Hungary Minority Groups
Dohány Synagogue in Budapest
Courtesy Sam and Sarah Stulberg
In the 1980s, more than 96 percent of the population
consisted of ethnic Magyars. Major transfers of population
had
occurred after World War II. Substantial numbers of
Germans,
Czechs, and Slovaks were resettled in neighboring
countries, and
many Hungarians outside the country's borders moved to
Hungary.
Today Hungary has few ethnic minority inhabitants. In the
1980s,
the population included roughly 230,000 Germans; slightly
more
than 100,000 Slovaks; about 100,000 Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes
(often grouped together as South Slavs); and about 30,000
Romanians. In the late 1980s, the Romanian population in
the
country increased significantly as thousands of Romanians
fled
conditions in their homeland and sought refuge in Hungary.
About
one-third of these emigres were ethnic Romanians, and the
remainder were Hungarian-speaking Romanians. In addition,
about
500,000 Gypsies, 150,000 Jews, and 4,000 Greeks lived in
Hungary.
The Jewish community was a mere remnant of the Jewish
population
that had lived in the country before World War II. During
the
war, as many as 540,000 Jews and 60,000 Gypsies were
deported to
Nazi extermination camps
(see World War II
, ch. 1).
Most of the non-Magyar nationalities were bilingual,
speaking
both their own languages and Hungarian. In the 1980
census, less
than 1 percent of the population actually registered as
members
of national minorities, although a far greater number
expressed
interest in aspects of their ethnic culture. National
minorities
did not usually form separate communities but lived
interspersed
among the entire population.
The Constitution, as well as a sizable body of law,
guarantees the cultural rights of recognized national
minorities.
The Constitution promises them equal rights as citizens,
protection against discrimination, and access to education
in
their own languages from kindergarten to university level
(see Constitutional Development
, ch. 4). Minorities have been
able to
promote their national cultures through freedom of
association in
federations, ethnic clubs, and artistic endeavors. They
have been
able to use their own language in official procedures and
could
publish newspapers and periodicals, and broadcast radio
and
television programs in their own tongue. Actual government
policy
in the 1980s was fairly consistent with these promises. In
1984
approximately 55,000 minority students were receiving
instruction
in their mother tongue in elementary and secondary
schools, up
from 21,615 students in 1968. When ethnic students did not
find
the requisite opportunities at domestic institutions of
higher
education, they could study at appropriate foreign
universities.
All national minorities had weekly newspapers and other
publications and sponsored various cultural activities. As
public
discussion in the late 1980s noted, however, the
minorities had
not shared equally in the economic advances of recent
decades.
Jews and Gypsies were not officially recognized as
national
minorities, being defined rather as a "religious
community" and
an "ethnic community," respectively. However, the Jews
occupied a
more favorable position in Hungary than they did in other
states
in Eastern Europe. The country's 150,000 Jews formed the
third
largest Jewish community on the European continent, being
smaller
than the Jewish communities in the Soviet Union and
France. They
maintained a high school, library, museum, kosher butcher
shops,
an orphanage, a home for the elderly, a rabbinical
seminary, a
factory producing matzo, and about thirty synagogues.
Several
publications, including newspapers, served the Jewish
population.
The situation of the half million Gypsies,
traditionally a
poor and marginal element in society and subject to
discrimination, was far less favorable. In 1987 about 75
percent
of the Gypsies were living at or below the poverty level.
About
half of them lived in settled conditions, holding down
jobs. Most
spoke Hungarian. The Gypsy population had a birth rate
that was
more than twice as high as that of the rest of the
population.
This circumstance, and the fact that the Gypsy crime rate
was
disproportionately high, contributed to an apparently
growing
hostility to Gypsies among the Hungarian population. Many
citizens perceived the government's special programs for
Gypsies
as undeserved favoritism that deprived the rest of the
population
of needed resources.
In the mid-1980s, in contrast to its earlier policy of
encouraging cultural assimilation, the government began to
foster
a Gypsy ethnic and cultural identity and a sense of
community and
tradition to enhance the self-esteem of the Gypsy
population. In
mid-1985 the government established the National Gypsy
Council to
represent Gypsy concerns to the government and to assist
in
carrying out measures involving the Gypsies. In 1986 the
Cultural
Association of Gypsies in Hungary was founded to help
preserve
and foster Gypsy culture. In 1987 a Gypsy newspaper was
established. Despite these signs of progress, Gypsies
remained
particularly vulnerable as the economic climate
deteriorated in
the 1980s. With minimal skills, education, and training,
they
were among the first to lose their jobs as unemployment
increased. Their health and living standard remained well
below
the national average.
Data as of September 1989
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