Challenges in rural Hungary in the post-pandemic period

Abstract

The social problems of marginalised rural areas have intensified and transformed in recent years, particularly in the context of pandemic and economic crisis. In the countries of the Central and Eastern European region integration of marginalized areas is a major challenge. Unlike in the West, segregation and ghettoisation are problems of small rural settlements far from prosperous centres. In Hungarian countryside, the life of small villages, which are located far from economic centres and lack institutions, continues to be characterised by negative migration trends. In this article, we present the situation of seven small villages in southern Baranya, which are covered by the programme to help the 300 most disadvantageous Hungarian settlements to integration, in the light of the perception of problems of the population living there. Our survey aimed to explore the difficulties related to the pandemic and everyday life at local level. The assessment of subjective perceptions provided an opportunity to structure the disadvantaged rural population from a specific perspective and to analyse the problems of the characteristics of each group.