Integrated, undergoing integration, unable to integrate
“It is clear that the Gypsies cannot be considered an ethnic group,” declared party leader János Kádár during a MSZMP meeting. The 1961 resolution classified Roma into three categories based on their perceived level of assimilation: (1) integrated, (2) undergoing integration, and (3) unable to integrate. Shortly thereafter, the Cultural Association of Gypsies (Magyarországi Cigányok Kulturális Szövetsége) was dissolved, as its existence implied recognition of Roma as an ethnic group, as according to the party’s document “despite certain ethnographic characteristics, Roma do not constitute an ethnic group”. The regime pursued a strategy of state-controlled, coercive integration, identifying employment, housing, and education as priority areas – yet Roma cultural autonomy remained entirely unacknowledged. The resolution called for county and district party committees to dismantle Roma settlements and the dispersal of individuals among the non-Roma population to accelerate assimilation.
“For the Roma, the fact that the party resolution did not contain a single positive definition of Roma had a stigmatising effect for decades. It made it unalterably clear that the Roma were not a nationality, but not what they were.”
Erna Sághy, researcher
Further Reading / Sources
A magyarországi cigányság története. Történelem a cigánykutatások tükrében, 1890–2008
Dupcsik, Cs. (2009). Budapest: Osiris Kiadó. 134-237