineers and teachers among their number, and have established soccer and other social clubs.[24]
Most of them came in the 1960s as guest workers from Yugoslavia, as they were called Yugoslavs back then. The fact that they were Roma and Muslims - from Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia - was something the guest workers hid for a long time. It was only with the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s, which triggered a large exodus to Western Europe, that the past returned: Muslim Roma from their hometowns suddenly appeared on the doorstep, former neighbors, relatives. Little by little they found each other in their new homeland of Germany. In Düsseldorf they built a mosque. Iman Ajdini, a young theologian from Skopje in Macedonia, preaches in Arli - Romanes, the native language of the congregation members.[25]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Roma Rajastan Penjab.
Zatímco romská lexika je bližší hindštině, marvárštině, pandžábštině atd., v gramatické sféře nacházíme mnoho shod s východoindickým jazykem, s bengálštinou.
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