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Dilemmas of Belonging: Hungarians from Romania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Irina Culic
Irina Culic*
Affiliation:
Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj [email protected]
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Extract

On 5 December 2004 the citizens of Hungary were called to decide through referendum on two issues: (1) that the health system remained under full state control, and (2) that ethnic Hungarians living in the neighboring countries were granted citizenship preferentially. Sixty-five percent of the Hungarians who went to vote gave a favorable answer to the first question, and a little more than 51% gave a yes answer to the second question. Despite this, however, the referendum failed because of the low voter turnout of only 37.49% of the electorate. According to Hungarian law, for a referendum result to be valid it is required that at least 25% of the electorate endorses it. In this referendum a little less than 19% of all franchised citizens voted for granting double citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living in the neighboring countries.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , May 2006 , pp. 175 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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References

Notes

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42. “Hungarians understand the communist period as one of a ‘double repression’: as individuals (be they Hungarians, Romanians or other) and as members of a community. The loss of the rights that were founded on the belonging to the Hungarian community was so painful because there was no other alternative to them than a better integration in the existing social structures (obviously dominated by Romanians). I believe that this is the source of Hungarians' permanent accusation of ‘forced assimilation.‘ For example, the dissolution of the Szeklerland and the set up of districts was perceived by the Hungarian community as an essentially symbolic gesture asserting the domination of the majority over the minority, even though it had been part of the reorganization plan which affected the whole territory of the country.” Communication from a Transylvanian Hungarian.Google Scholar

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44. My inevitably incomplete readings of Hungarians historians, sociologists, or political analysts, whether born or not in Transylvania, revealed almost uniformly the lack of their availability to relate to Romanians and the institutions of the Romanian state other than in terms of a relation of domination, defined as anti-Hungarian attitude and action. See, for example, the book published in 1982 by Illyés in an American prestigious academic series, remarkable for the rigorous documentation and data provided, and its uniform interpretation in terms of Romanian anti-Hungarianism.Google Scholar

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46. The split labor market contains at least two groups of workers whose price of labor differs for the same work, or would differ if they did the same work. Price of labor refers to all costs born by the employer: wages, recruitment, transportation, room and board, education, health care, and costs of labor unrest. Ethnic antagonism first germinates in a labor market split along ethnic lines. See E. Bonacich, “A Theory of Ethic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 37, 1972, pp. 547–559. In the case of Hungarian–Hungarian relations, the competition on the split labor market between local Hungarians and immigrant Hungarians from across the borders reshapes ethnicity so that both groups feel a differential in their Hungarian-ness.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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48. According to the various surveys on the Hungarian population in Transylvania, Hungarians assign primarily the following characteristics to Romanians: religious, hypocrites, united, hostile, superstitious, backward, lazy. A great majority of them also agree that there are some things that should make them feel ashamed of being a Romanian citizen. See I. Culic et al., Ethnobarometer .Google Scholar

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61. Fowler, “Fuzzing Citizenship,” p. 43.Google Scholar

62. See, for example: “In the future it won't be the territorially defined state that determines everything. Its role will remain important, but alongside it national communities, for example, will also strengthen. For me, in the future there won't be minorities, only communities. And I believe that our continent will become a community of communities.” János Mártonyi, Hungarian Foreign Minister, on the Hungarian Status Law, 168 Óra , 31 May 2001, or “The status law is a milestone in the process whereby Hungarian nation-policy shifts the emphasis from borders, which are becoming ever less significant in the uniting Europe, to people and their communities.” Zsolt Németh, State Secretary for the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 April 2001, during the first day of parliamentarian debates over the Status Law.Google Scholar

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65. Government of Romania, The Official Position , p. 5.Google Scholar

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75. UDMR was part of the 1996–2000 government coalition. For an evaluation of its performance, see Bárdi and Kántor, “Az RMDSZ a romániai kormányban.” During the 2000–2004 legislature, UDMR supported the governing Social Democratic Party (PSD) in Parliament, annually signing an agreement of cooperation. UDMR is at present one of the partners of the government coalition of the Justice and Truth Alliance (Alianţa D.A.). While there are splinter organizations from or factions within UDMR competing for the ethnic Hungarian vote, so far only the Hungarian Civic Union (UCM) posed certain challenge to UDMR in the local elections, where UDMR also loses votes to Romanian parties (mainly to PSD and PNL), but was prevented from taking part in the national elections. According to survey data, more than 10% of the Hungarians voted for the PSD candidates in the 2004 local elections. Data come from the survey carried out by the Research Center for Interethnic Relations (CCRIT) in September 2004, commissioned by UDMR. Author's database.Google Scholar

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82. This is obvious even at the academic level in conclusions such as the following: “For the case of the parents who decide to send their children to Hungarian schools, the ethnically closed character of the micro-community relations functions, on one hand, as a conservation factor and plays an important role in preserving and forming the identity of the children, but we have to emphasize that exclusivity […] represents in the same their condition.” A. Sorbán, “Copilul să studieze în limba română, ca să se poată afirma mai bine—Radiografia asimilării,” in Alternative minoritare: Prezentarea problemelor minoritare în revista Magyar Kisebbség (1995–2000) (Sfântu Gheorghe: Editura T3, 2002), p. 189. Or the following: “An important part of the political parties in Romania are not anti-Hungarian because this doctrine may bring success to the party, and not because this is the conviction of their members/leaders. This does not mean that there do not exist anti-Hungarian sentiments, but rather the fact that anti-Hungarianism plays a functional role in the Romanian political life.” M. Bakk, A. Horváth and L. Salat, “În prag de an 2000: politică şi minoritate maghiară în România,” in Alternative minoritare, p. 319.Google Scholar

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84. According to the survey conducted by the Research Center for Interethnic Relations (CCRIT) in 1997, 68% of the Transylvanian Hungarians consider Romania their homeland, 21% Transylvania, 3% the place where I live, 2% Hungary, and 5% did not answer. Author's data.Google Scholar

85. See V. Veres, “A társadalmi struktúra etnikai sajátosságai a posztszocialista Erdélyben,” Erdélyi Társadalom, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2003, pp. 87–112.Google Scholar

86. Culic, “Nationhood and Identity,” p. 240.Google Scholar

87. “I wish it were like in the old times when everything was clear and all things were at their place, when we had no dilemmas and had peace.” Excerpt from a discussion with a Hungarian from Szeklerland.Google Scholar