living in france, the general sentiment has not changed in roughly 900 years (maybe more, but i haven't seen older sources than the XIIth century). gypsys, romas, and other nomadic people have never been welcome anywhere because they were associated with disease and theft. you can have a very interesting read on the subject if you look for the "errant jew" myth (antijudaism dates back to slightly before the turn of the first millenium and went up from the XIIth to the XIVth century).
whether true or not, roma are now associated with parasiting the system, child exploitation and human trafficking along with theft. we are faced with a conundrum: the roma do not speak the language and cannot get proper schooling because even if they're legal immigrants in france they are still considered scum, so they close up their community to the french, creating a downward spiral. for the roma to enjoy full citizenship, the european governments should overlook their sorry reputation.
on the other hand, it has been proven time and time again that a considerable minority (to the tune of 10%) of roma do engage in awful practices: children begging as young as 3 years old, human trafficking, theft (mostly "precious" metals like copper and zinc sold to metal recyclers). it's a statistics game as always. the few visible roma in toulouse are mostly of the "young woman with child begging" type. i've talked to a couple who try and integrate saying that those people are attached to roma crime syndicates and are building huge fortunes back home on the exploitation of others. a side effect is that those few bastards are making it hell for other roma who just want to live according to their nomad tradition.
the eu suffers from the fall of the ussr: we have a rich western block, a poor eastern block, and an economic crisis making things worse. crime is obviously on the rise, and with nationalism rising, we're looking at a real powder keg for social unrest.
tl;dr: it's a major culture shock and both the eu and the roma tribes are suffering from it.
