Publications of Tunde Virag
Developmental Programs in Local Communities. . Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. . 2015;1(4):78-97.
Faces and Causes of Roma Marginalization: Experiences from Hungary. In: Szalai J, Zentai V, editors. Faces and Causes of Roma Marginalization in Local Contexts: Hungary, Romania, Serbia. Budapest: Central European University; 2014. 33. (CPS Books). Abstract
Faces and Causes of Roma Marginalization: Experiences from Hungary
The "Faces and Causes of Roma Marginalization in Local Communities" inquiry explored the economic, political, demographic, and social forces at municipal and community level which shape practices and consequences of social exclusion and potential pathways to inclusion. Phase 2 of this research focused on a representative sample of municipalities (20–30 per country) in Hungary, Romania, and Serbia to explore basic local social services and infrastructure provisions, conditions of political participation of the Roma, and local interventions targeting Roma inclusion. This research phase relied on structured field research collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. This short country report is based on the Final Country Report on the Faces and Causes of Roma Marginalization in Hungary, edited in June 2013 by Tünde Virág, with contributions from Márton Czirfusz, Katalin Kovács, Szilvia Rézműves, Gyöngyi Schwarcz, András Száraz, Dezső Szegedi, Gergely Tagai, Annamária Uzzoli, Monika Mária Váradi, and Zsuzsa Vidra. Katalin Fehér and Anna Hamar also contributed to the fieldwork.
Roma Migration to and from Canada: The Czech, Hungarian and Slovak Case. Vidra Z, editor. Budapest: Central European University; 2013. Abstract
Roma Migration to and from Canada: The Czech, Hungarian and Slovak Case
Most research initiatives on Roma migration focus on Roma migrating from non-EU to EU or EU-to-EU countries. This research aimed to look at another sub-component of the migration process: transatlantic, Canadian migration from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The migration and asylum seeking of Central Eastern European Roma to Canada started in the 1990s when several thousands of Roma moved to Canada. The collection of papers presented here looks at various aspects of Roma migration to and from Canada. Our premise was that 'Canadian Roma migration' should be understood as a process motivated by a mixed set of factors and, from an analytical point of view, it should be studied as neither refugee nor labor migration but as a compound of both. The first two studies in the volume investigate the legal and the political components to the push and pull of Roma migration, while the rest of the papers are based on qualitative, empirical studies that were conducted in three CEE countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia – as well as in Canada. The country case studies were designed to consider Roma migration from a micro perspective using the same methodology and the same conceptual framework. Researchers in the three countries did fieldwork in villages and towns in which there had been a significant out-migration of Roma, presently or in the past. The factors impelling migration were social, political as well as economic: deteriorating interethnic relations, the rise and spread of violence as well as political racism and fear from racist attacks, deprivation and worsening of living conditions for the poorest, and stigmatized ethnicity, the consequences of which Roma have to face on a daily bases (employment and educational discrimination, verbal and physical racial violence.). As a general pattern, we could distinguish the pioneers from the laggards in the migration process. In all three cases, pioneers were migrants who were from wealthier families and many had earlier migration experiences; they were the ones who would leave, come back, and some would try to leave again. The latter – the laggards – were often the failed migrants, those whose return left them in a more desperate situation than they had been in before leaving.
