A Contemporary History of Exclusion
This study presents the changing situation of the Roma in the second half of the twentieth century. The authors examine the effects of the policies of the Hungarian state towards minorities by analyzing legal regulations, policy documents, archival sources and sociological surveys. The book offers theoretical background to one of the most burning issues in east Europe.
In the first phase (1945-61), the authors show the efforts of forced assimilation by the communist state. The second phase (1961-89) began with the party resolution denying nationality status to the Roma. The prevailing thought was that Gypsy culture was a culture of poverty that must be eliminated. Forced assimilation through labor activities continued. In the 1970s Roma intellectuals began an emancipatory movement, and its legacy can still be felt. The third phase (1989-2010) brought about some freedoms and rights for the Roma, with large sums spent on various Roma-related programs. Despite these efforts, the situation on the ground did not improve. Segregation and marginalization continues, and is rampant.
Published in 2016 by arrangement with the Eötvös Loránd University, Eszterházy Károly University of Applied Sciences and the Center for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Contexts of Gypsy/Roma identity and history
On the sources of Gypsy/Roma history
Who (what) is (was) Hungarian or Gypsy/Roma?
“Comrades, If You Have a Heart…” The History of the Gypsy Issue, 1945–1961
The construction and spread of the state socialist system
Policy and Gypsies
Modernization and Gypsy communities
Disciplinary state
The impossibility of self-organization
Minority issue
Discourses on social policy and equality
“Life Goes On…” The Hungarian Party-State and Assimilation
Social policy and the Gypsies: Wage work - Housing - Social system - Education
Scientific approaches
Gypsy images
The transformation of discourse
Disciplinary power, disciplinary society: Police and agents - Health supervisors
The national minority issue
National movement
The “ethnic interpretation” of history
Roma Policy after the Regime Change
Minority issue
Prospects for multiculturalism
Minority (self-)government?
Divide at impera — The opportunities and impossibilities of self-organization
Civic movement
National minority culture — national culture
Questions of equal treatment and equal opportunity: Anti-discrimination - Equal opportunity
Roma programs: Education - Employment
Social policy and the Roma: Aid - Segregation
Disciplinary society
The transformation of discourses
Research methods
Panopticon: Roma Policy, 2010–2015
The Hungarian National Cooperation System
The anti-egalitarian character of the system
Changing minority legislation
New social policy?
Violence
The shift
Summary: Decades of Exclusion
Bibliography
List of Photographs
Index