Mi alapján ítélünk meg valamit vagy valakit? Mennyire tudunk egy embert, egy közösséget vagy akár egy népcsoportot önmagában, függetlenül, kizárólag a saját értékeiért vagy tetteiért szeretni, tisztelni? Milyen hatással van értékítéletünkre a viszonyítás kényszere? Többek között ezekre a kérdésekre keresi a választ ez a rövid szösszenet egy rendhagyó hasonlattal.
In previous parts of the report we have already reviewed the objectives of the American-Hungarian or Hungarian-American survey, as well as methodology and detailed results to learn which factors influence respondents’ choice for home country and national identity. This time around, we will analyze the survey results from a different angle.
In this report we are trying to uncover whether there are participants whose responses are similar and hence view different aspects of their lives in the U.S. comparably. If so, then we shall see how many there are and how comparable or different they are from participants in other groups. We will introduce these groups or clusters by describing what they do, what they think of their lives in the U.S., who they consider themselves to be. We will learn who these groups are, where they are from, where they live, etc. Essentially, we will try to prepare a portrayal of them.
Let us see these clusters, but before then, let us have a quick review of the methodology that led us to the seven groups we identified. We will be referring to them as seven groups or tribes going forward. The fact that we identified seven clusters allows us to call them tribes, in the spirit of the seven tribes of Magyars who first conquered the Carpathian Basin in the ninth century CE. We have discovered seven tribes of modern-day resettlers that we have bestowed with apt proper names.
After analyzing the responses to the American-Hungarian or Hungarian-American survey, in this report we are looking to objectively discover which factors studied in the questionnaire determine which country respondents consider to be their home country (Which country do you consider your home country?) and national identity (Which statement would you feel most comfortable making?). The key being objectivity, because rather than relying on subjective evaluation, we rely on complex statistical analysis to identify those factors that collectively are most likely to explain how respondents arrive at determining their home country and national identity.
Now that we have become familiar with the socio-demographic characteristics of the survey participants and with the responses of those who immigrated to America, in the following 20 questions we shall learn the thoughts and feelings of all participants in connection with Hungary and the United States – indeed, we shall even glean insights into certain aspects of their everyday lives. In this section, we shall also obtain answers about their self-defined identities.
Let us examine the questions promising to be the most interesting ones of the survey, ones that both immigrant and American-born respondents answered.
After having presented the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, let’s take a look one by one at the answers given to all the questions of the survey. When possible, we examined the answers not only by the total sample, but also by further breakouts, according to the language used by the survey participant to complete it, as well as according to the respondent’s birth place. (For the sake of simplicity, we surmise that those not born in the United States, and the respondents completing the questionnaire in the Hungarian language originate from Hungary, even if we know that close to one-quarter of the respondents did not necessarily arrive from a township within the present Hungarian state borders.)