СOMPARATIVE ASSESMENT OF THE FINANCIAL WELL-BEING OF ETHNIC MINORITIES IN A POLYETHNIC REGION

The paper examines ethnic minority households in the Transcarpathian region with specific attention to their financial well-being. Focus is on Ukrainian, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovakian, Roma, and Russian ethnic groups. The purpose of the research is to define the inequalities and similar characteristics of the financial well-being of ethnic minorities in a polyethnic region. The principal results demonstrate that salary constitutes the predominant share of ethnic households' income – 66,94%. In the general structure of expenditures, the share of consumer expenditures is the highest, in particular among Slovaks, Ukrainians, Romas, and Hungarians. The share of savings is low, as indicated by 23,92% of the respondents. Among the analyzed ethnic minorities, Romanians are characterized by the highest level of financial well-being – the share of Romanians living below the relative poverty line is the lowest (13,63%), and the share of Romanians considering themselves to be poor is 0%. Almost half of the respondents assessed their income level as very low, in particular, Romas and Russians, and only 4,23% of the respondents highly rate their income satisfaction (Romanians, Ukrainians, and Hungarians). The main conclusions of the study show many similarities in the level of financial well-being of the analyzed ethnic minorities, with the exceptions are the Roma, which, in contrast to the others, is the most socially vulnerable ethnic group, with more than 85% of the deprived population. Due to the sociological survey results Romanian ethnic group is characterized by the highest level of financial well-being. This distribution partly depends on the specifics of the functioning of the regional labour market, with some holding that the disproportions in the level of the financial well-being of different ethnic groups are related to their historical labour traditions, the gender inequalities and family roles, the level of education, entrepreneurial potential, migration propensity, etc.