HISTORY, CULTURE AND LEGAL CHALLENGES OF THE ROMA PEOPLE IN YEKATERIMBURG, AND A BRIEF COMPARISON WITH THEIR CONDITIONS IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The article compiles informations and narratives from the authors’ visit to a Kalderash Roma family's home located in an ethnic neighborhood on the outskirts of the Verkh-Isetsky district in Yekaterimburg (Sverdlovsk Oblast). Beforehand, the authors reviewed literature on Gypsies populations’ presence and occupation in the Ural region, and then discussed the tense interethnic relations in urban settlements where Roma lives, to finally comment on the legal challenges faced by Roma in Yekaterinburg concerning their legal status and civil and cultural rights. These rights are protected under Russian Civil Law, Property Law, and Constitutional Law. The article briefly compares the situation of the Uralian Roma with that of those living in Brazil. Gypsy communities in Brazil are dispersed throughout the country and in most cases are subject to more positive than negative stereotypes. They tend to adopt a deliberate attitude of invisibility towards the government and non-Roma communities, and there are no known cases of significant restrictions on their access to basic rights, although they are not free from cultural discrimination.