I live in Orange County California and we have Romani families that live in caravans in the Walmart parking lot a mile down the street. They don’t really do anything the American vanlife crowd isn’t already doing here so I guess I don’t see what the problem with having a local Romani population is. Then again Orange County is a sprawl maybe nomadic lifestyles are less a ‘burden’ here than in dense cities in Europe I dunno
Idk about the specifics in the US, but for example, cities with at least 5k population here in France are legally obliged to set up an area where such people can temporary settle down and have access to water and electricity.
A lot of the time, when they leave, the premises are found heavily degraded and sometimes looted. The city has to repair everything because, as said before, they're legally forced to have them operationnal. People get really pissed because it costs money, and sometimes the city decides to pass on the cost on taxes.
Another issue is that, despite sometimes having such a terrain at their disposition, they break in and settle on private properties or even parkings. This time, they connect themselves to get electricity or water, but don't pay because the coffers protecting the cables/pipes are not made to be used that way.
I'm speaking those two things because that's what happened in my city.
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u/Neutronium57 🧂 Salt is a way of life 🧂 Oct 29 '23
When people say that, it usually means they either never had an interaction with them or straight up have none in their country.
And I'm not even justifying being racist towards them, just explaining why they've such a bad rep all over Europe.