Roma migrations in Central and Eastern Europe: from the Middle Ages until nowadays a case study of Czech-Slovak Roma migration trends and flows

This paper is concerned with the ethnical aspects of migration. Specifically, it tries to explain the migration decisions of an ethnical minority on the example of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. The study describes the history of Roma migration from its origins until today. Additionally, the paper focuses on a case study of Slovak Roma asylum migrations to the Czech Republic in 1999-2006 and analysis the socio-economic reasons and outcomes of these migrations. We find that Roma migrations might have very different grounds: alongside with economic they can be social, cultural, etc. We also find that „push factors” explain Roma migration better than economic incentives.