Why Does The Roma/Pavee/Irish Traveler Economy Rely On Scams?

Factual Questions
1

I’m an administrator of a town gossip/goings-on group in my little corner of Red State America, and recently a guy joined the group and began advertising his duct-cleaning services. However, when members started asking questions – mainly along the lines of “who the hell are you?” – he deleted his profile. The God-fearing townsfolk have concluded that he was an Irish Traveler (or Pavee), a group that, like Gypsies*, travels about and relies on scams for their economy.

Here in the US anyway, no white person is going to have trouble getting hired for a, you know, real job and not a duct-cleaning scam. Not in this time of labor shortages. Further still, the social and economic realities that, in Europe anyway, forced the Roma, the Pavee, and similar groups into itinerate lifestyles of constantly being on the move, and being unable to get real work, are simply absent here. Sure, there’s bigotry here and there, but if you’re white, even if you’re Irish, even if you’re Catholic, even if you have strong Mediterranean features, you’re going to be fine. You’re not going to face systemic and widespread discrimination or hostility like you would in, say, Hungary.

Is this centuries-old reliance on scams for money so baked into these groups’ cultures that the idea of living legitimately is just not on their radar? I mean, even if you travel around with your own people group because that’s what you do, you still shouldn’t have any trouble finding real work, even if it’s only temporary.

Am I missing something?

*I’m fully aware that the use of the word “Gypsies” is not considered best practice these days. Further, I’m not trying to suggest that every last person of Roma or Pavee or whatever ancestry is a flim-flam artist.

Edited to add: it was a toss-up to put this in either FQ or IMHO.

2
  1. Some people are just crooks.
  2. It’s not clear why you’ve decided that this guy is a member of some group, rather than thinking that he’s simply a lone crook.
4

This OP has drawn flags very quickly for being offensive. I’m leaving it closed until a GQ mod can review it.

5

Upon review, this will remain closed.

  1. Pavee is often considered offensive. You should refrain from using it here.
  2. Gypsy is also considered offensive. You even noted this in the OP but used it anyway.
  1. This is blatantly discriminatory.

There is a valid discussion to be had about how traveling groups like these manage to make a living, but the OP here is a really good example of how not to do it. Try not starting with the underlying assumption that their entire economy is based on scams, for one.