The official language in Hungary is Hungarian. According to Act CLXXIX of 2011 on the Rights of National Minorities, all ethnic groups are national minorities that live in a numerical minority among the population of the state and have been residents in the territory of Hungary for at least one century, and are distinguished from the rest of the population by their own languages, cultures and traditions, and their sense of belonging enables them to preserve all these and to protect their communities. On the basis of this definition, Hungary officially recognises 13 nationalities: Armenian, Bulgarian, Roma/Gypsy, Croatian, German, Greek, Polish, Romanian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian (KSH, 2011). Based on data from the 2011 census – the recent detailed figures available at the time – the Roma constituted the largest ethnic minority group in Hungary, with 315,583 inhabitants. They are followed by Germans with 185,696, then Romanians with 35,641, Slovaks with 35,208, and Croats with 26,774 (Bagi, 2021). The highest number of children of German ethnicity is in pre-school (14,000), followed by Romas (13,800), then Slovaks, Croats, Romanians, Serbs and Slovenes (Hajdics-Szücs, 2018). In Hungary, there are currently 127 public education institutions run by national minority self-governments, of which 82 are of German nationality, 12 are Romanian, 9 are Serbian, 9 are Slovak, 6 are Croatian, 5 are Slovenian, 2 are Greek and 2 are Roma. Due to the dispersed location of the remaining 5 minorities, it is not realistic to maintain public education institutions for them (Bagi, 2021).

 

 

Figure 1 shows the distribution of nationalities among the 141 non-Hungarian children in the South Buda School District: Romania 23%, China 15%, Syria 8%, Vietnam 8%, Ukraine 6%, Italy 4%, Slovakia 3%, France 3%, Egypt 3%, Yemen 3%, USA 2%, Mongolia 2%, Others (e.g. Germany, Ireland, Russia, Turkey, Mexico) 20%.

 

 

Figure 2 illustrates the nationality distribution of the 115 non-Hungarian children of the Székesfehérvár School District: Mongolia 38%, Romania 14%, Slovakia 10%, Albania 8%, Kosovo 8%, Netherlands 3%, Venezuela 3%, Ukraine 3%, Germany 3%, Ireland 3%, Italy 3%, Mexico 2%, China 2%.