Roma Inclusion Policies in a Central European Education System - The Case of Hungary

The paper deals with the limits of cross-ethnic social solidarity in the post-communist era. Combating social exclusion in schools, and especially among ethnic minorities, is one of the major themes of East Central European welfare and education policies. The inquiry presents the main points of Hungarian public debate around integrative education, in which the Roma population plays an absolutely central role. Beyond the Roma issue, these debates concern other integrative measures dealing with other disadvantaged groups. The Roma political debate is concerned with growing segregation, xenophobia and exclusion, presenting the views of integrationists and segregationists, educational modernists, conservatives and beyond – or above them, a “hybrid” state inclusionist program drawing on national and European sources and mixing liberal and interventionist principles.