Gypsies are portrayed as a band of nomads who traveled around in wagons and are usually considered unscrupulous. Gosh, where to start with this idea. First of all, there is no such thing as a Gypsy. The people referred to as Gypsies are actually the Roma people (singular, Rom), who originated from northern India. Gypsy is just a designation put on them by the gadje (that means "barbarian," and anyone who isn't a Rom is a gadje). In any event, the term Gypsy is inaccurate - it comes from the Greek word aigyptoi in the erroneous belief that the Roma are natives of Eqypt. (Gypsy, Eqypt - see?) And what about Gypsies, tramps, and thieves? It is from this racist image that we get the words gyp and gyped, meaning "cheat."

A 2000 EU report about Romani said that in Romania ... the continued high levels of discrimination are a serious concern and progress has been limited to programs aimed at improving access to education. The EU has launched a program entitled Decade of Roma Inclusion to combat this and other problems.

A survey of the Pro Democrat,ia association in Romania revealed that 94% of the questioned persons believe that the Romanian citizenship should be revoked to the ethnic Roms who commit crimes abroad.

Romani people, Gipsy, constitute one of the country's largest minorities. According to the 2011 census, they number 621,573 people or 3.3% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians. The Romani are Romania's most socially and economically disadvantaged minority, with high illiteracy levels. The unofficial number of Romani people in Romania is said to be as much as 850.000.

Documenting Romania's Romani population remains difficult; many Romani do not declare their ethnicity in the census and do not have an identity card or birth certificate.