Herke Boglárka (2024). Framing the Deservingness of Families: How Government Discourse Contributes to Growing Precarity of Single-Parent Families in Hungary. In: Gatenio Gabel, S., Michoń, P. (eds) Navigating Family Policies in Precarious Times. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66256-0_5

Abstract

Since 2010, the Orbán government has prioritized helping financially better-off two-parent families, citing the need to halt population decline. The liberalization of personal relationships is emphasized as the cause of population decline in public rhetoric, and the solution is presented as a return to traditional family values. Single-parent families are less socially accepted and less deserving of government assistance in this context. This chapter applies frame and critical discourse analyses to investigate how the conservative discourse of the Hungarian government frames single-parent families’ deservingness and how this discourse contributes to their growing precarity. The results confirm that single-parent families are accepted yet depicted as less healthy, “second-class” families compared to married, heterosexual couples with children. The government’s message is that single parenthood is accepted, but it is better to prevent this situation, and single parents are deserving only of that kind of support that does not make this family type as more appealing than living in a marriage. The government’s discourse and targeting of family benefits marginalize single-parent families and increase their precarity in both economic and social terms.