Poverty and the Formation of Roma Identity in Hungary: Evidence from a Representative Panel Survey of Adolescents

Abstract

This paper reports the findings from an analysis of the ethnic identification choices of adolescents in Hungary. Using a representative panel survey of adolescents in Hungary we test the hypothesis that poverty shapes how adolescents identify and conditions the transmission of identification in families. Our results indicate that Roma identification is part of dual Roma and Hungarian identification and there is substantial variation in identification both across generations and for respondents across survey waves. We find that children of mixed-ethnic families are more likely identify themselves as Roma in poor families than in more affluent ones. Our longitudinal analyses indicate that changes in economic hardship are statistically significantly associated with changes in ethnic identification, but the estimated magnitudes are modest.