The Moldavian Csángós: the Hungarian speaking linguistic minority in North-Eastern Romania

Abstract

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the RIRNM and the Romanian Government cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Kinship Idioms and Care-Control Dynamics in Hungarian Co-ethnic Philanthropy

“…Their reopening was initiated by a civic movement born after the transition animated by local and Transylvanian intellectuals and activists, whom within the framework of the ideology of national survival and the discourse of minority rights started lobbying both at the Romanian and Hungarian government for providing legal and financial means of education in the 'mother tongue' of the local Csa ´ngo ´population. The last two decades brought a relative accommodation of the Hungarian language education, from the initial position of extracurricular activities and third-sector institutions, into the Romanian state-recognised public educational system (Laihonen et al, 2020). Besides the Romanian state, subsidising public school classes and teachers in the programme, also the Hungarian government and philanthropic donors (and among them 'godparents') from Hungary and Transylvania provide important financial support for the extracurricular parts of the programme, as well as the maintenance and living costs of Hungarian language teachers recruited from Transylvania and Hungary.…”

“…Besides the Romanian state, subsidising public school classes and teachers in the programme, also the Hungarian government and philanthropic donors (and among them 'godparents') from Hungary and Transylvania provide important financial support for the extracurricular parts of the programme, as well as the maintenance and living costs of Hungarian language teachers recruited from Transylvania and Hungary. Today, these classes are present in about 30 villages of the region and reach about 2000 children, employ about 60 teachers (Laihonen et al, 2020), while donors of 'godparent' status varied between 800 and 250.…”

“…However, Hungarian national curriculum (Hungarian national history, geography, literature etc.) has not been taught in the second half of the twentieth century in these villages, and local Romanian state institutions, such as public administration or education were explicitly hostile with the use of Hungarian language, and with evoking Hungarian national discourse and narratives (Laihonen et al, 2020). Related to that, strategies of social mobility (education, employment) became closely tied to the Romanian state and its majority language institutions, and to ethnically heterogeneous networks of labour migration towards Western Europe.…”