In Spain, Gypsies Find Easier Path to Integration - NYTimes.com

In Spain, Gypsies Find Easier Path to Integration - NYTimes.com: "Encarnación Rómero Bastante, a manicurist, was not sure what to expect when she was hired by a government-financed program to train a 33-year-old Gypsy woman.
Carina Ramírez Montero, 24, lives in a shantytown in Seville and is part of a theater troupe of Gypsy women touring the country. But within a few weeks, Ms. Romero said her student, Emilia Jiménez González, knew all there was to know about cuticles and French tips. She was so good and so nice that Ms. Romero went a step further than required and persuaded a friend to give Ms. Jiménez a job.
“She proved herself to be a real professional,” said Ms. Romero, who had never gotten to know a Gypsy before.
Throughout Europe, Gypsies (who are often called Roma, but not in Spain where the Spanish word for gypsy, “gitano,” is uttered with pride) frequently survive in isolated encampments, reviled as beggars and petty thieves. In some Eastern European countries, they face such deep prejudice that they are chased off municipal buses, and in school their children are relegated to classes for the mentally handicapped.
Even in Western Europe, France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, could count on shoring up his popularity when he decided to deport thousands of Roma to Romania earlier this year.
But things are different in Spain."

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