1. All is quoted. it is the summary of the report, as LGI OSI published it.

2. What I think is that is very illustraive, as all this social polls, on what is the right answer in each country... For testing reality, I believe in other research methods that must be included in the research (on depth interviews and other qualitative methods).

In most of Europe it is highly accepted that you would feel unconfortable in the vicinity of "that dirty uneducated thiefs"... The problem of Roma integration/acceptance/cohabitation or whatever model you may prefer with a nomadic people, is a existing problem, and bad stereotyping an important part of it.

The results in Spain and Romania, I find them quite curious, from my personal experience. In Spain we are always Saint Mary and Jesus Christ in polls: we don't consider ourselves racist, we help the poor, we wouldn't kill a fly... Because that's the correct answer, the socially correct answer, the Catholic? correct answer. But that level of "confort", I don't think it's sincere. In Romania people do speak aloud without shame on hating gipsies, do say jokes, do say "let's send them all to Italy or Spain"... So I think that the "good neighbours" answer is the answer they give to EU, to foreigners thsat asked about it, because they know a good EU citizen would think otherwise (in public). Why the answer is more harsh in Hungary or Czech Republic, no idea at all...

"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." (Fahrenheit 451)

P.S. Do you only wash hands when eating with Roma people???? :):):)

"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." (Fahrenheit 451)

Browsing the web, I found interesting listings on famous Roma people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roma,_Sinti_and_Mixed_People
http://www.imninalu.net/famousGypsies.htm

I don´t know many of them anyway, but, let´s forget about singers. Bob Hoskins, Charles Chaplin... Not bad. But, always artists? Well, there´s a nobel prize (August Krogh).

And well again, you know that soccer players in Spain are our pride... Real Madrid´s José Antonio Reyes, part of the team that won the European Cup a month ago, is Roma. Dani Güiza also is called often "the gipsy from Jerez" but I´m not sure if it´s a "school nickname" because he´s quite dark-haired, like calling "Chinese" someone with narrow eyes. Could be. Typical Spanish, not despective. Had "Chineses" in most of my classes when I was little...

"If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." (Fahrenheit 451)

On average darker skin than that of the rest of the local population, many with some recognisable facial characteristics, clothing if traditional, and many live with some off-the-local-norm social customs like living together in large quarreling families.

Of course, if people bothered to look at a sample of individuals from the group, they'd see what pereuleok says about middle-class Roma becoming unnoticed, and that non-Roma can have a "Gypsy appearance". (To examples close to home: I could trip up a more right-wing minded relative who argued about a 'Gypsy problem' by reminding him of his darker complexion; while the leader of main opposition party Fidesz, former PM Viktor Orbán not only has a darker skin but some facial characteristics normally recognised as "Gypsy", inspiring some nasty racist digs from Socialist voters to annoy his nationalist voters.)

And the ironic part is that for practically the whole Balkans, it is true that in the country neighbouring to the Northwest, many locals will see you as a Gypsy. (I.e. if you come from Turkey to Bulgaria, or from Bulgaria to Serbia, or from Romania to Hungary, or from Hungarí to Austria.)

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}