The Rom first enteredMoravia at the beginning of the fifteenth century and in the course of time their numhers increased. Because of their distincteness, different lifestyle and hehaviour the majoritě society accepted them with mistrust, uneasiness andgrowing antagonism. These negative attitudes resulted in repressive normative acts that represented the basis of restriction, banishment and persecution of the Rom immigrants. The anti-Rom manhunts started in the sixteenth century, continued and escalated in the next decades and culminated in the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The discrimination and persecution then continued, in a somewhat more moderate character, and didn ’t stop even in the rule oflaw: in the Austrian monarchy as well as in the democratic Czechoslovakia the Rom kept being citizens of the second rank.
The professional structure of the Romani ethnics developed in an uneven pace and in a regressive way. The traditional blacksmiths, horse-dealers, musicians or artists were outweighed by wage-workers , home-producers and unproductive persons with illegal sources of income. Because of this the experiences and usages passed over from one generation to another were disappearing. The only thing left was the coarse work force and even this was possible to be used casually and in season. Outside the summer months members of some families had to complement their incomes by begging, petty thefts and other forms of sponging.