The Romani people left India about 1000 years ago. Currently they are in the news because of the rising level of racist attacks on them in Eastern Europe and the controversy over caravan sites in the UK and other West European countries. Research and teaching have now been established at the University of Greenwich for a number of years, with participation in both national and international policy studies. V, which co-ordinates most European Community research on Gypsies and Travellers.
External students funded by their employers are very welcome.
A large follow-up conference took place in July 1996. Publications presenting the results of this work will be published during 1997. Other countries did the same thing, and in every country of Western Europe a local group of Travellers was formed, some claiming to be Romani, others not, but each with their own dialect. Together they number around 100,000 in the UK, about half nomadic. Across the world there are more than 100 groups.