Discrimination And Poverty

Discrimination and racism are epidemics that many populations, including the Roma, suffer from, and it impacts them in childhood through adulthood. The Roma people are a prime example of a population that has been victimized by racism since their arrival in Europe. Facing prejudice at every turn has caused most of the Roma people to live in extreme poverty, with little access to education, medical care, and information regarding the programs and organizations set up to help them. These people are stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of poverty caused by discrimination, and vice versa. Poverty makes it difficult for people to supply their children with the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter; much less school expenses or transportation costs to get to a school or job, while racial or ethnic profiling makes it difficult to qualify for a job or get accepted into schools in the first place. The Roma people are an ethnic group who are spread around the world with the most concentrated populations in Europe. They originally came from India, and then travelled to the Middle East, and ended up in Europe around the fourteenth century, with some of the largest populations settling in Romania (Romani-Gypsies pg. 1). Before coming to Europe, the Roma people were Hindu, and some Roma populations continue to maintain their initial religion, while others were influenced into becoming Christian or Muslim depending on where they settled. Eastern and Central Europe have