I'll admit there's a really powerful bias against Roma as charlatans, hucksters, con artists, etc. Some of it is well earned, some of it is a survival response

I'll admit there's a really powerful bias against Roma as charlatans, hucksters, con artists, etc. Some of it is well earned, some of it is a survival response to centuries of racial discrimination and segregation. However, I've personally been approached by several Roma over the years feigning some debilitating and crippling disease only to watch them hop up and run to their ride at the end of a day working the local tourist spot. But I think France's response to the Roma is unfortunate. As an American I'm intimately familiar with the downward spiral racial discrimination can have on a group. A people tends to reflect back the treatment they've received. Turning that around can take generations and instead of rounding up camps of people and force migrating them out of your territory, integration activities will have a much better end result. There are plenty of Roma throughout Europe who have managed to make the jump to integration and are productive members of society. But there's an unfortunately very large population who, as an insulative survival measure, live on the edges of society and siphon off whatever they can from the dominant civilization as they can. France's actions only justify that kind of behavior. When you never know if the winds will change and you'll be rounded up and kicked out or worse, you tend not to want to get too close.