Before launching the fi eld study concerning identity constructions amongst the
Roma, we met the Roma’s baron in Moldova, Mr. Artur Cerari, in order to discuss the
Moldovan Roma’s situation, the problems they face and their community development
perspectives. At the end of our discussion, which lasted for quite a while, the baron
said some words that impressed us a lot: “We, Roma and Moldovans, have been living
together for centuries, but you, Moldovans, have always watched us from a distance”.
We rendered justice to the baron with a single reservation that Roma watch Moldovans
“from somewhere far away” too.
During the study we carried out with Roma, we tried to watch them not “from
somewhere far away”, as the baron reproached but rather from somewhere as close as
possible in order to understand the way they perceive the world and refl ect themselves
in it. We were also interested in the way they plan and imagine their life, and the
identity problems they are confronted with. Although very present in everyday reality,
and moreover, in the collective mentality, where negative labels are often attributed to
them, Roma represent quite an inciting and challenging problem in the wider sociocultural
cognition.
The data collected in this fi eld study refl ect the way Roma from Moldova perceive
and understand different aspects of identity building processes. In a second part, we
present this material analysis, but we thought it important to fi rst offer a short descriptive
note on the Roma community from the Republic of Moldova.