Hungarian Minority Research Articles

Small but Salient: The Securitization of Ukraine’s Ethnic Hungarian Minority

Abstract This article analyzes the key factors behind the securitization of Ukraine’s small ethnic Hungarian minority in recent years and how they affect local interethnic as well as interstate relations. It draws on elite interviews conducted in the Ukrainian-Hungarian borderland, and other sources including speech acts. Four underlying factors were identified. The first two are Hungary’s kin-state aid and dual citizenship law, which have empowered Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarians, with the community appearing larger and potentially more threatening in the eyes of the majority population than its mere size justifies. The other two factors are Ukraine’s language policy and Transcarpathia’s future being subject of conspiracy theories in light of Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine, which have negatively affected interethnic ties, although somewhat less in the borderland than between Hungary and Ukraine at large. In Transcarpathia, our different informants had diverging perceptions of who is stirring tensions but agreed that actors from outside their region were to blame. Overall, what has emerged is a clash of Hungary’s kin-state politics and Ukraine’s nation-state-building efforts. The article ends with more general implications for kin- and host-state relations in times of conflict.

The Hungarian Minority in Slovakia in Conditions of Slovak Nation State

The Hungarian Minority in Slovakia in Conditions of Slovak Nation State

A szlovákiai magyarság történetének reprezentációja a szlovákiai alapiskolai történelemtankönyvekben

Representation of the History of the Hungarian Minority in Slovakia in Slovak Primary School History Textbooks In the past two decades, Gyula Popély, Attila Simon, László Szarka, Árpád Popély, Gergely Sallai, József Gyönyör and Katalin Vadkerty have written numerous summaries on the history of Hungarians in Slovakia, but what is less known is what children learn about this period sitting in the classroom. What can Hungarian students in Slovakia learn about their history from the textbooks, so that they can develop and shape their image of Hungarianness and form an emotional attachment to their nation, which could greatly contribute to halting the assimilation process that is affecting Hungarians in Slovakia. Of course, in addition to the school, the values conveyed by the family and home environment, society and culture are also decisive (e.g. commemorating the anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon or the day of remembrance of the Hungarians expelled from southern Slovakia). Since the school is the main source of such impact, we chose to study how our own history is reflected in history textbooks, and so we based our research on history textbooks for primary schools in Slovakia. Unfortunately, however, we do not know what other important events and additions, apart from the information in the textbooks, are mentioned in the lessons by the teachers who teach history. To explore this further, a comprehensive questionnaire survey of history teachers in primary schools in Slovakia would be needed, so in our study we have made observations and drawn conclusions only on the basis of the history textbooks analysed.

Hungarian Nationalism in Orbán’s Era: The Case of Martfű

Abstract Based on the discursive analysis of 28 semidirected interviews conducted in the small industrial town of Martfű, this article reflects on the role played by nationalism in the construction of political and cultural hegemony by Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, Hungary’s ruling party since 2010. The ten themes mobilised by the respondents to express their vision of the Hungarian nation (identification, belonging, commitment, transmission, territory, uniqueness/fragility, heterogeneity/homogeneity, unity/division, east/west, and insubordination) and the issues attached to them (relationship to Hungarian minorities of neighbouring countries, relationship to the European Union, immigration, etc.) are paralleled with Fidesz’s discourse. On those subjects, Orbán’s party’s nationalism positions itself in a “central” way, managing to incarnate heterogeneous conceptions of the nation that are shared among this research’s respondents by Fidesz as well as non-Fidesz voters.

DIGITAL LEARNING SUPPORT ELEMENTS IN THE ONLINE TEACHING OF GERMAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

In recent years, pedagogical design and practice have undergone a forced transformation that has brought many innovative methods and tools to the implementation process. The transition to online education has demanded new infrastructural solutions that have temporarily replaced traditional classroom practices. Most teachers seem to have adapted well to these new challenges. Learning support platforms and online teaching elements had to be harnessed by teachers who, in many cases, acquired this knowledge on their own, in awareness of their importance. Our study examines the need for digital learning support elements in primary schools of the German national minority in Hungary. Our research tools comprised an online questionnaire survey conducted in 2022. The goal of our study was to identify the problems that teachers faced in the transition to online teaching during the period of distance learning introduced due to the COVID pandemic in 2020 and since; the forms of support teachers received nationwide; and the measure of success in their work as language teachers. We also looked at the factors that influenced the digital elements being used. Finally, we examined whether teachers are still willing to use online learning support tools when returning to face-to-face teaching.

The Relevance of the Cross-Border-Student Mobility along the Hungarian-Romanian Border Region

The settlements inhabited by the Hungarian minority in Romania have mixed (with Hungarian and Romanian language) and partly segregated (Hungarian) school network. After the Romanian integration to the European Union and the simplification of border crossing, the Hungarian minority along the Hungarian-Romanian border, a new process appeared: the cross-border commuting of university and secondary school students the two-step migration. This process fills some of the demographic deficit in the Hungarian education network, but, at the same time it is creating hiatus in the Hungarian school network in Romania. This process has a negative effect on the sustainability of minority institutions in the short term, and in the medium term it has a negative effect on the available human resources and limits the development opportunities of the local economy. Over the past four years, we have followed the process of choosing a high school with the help of quantitative and qualitative studies. The results are suitable for exploring the significance and proportion of the process of cross-border two-step migration.

Changes and Factors Associated with the Social Stratification and Material Situation of Hungarian Minority and Majority Youth (2001-2020)

Changes and Factors Associated with the Social Stratification and Material Situation of Hungarian Minority and Majority Youth (2001-2020)

Suburbanization in Multi-ethnic Area – Conflicts and Local Strategies

The effects of suburbanization can be examined from several aspects, but beyond the individual decisions that initiated it, the real estate market aspects, or the transformation of land use, the effects on local communities and their reactions are rarely highlighted in professional circles. In our work within the agglomeration of Bratislava, the Slovak capital, we researched individual and collective opinions on suburbanization, as well as the questions and potential conflict situations arising among members of the “host community.” A striking element of the study area is that migration also means a change in the linguistic environment, as the newcomers often arrive from a predominantly Slovakspeaking city to an area mostly inhabited by the Hungarian minority. This adds additional dimensions to suburbanization and the responses it generates. Experiences show that the municipalities affected by the process use independent, yet in certain respects similar, strategies to manage it, and as part of these strategies, the ethnic factor also appears prominently in some topics.

The (Im)Mobile Ethnic Hungarian Minority Population in Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine

Abstract This article aims to contribute to the growing international literature on (im)mobility. Drawing on the aspiration/ability model introduced by Jørgen Carling and developed by Hein de Haas (aspiration/capability), it analyzes the patterns of (im)mobility in the Hungarian ethnic minority living in Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine, in the last decade. The data, deriving from qualitative fieldwork conducted regularly since 2016 in multiple municipalities in Transcarpathia, illustrates the interrelatedness of mobility and immobility in family livelihood strategies in a peripheral region. The article highlights the impact of Hungary’s kin-state policies, particularly citizenship policies, and the geographical proximity to the kin-state in the ethnic-kin minority community, which enables the mobility of certain family members while rendering others immobile. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the diversified, age and gender-specific (im)mobility strategies are applied in geopolitical turmoil.

The Career of Students who Use a Different Language at Home and at School

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The objective of the research is to understand how the ethnic composition of the family and the choice of the language of the school are related. THE RESEARCH PROBLEMS AND METHODS: Minorities are often the subject of research, and within, bilingualism, language use arenas and state language education are prominent topics, how‑ ever, the issue of ethnic minority students studying in majority institutions is relatively unexplored. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Our research is focused on the ethnic Hungarian minority in Romania, their decisions and their experiences of education in the majority language. The present qualitative research was carried out in a semi‑structured interview format in November 2023 with 14 respondents, reached by snowball method. RESEARCH RESULTS: Our results show that, in addition to proximity to the institution and the increased possibility of doing well in the country, the school experience of parents and older children are factors behind the decision made by parents. Nevertheless, we also find that extended family, even the third generation, has an impact on school choice. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: The research presents a perspective that focuses on the educational results of respondents most of whom proved to be successful in their respective fields. The results we found confirm hypotheses from the literature regarding the language choices of different nationalities. The research is a part of a larger project which aims at the exploration the research upon the students attending non‑native language schools.

Validating the Hungarian versions of MSLQ and MAI intended for use with Hungarian minority students in Slovakia

Learning today provides students with several freedoms, including easy access to the content or learning materials and the flexibility to schedule their own time, in contrast to the traditional techniques of the past, where students had to spend time at school or in the classroom. The cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational skills that enable learners to overcome challenges and organize their learning depend on self-regulated learning. The Motivation Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) is a tool to gauge students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. Schraw and Dennison's Metacognition Awareness Inventory (MAI) was created to measure the metacognitive abilities of the learners. This article aims to explore and assess the relevant literature on students' self-regulated learning and metacognition, SRL theories and concepts. Furthermore, it aims to determine the reliability and validity of these two with a sample of the pedagogy students at János Selye University. The study involved 120 pedagogy students, of which 102 were female. The MSLQ motivation scale in component A has six subscales and their Cronbach's Alphas are as follow: IGO’s α = 0.69, EGO’s α = 0.84, TV’s = 0.86, CLB’s α = 0.52, SE’s α = 0.86, and TA’s α = 0.74. In Component B, which includes nine subscales for learning strategies, R’s α is 0.69; E’s α is 0.75; O’s α is 0.85; CT’s α is 0.60; MSR’s α is 0.80; TSE’s α is 0.66; ER’s α is 0.80; PL’s α is 0.87; and HS’s is 0.57. As far as MAI goes, its two main components’ Knowledge of Cognition (KC) and Regulation of Cognition (RC), Cronbach's Alpha values, were examined. Three subscales make up the KC: PK, DK, and CK. The Cronbach Alpha of each was 0.82, 0.86, and 0.71, respectively. Five subscales make up the RC. The Cronbach Alphas of each is as follow: P’s α is equal to 0.83, IMS’s α is equal to 0.83, CM’s α is equal to 0.77, DS’s α is equal to 0.74, and E’s α is equal to 0.70.

Nyelvi ideológiák kisebbségben. Példák Katalóniából, a Csallóközből és Budapestről

Critical sociolinguistics with a qualitative approach seeks to explore the background of language-related social issues. Such issues include, for example, the systems of ideas that shape contemporary public thinking, especially when it comes to language choice in minority contexts. The paper compares three such contexts: the context of a diasporic group (Hungarians in Catalonia, Spain), the young adults of an indigenous minority (Hungarians in Csallóköz, Žitný ostrov, Slovakia), and the media representation of sexual minorities in Hungary. The comparison is based on three separate studies with a qualitative and explorative orientation conducted by one of the authors each. These studies examined the language ideologies of late modernity and global capitalism that the literature identifies as discourses of pride and profit. We argue that speakers’ narratives on their language choice are permeated by the concept of profit in a way that pride is no longer evidently associated with authenticity.

Linguistic diversity in media and state language proficiencies: evidence from Hungarian minority regions in central-Eastern Europe

ABSTRACT Can linguistic diversity in the media impede state language proficiency? In this paper, we test the extent to which the availability of minority languages in the media affects state language proficiency for ethnic minorities. We take advantage of an exogeneous development: The rapid expansion of Budapest-originating media outside Hungary in the mid-2000s transformed the media landscape in neighbouring states. Using an original survey data of ethnic Hungarians in minority regions in four Central-Eastern European states over two waves, we find (1) the availability of minority language media means minorities are consuming less media in the state language, which in turn induces low levels of state language proficiency – i.e. through an exogeneous exposure mechanism; and (2) minorities with weaker state language proficiency choose to consume minority language media – i.e. through an endogenous selection mechanism. The results suggest a strong relationship between the language of media consumption and linguistic proficiency.

Kállai Ernő, György Majtényi, Zsuzsanna Mikó and Péter Tóth. 2022. The Hungarian Gypsies/ Roma I–II. Budapest: National Archives of Hungary.

Unlike many other nations, the Roma lacked their own written historical records; thus, our understanding of their history is exclusively derived from the documents of the communities and societal settings they interacted with. This interaction rarely yielded substantial documentary evidence about the Roma. When records did emerge, they were often in the context of criminal activities, employment, and more commonly, due to the policies of sovereigns regulating their settlement and everyday life throughout various historical periods. Consequently, analysing these records on a singular, individual basis can lead to a skewed perception, thereby failing to provide a comprehensive understanding of Roma history. The book under review, “A magyarországi cigányok/romák I-II,” offers an extensive collection of sources, contributing significantly to the understanding of the Roma past within Hungarian historiography. This work is part of the “Minorities in Hungary: National, Ethnic, and Religious Communities” (Magyarországi kisebbségek: nemzeti, nemzetiségi és vallási közösségek) series. The selection of sources, editing, and preparation were undertaken by Ernő Kállai, György Majtényi, Zsuzsanna Mikó, Péter Tóth, and organized by the National Archives of Hungary.

FELSŐOKTATÁSBAN TANULÓ, ELSŐ GENERÁCIÓS KISEBBSÉGI HALLGATÓK PÁLYAMOTIVÁCIÓI

The literature on the social mobility of first-generation students confirms that these students often start higher education at a disadvantage. The lack of cultural and economic capital, along with the educational background of their parents, nfluences their career choices and potential dropouts. In this study, we explore the factors influencing career motivation by examining issues related to the education of first-year national minority student teachers (N=97). Our aim is to analyze minority teacher candidates’ satisfaction with their skills, training, and future plans using a questionnaire method. The results of the pilot research show that the majority of teacher trainees are first-generation students living in minority communities in Ukraine, currently a war-torn country. According to the results of the pilot research, firstgeneration tudents make up more than half of the first-year teacher trainees. One of their most prominent motivations for choosing an institution is the ease of access to education, and they choose teacher training mainly to broaden their knowledge. This study examines the career motivations of student teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds. Professional socialization is a lifelong, dynamic process from the moment an individual makes a career choice, influenced by a number of factors. After graduation, the individual incorporates professional expectations into their self-image, leading to the formation of a professional identity. During training, students have the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge that meet the expectations of the profession, which can lead to a greater sense of commitment to the profession. The target group of this thesis is young members of a Hungarian minority community enrolled in Hungarian-language higher education, specifically in teacher education. Therefore, we consider it important to delineate the characteristics of minority students. Keywords: teacher candidates, first-generation students, career motivation, national minorities

Somatization Patterns and Minority Stress Among LGBTQ+ Individuals in Hungary

ABSTRACT This research aims to explore the relationship between somatization and minority stress in the LGBTQ+ community in Hungary, building on the biopsychosocial model, addressing the unique health challenges of the community and expanding the currently limited literature on the subject. The study involved adult, LGBTQ+, Hungarian individuals, and it assessed somatic symptom severity using the Patient Health Questionnaire-15. Ordinal logistic regressions were carried out, using multiple covariates and factors. Our findings shows that women reported higher somatic symptoms and stress levels, however, these effects are moderate among those living in the capital. The influence of residence type on the individual’s psychosomatic health was proven to depend on their sexual orientations and gender identities. Additionally, older respondents, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, seem to experience less somatic symptoms and stress. The gender respondents identify with, their type of residency, and age have been demonstrated as the most significant factors influencing somatic symptoms and perceived stress. As one of the pioneering studies on psychosomatic symptoms in sexual and gender minorities in Hungary, this research underscores the imperative to academically and practically address the health concerns of the LGBTQ+ community.

Carol Király (1930-2021)

Carol Király (Király Károly) was born on 26 September 1930 in Târnăveni, Mureș County, into a Hungarian family. He attended four primary classes between 1939 and 1943, after which he worked as a construction worker in various construction sites in Luduș, Cluj region. In April 1946, Carol Király volunteered at the Salva-Vișeu construction site, and in 1949, he went to the Danube-Black Sea Canal construction site, where he also worked as a carpenter. He attended evening party courses. In October 1954, he was accepted as a member of the Communist Party, but remained a U.T.M. activist. In September 1956, he was sent to attend the Central School of the Moscow Comsomol for a year. After graduation in August 1957, he was appointed first secretary of the regional U.T.M. committee of the Hungarian Autonomous Region. His real rise began after Nicolae Ceausescu came to power. He became a member of the Council of State and afterwards member of the CC of the Communist Party of Romania and substitute member of the Executive Committee. On 1 April 1972 he sent a letter to the party leadership announcing that he was resigning as First Secretary of Covasna County and alternate member of the Executive Committee. In 1973, he was appointed president of the Union of Craft Cooperatives in Mureș County. In 1975 he ceased to be a member of the State Council. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he was an exponent of the rights of the Hungarian minority in Romania, publicly denouncing their violation through open letters to the state leadership, interviews and material published abroad. In the context of the 1989 revolution, Carol Kiraly was co-opted into the country’s new leadership. He died on 4 November 2021.

Męczeństwo Sługi Bożego Jánosa Esterházyego i tego dzisiejsza interpretacja

The text discusses the fate of János Esterházy, an aristocrat and activist of the Hungarian minority in Czechoslovakia. Arrested in 1945 and deported to the Soviet Union, he returned to Czechoslovakia in 1949. Pardoned from the death sentence, he spent the rest of his life in prison, where he died of exhaustion in 1957. The essential part of his life (?) is his deep inner spiritual transformation, which took place in the most difficult period of his life. It led to the search for the meaning of suffering in the cross of Christ. Its fruit was a steadfast attitude of forgiveness and reconciliation in the spirit of mercy, confirmed by numerous accounts.

The Importance of Student-Teacher Relationship in Romanian SEN Schools Among Hungarian Minorities

The research aims to investigate the status of special schools in Romania, with a focus on student-teacher relationships, attachment-based education, and the Hungarian minority. After a brief historical overview of special schools, the study covers two main directions. We start by outlining how special schools view the value of attachment-based education and sheltered workshop conditions. Then we will use quantitative methods to analyze the research findings of a pilot study with a sample of a total of 60. Our focus will be on children with special educational needs. We will emphasize the impact of segregated education processes and examine current practices and rights. Based on the findings of the study, educators who work in SEN schools have better knowledge of their students’ attachment patterns. These educators are responsible for teaching students with SEN and building safe attachments plays a crucial role in the educational process. Special education setting places great importance on fostering secure attachment in students.

A szlovákiai magyar nyelvváltozat mint identitásképző tényező

The Hungarian language variety in Slovakia as a factor of identity The aim of our research was to examine the elements of Hungarian identity in Slovakia, including its relationship to the Hungarian language variety in Slovakia. Negative perceptions of language varieties (as reflected in school textbooks, among other things), the minimal theoretical knowledge of language varieties, the expectation of using the Hungarian standard, can alienate language users from their own vernacular. On the contrary, the acceptance of a language variety can contribute to the survival and survival of the national/linguistic minority. The research data suggest that the group of Hungarian language users in Slovakia have a strong sense of Hungarian identity, and that there is no significant difference between the identities of students who study in Hungarian, Hungarian and Slovak or only Slovak and those of mixed age and education. The use of this language variety does not separate Hungarians living beyond the border from Hungarians; on the contrary, the regional language variety can contribute to the development of the Hungarian identity and uniqueness of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, as well as a certain degree of unity. Keywords: language variety, standard, Hungarian minority in Slovakia