Show description

It is no longer solely race, class or gender. Rather it is the infinite permutations that come about as a result of the dazzling array of combinations human beings recruit to organize and fulfil themselves’ (Ladson-Billings, 2004, p. 50). Unfortunately, the discourse on educational issues has not reached this sort of subtlety in Hungary yet. It has not even adapted and reacted to critical race theory or transformative multiculturalism either, and, like in many other countries, there is a lack of consensus regarding the notion of multiculturalism, as well.

Immigration before the change of the regime was marginal; primarily it meant emigration to the West. Immigrants started to arrive in Hungary at the beginning of the 1990s, but political and education policy reflecting to their educational problems and those of their children reacted some years later, at the end of the 1990s. Because of this lagging behind the recognition of the rights of foreign students in Hungary is a relatively new element of multiculturalism in Hungary. Based on a statement issued by the Minister of Education (2004) schools that meet the preconditions specified by the Ministry may work out, implement and provide intercultural programs for immigrants’ children.

Nevertheless, due to the different social history of minorities and to different family socialization patterns, participation and the dynamics of participation in minority education has been inconclusive (see Table 1). Gypsies or Romani, who are by far the most populous national minority, are in a special position. Until the second half of the 1990s, studies in educational sociology and pedagogy on children from ethnic minorities focused primarily on their school career within the educational system.