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• Educational situation picture of Roma residents living in shantytown conditions in North Great Plain Region

  112-137

  Views:

  309

  In our study, we examine what kind of educational qualifications Roma residents living in shantytown conditions in a large city in Hungary have, what their motivation to learn is like and to what extent school dropout is typical among them. We can compare our research results with the national statistical data available only in a limited number, because the analysis of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office’s Microcensus 2016 data revealing ethnicity data is the last database on the subject under examination. The theoretical part of our paper covers the historical presentation of Roma participation in education, the background factors of school failure and dropout. We used univariate and multivariate analysis techniques to evaluate our research data. According to the analysis of the data, the proportion of Roma with vocational qualifications and certificate of baccalaureate among Roma living in the shantytown conditions examined is higher than in the 2016 national survey. Our data confirmed the sociological findings that the primary role of girls in Roma families is to contribute to family life, even at the detriment of learning, since fewer of the girls living in the shantytown continue their education than boys. According to our results, the respondents are aware that higher education is supposed to lead to find better jobs, but the responses reflect bad experiences and one third of the Roma in the shantytown believe that living in the shantytown is a disadvantage when trying to find a job.

• Trends and best-known results of research on Gypsy/Roma communities in Hungary

  5-32

  Views:

  443

  Gypsy communities have been known in Hungarian majority society for half a millennium. However, sources are poor and only provide information on a few aspects of their lives. Some scholars have attempted to define this sporadic, small group of people when their numbers have increased significantly. In the second half of the 20th century, archivists and ethnographers began to investigate their origins, their common history, the origin of their names, and the specific characteristics that shape their way of life, language, culture and beliefs. Their findings have led to their being defined as a minority, but they are now estimated to number between 10 and 12 million in Europe.  There are naïve researchers and advocates of Gypsy/Roma history who believe that the glories of the past and the persecutions of the past are to be found, but in scientific research, the view is becoming increasingly accepted that the communities of the past centuries in Europe and Hungary, known by their collective name of Gypsy/Roma, cannot be described as homogeneous, undifferentiated entities, either historically, ethnographically or sociologically. Throughout history, Roma/Gypsy people and communities have not been made Roma/Gypsy by the same criteria, and therefore they must be understood primarily in terms of their social situation, so that their integration can be made possible and the national and EU programmes of schooling, compulsory employment and the dismantling of Roma settlements can open up real paths to social advancement.