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Private area
Private area
European Network on Social Inclusion and Roma under the Structural Funds
Structural Funds: Investing in Roma
Private area
European Network on Social Inclusion and Roma under the Structural Funds
Structural Funds: Investing in Roma
Situation of the Roma in Hungary, 2007-2009
According to the national census of 2001, with respect to the survey of nationalities 190,000 people identified themselves to belong to the Roma population, while in the light of the generally accepted representative sociological surveys the number of Roma people is estimated to be 520–650,000. There are several reasons underlying the differences between the above-mentioned sources, including fears of social stigmatization, as well as assimilative efforts. Due to several factors in the years of 2007-2009, the tension between the Roma and non-roma in Hungary has been growing.
On the other hand, such uncertainties of identification lead to difficulties in framing and implementing programmes for Roma people (definition of Roma target group), yet self-identification, social and regional aspects as well as their various segments applied during the formulation of the Strategic Plan offers adequate means for handling of this problem. The most important social and regional characteristics of Roma population are as follow.
Education
On a national average, 88% of children of three–five years of age attend kindergartens, while the corresponding rate for Roma children is only 42%. The proportion of Roma children transferred to educational institutions established for slightly mentally disabled children is the double of the national average. In the case of Roma children attending primary-school education, the rate of drop-outs and qualifications for the need of individual studies is much higher than the national average. According to a 2003 survey, 82.5% of young Roma people aged 20–24 have actually completed primary school. On the national average, 54.5% of 18-year-old people had general certifications of secondary education, while in the case of young Roma people between the age of 20 and 24 according to a 2002 survey 5% could complete secondary schools. The proportion of Roma students admitted to universities and colleges was even lower than 1.2% of Roma people aged 20–24 attended institutions of higher education.
Employment
Less than one-third of Roma men aged between 15 and 64 had any income from work identified as the primary source of subsistence. One-sixth of Roma women had some regular work. Another characteristic of Roma people is the wide-ranging occurrence of undeclared, casual work.
Health conditions
The ratio of Roma people over the age 50 is smaller than the national average, while the situation is reverse in the case of people under the age of 30. The underlying reason is that for Roma people the life expectancy at birth is shorter by 10 years than the national average, while the birth ration is higher than the national average. Several researches and studies have proved that regional, schooling, social, economic and social deprivation has substantially negative consequences on health and life quality.
Housing conditions, regional characteristics
A major proportion of Roma people live in those micro-regions of the country that are afflicted with economic, infrastructural, employment disadvantages. In the past decade, the separation of the places of residence of Roma and non-Roma people has become dramatic, and the number of those families can be estimated to be several tens of thousand that do live in segregated, slummed housing circumstances in segregated blocks, in apartments without any comfort facilities.
