The Romani, also spelled Romany or Rromani (/ˈroʊməni/ ROH-mə-nee or /ˈrɒməni/ ROM-ə-nee), colloquially known as the Roma (sg.: Rom), are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who traditionally lived a nomadic, itinerant lifestyle.
Around 500-700 Romani people live in Norway.[1] The Roma were not recognized as one of Norway’s five national minorities until the year 1999.[2]
The small Roma minority in Norway suffered greatly during the World War II. After being denied entry to Norway in 1934, Norwegian Romani families had lived in Belgium and France, under strict state surveillance. With the German occupation of these Belgium and France in the year 1940, the majority of this Norwegian Romani community later ended up in concentration camps in France, and were later sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only four of the 66 Norwegian Romas sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp had survived.[3]
The Romani community in Norway is culturally and socially part of the Vlach Roma group from Western Europe. A increasing number of Romani people have came to Norway from Romania. The population of Romani migrants in Norway is unknown. Due to previous assimilation policies, the 4,000–10,000 Romani people are now primarily sedentary. Unlike the Roma language named Romanes in Norway, their language is called Romani. The majority of them live in Oslo, with more than 600.[4]
Roma women were sterilized in Norway.[5]
The first Romani people arrived to the country in the second half of the 19th century as a part of the second Romani diaspora, the emigration of Romani people from Hungary and Romania in around the year 1850.[6]
The Roma originally arrived in Norway during the 1800s but were banned from the country from the 1920s until 1956.[7]
Norwegian Roma speak the Scandoromani dialect.[8]
Norwegian Roma mainly live in Oslo.[9]
A small number of Romani families had came to Norway from France after 1954.[10]
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