Rome and Romas

It has been awhile since I was in Rome.

I took my mother for a trip to Europe as she had never been before. I asked her to pick anyplace in the world she wanted to spend a week in. She picked Rome.

So away we went.

The trip was as trips go. St. Peter's Basillica, Campo Fiori, Gelato, Espresso, and so on and so on.

Almost a year later, what sticks in my head is not the trip, but this Roma family playing soccer on the steps of the Minerva Church (one of the only gothic churches in Rome, and my personal favorite). And out of all the majestic wonderful things I saw, ate, tasted, bought, in Rome. It is this Roma family that sticks out whenever I think back to Rome.

You see, there has been an increase of Hungarian Roma coming to Toronto in recent years. Criminal stigma aside... I often wonder: Chicken or egg

Chicken: Are Roma poor because they do not work?
Egg: Do Roma not work because they cannot get a job because of discrimination?

Chicken: Are Roma poor because they do not go to school?
Egg: Do Roma not go to school because the environment is so negative towards them?

Chicken: Most Roma are just here to mooch off of welfare
Egg: How else would Roma survive if they weren't able to work?

and so on.. and so on...

What do you think about Refugee populations? How else to better integrate and respect people and cultures into the majority society?