National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary
National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary
Several national communities have lived in the territory of Hungary since the foundation of the state. The modern ethnic and linguistic composition of the country was basically established following the decimation and the movement of the population during the Ottoman occupation, with the spontaneous mass migration or organized resettlement of people in the 17th and 18th centuries. With the exception of the Slovene population on the western border, it was during these centuries that the minorities living in Hungary moved into what is now the country’s territory. Towards the late 19th century, non-Hungarian nationalities living within the borders of the country constituted more than 50% of the total population. Following the revision of the borders after World War I, this proportion changed significantly. Some 33% of Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin (3.3 million people) actually reside outside the country’s borders, while the number of minorities living within has declined. Today, the minorities make up some 10% of the population.
A common feature of the majority of Hungary’s national and ethnic minorities is that, having lived within the settings of the Hungarian state for centuries, they profess a dual identity: their consciousness of being Hungarian is as strong as their national ties. Most had left their original homeland and communities before the formation of a structured literary language, so the languages and dialects they use to this day are general archaic linguistic variations.
This lengthy historical coexistence is an important criterion in the definition formulated in the Minorities Act. “All groups of people who have lived in the territory of the Republic of Hungary for at least one century, who represent a numerical minority in the country’s population, whose members are Hungarian citizens, who are distinguished from the rest of the population by their own language, culture, and tradition, who demonstrate a sense of belonging together that is aimed at preserving all of these and at expressing and protecting the interests of their historical communities” (Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities, Chapter 1, Section 1, Subsection (2)) are national and ethnic minorities recognized as constituent components of the state. This act defines the Bulgarian, Romany, Greek, Croatian, Polish, German, Armenian, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serb, Slovak, Slovene, and Ukrainian ethnic groups as national or ethnic minorities native to Hungary. A characteristic feature of the situation in Hungary is that the minorities live geographically scattered throughout the country in some 1,500 settlements, and generally they also make up a minority within these settlements.
Demographic Features of the National and Ethnic Minorities
Minority Policy in Hungary
Statutory Environment
Minority Self-governments
Minority Education
Cultural Life
Measures Promoting the Social Integration of the Romany Minority
System of Financial Support
Contacts with the Parent Countries
The table below shows the number of national and ethnic minorities based on data from the 1990 population census, research and ot…
Hungarians in Various Regions of the World (around 1990)
Change in the Number and Percentage of Hungarian Minorities in Various Regions of the Carpathian Basin (1880-1991)
