Romani people in Portugal

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The Romani people in Portugal are known by non-Romani ethnic Portuguese as ciganos (Portuguese pronunciation: [siˈɣɐnuʃ]), but are also alternatively known as calés, calós, and boémios.

As implied by some of their most common local names, the native Portuguese Romani belong to the Iberian Kale (Kalos) group, like most of the fellow Lusophone Brazilian ciganos, and the Spanish Romani people, known as gitanos, that share their same ethnic group. Their presence in the country goes back to the second half of the 15th century when they crossed the border from neighbouring Spain. Early on, due to their sociocultural differences, race and nomadic lifestyle, the ciganos were the object of fierce discrimination and persecution.[1]

The number of Romani people in Portugal is difficult to estimate, since it is forbidden to collect statistics about race or ethnic categories in the country. According to data from Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance[2] there are about 40,000 to 50,000 spread all over the country.[3] According to the Portuguese branch of Amnesty International, there are about 30,000 to 50,000.[4]

References

  1. ↑ (in Portuguese) Joel Serrão, Ciganos, in Dicionário de História de Portugal, Lisboa, 2006.
  2. ↑ (in Portuguese) ECRI (2002), Relatório da Comissão Europeia contra o Racismo e a Intolerância - Segundo Relatório sobre Portugal, Estrasburgo, p. 23 (In Portuguese). Archived 2008-12-18 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ (in Portuguese) "Comissão critica Portugal por discriminar ciganos" in Diário de Notícias, 13/02/2007 Archived 2009-01-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ As reported by the newspaper Público on April 7, 2010 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-05. Retrieved 2010-04-07. .
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