Crisis – Reform – Change and book launch 15. November, 2012 Debrecen

1. Fónai Mihály: The Social Situation and the Health Status of the Hungarian and Vlach Gypsy Population in Tiszavasvári Crisis – Reform – Change and book launch 15. November, 2012 Debrecen

2. Researches approaches and classification questions • „Who are the Gypsies/ Romas?” • The cultural approach and the identity of ethnic groups: „Gypsies or Romas are who they think they are”; the inner definition • The structural approach: „Gypsies or Romas are who are the writer or speaker thinks they are”; the exterior definition • Differences among definitions and classifications • One difficult question: „which is the correct approach”?

3. Gypsy, and/or Roma? • The using of ethnic group names depends on inner or exterior definition • The inner definitions and names: - from „ROM” (men): romničal, romničel; kalo, kale, manuš or sinti(fellow-traveller, akin, relatives) - „roma”: is plural of „rom” words The exterior definitions and names: -from ατσινγανος „atsinganos” (untouchable, impalpable): cigani (South Slavian), ţiganilor (Romanian), cikáni (Bohemian), tsiganes (French), zingari (Italian), zigeuner (German), zigenaren (Swedish), ciganos (Portuguesen), zincali (Spanish) - from Egyptian: evgjit, jevg (Albanian), ejiftos, giftoi (Greek), gipćan, gupćan, egjupci (South Slavian), gitans (French), gitanos (Spanish), gipsy, gyps(Enghlis) - other names: bohémiens, ungarós , tattare, manne, mustalainen, mustilainen, kaale The using of names of Gypsy or Roma: there is not convention –it depends on political and cultural conditions

4. Roma migration in Europe(Wikipedia)

5. Roma population in Europe

6. Roma population in European countries

8. Roma in Hungary(Wikipedia)

9. Gypsy ethnic groups by mother tongue in Hungary • Gypsy ethnic groups in Hungary: • „Hungarian roma”, in vlach (lovari gypsy, roma) language: „romungro” • Vlach gypsy, „oláhcigány”, in vlach (roma) language: „Roma” • „Beás” gypsy, boyas (it is oldromanian name)

10. Tiszavasvári – the town • This small city, Tiszavasvári is located in the north-east region of Hungary, with a population of 12,800. • The city is in the poorest part of Hungary, where unemployment is high, incomes are low and the rate of the Roma population is high. • This region is traditionally an agricultural area. Since the political change in 1990, (the failure of the state-socialist system), Hungarian agriculture and those in the county who worked in connection with agriculture have been in permanent crisis. • During socialism Tiszavasvári was one of the important cities of pharmacology. The Alkaloida Chemical Factory was founded in the 1920s and it was one of the centers of morphine production. The factory located in the underdeveloped agricultural was a significant employer of low wage unskilled labor. • The factory was privatized in 1996, and until 2006 it was ICN Pharma, a plant of the International Chemical Nuclear Pharmaceuticals Inc.

11. Roma population in Tiszavasvári • There are two groups of Roma communities in the city: the Vlach Gypsies (vlach gypsies who speak the Lovari Roma language and identify by the name Roma; the Hungarian name of this ethnic group is Olah Gypsies) and the Hungarian Gypsies, who in the Lovari Roma language are called „Romungros”. This latter group traditionally called themselves „musician” Gypsies. • The results of an overall research project by Lengyel Gabriella (Lengyel, 2004) identified that 2,008 Gypsies live in Tiszavasvári. • Two thirds of them are Vlach Gypsies, that is Roma, and one third are Hungarian Gypsies, Romungro. • In this research the term „Gypsy” will be used typically and the other names will be used when comparing the situation of the two Gypsy groups.

12. Group self-classification • Two primary methods were used to classify the ethnic groups of Gypsies, self- classification by the Gypsies themselves • and the views of those experts who are in daily connection with the Roma/Gypsies. The interviewers judged that the respondents were not Roma in nine cases (3.2%), and in five cases (1.8 %) they were uncertain regarding the ethnic classification. Thus 95.1 % of the visited households on the base of the interviewers’ classification were Gypsy households • There was no difference between the external classification by the interviewers and self-classification by the Gypsies • The Vlach Gypsy community (lovari) are bilingual, their mother tongue is Gypsy but they speak in Hungarian as well.

13. The distribution of the household members according to age groups (percent) Source: own survey(*) and census(**)

14. The distribution of the household members according to school education *: with Children **: Census 2001, seven-year old and older population

15. The distribution of the household members according to economic activity (percent) Source: own survey(*) and the county data of the 2001 census(**)

16. What education would you like to have (percent) Source: Own survey

17. What education would you like for your children to have (percent) Source: Own survey

19. Reasons for dropping out (percent) Source: Own survey

20. Occurence of income types in households (percent)

22. What diseases, complaints of were treated during the past three years • „Civilization diseases”, high blood pressure and motion diseases – in both of their underlying way of life and their living conditions can be found. For high blood pressure the possibilities of prevention, for example, are low due to the „strict limits” of poverty. • The high rate of the cardiovascular diseases partly corresponds to the national trends, but the influence from their way of living and living conditions is possible here too. • Asthma, respiratory diseases and allergy are health problems where the living conditions of the Gypsy population are important. The rate of these diseases and complaints show that these types of illinesses are significantly affected by living conditions and their way of life. • The cause of the high occurrence of neurological and mental problems can be from permanent stress which is a result of different forms of deprivation and poverty.

23. The judgement of the standard of services and treatment (on a five-point scale)

24. Mental status: how much do the following things characterize you

25. The distribution of the depression-symptoms according to their seriousness Source: Kopp and co 1996, own survey

26. Fónai Mihályfonai.mihaly@law.unideb.hu