“If we just move people out, they will be lost without each other.” Resources, limits and their spatial distribution for the Roma underclass living in urban ghettos: the case of a major Hungarian city

Abstract

Spatial segregation and spatially concentrated poverty are both serious issues in Hungarian cities and, according to previous studies, they heavily affect certain ethnic groups like, in the Hungarian context, the Roma people. The Roma are significantly overrepresented within the poor and marginalized population, they are “the poorest even among the poor”.

Although spatial segregation and concentrated poverty, on the one hand, mean extreme disadvantages for the affected, they also carry resources. The aim of our research is to systematically reveal and understand what the resources’ and limits’ spatial concentration means for the extremely poor Roma living in the segregates (ghettos) of Hungarian cities making it the Hungarian urban underclass. We conducted qualitative interviews and participant observations in two Roma segregates of a major Hungarian city. Our open data collection and analysis allow to gain significant information about the perspectives of the urban underclass and analyze and evaluate it based on the existing literature.

Our results show that, on one hand, vital resources, like social connections and resources, concentrate within or close to the surrounding neighborhoods. On the other hand, the major limiting factors are also related to wider spatial scales, institutional structures and societal factors (e.g. attitudes and values). Therefore, anti-segregation policies and interventions focusing purely on deconcentration or desegregation of the marginalized Roma population are not enough to solve their complex problems. Even more, segregates can differ from each other in terms of resources and limits, and neither their population is homogenous. Therefore, besides the long term commitment and efforts of the majority society (including political decision-makers), it is also important to apply exploratory and consultation processes; to understand the inhabitants’ internal and external systems of relationship; and to work out personalized or family-level solutions.