The consortium set up under the auspices of ……

Name of the project:

Situation of the Roma Population in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21st Century (Segregation, Employment and Living Conditions, Education, Self-Governance)

Project no.: 5/017/2001. sz. NKFP

Contact persons:

László Szarka (Director of the Minority Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), e-mail: szarka@mtaki.hu; tel.: (36–1) 224–67–95; fax: (36–1) 224–67–93.

Gábor Sisák (research coordinator, Minority Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, e-mail: sisak@mtaki.hu; tel.: (36–1) 224–67–94; fax: 224–67–93.

For the realization of the research project a research consortium was set up under the leadership of the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Minority Research Institute, (additional members are Hungarian Academy of Science’s Centre for Regional Research, Hungarian Academy of Science’s Institute for Sociological Research, the Cultural and Anthropological Section of Eötvös Loránd University’s Faculty of Arts, the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Arts at Miskolc University and the Gipsy Information and Cultural Centre, and has applied successfully for financial support in the framework of the National Research and Development Programs scheme. The consortium started its research activity in autumn 2001.

The core element of the project is composed of a research aimed to get data on the whole gypsy community in Hungary, complete by four other secondary projects such as the one examining gypsy local governments, the one focusing on the relations of the social land projects and the gypsies, the one looking into the circumstances of the segregation of individual communities in the Encs and Siklós (Sellye) region as registered by the Central Statistics Office and, finally, the one dealing with the problem of linguistic assimilation of the gypsy communities in Hungary.

The research on the gypsy community as whole in Hungary is focusing on the changes since 1993 of the community’s economic and social circumstances, taking into account the ethno-demographic data related to the national census. Based on that data, a total of 190,046 individuals out of a gypsy community of approximately 600 thousand nationwide have declared themselves gypsy nationals, while 48,685 individuals claimed that Roma, Bea or Romani was what they considered to be their mother tongue. Those three languages are used, based on individual declarations on that question, by a total of 53,323 people within their family, whereas the census showed that 129,259 individuals claimed to be emotionally attached to the Romany cultural values and traditions. This data, which has led to a number of important conclusions to be drawn, was used as a starting point for a 2 percent sample provided from data obtained nationwide.

The nationwide research on gypsy community encompass

The smallest units for research were households, i.e. the number of individuals living under one roof. In case of a house with a single flat it was the people who lived in that flat, whereas in case of a house with multiple flats it was the occupants of the same flat from whom a unit is understood to be composed. Data to be obtained would be taken from 2 percent of the households of the Romany community.

Partly in tandem with samples of data taken from across the whole gypsy community in Hungary, partly based on results from that data, we wish to explore four key segments of the life and current living conditions of that community, to be based on four complementary research projects, through the interdisciplinary cooperation between members of the consortium. Within the framework of a comprehensive research program initiated by the Minority Research Institute we wish to examine both the reasons and the consequences of the segregation of the gypsy communities in Hungary, along with mutual effects of the high rate of unemployment and ‘peripheral’ conditions leading to the acceleration of segregation within specific regions. By conducting an in-depth research into the conditions at Encs in the North of Hungary and those at Siklós and Sellye, both of which are located in Southern Hungary, we intend to provide an analysis administered by the Alföld Institution of the Centre for Regional Research of the relationship between social, economic, community, structural and political factors at local government level, all of which play a crucial role in segregation.

One of the most important measures taken in the country’s job policy aimed at stopping the process of segregation is, undoubtedly, the so-called social land program, which has been underway since 1992. The program, which includes a total of ten counties, is run with the participation of 2458 families of Romany origin, a total of 7376 individuals in a total of over 300 local communities nationwide. The research, also administered by the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Centre for Regional Research and performed via surveys conducted on the basis of systematic sampling by printed form, is intended to provide information regarding the efficiency as well as the effects, both direct and indirect, of the program itself.

The team specialized in research into the Romany community within Minority Research Institute aims to contribute to the sampling process nationwide via two other complementary research projects. By analyzing important trends in the shift of languages used by the gypsy community whose mother tongue is not Hungarian, the linguistic and ethic components are being explored in terms of the relationship between mother tongue and ethnicity, between bilingualism and trends in assimilation, and also local as well as regional organizational procedures initiated by the communities themselves. Another complementary research project is aimed at the running of local gypsy/Roma minority local governments in a complexity exceeding all previous surveys by examining and comparing the activity of gypsy-run local government bodies in three counties.