Members of Portugal’s gypsy community say they are discriminated against on a daily basis
Roma gypsy associations are vowing to not give up until anti-gypsyism is officially considered a form of racism in Portugal.
Today marks the International Day of Gypsy People, a date created at the First World Romani Congress in 1971 to promote the integration of members of the gypsy community into society, making their culture and history known.
Bruno Gonçalves, vice-head of the Letras Nómadas Association, shared his personal experience of daily discrimination, including feeling scrutinised and mistrusted in public spaces,
Speaking to Lusa news agency, Bruno Gonçalves said that in his 49 years of life he has never felt as much racism as he does today, lamenting that he feels singled out by society for the sole reason of being a gypsy.
“I feel it in my skin every day when I go to a supermarket,” he said, suggesting that security guards keep a closer eye on him than others because of who he is.
“They don’t look at Bruno as a person, a citizen with a degree, a citizen who used to be a councillor. Firstly, they look at me as a gypsy, with all the associated stereotypes,” he added, guaranteeing that, despite being tired, he won’t give up the fight.
Susana Silveira, founder of the Associação Costume Colossal (Colossal Costume Association), which works on the integration of gypsy communities, shared her experience of being sacked after her employers realised she was a gypsy.
“After all, something is wrong and it’s not me who doesn’t want to be integrated. Isn’t it rather this society that doesn’t want to welcome me?” she asked, emphasising that “there are good and bad people everywhere”, both among Portuguese gypsies and among Portuguese who are not gypsies.
Silveira also highlighted the lack of affordable housing and job opportunities as major issues faced by the Roma community. These problems are compounded by widespread prejudice, which she says makes it even harder for gypsies to break out of poverty.
Bruno Oliveira, founder of the Intercultural Gypsy Association (Incig), echoed these concerns, particularly regarding the challenges gypsies face in securing housing and employment.
“Even if you can afford to rent or buy a house, there’s always the discrimination associated with the gypsy community, in other words, the socio-economic situation in which gypsy communities live, in terms of poverty, isn’t enough,” he pointed out.
According to Bruno Oliveira, the same goes for employment, “where many [Gypsy] people have to hide their cultural identity so that they don’t get fired”.
He added that the difficulties in accessing employment and housing lead to situations of exclusion, which are compounded by health problems that partly explain why gypsies have a lower average life expectancy than the majority community.
According to the vice-head of the Letras Nómadas Association, and based on studies by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), “a Portuguese gypsy woman lives on average 12 years less than a woman from the majority society”.
On the other hand, regarding the housing problem, Bruno Oliveira said that “there are studies that say that 33% of gypsy communities live in tents and shacks” in Portugal.
“Another condition we have is that if we try to take this to court and prove that this person was the victim of a racist act, there is no such thing, we can’t prove it,” emphasised Susana Silveira.
Bruno Oliveira pointed out that Spain is celebrating the 600th anniversary of the arrival of the first gypsy citizens, stressing that in Portugal the reality is very different, pointing out that anti-gypsyism has become normalised.
He argued that it used to be a feeling that “often lay dormant”, while today the reality is a normalisation of this feeling and a “daily condemnation of gypsy communities by a political party”.
“There is no longer any social shame in putting everyone in the same bag and generalising. And it’s been very easy because anti-gypsyism is being normalised in our country,” he denounced.
He therefore called for measures to be taken, namely for anti-gypsyism to be included in the legal framework, since “it’s a criminal offence” and “a form of racism that is being propagated in a very strong way”, which “must be sanctioned”.
“We’re not giving up,” he said.
