4. ROMA CHILDHOOD IN EASTERN EUROPE

This paper illustrates the problems of Roma children through the life of a particular group of emigrants and aims to determine what is behind the decision to emigrate and what it takes to support adaptation to a new social environment. European literature has not dealt with the emigration of this ethnic group until now because during the period from the introduction of the Iron Curtain until 1990, emigration from East to West was minimal except during the major political upheavals.