Neményi, Mária

Neményi, Mária
Szalai, Júlia
Messing, Vera

The questionnaire-based survey of a sample of cca 1500 Roma and non-Roma pupils of the eighth year of elementary schools, and the interview-based qualitative research on a sample of cca 100 Roma adolescents and their parents was aimed to analyse pupils' carreer-aspirations, their future perspectives, and their expectations of social integration. With the help of interviews characteristic identity-strategies of Roma adolescents could be established. Significant differences were found between Roma and non-Roma children in terms of parents’ level of education, parents’ employment, source of family income, family size, living conditions, and the number of people living together, all unfavorable to Roma. Their school performance tends to be lower than that of non-Roma peers, determining their goals in further education as well. The interviews conducted with Roma children from the eighth grade, along with the analysis of the narrative part of the questionnaires, proved that Roma children of this age-group already have considerable experience of what it means to be a member of an excluded and stereotyped minority group in this country.