Romani (Gypsy) Refugees after World War Two

What is it about?

This article shows how the westward migration of Roma (Gypsies) after World War II and during the early years of the Cold War breaks with several common assumptions about the history of displaced persons, refugees, and Roma alike. Contrary to claims about unbroken continuities in the persecution of European Roma, in the immediate post-war years officers of the International Refugee Organization used “Gypsy” as a privileged category that improved an applicant’s changes of getting support from the organization. This situation changed by the 1950s, when national refugee administrations replaced the earlier international refugee regimes established in the wake of the war. In this period government officials concerned with protecting national interests reverted to earlier classifications of “Gypsies” as nomads who were, by definition, not refugees.

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Why is it important?

This is the first article to explore the migration experiences of European Roma in the post-war period based on a large data set.