These are: The Austrian Federal Constitution calls for the respect and promotion of ethnic groups resident in Austria and a special set of rights for Austrian Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Romani, Slovaks and Slovenes was established under the terms of the Ethnic Group Act (German: Volksgruppengesetz) 1976.

The origin lies in the aftermath of the Ottoman occupation of Lika, Krbava, Kordun, Banovina, Moslavina and Western Bosnia during the course of the Turkish wars (1533–1584).

During this time and after, several waves of refugees arrived in the southeastern borderlands of Austria, where were granted land and independent ecclesiastical rights by the Austrian King Ferdinand I.

Following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918, the area in which the Burgenland Croats lived was divided between Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

This process was temporarily stopped after the adoption of The National Education Act, which allowed for Croatian-language elementary schools.

After a constitutional complaint was heeded in 1987, parts of the law were changed and Croatian was introduced as an official language in 6 out of 7 districts of Burgenland.

[8] Slovenian dissatisfaction was caused by differences in interpretation of the Austrian State Treaty as well as the decision by Carinthian authorities to end compulsory bilingual schooling in 1958.