Hungary/ 4.2 Specific policy issues and recent debates  

4.2.4 Cultural diversity and inclusion policies

While Hungary is very much concerned about the fate of the 2-3 million ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries, significant efforts are made to stop or slow down assimilation within its own borders.

The proportion of all national minorities in Hungary is estimated to be as high as 6-8%. In the 2002 census, 3.1% of the population declared that they belong to one of the minority groups and 1.3% has a minority language as their mother tongue or first language. In 1995, Hungary was among the first to sign and ratify the framework agreement of the Council of Europe on the protection of national minorities. Hungary also takes part in discussions which raise the issue of minorities within the political principles and priorities of the European Union.

An Act on National and Ethnic Minorities was passed in 1993 (Act LXXVII), declaring minorities to be constituent elements of the state; defining their collective and personal rights. There are 12 recognised national minority cultural groups and one ethnic minority group (see Table 3 below). The latter are the Roma or Romanies: the old name of Gypsy (cigány) is still widely used, both in their community and in official documents. The Roma constitute the largest minority group and, at the same time, pose a major challenge to social policy, with important cultural implications.

In Hungary, ethnicity is considered a private matter: systematically collecting data according to ethnic background is not allowed under the Personal Data Protection Law. National censuses and elections of minority governments are all based on voluntary self-identification. During the 2001 census, 190 000 Roma were recorded, i.e. about 2% of the population; estimations put the actual figure much higher, varying between 4-8%. Due to the very high correlation between those with a Roma background and crucial social problems (unemployment, poverty, exclusion etc), the fate of this minority group is among the greatest challenges to Hungarian society and government. On the other hand, the greatest number of Roma with full higher education in the whole of Europe is in Hungary, both in absolute and relative terms. Among the first 24 Hungarian members of the European Parliament, two were Roma – one of whom kept her seat in the 2009 elections, and was the rapporteur for the EU strategy on Roma inclusion. Hungarian Roma artists are especially famed in music, both individually and in ensembles. On the other hand, because of the indifference of the majority society and its authorities, and partly also due to the lack of necessary coherence inside the Roma community, plans such as the establishment of a representative national Roma cultural centre have constantly been postponed.

National federations of minorities have consultative status, and often veto rights in relevant legislative matters. Their elected local government representatives in the villages and towns, and on the national level, have significant rights and growing resources – which, by nature, are to a great extent spent on culture. As part of the local elections in the autumn of 2010, minority self-governments were elected in 1 592 areas, that is in nearly half of all local entities. The conditions for establishing a self-government of a given minority at a given settlement are at least 30 registered voters who elect at least five representatives. In many towns, bodies of more than one minority were elected, with the number of self-governments reaching a total of 2 321, along the following composition:

Table 3:     Number of minority self-governments, 2006-2010

Source:     National Election Office http://www.valasztas.hu.
*                 Gypsy (cigány) has been retained as the official name of the Roma people.

In spite of these endeavours – behind which sometimes manipulations connected to so-called ethno-business are suspected – assimilation is occurring and it is feared to continue. The existing sociological and ethnographic traits of minorities could melt into nostalgic relics of culture.

The cultural rights and situation of the new minorities (immigrants) is a marginal issue; immigration figures are very low. Since the overwhelming majority of these immigrants are ethnic Hungarians from a neighbouring state, they do not constitute a cultural minority. The immigration authorities recorded 212 000 foreigners living legally in Hungary in 2010 (vs. 171 000 in 2008) – again, in a great part ethnic Hungarians with prospects of becoming citizens of Hungary. In this sense, the Chinese are the largest new minority community, with between 5 000 and 10 000 people.

As stated previously, in the Hungarian context, policies for minorities always include concerns regarding Hungarians living abroad. The enforcement of the Schengen border requirements, in effect from 2008, hampers cultural co-operation between Hungarians on the two sides of the border with Ukraine and Serbia, which remain third countries for the EU, and to a smaller extent with Romania and Croatia.

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