Elemér Illyés : National Minorities in Romania

In the 1920s Romanian state policy already included the Romanianization of the Transylvanian towns.⁵⁰ The administrative reform No. 2465 of 1925 declared nine localities with Romanian majorities to be towns, thereby raising the proportion of the urban Romanian population from 17.7 to 31.1 percent. Soon afterward the settlers from the Romanian middle class began to move into Transylvanian cities; the process of active Romanianization, however, began only later, after the Second World War. Table II-18 shows the development of the urban and rural population of Transylvania. Using this table it is possible to trace the gains made by the Romanian element and the numerical losses suffered by the Hungarian, German, and Jewish populations from the 1880 census through 1966.

The Romanianization of the Transylvanian urban areas has occurred on two levels: through the influx of the population into towns from surrounding areas which were largely Romanian; and as a result of a systematic settlement policy carried out by the authorities. While the influx of a rural population into the towns is a normal part of urbanization and industrialization, this process occurred in Transylvania under abnormal conditions, dictated by the Romanian government's policy of planned settlement. This includes restricting permits for members of national minorities to settle in urban areas; obstacles in allocating them apartments in new housing developments;⁵¹ various administrative, economic, and educational measures; elevating Romanian villages to the status of towns or cities, and favoring settlements attached to these new towns; excluding the minority populations from industrial occupations and technical training; and finally forcibly dispersing these groups over the entire territory of the country. All this is done in the name of what is called "ethnic homogenization," a policy aimed at the Romanianization of the Transylvanian towns and cities and the reduction of the influence of the national minorities in urban life. Unquestionably, the development of the Romanian nationality has come about at the cost of the national minorities.

The high level of planned and directed immigration to Transylvanian urban centers has been particularly marked since the creation of the Romanian socialist state, especially in the period from 1948 to 1955⁵². The result of this immigration can be clearly seen by comparing the growth of the urban population in the Regat and Transylvania. In the seven largest urban centers of the Regat (including Bucharest), 40 percent of the growth was due to natural increase and 60 percent to new settlement; in the Transylvanian cities, 83 percent of the increase was the result of the arrival of new settlers.⁵³

The extent of urbanization in Romania from 1948 to 1966 was substantial: in 1930 there were 142 towns and cities in Romania with 2,865,000 inhabitants; by 1966 the number had grown to 236 towns and cities with 6,744,000 inhabitants; in Transylvania there were 49 towns in 1930 with a population of 963,000, which by 1966 had grown to 113 towns with an urban population of 2,620,000. The number of towns given for Transylvania is, however, debatable because of the markedly rural character of many of them despite their reclassification as urban areas.

The ban on settling in urban areas was at first a general ban affecting Romanians and national minorities alike; it was a measure introduced mainly to stop the population from running away from agricultural cooperatives into the towns. From the mid-1950s on, however, the ban on settling in urban areas was used exclusively against members of the national minorities,⁵⁴ as the needs of industrialization in these areas were met by settling ethnic Romanians in the towns. The government has been particularly strict about the resettlement of members of national minorities in the towns and cities with a mixed population (Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár,⁵⁵ Oradea/Nagyvárad, Arad or similar towns). Hungarian cultural institutions, for example, functioning in Cluj were relocated in less significant provincial towns, bilingual signs were removed and the historical character and Hungarian qualities of the city were altered. The same policy was carried out in the almost totally Hungarian area, the Szekler region.

From 1953 on, most of the increase in Transylvania's urban population has come to a large extent from the resettlement of Romanians, both from the Regat and the Romanian-inhabited parts of Transylvania.

The losses in terms of numbers suffered by the nationality population, particularly the Hungarians, Germans and Jews in the Transylvanian cities, and the increase in the number of Romanians in the period between the 1910 and 1956 censuses is best illustrated by Tables II-19 and II-20.⁵⁶ The great changes in the national composition of the population, especially the growth of the Romanian element, in Transylvanian urban areas have occurred only since the end of World War II. Of the nine Transylvanian cities, according to the 1956 census, the Romanians are in a majority in six, whereas the Hungarians still predominate in three. The German population no longer holds a majority in any of the nine cities.

There are no data specifically concerning the national composition of the Transylvanian urban areas since 1956. Romanian official statistics now give the proportion of the various nationalities only for the individual counties. Numerical shifts could be suitably evaluated if percentages of the natural increases were available for comparison with other factors (such as immigration, for example) that have contributed to the growth of population. It can nevertheless be said that between 1956 and 1979 the population of certain Transylvanian cities increased by 50 to 100 percent, and this growth could only have been the result of large-scale immigration, overwhelmingly by Romanians^.57

The National Distribution in the Urban and Rural Population

Forced industrialization has rapidly changed the character of agrarian Romania and altered the ethnic composition of both the urban and rural populations. While the changes over a 40-year period have been great, by 1969 the majority of Romania's population was still rural. (See Table II-21).⁵⁸

By 1975 the urban population had grown to 43 percent -- still not a majority.⁵⁹ Even though the urban population doubled between 1948 and 1975, in all Europe only Yugoslavia and Albania were less urbanized than Romania. Transylvania, with 46 percent of its population living in urban areas, is the most urbanized area of Romania. In the 1930s the dominant view had been that as the national minorities were increasingly excluded from the towns, they would have to preserve the biological and cultural basis of their existence in the villages. Accelerating industrialization has demolished this assumption. The excess labor force continues to move from the villages into the towns, and this one-way territorial and social mobility has fundamentally modified not only the social structure but also the national composition of the urban population.

Source: note 56.

Source: note 56.

Sources: note 58.

The Occupational Distribution and Social Structure of the Population

Industrialization and the urbanization that accompanied it have caused large-scale shifts in the way the people of Romania earn a living. The nationalization and socialization of industry and the collectivization of agriculture, the main factors in transforming the social structure, were introduced after 1948, when the communist government came to power.

In addition to being near the end of the European urbanization list, Romania is economically among the poorest countries of Eastern Europe. Since the July 1972 national conference of the Romanian Communist Party, Romania has been officially regarded as a "developing socialist country" (tara socialista in curs de dezvoltare).⁶⁰ Although the number of people engaged in agriculture has continuously declined since 1950 as a result of industrialization, in 1975 agriculture still employed more people (38.1 percent)⁶¹ than any other occupation.

Although Romania is among the most rapidly industrializing countries in the world, the forced changes in the economic character of the country have given rise to serious internal (and external) problems: the use of dictatorial methods; the constant shortfalls in the food supply; the erosion of the patriarchal way of life; the shocks to which the peasantry has been subjected; the lack of interest shown by the younger generations toward agriculture; the policy of "socialist homogenization" which has aimed at assimilating the national minorities; the nature of the proletariat that has been recruited from the rural population and has developed along the periphery of the industrial centers, together with the problem of those who commute to work from the countryside.

Table II-22 shows the occupational distribution of the nationalities in Romania and provides a general picture of the social structure of the national minorities between 1956 and 1966.⁶² The high number of German workers, followed closely by the Hungarians, with the Romanians in third place is evident. A large proportion of the former German and Hungarian landowners have become part of the industrial proletariat. The table also shows that the Jews have maintained their lead among white collar employees. The figures also show that with the influx of independent peasants into the cooperatives, the 1956 proportions between these categories had reversed by 1966.

Without doubt, the ethnic minorities are affected more adversely by Romanian domestic problems than is the majority population. The policy of ethnic discrimination in the socio-economic sector can be seen most clearly in the changes in the professional and social structures. The national minorities, if not totally excluded, are not permitted to take part enough in the current process of industrialization to lead to their economic advancement. Even qualified workers are only offered jobs in the Old Kingdom (Regat) or, at best, in the Romanian populated industrial areas, while in the areas occupied by the minorities, industry and salaries are kept at the lowest level.

Demographic characteristics

Romania is currently in the third phase of demographic development, one that is characterized by a low ratio of births to deaths. The symptoms of this demographic aging are already beginning to appear.⁶³

Source: note 62.

Anuarul Statistic 1979, p. 58, shows that the birthrate indeed sank from 27.4 per thousand in 1967 to 19.1 in l978; the latter number, however, is substantially higher than the lower point of l4.3 reached in years 1960 to 1966. As is known, the gradually declining birthrate leads to demographic aging, the symptoms of which can be seen in Romania.

This tendency signaled a serious, if not alarming, change in age groups in the period from 1956 to 1966. The share of children under seven years of age sank visibly in comparison to that of eight to sixteen year olds. Moreover, the 17 to 26 year old group showed a decrease even though the share of those under 25 was still 41.5 percent of the whole on July 1, 1978. A substantial growth was registered by the 35 to 45 year old group, although the number of 46 to 50 year olds did not increase to the same degree as in the past: the 1976-1978 average was 67.42 percent for men and 72.18 percent for women. Above this age group, a general increase in population can be observed.

The growth and changes in the population of the national minorities, as has been already pointed out, are closely linked with the demographic situation of the Romanian people. The majority nation and the national minorities do not, however, benefit equally from the advantages of the current processes of social restratification, industrialization, and urbanization.

Elemér Illyés : National Minorities in Romania