As a result of the new borders in Central Europe set by the post-World War I peace treaties large Hungarian communities were left under the control of countries they had no connection with in terms of linguistic, cultural, or national identity. The cultural environments in their new countries (today’s Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine,Romania,Serbia,Croatia,and Slovenia) were entirely different from one another.In some of those countries, they still live in a nearly homogeneous bloc, while in others they live in diaspora. Their access to education in their mother tongue also differs. All in all, calculation of assimilation based on census and population movement statistics showed that assimilation among Hungarians living in Slovakia and Serbia is high, while in Romania and Ukraine it is extremely low (Hablicsek at al. 2004).

During the communist era, there were political obstacles to mother tongue education. Therefore, minority schools are a means of protecting a minority and maintaining their identity; on the other hand, access to mother tongue teaching is crucial not only for a successful school career, by this for social mobility. In our research, we examined the social composition, position, and perceptions of minority students in the four different countries with the largest Hungarian communities (Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia) among the first researchers. Our study uses previous research statistical data to learn how the social status of minority students affects their perception of their life prospects. We raised three research questions: What is the social background of students in minority Hungarian higher education institutions? What factors influence their higher education choices as well as their visions of their future work? Finally, what factors influence their life plans? In other words, we mapped their religiosity and their views on the meaning of life and on generated trust because students’ ideas of their goals in life and world views are indicative of the minorities’ perceptions toward life prospects (at a time when their populations are gradually decreasing). Students’ views on the meaning of life were surveyed with the 10 items of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ-H) adapted to Hungarian conditions (Martos & Konkolly Thege, 2012; Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006). According to this approach our hypotheses on the basis of the statistical features of the communities and the findings of our own research, which goes back over a decade (Pusztai, 2015) was, that the proportion of students whose parents had a low level of education would be higher in minority institutions than that of majority Hungarians at home because of the expansion of minority education and the academic and residential mobility of the high status population. We also assumed that in countries where minority Hungarians assimilated more, parents of students were of higher status. We presupposed that owing to the disadvantages of minority existence that manifested themselves in mother tongue education, office procedures, and employment, ethnic Hungarian students would express a more negative attitude toward the meaning of life and generated trust than their majority peers in Hungary. We hypothesized that in countries where minority Hungarians assimilated more, they had a more positive attitude toward the meaning of life and generated trust. We hypothesized that the minority communities would share a strong religious identity and that their religious practice would be more intense, since religiosity may support national identity in a multicultural and multiethnic environment (Doktór, 2007; Pusztai & Fényes, 2012). We hypothesized that in countries where minority Hungarians assimilated more and discarded their ancestral cultures, their religious practice was less intense.

For our analysis, we used an international student database called Institutional Effects on Student Achievement (IESA), which was created in the winter of 2014–2015 (Pusztai, Bocsi, & Ceglédi, 2016). We analyzed data on 1,739 Hungarian students from 13 institutions of higher education in five different countries of Central Europe, focusing on one region in each country. We compared data on students from Hungarian institutions or faculties of higher education in Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, and Slovakia to corresponding data from universities in Eastern Hungary, as the latter were the most similar to the minority institutions in terms of the social composition of the student population. The database represented full-time students, including state-funded and tuition-paying students alike. The sampling frame was established on the basis of the data provided by the institutions. We contacted the student groups when they were taking part in their university/college courses. The randomness of the sample was achieved by the random selection of these groups. The survey was gathered by interviewers, the ethical approval was obtained, the participation of respondents was anonymous and voluntary in the survey. During our analysis, we tried to learn about the social status of students in minority Hungarian higher education institutions. In addition, we examined the goals influencing their higher education choices, as well as their visions of their future work. Apart from types of cultural and social capital that can be described with hard indicators, we also collected information on subjective factors influencing their life plans. In other words, we mapped their religiosity and their views on the meaning of life and on generalized trust. We compared the minority groups with different degrees of assimilation to one another, as well as to majority Hungarians living in Eastern Hungary. We applied factor analysis, Avona, crosstable analysis.

We concluded that there is no uniformity among the various countries regarding ethnic minority students’ family backgrounds, but data show that different indigenous minority groups share similar educational choices. Minority institutions can be very open socially. Our results confirmed the paradox assimilation hypothesis that in countries where minority groups assimilated more, they had a less positive attitude toward the meaning of life and weaker generalized trust. In addition that religiosity is made more active and efficient by a multiconfessional, rather than a merely multiethnic, environment. Our analysis show that religiosity is made more active and efficient by a multiconfessional, rather than a merely multiethnic, environment. The significance of our analysis is that it brings attention to indigenous groups that are under- represented in the literature. Our study pioneers in comparing ethnic minority students in different countries and in kin state to test the impact of assimilation in minority communities. We pointed out that in addition to minority status further factors can cause inequalities. Our results should not be generalized to all minorities. Further studies are needed to determine the causational relationship between the assimilation and economic success. Besides the majority group, students in all different countries should be compared to the minority groups.

Doktór, T. (2007). Religion and National Identity in Eastern Europe. In E. Révay & M. Tomka (Eds.), Church and religious life in postcommunist society. Pázmány Társadalomtudomány 7, 299–315. Budapest–Piliscsaba, Hungary: Loisir. Hablicsek, L., Tóth, P. P., & Veres, V. (2004). A Kárpát-medencei magyarság demográfiai helyzete és előreszámítása, 1991–2021 [The demography of the present and future Hungarians in the Karpathian Basin, 1991–2021]. Budapest, Hungary: Határon Túli Magyarok Hivatala [Office of Hungarians abroad]. Martos, T., & Konkolly Thege, B. (2012). Aki keres, az talál – Az életértelmessége keresésének és megélésen mérése. Magyar Pszichológiai Szemle, 67(1), 125–149 doi:10.1556/MPSzle.67.2012.1.8 Pusztai, G. (2015). Pathways to success in higher education: Rethinking the social capital theory in the light of institutional diversity. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang Verlag. Pusztai, G., & Fényes, H. (2012). Volunteering among higher education students, focusing on the micro-level factors of volunteering. Journal of Social Research and Policy, 3(1), 73–97. Pusztai, G., Bocsi, V., & Ceglédi, T., (Eds.). (2016). A felsőoktatás (hozzáadott) értéke [Value added of higher education]. Oradea−Budapest, Hungary-Romania: PPS, Új Mandátum. Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.80