i am trying to be careful with this discussion because i am not very familiar with the topic. please do correct me if i say something that doesn't make sense.

an important question is what does integration actually mean. my main argument here is that they mean different things in germany and in the US. (two of the countries that i can talk about from experience).

i talked to some friends in germany and they confirmed that the general expectation is that integration has to be 100%, and while we all agreed that this is actually not desirable, it explains that integration is hard, because, once integrated that way, you become completely invisible. which in turn leads to the reality that only those who are not fully integrated are being noticed leading to the impression that they are still not integrated and hence that gypsies are still nomadic, even though the reality is that it's only about 5% of them. but those 5% are the most visible in germany. when gypsies were in the news, it was the nomadic ones about problems perceived by the local population. i did hear about gypsy villages in romania, which i suppose is another way to stand out despite being not nomadic.

at this point i think it is also important to mention that they were/are not nomadic by choice, but because they needed to be, for economic reasons and also because they were not wanted due to prejudices that have lingered and been stoked for centuries. this may be the kind of racism that is like the general racism in the US. these prejudices push the impression that for those people integration is not even wanted. the jewish population is an obvious example. they were most certainly integrated at least to the degree we expect integration to happen in the US, while still keeping some unique characteristics, and yet their integration was denied.

a different but related example is american soldiers stationed in germany. there is little prejudice against them, but they too are not considered integrated until they speak german and become indistinguishable from locals. and even then, even as a german, if you live in a small town, and you are not born there, you are considered an outsider. happened to a friend of mine.

another comparison, in china, integration is considered impossible. foreigners will always be outsiders. even my children, with a chinese mother, are considered outsiders in school.

so a better answer to the question of why gypsies are not integrated is, because we don't let them. those that are actually integrated are invisible, and our negativity focuses on the remaining ones. i don't know any gypsies in person (my mother does though), so i can't say for sure, but i would guess that even those who are integrated feel the negativity towards their less integrated "relatives", making them too feel not actually integrated.

but to be sure that there is no misunderstanding, i can't stress this enough, this kind of integration to invisibility is not the kind of integration i want. on the contrary. i want integration through tolerance and acceptance. clearly, we have a lot of work to do to achieve that.