Cluj – EDRC and Cluj-Napoca City Hall launched Wednesday, June 21 the poll “Multicultural Cluj. Research on the inter-ethnic relations”. The poll aims to evaluate the opinions and the choices of the citizens in Cluj as regards the challenge of diversity, its accommodation and promotion of the local multiculturality, through specific public policies.
Thus, the ethnic Hungarians and Romanians in Cluj account for the same confidence percent, namely some 71% are confident in persons of different religion and 58-60% in persons of different ethnics. In exchange, the ethnic Hungarians see the relationship between the ethnic Hungarians and the Romanians worse than the Cluj representative seen it. The relationship between the Romanians and ethnic Roma accounts for the same situation, while the relationship between the ethnic Hungarians and ethnic Roma is the best. Some 88% of the Romanians and ethnic Hungarians communicate well or very good with people of different ethnics.
It is very interesting what the different ethnic groups in Cluj believe one about the other. Some 15.6% of the Romanians believe they are hardworking, 9.2% they are united, 7.3% they are decent, 6.4% they are good managers or 3.8% they are chauvinistic. Some 10.3% of the ethnic Hungarians believe the ethnic Roma are hardworking, 7.4% they are united, 4.8% they are friendly, 4.8% they are decent, 2.9% they are lazy.
The ethnic Roma are seen rather negatively. Some 17.4% of the Romanians believe the ethnic Roma are lazy, 10.3% they are thieves, 5.3% they are dirty, 4.6% they are mean, 2.5% they are cunning. Some 11% of the ethnic Hungarians believe the ethnic Roma are lazy, 6.1% they are thieves, 5.3% they are hardworking, 4.5% they are punctual, 3.7% they are liars.
As for the compliance with the rights of minorities in Cluj, the opinion of Romanians and ethnic Hungarians are significantly different. Some 57.4% of the people in Cluj, 63% of the Romanians in Cluj and 22.3% of the ethnic Hungarians believe their rights are observed.
People in Cluj, including the ethnic Hungarian, believe the status of minorities has changed for the better in the past year. Only 5.6% of the ethnic Hungarians and 4.2% of the Romanians believe it has changed for the worse. Some 10-20% of the people in Cluj, in particular ethnic Hungarians, feel discriminated in getting a job or in the education field.
Some 65.5% of the people in Cluj and 58.5% of the ethnic Hungarians have a good impression of the role of the media in promoting tolerance and multicultural pluralism. They also say the media little commented on how the local administration supported or infringed the rights of the minorities. Negative opinions account for the way press presents the situation of the minorities. While 48% of the Romanians believe the press is objective, 53% of the ethnic Hungarians believe the media is not objective and distorts reality. CRDE’s research is developing on several levels: at the level of citizens, of leaders of opinion and at the level of the public local administration.
The poll was part of the project Partnership for Multicultural Cluj. Monitoring the rights of minorities at a local level in Cluj-Napoca, project financed by Friedrich Ebert Foundation and implemented in Romania by the Center of Resources for Ethno-cultural Diversity and the City Hall of Cluj-Napoca municipal. The poll grounds on a set of questions addressed the Romanians and ethnic Hungarians in Cluj. The ethnic Hungarians accounted for 18.7% of the representative sample at the city’s level.

DIVERS, June 26, 2006