Although for centuries the Romanis have been referred to by a score of exonyms, such as gypsies, Tsiganes, Zigeuner, Gitanos, and others, the preferred self-ascriptions—Romani, Romanies, or Roma—are being used more frequently as media attention focusing on the Romanis has multiplied in recent years. This has been the result of social changes brought about by the collapse of communism in Europe, which then led to the emergence of previously suppressed ethnic nationalism with such extreme measures as ethnic cleansing in the early 1990s, and the expulsion or even destruction of non-co-ethnics from historically claimed ethnolinguistic territories. Lacking a country of their own into which to retreat, the Romanis have suffered a particularly harsh existence as a consequence.

Almost the entire experience of the Romanis has, in fact, been one of conflict, highlighted by two major episodes in their millennium-long history:...