"[Roma] are the largest minority on the continent and their situation is deplorable in terms of lack of respect for their human dignity, human well-being, being targeted for hate, exclusion, and shoved to the edges of our societies," European Council commissioner for human rights Michael O’Flaherty told EUobserver in an interview.
In my opinion it’s not race but values. I assume that many Roma don’t want to be mindless consumer drones and don’t buy into the pacifying narrative that life is all about buying a house and driving a nice car.
This clashes not only with individual Europeans and their assumptions about life plans but also the EU itself. Supposedly we can all live together peacefully, but differences in value preferences make that difficult. If we would have a truthful debate about Romas we would have that debate about all cultures and many would start questioning the membership in the EU.