Due to high rates of poverty, violence, and discrimination, the Roma (or Gypsy) population in Hungary is clearly seen as a “problem population.” As such, in recent years, there has been a great proliferation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working with and for this subordinated minority. In their work, NGOs use specific discursive strategies that clearly maintain the Roma as problems in need of solutions. In this article, I focus specifically on the manner in which well‐meaning organizations, due to constraints from external forces, rely upon stories of discrimination and an overemphasis on poverty. In doing so, they construct the Roma as “needy subjects.” Such a construction is problematic because (1) it often deprives the aid recipient of agency, (2) it obscures in‐group differentiation and projects a homogenized identity focused on the most marginalized members of the group, and (3) it does not solve a double bind facing the agencies, whose continued funding and recognition rely upon continued reinforcement of differentiated rather than integrated status for those they try to serve. Given NGOs’ growing role in delivering services and serving as a voice for marginalized people such as the Roma, recognizing and resolving this double bind is a critical task for European NGOs – and for the funding sources that support them –if they want to be effective in achieving their stated goals.

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There is little need to defend the centrality of fieldwork in the discipline of anthropology. Anthropological research conducted without “going into the field” (often for at least a year) is highly questionable. However, despite such an emphasis on fieldwork in anthropology, undergraduate students are still trained in the fashion of early “armchair anthropologists.” A true understanding of anthropology does not come from books, films, or lectures, the tools of the trade for most undergraduate anthropologists. It comes from being “in the field” (wherever that may be) and experiencing the joy, loneliness, culture shock, and language barriers that come along with it. Undergraduates should be allowed to experience as much as possible and make as many mistakes as possible. They are ready to accept the challenge of approaching another culture or community face to face and are ready to accept the vast amounts of knowledge that will come from this encounter.