Publisher: ISPMN Institutul pentru Studierea Problemelor Minorităţilor Naţionale

Evolution of the Hungarian Population from Romania. Results and Methodological Problems

Evoluţia populaţiei maghiare din România. Rezultate şi probleme metodologice.

Author(s): Tamás Kiss,István Csata / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Hungarians in Romania;

The present study aims to present the evolution of the Hungarian population in Romania. Thus, the results of the study and the methodological problems that emerged as a result of the application of standard demographic methods to minority populations (in this case the Hungarian population) are presented in detail.

Comparative Analysis of the National Identity of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin.

Analiza comparată a identităţii minorităţilor maghiare din Bazinul Carpatic.

Author(s): Valér Veres / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: National identity; Hungarian people; Carpathian Basin;

The sociological study analyzes the characteristics of the national identity of the Hungarian communities in five countries, while interpreting the indirect effects that social, economic and political changes have had on the identity of these communities.

Use of Mother Tongue at the level of Local Administrative Units. Cost Estimation

Utilizarea limbii materne la nivelul unităților administrative locale. Estimare Costuri

Author(s): István Horváth,Zsombor Csata,István Gergő Székely / Language(s): Romanian

The study aims to operationalize and estimate the costs of implementing the rights of citizens belonging to a national minority to use their mother tongue in public administration. Identifies the areas of activity in which these obligations are generated, the forms of institutional organization through which the local administrative units manage them, the approximate volume of situations managed and the approximate additional costs compared to the situation where the local administration would use only the state language. The study is based on fieldwork that took place between July and October 2019, in which we used a complex survey tool and conducted interviews with local council representatives belonging to localities where the proportion of Hungarian residents exceeds 20%. The results show that the implementation of bilingual communication in local and county administrations involves significant costs, so - at least from the perspective of distributive justice - it is unfair for these costs to be borne exclusively by local governments.

Scientific Accounts on the Memory of Communism for Minority Hungarians in Romania

Scientific Accounts on the Memory of Communism for Minority Hungarians in Romania

Author(s): Zsuzsa Plainer / Language(s): English

Keywords: remembering Communism; Hungarian Minority in Romania;

The aim of this paper is to present and categorize the scholarly publications on the Hungarian remembering of the communist past in Romania. By stock-taking and categorizing the existing publication I intend to find out possible similarities and differences of such works in comparison with their Romanian „counterparts”. In doing so, the following paradigms are presented. The first category contains approaches coined by ethnographers, and anthropologists (including the memory of places, oral history accounts and anthropology of communism). The second paradigm covers those historical approaches which reached a greater public and had a visibility outside the minority Hungarian scientific community. Similar to the Romanian studies and books, minority approaches stress on discourses of the victims. Both accounts have in their core a common denomination, namely that that communism was an unpleasant detour in the Romanian history, something to get rid of, something to be condemned. Thus, communism in this perspective relates drama and sufferings of victims: those „true” or „clean” people, who were not involved and corrupted by the system. Sometimes (unlike Romanians’) the Hungarians’ memories overethnicize communism, which makes possible to create the perception of staying apart from it. But a new generation of historians and social scientists seriously questions this statement, and pleads for a more nuanced framework, claiming to show, the ethnic Hungarians were “part of this system”, too.

Research Reports

Rapoarte de Cercetare

Author(s): Iulia-Elena Hossu,Peti Lehel / Language(s): Romanian

This working paper is the first from a series of studies which is proposing to publish the summary reports of field research carried out by the researchers of the institute within different research projects in which they`ve been involved.

Bibliography with studies and representations on Roma in Romania - focusing on 1990-2007

Bibliografie cu studiile şi reprezentările despre romii din România – cu accentul pe perioada 1990–2007

Author(s): László Fosztó / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Bibliography; Studies of Roma communities; Inter-ethnic relations; East-Europe; Ethnic minorities studies;

The bibliography is the first product of a documentary research in the field of studies of Roma communities, being a collection of data on documents and analyzes on public, social, educational policies, etc. from the European space, with a strong focus on Central and Eastern Europe, South-East Europe. The research aims at producing an annotated bibliography and as complete as possible in the field. The collection of bibliographic data is addressed to researchers in social sciences interested in Roma issues and interethnic relations, but it can also serve as a tool for orientation of persons and institutions active in community development or those engaged in improving the situation of Roma in Romania and the East-Europe. The bibliography is the first product of a documentary research in the field of studies of Roma communities, being a collection of data on documents and analyzes on public, social, educational policies, etc. from the European space, with a strong focus on Central and Eastern Europe, South-East Europe. The research aims at producing an annotated bibliography and as complete as possible in the field. The collection of bibliographic data is addressed to researchers in social sciences interested in Roma issues and interethnic relations, but it can also serve as a tool for orientation of persons and institutions active in community development or those engaged in improving the situation of Roma in Romania and the East- Europe.

Migration and its Problems: The Transnational Perspective as a new Way of analyzing Ethnicity and Social Change in Romania

Migraţia şi problemele ei: perspectiva transnaţională ca o nouă modalitate de analiză a etnicităţii şi schimbării sociale în România

Author(s): Remus Gabriel Anghel / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Migration studies; Ethnicity and social change; Romania; transnationalism; Borşa; Milan;

The transnational perspective has been asserted in recent years especially in the study of international migration. The current dynamics of globalization and international migration call for new theoretical and methodological perspectives to analyze social contamination processes. This study presents a case study of transnationalism for migrants from Borşa (Maramureş) to Milan. At the end of the article, there are some ways in which transnationalism, as a theory and research perspective, can be used in ethnic analysis in Eastern Europe.

Special Institutional Solutions for Parliamentary Representation of National Minorities

Solutii institutionale speciale pentru reprezentarea parlamentara a minoritatilor nationale

Author(s): István Gergő Székely / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: National minorities; Parliamentary representation; special parliamentary mandates for minorities;

The paper reviews special electoral regulations designed to facilitate the parliamentary representation of national minorities in several countries. Several types of special measures are identified and two of them are addressed in detail: the exclusion of minority political parties from the electoral threshold and the reservation of special parliamentary mandates for minorities. The study contains information on electoral institutions in 16 countries, in five of them the electoral threshold is not applied to minorities, and in 11 there are reserved mandates. The approach of the subject is primarily from a formal institutional point of view, ie it is based on the analysis of the legislative documents as well as on secondary literature in the field, but within the limits of the possibilities is attempted a more substantial evaluation of the regulations, indicating the advantages and drawbacks of the systems in their functioning in practice.

Roma/Gypsies and Education in a Multiethnic Community in Romania

Roma/Gypsies and Education in a Multiethnic Community in Romania

Author(s): Stefania Toma / Language(s): English

Keywords: Ethnic minorities in Romania; Roma-Gypsies and education; inter-ethnic relations; Socio-economic research; job-market for minorities;

The present article aims at presenting shortly the results and preliminary conclusions of a research undertaken in an ethnically mixed locality in the North-Western region of Romania. The research questions were focused mainly on interethnic relations and on socio-economic topics. The economic activities of the Roma represent the extension of the principal activities of the majority. To see what exactly the activities of the Roma are, we will focus on the relation between Roma and other ethnic groups. We will try to understand what the main characteristics of these relationships are and what the rules of these relationships are, if there are any. Afterwards, we will try to describe and to analyse two of survival strategies of the Roma. At first sight the presence of the institution of godfatherness among the Roma and Gadjo seemed to be just an “innate” characteristics of the historically peaceful multiethnic community, but later this proved to be just the surface. The second strategy, called “the List”, is also a constitutive element of the survival strategies of the Roma, although in this case not the Roma are the initiators of it. Finally, we will focus our attention on the problem of trust which is the connecting element of all informal strategies and through which we will be able to understand better the characteristics of the relation between Roma and non-Roma. The question of education is a crucial one, as the low presence of the Roma population on the formal job-market is partly due to their low educational level. The last chapters discuss the problem of school-attending of the Roma children in the studied community.

Raising your Voice: Interaction Processes between Roma and Local Authorities in Rural Romania

Raising your Voice: Interaction Processes between Roma and Local Authorities in Rural Romania

Author(s): Marjoke Oosterom / Language(s): English

Keywords: Roma minorities in Romania; Interaction with the local authorities; Rural Romania; Socal exclusion;

This Working Paper is summarizing the main empirical findings presented in the Author’s MA thesis. She defended her thesis at the Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN), Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, in June 2006. Looking at the relationship between the Roma and the local authorities, we see that several issues are politicized and discussed in the public sphere. The objectives of this research can be formulated as follows: with this study it aims to make a contribution to the knowledge about social exclusion of the Roma - by describing social processes and explaining how social and political processes shape the relationship between the Roma and local authorities - and to make a contribution to the knowledge on the interaction between formal and informal institutions.

Analysis of Bilingualism of Hungarians in Romania

Elemzések a romániai magyarok kétnyelvűségéről

Author(s): István Horváth / Language(s): Hungarian

Keywords: Bilingualism of Hungarians in Romania; Mother tongue; normative context of bilingualism; Efficient communications;

Bilingualism is a widespread characteristic of Hungarians from Romania. The study analyses the linguistic context of this community through an empirically grounded description of bilingualism. Building on data provided by the censuses from 1992 and 2002, the article starts with the study of mother tongue as statistical category. In the second part the author discusses three dimensions of bilingualism: bilingual linguistic competence, language use, and the normative context of bilingualism. The typology of bilingualism described in the article reflects the principle of complementarity of the two languages as well as the criteria of success and efficiency in communication. The typology classifies language proficiency, monolingualism and bilingualism according to the relative position of the two languages in the communication repertories.

Gypsy Palaces. Architecture and Culture

Palatele ţigăneşti. Arhitectură şi cultură

Author(s): Rudolf Gräf / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Roma culture; Roma architecture; ethnic minorities;

“The gypsy palace”, as a certain type of architectural object in Romania is called, has developed over the last 15 years and has gained more and more interest due to its peculiar style, which is different from other architectural style in Romania. It is identified with an ethnic group that only recently has embraced sedentary life. In a first stage forms and colors turn the attention to the phenomenon, but, as one starts to go deeply into it, the aspects of cultural identity become more important. It becomes clear that only an interdisciplinary analysis can offer reasoning beyond the prejudices born out of a supposed cultural superiority, which in the 15 year of transition has been hardly proven.

Analytical aspects of institutional bilingualism

Reperele analitice ale bilingvismului instituţional

Author(s): Erika-Mária Tódor / Language(s): English,Romanian

Keywords: Institutional bilinualism; School structures in Romania; Education policy; School-life practice; Language learning;

The present study deals with institutional bilingualism in the context of school structures in Romania where the language of teaching is different from Romanian. The conclusions of the paper show a few possible directions to follow in the context of conceiving an educational policy in which the linguistic alterity represents a natural element to be taken into consideration when considering the qualitative aspects of organisational structures.

The representation of national minorities in the local councils – an evaluation of Romanian electoral legislation in light of the results of the 2004 and 2008 local elections.

Reprezentarea minorităţilor naţionale la nivel local – O evaluare a legislaţiei electorale româneşti pe baza rezultatelor alegerilor locale din 2004 şi 2008

Author(s): István Gergő Székely / Language(s): English,Romanian

Keywords: Local councils; national minorities; Romanian electoral legislation; 2004 and 2008 local elections; "small" minorities;

The paper assesses Romanian legislation regarding the representation of national minorities (except the Hungarians) in local councils. Most minorities are still seriously underrepresented in the local decisional fora, despite the existence of a special provision in the electoral law of 2004, that grants some sort of affirmative action for minority organizations. In order to evaluate the utility of this special provision, I re-analyzed the results of the last two local elections, comparing the actual results of the minority organizations to the hypothetical results they would have obtained in the absence of the special rule, that is, if they had been treated alike to the mainstream political parties. This allowed the identification of those cases when the minorities indeed benefited from the affirmative action provided by the law. Unfortunately, the scope of applicability of the special rule proved to be very limited, the minority organizations would have obtained most of their seats also without the application of the special provision. Moreover, the provision may have even adverse effects, as it may prevent some organizations from obtaining seats even if they obtained a number of votes that would have been sufficient for getting represented if they had been treated alike to the political parties. This is due to the logic behind the special provision, which advantages a single minority organization, often to the expense of the others. The net gain of seats due to the regulation is so small that one can conclude that there is no point for retaining the regulation in its present shape. The minorities have realized this too, and they initiated a bill in order to replace the current system with something very similar to the regulations in force at the level of the Chamber of Deputies. The paper briefly assesses this proposal too, however, the conclusions are not very optimistic in this regard either.

South Tyrol - a model for autonomy and cohabitation?

Tirolul de Sud - un model de autonomie şi convieţuire?

Author(s): Sergiu Constantin / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: South Tyrol; minorities protection in Italy; Education policy; linguistic rights; Tyrolean autonomy;

The study presents the main aspects of the system of minorities' protection in the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol. After a short overview of the historical events necessary for understanding the present context, the paper focuses on the legal and institutional features of the 1972 Statute of Autonomy. The performance of the system is assessed through a detailed analyze of its three key elements: the mechanism of "linguistic quotas" used for the proportional distribution of the public posts and financial resources among South Tyroleans, Italians and Ladins; the organization and functioning of the education in South Tyrol; the linguistic rights in relations with administrative and judicial authorities. The research is based on the existing legal framework, on Italian and international courts jurisprudence and on relevant academic literature in the field. Last but not least, the paper offers a précis of the financial arrangements between Italian state and the autonomous province of South Tyrol and explains the fiscal benefits of the South Tyrolean autonomy.

The Organization of Collective Memory by Romanians and Hungarians in Cluj-Napoca after 1989

Organizarea memoriei colective după 1989 în Cluj-Napoca.

Author(s): Jakab Albert Zsolt / Language(s): English,Romanian

Keywords: Cluj-Napoca; Post-1989; Collective memory of Romanians; Hungarians; 1848-1849 Revolution War of Independence; Romanian National Unity;

Transylvania, annexed to Romania in 1920, is a place of continuous Romanian-Hungarian conflicts. There is always a domain of conflict between the Hungarian minority and the Romanian majority represented by the construction, the invention and commemorative use of the past. In my ethnographic and socio-anthropologic analysis I focus on the "memory entrepreneurism", and foreground those interethnic relations and symbolic behaviours that stand behind it in the social context of the multiethnic Cluj-Napoca. The change of regime of 1989 brought along not only a political closure, but also one with on the framework of the imagined past. On the social level this resulted in the drama of the diminuation of belief in the institutions and authorities. The past constructed up to that point naturally lost its political legitimacy. There were two kinds of attitudes emerging within the self-legitimating strategies regarding the past. On the one hand the denial of continuity, the rejection of the past constructed by previous societies in the interest of the new historical order. This new historical order didn't wish to continue the previous economical, social and political relations. But on the other hand, in there was a rising need for historical depth: how can one legitimate the present and create a continuity in the historical space? Nevertheless, the new system considered it necessary to deduce the new social order from history. It had a need for the past also because it defined itself against the past, distancing itself from it: thus the past became surpassed and at the same time an example to follow. The period between 1989 and 2008 proved to be one of the most productive regarding the local construction of memory. Therefore my paper analyses the tendencies of post-1989 past construction. What previously exposed component of the past was made invisible by the new system? What was overtaken and what kind of new components were brought to the surface? What kind of conflicts were revealed, what kind of identity strategies, legitimating processes and national discourses were put into motion by the construction of the (new) memory?

The Marian Apparition from Seuca/Szőkefalva in the Context of Religious and Ethnical Interferences

Apariţia Fecioarei Maria de la Seuca, în contextul interferenţelor religioase şi entice.

Author(s): Peti Lehel / Language(s): English,Romanian

Keywords: The Marian Apparition; Seuca/Szőkefalva; Religious and Ethnical Interferences; Inter-ethnic and Denominational co-existence;

Situated on the border of Latin and Orthodox Christianity, in a region where the infrastructural and the economical possibilities were limited, the Romanian village Seuca became an internationally known place for pilgrimage due to a blind Gypsy women's public visions about Virgin Mary in the first years of the new millennium. The author presents both the history of the ethnical and confessional co-existence in the village and the economical and social problems which affected the whole community. Then, the attitudes towards the apparition of the different denominations will be highlighted by presenting also the way the seer attempts to question the different denominational opinions. The legitimating strategies of a gypsy woman influenced very much the aspects of Virgin Mary vision from Seuca.

From Kodoba to Codoba. On changing the Secondary Ethnic Identity in a Family of Roma Musicians from a Village in the Transylvanian Plain

De la Kodoba la Codoba. Despre schimbarea identităţii etnice secundare într-o familie de muzicanţi romi dintr-un sat din Câmpia Transilvaniei.

Author(s): Csongor Könczei / Language(s): Romanian,Hungarian

Keywords: Secondary Ethnic Identity; Roma Musicians; The Magyarpalatka; identity change; traditional dance music;

The Magyarpalatka, located on Inner Mezőség, is one of the Gypsy musicians' centers in Mezőség. Many Gypsy music families lived and live here to date, the most famous being the Kodoba family. The present case study undertook to find out how the romungro family of the Reformed Religion in Romania, with the Hungarian-speaking, Reformed Religion, romanesque, in Hungarian, no longer (or hardly speaking) in the 20th Century, still a reformed, then Orthodox family, and tries to outline the broader social contexts of this process of identity change and to answer its causal relationships. Doing this by examining the extent to which the secondary identity change (including the change of the ethnic projection of the personal name) is related to the changing social, historical and political situations, to the extent that Magyarpalatka is continually depopulated from the Hungarian point of view, dominating the local Romanian population (not just numerical) and last but not least to some extent the economic aspects of the village vocational music industry. The research carried out at the same time makes it interesting that Gypsy musician of the Kodpal Gypsy family in Budapest is a Roma mother tongue, and its primary ethnic identity (for the time being) Roma, and that for the sake of its vocation has preserved the mediating role of local Hungarian, Romanian and Roma cultures as the traditional dance music of each ethnic group mediated and provided.

Social semantics and ethnicity. A typology of discursive identity modes in Romania

Semantică socială şi etnicitate. O tipologie a modurilor identitare discursive în România

Author(s): Marius Lazăr / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Romania; ethnic relations; interethnic climate of Romania; Romanians; Hungarians; Roma population;

The present study redraws the map of ethnic relations in Romania on the basis of sociological surveys carried out by the Reseach Center on Inter-ethnic Relations (Centrul de Cercetare a Relaţiilor Interetnice,CCRIT) and by the Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center (Centrul de Resurse pentru Diversitate Etnoculturală), together with the Metro Media Transilvania Institute and the Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities (Institutul pentru Studierea Problemelor Minorităţilor Naţionale, ISPMN). The author participated in all of these surveys as either research coordinator or as a consultant; and although the aforementioned surveys had different objectives and were carried out in different contexts, they had a common denominator, i.e. they examined the interethnic climate in Romania by taking the mirror-images which the main ethnic groups (Romanians, Hungarians and the Roma) had about one another. Going beyond the descriptive level that was typical of the first attempts synthesizing the collected data, the study intends to synthesize the main attitudes and orientations of the population from Romania on the basis of ideal-typical attitudes and discourses corresponding with certain social segments. The study incorporates the longitudinal data which enable a unitary approach based on continuity, and record essential and relevant aspects for positioning the subjects in the field of inter-ethnicity.

Selective bibliography on the Roma (1990-2009)

Bibliografie selectiva privind rromii (1990-2009)

Author(s): Gheorghe Sarau / Language(s): Romanian

Keywords: Bibliography; Roma people; Ethnic minorities; 1990-2009;

Din pacate, oamenii, în general, nu prefera rigoarea, metoda, iubesc mai degraba o „poveste”,o „spunere” despre ceva. Este si neplacut sa aduni firicel lânga firicel, ca sa-ti iasa, în final, o cununa!Respingerea instrumentelor de lucru ne îndeparteaza însa de „miezul” cercetarilor, de adevar. De aceea,orice încercare de a produce un instrument de lucru - o bibliografie, un dictionar, o enciclopedie etc. – artebuie sa se bucure de mare respect, pentru ca ne scuteste pe toti ceilalti de efortul de a cauta inutil. Pentru domeniul rrom, am fost mereu ispitit sa-mi întocmesc, mai întâi pentru uzul propriu, apoi sipentru altii, tot felul de bibliografi „de lucru”. Asa am strâns fise pentru o cartoteca de mari dimensiunidespre rromii lumii, pe care le-am excerptat, cu grija si pasiune tinereasca, în perioada 1983 – 1990, din putinele lucrari ce puteau fi gasite în biblioteci, din si mai putinele reviste straine ce se puteau consultadoar într-o singura sau doua biblioteci din tara. În perioada respectiva, de pilda, revista pariziana „ÈtudesTsiganes” – ce aparea înca din anul 1995 – nu se gasea spre consultare decât la Biblioteca de Stat (actuala Biblioteca Nationala) si la Institutul de Studii Sud –Est Europene, ambele în Bucuresti.