Catalina works for a Roma NGO and as a schoolteacher. Catalina sits with Nicoleta, Catalina's aunt who brought her up and gave her a good education, and her father Slorin in her aunt's home. Nicoleta works as a road cleaner for the municipality and is worried about losing her job. All the cleaners cleaners and refuse collectors are Roma. Alexandria, Romania..Roma Gypsies left India 1000 years ago. Often nomadic. A collection of tribes with their own languages and culture, pushed by the Ottoman empire towards Europe, used and sold as mercenaries, slaves, prostitutes. They endured 500 years of slavery until mid 19th century. A million were killed in the holocaust. Hundreds of thousands exiled and refugees from kosovo. Many Eastern Europe Roma come to the west seeking a better life. They are shunned, marginalized, excluded. Both indigenous and foriegn Roma, whether European citizens or not, lack the opportunities of others, living on the periphery, in the brunt of racism, often deported back to their countries of origin.
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