A report on the numbers, origins, and trades of Roma Travelllers in Switzerland.

The full report can be downloaded in German here.

Introduction

The Swiss newspapers are always full of reports about mostly “foreign travellers”, i.e. Rroma, who travel through Switzerland, camp in fields or in industrial areas, and always make negative headlines. According to the media, they devastate so-called “transit sites” and leave faeces everywhere. And when they’re not celebrating a wedding (usually an arranged one, if the press is to be believed), they’re apparently on a thieving spree or earning a living through other dubious means.
While the press spreads these stereotypes, no one really knows where these “Travellers” come from, where they go, what they do, much less how many there are. The latter is repeatedly described in the press as “much” or with countless other adjectives.
This article analyzes topics such as origin, groups, way of life, work and the number of traveling Rroma in Switzerland. It is the result of both our direct work with traveling Rroma (and Sinti) in Switzerland and our media analysis of the Swiss press over the last 6 years on the subject.
We deliberately avoided naming names here and also avoided assigning identifiable characteristics such as origin and work, group or group sizes. Only under this condition was it possible to guarantee the anonymity of the traveling Rroma.