Burgenland Croats (, , , ) is the name for ethnic Croats in the Austrian state of Burgenland, along with Croats in neighboring Hungary and Slovakia. Around 320,000 residents of Austria identify as of Croat heritage; 56,785 have, as sole or multiple nationality, Croatian citizenship as at 2017. Between 87,000 and 130,000 of them are Burgenland Croats Since 1993, Croatian organizations have appointed their representatives to the Council for National Minorities of the Austrian government. History The to-be Burgenland Croats began to emigrate from Lika, Krbava, Kordun, Banovina, Moslavina and Western Bosnia. These areas were occupied by the Turks (Ottomans) during the Turkish wars (1533–1584). The refugee Croats were given land and independent ecclesiastical rights by the Austrian King Ferdinand I, because many of their villages had been pillaged by the Turks. This gave the Croats a safe place to live while providing Austria with a buffer zone between Vienna and the Ottoman Empire to the south and east. The first wave of emigration came in the 1530s, after the Turks destroyed almost all the settlements between the river Una and the mountain Velebit, along with the land between the river Kupa and the mountain range Kapela. In the second wave came in the 1540s whereby many Croats left Slavonia. The third and last wave of emigration came in the 1750s and 1760s. Burgenland Croats emigrated not only because of the fear of Turkish attacks, but also because they were searching for jobs and better life opportunities. Specifically from Dalmatia, Croatia a smaller group went across the Adriatic Sea to the Molise region of Italy, the Molise Croats. The Burgenland Croats developed their own orthography during the counter-reformation, however, assimilation soon followed with the language being banned from use in churches and schools. After falling under Hungarian rule in the Dual Monarchy, liberal laws regarding ethnicity enabled them to rekindle their language and heritage. However, when a 1900 census revealed that only 18.8% of the population of Burgenland spoke Hungarian, severe policies of Magyarization were implemented, revoking many individual and community rights. The Burgenland Croats were also persecuted by Austro-German nationalists after World War I, and by the Nazis during World War II. During this time, they tried to assimilate the Burgenland Croats. The Croats gained minority status in the Austrian Treaty of Independence of 1955. Since then, they and their culture have undergone something of a renaissance, with the