Ethnicity in Hungarian Housing Policy: A Study of Small Town Media Discourse

Hungarian Roma were forcibly settled in the sixties, and have been vulnerable to the politically driven housing policies of local governments ever since. Focusing on the town of Ozd (40,000 residents) in North Hungary, the following article explores interethnic political discourse and its role in public policy decisions concerning the town's "housing problem"—i.e. the appearance and persistence of local ghettos inhabited by Roma.

The article summarizes a wider study of local newspaper stories, exploring the roots of ghettoization, the solutions offered, and the political stances articulated by relevant Roma and non-Roma actors. Clearly the representation of Roma in local newspapers—their objectivity or (more often) bias—is a crucial element, but beyond this, the debate framing the "Roma issue" provides a window on the discourse prevalent throughout Hungary used to justify practices of a prima facie discriminatory nature.