Family policies and the Roma in the anti-liberal, and anti-gender political regime in Hungary

Research on anti-gender discourses and policies in the literature often focuses on how anti-liberal, populist leaders exploit the traditional family, women's roles, heteronormativity, and LGBTQ issues. However, less is said about how these discourses and policies affect ethnic minorities, while they can also be targets or victims of the anti-gender movement. In our paper, we examine how the biggest ethnic minority group of Hungary, the Roma, are represented in the family policies of the anti-gender regime. Family policy in the Hungarian illiberal system is pro-natalist, it aims to improve the demographic situation framed as a national interest. The policy objectives are characterized by an increased role for employment-based income support, explicitly articulating “responsible parenthood”. The Roma typically appear implicitly in family policy discourses. Still, the emergence and strategic use of stereotypes about welfare dependency or buzzwords about the neo-liberal inspired “work-based society” in discourses designates the place of Roma men and women. Using critical frame analysis, our study provides an overview of the changes in family policies starting in 2010; shows what discursive tools and narratives politicians, decision-makers, and other government actors use and how Roma men and women appear in them; and analyzes the dynamics between anti-gender discourses and policy-making, as well as the effects of new family policies on the Roma in general, and Roma women in particular. The main findings show that family policy is anti-poor and anti-Roma, with little or no support for the most vulnerable groups, and negative impacts on Roma and Roma women. At the same time, policy discourses differentiate between “deserving” and “undeserving” Roma, those who “live for their children”, and those who “live off their children”. According to the ideology of work-based society, work is framed as a route to social integration, recognition, and appreciation of Roma men and women, or in other words, the way to become a “deserving” citizen of the country. This group also deserves to benefit from the family policy measures, and these Roma women can legitimately contribute to the increase in births.