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A small group of persons differing from others in race, religion, language is the definition of the word "minority" in The Oxford Handy Dictionary. For centuries the law did not acknowledge and protect people belonging to such groups because the position on this issue was "one state one language.

Hungary declared similar view which was one of the reasons because of which the 1848 Hungarian War of Independence failed and the country lost enormous territories after the First World War.

In spite of deficiencies the position of minorities is much better than the situation of immigrants who are a kind of minority as well but do not belong to ethnical minorities and there is no law protecting them. From the point of view of international law immigrants are not human beings, only workers who can be sent home at any time. It is very interesting that host countries have problems always with immigrants from lower developed territories.

Botlik József writes that ethnic problem is the cancer of Europe and the fate of the continent depends on the fact how long different ethnics can live in peace with one another. In his opinion Hungary had a very shameful period after the Second World War when German ethnic people were resettled from country and it was the period when Czechoslovakia and Hungary changed inhabitants which means that Czechoslovakia sent Hungarian ethnic people and Hungary Slovak ethnic inhabitants. This article from "Magyar Nemzet" forgets to mention some very important facts: Resettlement was not a Hungarian decision but an International one made by the Great Powers. Czechoslovakia warded to get rid of the ethnic Hungarians ethnic Slovaks were alowed to take everything with themself but ethnic Hungarians had to escape with bundles in hands.

In another article of "Magyar Nemzet" am interesting article can be found about mixed villages. There is a small village in the North of Hungary /2000 inhabitants/ where Hungarians, Slovaks and Germans live together. The history of Mlinky or in Hungarian Pilisszentkereszt is typical for an ethnic settlement which means that minorities were settled after the Turkish era. People lived together without any problems with one another, boys and girls from different ethnic groups married each other. After the Second World War German names started to disappear and became slovakized. The article does not write but it is clear that Germans were frightened and was afraid of resettlement.

Nowadays two languages are official in Pilisszentkereszt: Hungarian and Slovak. Children can learn both languages at local school, but Hungarian is compulsory! An old man who does not want to disclose his name tells that people in the village have always wanted to work and get on, the nationality does not matter at all, simple people have got on well with one another but politicians are who have always caused trouble.

From the underlined sentence the reader can feel a very important and regrettable fact which is FEAR. This kind of feeling is unfortunately not baselles. People do not forget easily, minorities cannot get rid of the idea that the ruling nation has deceived them many times. A "wonderful" example is deportation of Germans after the Second World War. Mostly those persons were resettled who declared themselves German ethnics during a survey in 1942. The result of that survey should have been a secret.

Fear is the main reason of not having the punctual number of ethnics. According to an estimation in Hungary there are about a million people who belong to different ethic minorities.

German 200 - 220 thousand
Slovak 110 thousand
Croatian 80 thousand
Roman 25 thousand
Serbien 5 thousand
Slovenien 5 thousand
Bulgarien 2.5 thousand
Greek 6 thousand
Armenian 3 thousand
Polish 10 -15 thousand
AND Gipsy 400-600 thousand

From the article it is not clear why Gipsies are mentioned last. It seems that this group is really discriminated in a negative way. This ethnic is different from the others living in Hungary by the colour of the skin, lifestyle and not having a mother - country.


These days ethnic minorities seem to have all the rights that the ruling nation has. The Parliament produced new laws about the rights of national and ethnic minorities in 1993./ before it in 1947 /. According to this law those groups belong to the ethnic minorities which:

- have been living in Hungary at least for a century
- have less members than the ruling nation
- have Hungarian citizenship
- have different language, culture and tradicion
- have a strong sense of belonging.

This law does not cover refugees, immigrants, settled foreign citizens and exiles, but acknowledges that Ukrainians and Ruthenians are minorities as well.

Minorities are alowed to use their mother tongue, celebrate their family occasions, have contact with mother - countries. Many kindergardens, primary and secondary schools, collages have been founded for minorities. In the local authorities representatives of minorities must be chosen and the National Ethnic Self - Goverment protect their interests. Ethnic representatives can get into the Parliament with less votes. In Hungarian educational system Hungarian language is obligatory on each level. So this law guarantees equal rights for ethnic people.

Hungary seems to have positive attitude to ethnic questions according to the laws produced in Copenhagen. Minorities are supposed to be bridges between Hungary and the mother-countries.

A Christmas declaration of Hungarian Catholic Bishops emphasises that all people are brothers and sisters and the magic feeling that can solve problems is "LOWE".