The 2020 Ditrău xenophobic incident refers to the incident that started on 26 January 2020 in the village of Ditrău (), Harghita County, in Romania, in which around 1,800 ethnically Hungarian locals protested the employment of two, later three Sri Lankan workers by the bakery Ditrói Pékség. The locals, led by the chaplain of the village, protested that the bakery's working conditions dissatisfied them and, as well as feared that the immigrants could "impose their culture" and "threaten the Hungarian local ethnic identity". On 11 February, a petition signed by 1,800 people was sent to the town hall of the village with several requests, among them, the improvement of these working conditions, the end of immigration to the village and compensations and apologies to the population.
The incident affected the popularity and income of the company, with workers and owners being repeatedly threatened by locals. The two Sri Lankans were forced to move in Gheorgheni. Furthermore, the incident received great media coverage. Other previous cases that happened in other cities began to receive more attention, and conflicts between the country's Romanian ethnic majority and the Hungarian minority sparked. Sociologists and journalists have said that this is an opportunity to start debating the existing discrimination against foreigners and the overexploitation of many workers in Romania. In the end, the owner of the company Köllő Katalin met with the chaplain to discuss the situation. On 3 March, Kelemen Hunor, president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), announced that the situation had finally normalized.
Background
Due to the large number of Romanian citizens that have emigrated from Romania, several companies have been left without sufficient human resources, which has led them to attract immigrants. However, a 2019 study by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES) showed that 68% of the Romanians surveyed were highly suspicious of immigrants and 50% would stop them at the border if they could.
The inhabitants of Ditrău, composed of Catholic Székelys (Hungarians), are, according to the journalist Keno Verseck, "extremely traditionalist and conservative". Ioan-Aurel Pop, president of the Romanian Academy, has declared that the community of Ditrău is a closed one, coming "from an older world". According to the sociologist Dumitru Sandu, this closure is cultural, being determined by ethnic and religious factors. Locals mainly watch, read and listen to Hungarian media close to the country's government, causing the transmission of liberalist doctrinal elements to them. Due to this affiliation with Hungarian politics, Romania matters little to the inhabitants of Ditrău. Furthermore, in 1986, this community had a conflict with the Romani minority of the village, which increased fear and hostility towards foreigners.
On the other hand, according to the newspaper Átlátszó Erdély, in Székely Land, many companies pay their employees with salaries that they consider "indecent", which contributes to the emigration of qualified human resources. Furthermore, according to the journalist Sipos Zoltán, work in the region usually includes overwork, lack of rest days and some of the hours worked are not paid. Thus, a large number of the local population currently works abroad. Journalist and sociologist Ruxandra Hurezean said there were indications that several Hungarian local leaders were rejecting investment in counties like Harghita (where Ditrău is located), as it could boost immigration to the region and affect its ethnic composition. A study has shown that of all Transylvania, Harghita and Covasna (both with a large Hungarian population) are the counties with the least amount of foreign capital entered.
Csata Zsombor, another sociologist, has indicated that, according to a study on the economy based in ethnicity in Transylvania, a non-Hungarian employee who works in a Hungarian-speaking environment earns 50 to 450 lei less than an employee who does the same position but in a company where he is the only Hungarian. He says that the degree of Hungarian ethnic homogeneity at work is related to disadvantage in the salary. There is an average difference of 300 lei if someone does not have many Romanian colleagues compared to someone who has a similar position but in a completely Romanian environment.