Hungary A Kid like this is a Godsend

January 1, 2005

Comment: There are children from Taiwan, China, Turkey, Russia, Iraq and Syria studying together with Hungarian students, some of Roma origin, in a school in inner-city Budapest. The Hungarian-English primary school has become a multicultural institution over the years. Three years ago they started welcoming refugee kids, foreign students making up 10% of the student population currently.

Each kid gets to the class appropriate for their age, even if they do not speak a word of Hungarian. They learn among the Hungarian pupils and learn the language during extra classes. T*here is a vast difference between kids* whose parents come from wealthy, secure countries for work and those who were smuggled in by traffickers, have been through refugee camps, or is an orphan or has not seen his parents for a longtime.

According to a teacher, the refugee kids will meet many difficulties. Integration is not easy. While the classes in this school are used to having foreign kids, still one class can only “take” 2-3 migrant students. Some of the kids are really traumatized, suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Roma pupils are part of the multicultural mix. Their relationship with the refugee kids is reported as not harmonious but there are true friendships, the smaller Roma kids dote on their exotic looking peers. Yet often, the insults they receive in life are transferred on to the refugee kids.

Integration of refugees is still a new phenomenon in Hungary yet this school seems to be successful in doing so, thanks to the Church-funded pogram. While Hungary does not have a fully positive scorecard when it comes to the integration of Roma kids, there can be positive exceptions like this one.