The process of segregation in Northeast Hungary

This paper looks at the process of segregation since 1990 in northeast Hungary, where the rates of people living in poverty are high. There are also big proportions of Romany people, who are generally even poorer than the rest of the population. After the political change in Hungary, in 1990, as a result of the crisis in heavy industry, the Northeast Region of Hungary lost its essential role within the country. Thousands of people left this area and many of the inhabitants lost their jobs. We investigated more than 1600 households' welfare and well-being and their attitudes towards different ethnic groups using a questionnaire survey approach. The tension between the two ethnic groups in these areas is palpable, but this conflict is only manifest rarely as physical violence. The more common outcome is that the original residents leave these areas as a response to the perceived adverse situation and there is a concurrent influx of new Romany inhabitants. The result of this process is a change in the ethnic composition of the community and higher levels of segregation. The new residents are characterised by a high birth rate which contributes to deepening and widening poverty and deprivation for them. How can society understand these problems and raise the level of well-being and welfare of this and similar populations? This paper describes this segregation process and its main consequences and illustrates a conflict and a segregation which, we argue, is based on exclusion not purely ethnicity