Liminal Populism—The Transformation of the Hungarian Migration Discourse

ABSTRACT

The Hungarian migration discourse has become important not only on a domestic level, but it was also able to thematize Europe-wide debates. Despite its influence, there is still a lack of understanding about how the Hungarian government has maintained its migration discourse during the past few years. Using discourse analysis, the present study fills this gap by focusing on the transformation of the governmental discourse. Whereas the governmental discourse could initially establish antagonism towards migrants and refugees, its turn towards internal actors disrupted this dichotomous structure. Ever since, the discourse has operated through an offensive and alienating frame as well as through a mitigation frame at the same time. The mixture of these two patterns as seemingly ambivalent yet interlocking tendencies characterizes the Hungarian governmental discourse that can be qualified as a liminal populist discourse. Liminal populism has the ability to maintain alienation and to blur social relations at the same time. Liminal populism is a flexible discursive strategy to decrease social pressure, while it is also a discursive necessity, an unsuccessful attempt to establish antagonism.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my gratitude to Jakub Eberle, whose support was essential to prepare this article. I am also thankful to Anna Nádudvari, Eric Frenkil, Sára Lafferton, Tamás Csiki Varga and the reviewers for their comments and suggestions, which helped me to improve this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Numbers are based on the data provided by the Hungarian Police and the Immigration and Asylum Office http://www.police.hu/sites/default/files/Illeg%C3%A1lis%20hat%C3%A1r%C3%A1tl%C3%A9p%C3%A9s%20dia%202010-2017%2001%2001-12%2026.24%2000-ig.pdf (Accessed April 10, 2019) and http://bevandorlas.hu/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=177&Itemid=1232&lang=hu (Accessed April 10, 2019).

2 One example from the questionnaire: “There are some who think that mismanagement of the immigration question by Brussels may have something to do with the increased terrorism. Do you agree with this view?” The complete questionnaire is available online: http://www.kormany.hu/download/9/a3/50000/Nemzetikonzultacio_mmkorrnel.docx

3 János or John Hunyadi was a political and military leader in the 15th century, applying active military engagement against the Ottomans in the Balkans, thus successfully holding back the invasion of Hungary.

4 The official English translation of this speech is missing from the governmental database. The quote was translated by the author.

5 Numbers are based on the data provided by the Hungarian Police: http://www.police.hu/sites/default/files/Illeg%C3%A1lis%20hat%C3%A1r%C3%A1tl%C3%A9p%C3%A9s%20dia%202010-2017%2001%2001-12%2026.24%2000-ig.pdf (Accessed April 10, 2019).

6 See the official Hungarian text in the Hungarian Official Journal: http://www.kozlonyok.hu/nkonline/MKPDF/hiteles/MK17053.pdf (Accessed April 10, 2019).

7 See the CEU website for the chronology of the events: https://www.ceu.edu/istandwithceu/timeline-events (Accessed February 4, 2020).

8 Numbers are based on the report of the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39549120 (Accessed February 4, 2020).

9 See the official Hungarian text in the Hungarian Official Journal: http://www.kozlonyok.hu/nkonline/MKPDF/hiteles/MK17093.pdf (Accessed April 10, 2019).

10 The questions were translated to English by The Budapest Beacon: https://budapestbeacon.com/soros-plan-national-consultation-questions/ (Accessed April 10, 2019).

11 See the official Hungarian text in the Hungarian Official Journal: http://www.kozlonyok.hu/nkonline/MKPDF/hiteles/MK18097.pdf (Accessed April 10, 2019).

12 See for example: https://www.euractiv.com/section/elections/news/anti-government-demo-forms-giant-heart-in-budapest/ (Accessed February 4, 2020).

13 See for example: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-academy-protest/hungarians-protest-against-pm-orbans-academic-overhaul-idUSKCN1R21T4 (Accessed February 5, 2020).

14 See the official Hungarian text on the website of the Parliament: https://www.parlament.hu/irom41/03628/03628-0008.pdf (Accessed April 10, 2019).

15 See for example: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/05/world/europe/hungary-protests-slave-law.html (Accessed February 5, 2020).