Inter-Ethnic Friendship and Hostility between Roma and non-Roma Students in Hungary: The Role of Exposure and Academic Achievement

Abstract

This study examines friendship and hostility relations between Roma students and the ethnically homogeneous non-Roma majority in Hungarian schools. Using data on friendship and hostility relations of 15-year-old students from 82 schools, the study focuses on the interaction between exposure to the other ethnic group and academic achievement of Roma students. High-achieving Roma students are shown to have significantly more friends and fewer adversaries than low-achieving ones, due to better inter-ethnic relations while having similar within-ethnic group relations. As a result, higher exposure to Roma students translates to more friendship and less hostility from non-Roma students in environments where more of the Roma students have higher achievement. Therefore, policies helping the achievement of Roma students can have immediate as well as long-term positive effects. Simulations suggest that a mixed policy of desegregation and closing the achievement gap may best foster positive inter-ethnic relations.

Ethnic Integration and Interethnic Relations in Schools

“…The authors also find ethnic differences in these associations: while being verbally aggressive contributes to the popularity of non-Roma students, it does not show a significant association among Roma students. In contrast to the predictions of oppositional culture theory and in line with previous Hungarian studies (Habsz and Radó, 2019;Hajdu et al, 2019), the study finds that higher school performance is associated with a higher level of acceptance among both Roma and non-Roma students.…”

“…Other empirical studies, however, contradicted the predictions of the oppositional culture explanation and the acting white hypothesis among both African American and Roma students (e.g. Ainsworth-Darnell and Downey, 1998;Harris, 2011;Brüggemann, 2014;Habsz and Radó, 2018;Hajdu et al, 2019;Kisfalusi, 2018;Bocskor and Havelda, 2019).…”

Status Dynamics

“…These conditions create a situation in which an 'oppositional culture' could, it is assumed, be developed. Accordingly, some Hungarian research has also tested the 'acting white' hypothesis on Roma students, using the measurement of social preference (Habsz and Radó, 2018), friendship and adversary nominations (Hajdu et al, 2019), and victimization INTERSECTIONS. EAST EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIETY AND POLITICS, 5(4): 110-138.…”

“…In addition, although most of the Hungarian peer relations literature has explicitly focused on interethnic relations, the relationship between ethnicity and status has mostly been assessed based on friendship nominations (e.g. Hajdu et al, 2019) or measurements of social preference (e.g. Habsz and Radó, 2018), while the relationship between ethnicity and the direct nominations of reputational status (e.g.…”

Informal Status among Hungarian Early Adolescents Popularity, Coolness, and Acceptance from a Mixed Methods Perspective

“…nominations) and academic performance, while the other (Kisfalusi, 2018) between bullying and academic performance; however, neither of the two found support for the presence of an ethnic 'oppositional culture'. Similarly, another study on a larger primary school sample (Hajdu et al, 2019), including schools from the 75 towns with the largest Roma population in Hungary, found no evidence of an ethnic oppositional culture. Hajdu and colleagues (2019) found that for non-Roma students there was an association between school grades and friendship and adversary nominations, while Roma students' nominations were not sensitive to academic performance, thus well-performing Roma students actually had more non-Roma friendship and fewer adversary nominations, while the number of their Roma friends and adversaries was unaffected by their grades.…”