Minority Issues in Eastern Europe

 By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

The number of people found to be illegally present in the European Union increased by 22 per cent to reach nearly 700,000 in 2021, according to data released May 19 by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU.

Altogether, 23.7 million non-EU citizens were living in EU countries, making up 5.3 per cent of the total EU population.

The post-Communist countries of Eastern Europe, now members of the EU, see such immigration as the principal threat to their identity, and some have refused to accept quotas regarding refugee distribution.

Historic minorities

In part, this is a protest directed at Brussels’ high-handedness: Who is the EU to impose anything against the will of its member states? Mostly, however, it is opposition to the very idea of diluting the national fibre by admitting foreigners.

These countries already have historic minorities within their borders, which many are not too happy about either. But a criterion for their entry into the EU included respect for and protection of minorities.

For many, this was an unpleasant reminder of the Minority Treaties that had been imposed upon them in the aftermath of the First World War. These treaties had been bitterly resented by some. Poland, for instance, renounced its treaty in 1934.

But the demographic structure of the area changed radically after the Second World War, due primarily to the mass murder of Jews and the expulsion of Germans.

Delicate issue

Yet ethnic and religious minorities do exist. Poland guarantees rights for the three per cent of its population that is not of ethnic Polish stock. Most numerous remain the Germans.

This is a delicate issue in Poland because of the Nazi occupation and mass murders during the Second World War and the fact that present-day Polish boundaries encompass territories that were previously German. Poland also recognizes 12 other ethnic and national minorities and one linguistic minority.

The post-Communist regime in Hungary adopted a progressive law governing the eight per cent of the population not of Magyar descent. It has defined 13 groups as national minorities and has offered them financial support administered largely by local councils.

On the other hand, Hungarians comprise large minorities in neighbouring Romania and Slovakia. Their ethnically based political parties have played a pivotal role in national politics and have participated and often served as a critical element in governmental coalitions. An ethnically Turkish party in Bulgaria has also played a major role in that country.

Anti-Roma sentiment

Except for Poland, the condition of the sizeable Romani population in these countries is a matter for national and international concern. According to official figures, Roma in Romania number 621,000. Unofficial figures sometimes place their number almost four times higher.

Romania may contain the highest number of Roma. Proportionately, however, Roma are equally or more important in several other East European countries. The Bulgarian census records 320,000 Roma; that, too, may be an under-estimation. Bulgarian Roma are predominantly Muslim and many declare themselves as Turks.

In Hungary, Roma constitute the largest minority, at slightly over 200,000. Slovakia reports slightly over 100,000 Roma but the true figure may also be up to five times higher. In any case, they are less numerous than Slovakia’s Hungarian minority.

The Czechs believed they had no minorities left after the post-war expulsion of the Germans. They were surprised to learn that they had a substantial Roma population, formally numbering only 13,000 citizens but with perhaps as many as 300,000 people. It turned out most had come from Slovakia to occupy houses in the Sudetenland area abandoned by the Germans.

The level of anti-Roma sentiment is stronger in the Czech lands than in any other part of the region. Czech Roma continue to struggle against policies of forced female sterilization and a system of educational apartheid which puts Roma children in classes destined for “backward” pupils.

The condition of Roma throughout the post-Communist world has worsened since 1989 and they have experienced a wave of racially motivated violence. Socialism had proletarianized the Roma, making them virtually indistinguishable from their non-Roma neighbours.

With the closure of factories where Roma once worked, the unemployed now live in self-contained ghettos characterized by sub-standard infrastructure and terrible hygiene conditions. They are convenient scapegoats for societal ills, real and imagined.