How bias begins

ALEXANDER WATSON commends a powerful examination of the portrayals of Roma people in Europe through the centuries

- ALEXANDER WATSON

In 1418, the wealthy burghers of Zurich were startled by the sudden appearance of a camp of foreigners outside their city's walls. The new arrivals were, according to a later chronicler, "strange/ and never before seen in this land". Although their clothes were ragged, they paid for all of their food and wore much gold jewellery. People believed them to be exiles from Egypt. Over the following decades, similar tales of these exotic travellers would emanate from cities as far afield as Barcelona (1447) and Vilnius (1501). These accounts recorded the arrival of the Roma people, and the beginnings of their troubled 600-year history in Europe.