The Croatian Minority in Romania
Croats began to settle in Romania as early as 14th century. Romania’s Croats can be divided into three groups, each with its own specific characteristics, albeit each with slight linguistic differences. The first of these groups live in Rekaš, a village, 30 km east of Timisoara; the other, a smaller one, lives in Keča, west of Timisoara.The third, and the largest group of Croats, lives south of Timisoara in the Caraş-Severin County (the capital Rešica), i.e. in the two municipalities, Lupak and Karaševo. They are known as Karaševki Croats, “Krašovani” or „Karaševci“.
The number of members of the Croatian minority in Romania is estimated to be around 6,000. Official data of the last census of 2001 indicate that 5.408 Croats live in Romania.
In Romania's jurisdiction, Croats are recognized as a separate national minority.
Pursuant to the Constitution of Romania of 1991, members of the Croatian minority in this country have the right to preserve, develop and express their ethnic identity, right to learn the Croatian language and right to be educated in the Croatian language; right of the Croatian associations to have a representative in the Parliament of Romania ; right to the official use of the Croatian language in court; and right to have official documents issued in the Croatian language. The Romanian government sets aside substantial funds for national minorities, including the Croatian minority in Romania.
The representative of Croatian national minority in the Romanian Parliament is Slobodan Ghera who is also the president of Friendship Parliamentary Group with Croatia.
Based on the Law on Relationships between the Republic of Croatia and Croats Abroad the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted the Decision on Establishing and Appointing the Members of the Council of the Government of Croatia for Croats Abroad, which held its constituting session in July, 2022, where the representative of the Croatian minority in Hungary at the third Council convocation is Petar Hategan.
The Romanian Croats are organized in two associations. The first association is known as „Zajedništvo“, founded in 1991 and based at Karaševo. In 1998 another Croatian association was founded under the name “The Croat Democratic Union of Romania“(Demokratski savez rumunjskih Hrvata) based in Lupak.
There is a cultural and artistic group in Karaševo known as "Karaševska zora", and in Klokotići, a folk group "Klokotić" is also active, while out of sports associations the most active are football clubs (NK “Starigrad“ Karaševo 1299., NK “Lupak“, NK “Croatia“ Klokotić, NK “A.S. Partizan“ Nermeđ).
There are seven Croatian kindergartens in Romania, five Croatian primary schools ( 1st to 4th grade) and three (1st-8th grade) and a grammar school. The Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia, donates regularly books and other equipment for Croatian language teaching and assigns one teacher of Croatian.
In 1994 at the University of Bucarest the academic course of the Croatian language was established and it became The Department for the Croatian language and literature in 2008. After many years and a lot of efforts made the the academic course of the Croatian language was established at West University of Timișoara in the 2017/2018 academic year.
Since the end of 1994 the magazine “Hrvatska grančica“, a bilingual monthly newsletter of the association of Croats in Romania.has been published. Also, a bilingual monthly magazine “Naša nada” of the Croat Democratic Union of Romania has been published since 2012.
On the radio station Rešica (the town of Rešica is located in the vicinity of autochtonous Croatian places) and on the 3rd programme of public national telelvision - TVR 3 the programme for the Croatian minority in the Romanian part of Banat is broadcast.
Catholic church has a significant role in preserving the language and identity of Croats in Romania. The church has provided Croatian priests in Romania with Catholic press and liturgical books in the Croatian language. Today there are thirteen priests in the diocese of Timișoara and there are Croatian parishes in Karaševo, Lupak and Klokotić.