Roma minority of Hungary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Roma people of Hungary Magyar cigányok - Magyarországi romák |
|---|
 |
| Total population |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, Nógrád County |
| Languages |
| Hungarian (c. 90%), Romany (c. 10%) |
| Religions |
| Roman Catholicism (almost exclusively), Calvinism |
The Roma people (Hungarian: cigányok or Hungarian: romák) in Hungary represents about 2%-6% of the total population. Since World War II, the number of Roma has increased rapidly, multiplying sevenfold in the last century. Today every fifth or sixth newborn is Roma. Today, Hungary represents the country with the largest Roma minority as percentage of total population in the world. Estimates based on current demographic trends project that in 2050, 20.9% of the population (1.64 million people) will be Roma.[3] Roma people constitute the most disadvantaged and most discriminated against minority in Hungary, the group has been historically a frequent target of various forms of official and unofficial discrimination and prejudice. The Roma continue to be among the poorest in the country. Their birth rates are much higher and their average expected life span is significantly lower than the national average.
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[edit] History and language
They first appeared in Hungary in the 14th and 15th centuries fleeing the conquering Turks in the Balkans. A significant number migrated further to West European countries. Since they were thought to be Egyptian pilgrims in some places, they are still known by the term gypsy in these areas today. This race with an alien culture and unfamiliar with agricultural production was soon expelled and deported from Western Europe, sometimes brutally. Some tribes managed to hold onto homes in the Mediterranean region but the majority retreated to Central and Eastern Europe.
In the mid-18th century Maria Theresa (1740-1780) and Joseph II (1780-1790) dealt with the Gypsy question by the contradictory methods of enlightened absolutism. Maria Theresa enacted a decree prohibiting the use of the name 'Gypsy' and requiring the terms 'new peasant' and 'new Hungarian' to be used instead. She later placed restrictions on Gypsy marriages, and ordered children to be taken away from Gypsy parents, so that they could be raised in 'bourgeois or peasant' families. Finally Joseph II even prohibited use of the Gypsy language in 1783. The forced assimilation essentially proved successful - in the 19th and 20th centuries the vast majority of the Gypsy population, who had settled hundreds of years earlier and held onto their customs and culture for a long time, gave up, even forgetting their native language and assimilating in Hungarian society. Endemic discrimination against Roma appears to be growing, even as Hungary is transforming itself. Attacks on Roma, open discrimination and abuse by government officials exist, and appear to be part of a broad social pattern of discrimination and marginalization which seems likely to continue in Hungary well into the foreseeable future.
[edit] Hungarian discrimination against Roma people
Whereas almost half the Hungarian secondary school students enroll in vocational secondary schools or comprehensive grammar schools, which provide better chances, only one in five Roma children does so. Moreover, the drop-out rate in secondary schools is significant.[4]
The Roma (called cigányok or romák in Hungarian) suffer particular problems in Hungary, for example in the educational system. Only 61% of Hungarian Roma aged 15 and above has completed primary education, and just 13% has completed secondary education.[5] Currently, around 90% of Roma children complete primary education. A research of sample schools however suggests that the drop-out rate among Roma is still almost twice as high as among non-Roma.[6]
The share of Roma students entering secondary education has increased greatly, with the percentage of Roma children not pursuing any secondary education dropping from 49% to 15% between 1994 and 1999. But that increase is almost exclusively due to increased enrollment in the lowest levels of education, which provide only limited chances for employment.
[edit] Parody against Roma
Sándor Fábry's RTL Klub TV program "Esti Showder", a popular talk show on Hungarian commercial TV, broadcast a "Roma show" on November 6th. The project was potentially very risky as it was only last spring that TV2 ran their highly controversial and damaging programme " Big Roma Wedding". The rival commercial channel TV2 had to apologize in March for its similar entertaining program ("Big Roma Wedding") where it had presented Roma men as criminals, thefts and the women as prostitutes. However, the ratings for the " Big Roma Wedding" were high, and the RTL Klub "Esti Showder" approached the Roma community directly. He invited some Roma entrepreneurs, musicians, and artists to the studio for the production and, thus, made the parody of quite a different colour. After the show had been aired, then the RTL Klub issued a broadcast that stated "the prominent Roma politicians had given their approval and appreciated that the show rectified the reputation of Roma community defamed by the TV2" in March. "Showder" is a pun merging the words `show` and 'sóder' - which means "gravel" in Hungarian but also means "talk" in obsolete Hungarian slang. The word "esti" could be translated to "tonight" or "night timed".[7]
[edit] Other examples
Cooperation between Roma and non-Roma is also taking place around the Opre Roma ("Rise Up, Roma") community in eastern Hungary. Roma residents in the area were to be evicted from their homes, but they have found unlikely support from local citizens and church members.
There are problems related to the Roma minority in Hungary, and the very subject is a heated and disputed topic.
Objective problems:
- Education/bad chances for work: slightly more than 80% of Roma children complete primary education, but only one third continue studies into the intermediate (secondary) level. This is far lower than the more than 90% proportion of children of non-Roma families who continue studies at an intermediate level. Less than 1% of Roma hold higher educational certificates.[citation needed]
- Poverty: most of the Roma people live in significantly worse conditions than others.[citation needed]
- Bad health conditions: life expectancy is about 10 years less compared to non-Romas
- Lack of debate regarding the subject: academic researchers and members of the mainstream press disregard any critics and study the subject in the canonical viewpoint. Critics don't have the funds necessary to perform alternative studies.
Please note that this list below consists disputed issues.
- Natural repugnance: there are differences is the social behavior of the host nation and the Roma people leading to a disinclination towards each other. This is slowly decaying on the Hungarian side (36-38%[8]); as of 2007, there is no research made regarding the Roma side.
- Integration problems on the host side: there's a significant prejudice towards Roma people in Hungary affecting the motivation for integration. Exact numbers are unknown as the research material available mixes prejudice with "post-judice".
- Integration problems on the Roma side: some Roma people have apparent trouble adjusting to the European standards of social behavior regarding loud-mouthing, littering and being non-violent, law-abiding and working citizens. As of 2007, there is no research available on this issue.
- Problems with motivation for work: as of 2007, what can be earned with work can be obtained having many children[9], which does not move Roma people towards work as they usually have more children anyway.
- Crime: "gipsy crime" ("cigánybűnözés" in Hungarian) is a phenomenon well disputed and often misunderstood. Although originally it refers to some crimes (eg. stealing of items made of copper, lynch, some robbery types, scuffle between families) often committed by Roma offenders, critics say it stigmatizes all Roma people. As a result (as of 2007), Hungarian authorities don't collect any data that could be used to study the issue, therefore no research is available regarding this topic. It's believed that there is a pattern in the crimes committed by Roma criminals and that the ratio of Roma inmates are much higher compared to non-Romas (around 70-80%), this is not an individual phenomenon since its common in other countries too[10].
- School segregation: likely due to repugnance, non-Roma people tend to choose schools with less problematic Roma children. It's also believed that there were cases where healthy Roma children were assigned to classes for pupils with learning disabilities (although this might have been a financial issue).
[edit] Political parties
Hungarian Roma are represented by a number of conventional political parties and organizations, including the Roma Social Coalition (an organization, consisting of 19 Roma organizations), the Independent Interest Association of Gypsies in Hungary (a new coalition, including the Lungo Drom, the Phralipe Independent Gypsy organization, and the Democratic Federation of Gypsies in Hungary) and others. The most recent addition is the Democratic Roma Coalition, established in December 2002 by three Roma organizations in time for 2003 local elections.
[edit] Roma people representation in Hungarian Parliament
In Hungary, two Roma were elected to parliament as candidates of mainstream parties in 1990—but only one in 1994 and none in 1998. In any case, it has been questioned whether a minority MP who gets into the parliament on the list of a mainstream party can properly represent the interests of his or her minority. During the conference discussions, a Rom from the Czech Republic recounted that his party, the Romani Civic Initiative, instead of participating in the 1998 parliamentary elections on its own, accepted an offer from a majority party, the Union of Freedom, which promised to assist the Roma in the resolution of their problems. One Romani candidate of the Union of Freedom was elected, yet the Romani Civic Union found that it was unable to influence the Union of Freedom’s political program.
[edit] Demographics
Demographic change in Hungary is characterised by an ageing, falling population while the number of people of Gypsy origin is rising and the age composition of the Gypsy population is much younger than that of the overall population. Counties with the highest concentration of Roma minority are Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg (officially 45'525 and 25'612 people in 2001)[11], but there are other regions with a traditionally high Roma population like parts of Baranya and the middle reaches of the Tisza valley. Although they were traditionally living in the countryside, under general urbanization trends from the second half of the 20th century many of them moved into the cities. There is a sizable Roma minority living in Budapest (12'273 people in 2001, officially). The real number of Roma in Hungary is a disputed question. In the 2001 census only 190,000 people called themselves Roma, but experts and Roma organisations estimate that there are between 450,000 and 1,000,000 Roma living in Hungary [12][13][14]. During World War II, 50,000 Roma were killed in Hungary.[7] Since then, the size of the Roma population has increased rapidly. Today every fifth or sixth newborn Hungarian child belongs to the Roma minority. Based on current demographic trends, a 2006 estimate by Central European Management Intelligence claims that the proportion of the roma population will double by 2050.[15]
[edit] Roma autonomy in Hungary
The separation of Roma children into segregated schools and classes is also a problem, and has been on the rise over the past 15 years. Segregated schools are partly the result of "white flight", with non-Roma parents sending their children to schools in neighbouring villages or towns when there are many Roma students in the local school. But Roma children are also frequently placed in segregated classes even within "mixed" schools.[16] Many other Roma children are sent to classes for pupils with learning disabilities. The percentage of Roma children in special schools rose from about 25% in 1975 to 42% in 1992, with a 1997 survey showing little change - whereas a National Institute for Public Education report says that "most experts agree that a good number of Roma children attending special schools are not even slightly mentally disabled".[17]
Fewer than 1% of Roma hold higher educational certificates. Their low status on the job market and higher unemployment rates cause poverty, widespread social problems and crime.
[edit] National Gypsy Minority Self-Government (NGMS)
In Budapest, the district minority self-governing bodies established the Budapest Gypsy Minority Self-Government by means of indirect elections, and founded the National Gypsy Minority Self-Government (NGMS) with 53 representatives.
[edit] Act LXXIX of 1993
An important legal regulation directly affecting the position of the Gypsy population in Hungary is Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education, which was amended in 1996 and 2003 to provide the national and local minority self-governing bodies with the opportunity of founding and maintaining educational institutions, and which defined the fight against segregation in schools as an objective.
[edit] References
- ^ Hungarian census 2001
- ^ Roma minority in Hungary
- ^ Romani World
- ^ Equal access to quality education for Roma, Hungary, pp. 208-209
- ^ Monitoring Education for Roma. A Statistical Baseline for Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe. (English). Open Society Institute, Education Support Program (ESP) (2006). Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
- ^ Equal access to quality education for Roma, Hungary (English) 206-207. Open Society Institute, EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP) (2007). Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
- ^ Hungary: Yet Another Parody on Roma - www.romea.cz
- ^ [1] 'Az 1993-1995 közötti három évet jellemző 40-42 százalékos szintről a 2001-2003 közötti három éves időszakban 36-38 százalékra csökkent azok aránya, kik magikra nézve igaznak tartották azt a kijelentést, hogy "idegenkedem a cigányoktól"' (sic).
- ^ Minimal monthly wage: 65,500 HUF [2] ("2007.01.01-jétől 65.500,-Ft"), monthly family allowance for a family of 5: 74,500 HUF [3] ("3 és több gyermekes család 14.900/hó/gyermek").
- ^ [4], [5] (Finnish only)
- ^ Népszámlálás 2001 – 4. Nemzetiségi kötődés – Központi Statisztikai Hivatal
- ^ Roma - Hungary - Art - New York Times
- ^ Hungary's anti-Roma militia grows | csmonitor.com
- ^ Stratégiai Audit 2005 - DEMOS Magyarország
- ^ [6] "A CEMI kalkulációja szerint a romák száma a mai 700 ezerről 2050-re 1,2 millióra nőhet. Ezen idő alatt a nem roma népesség száma 9,5 millióról 7,6 millióra csökken. Így a romák mai mintegy 7 százalékos aránya megduplázódhat és elérheti a 14-15 százalékot."
- ^ Equal access to quality education for Roma, Hungary, pp. 187, 212-213
- ^ Legislative review for the Hungarian roma education policy note (English). National Institute for Public Education (2004). Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
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