It is hardly surprising that, given the chance, many Romanies try their luck in the richer countries of western Europe.
It is hard to see any of that working soon: the Romanies were slaves in Romania until the mid-19th century.
President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that Luxembourg, the home of the EU's justice commissioner, might like to provide the Romanies with homes.
But experience in Romania suggests that Romanies can be persuaded to send their children to school, and that governments can help.
In Britain the Big Issue magazine, designed to give homeless people something to sell instead of begging, has found eager takers among foreign Romanies.
Romanies in Europe, like any other ethnic group, are no monolith.
Those attending the congress include prominent gypsy activists, singers and actors as well as the self-styled King of the Romanies, Florian Cioba, who is from Romania.
But thousands were refused citizenship when Czechoslovakia split in 1993: a new Czech citizenship law, designed indirectly to exclude the Romanies, was introduced, and only belatedly changed.
The couple were both Romanies who spoke the Romany language.
Headlines in Europe this month have highlighted the continent's worst, and most ill-managed social problem: the treatment of millions of Romanies who face at best discrimination and at worst persecution.
The long-term answer is schooling, where the cards are subtly stacked against Romanies who want to educate their children (and the system does nothing to win over those who do not see its value).
Endless television and radio talk shows pick over France's deteriorating image abroad, touching not only the Romanies but also the strike by the national football team at the World Cup this summer and the Bettencourt affair, a political-favours scandal involving Eric Woerth, the labour minister.
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