Retrospective on Soo Hooi Oh, “Hungarians Abroad” from Transformation In Post-Communist Hungary Perspectives on Business and Economics, Volume 24, 2006 Soo Hooi Oh ’06 is now a Principal Engineer at LTK Engineering Services. What is the current foreign policy in Hungary regarding ethnic Hungarians living abroad? Since 2006, Hungary has stayed the course in viewing “citizenship as not only a legal registry of those residing in the country but more inclusively, considering as citizens those who live outside the borders of the country but are ethnically and culturally Hungarian by heritage” (Kovács, 2017). In 2010, via a referendum signed by Parliament, Hungarian minorities living abroad were granted dual citizenship as well as the right to vote in Hungarian elections. Hungary’s neighbors viewed this accelerated naturalization of 400,000 Hungarians abroad as a security threat to their own countries. So too, the decision was equally disliked domestically for political reasons. However, despite the initial scorn, cultural policies have improved significantly. “An important milestone in promoting ‘Hungarianess’ and helping ethnic Hungarians in Central Europe to preserve their unique cultural and linguistic heritage was the establishing of Duna TV in 1992. The goal of the channel—the first Hungarian language channel to broadcast over satellite—was to be a platform for Hungarian culture and news about Hungary in order to help ethnic Hungarians preserve their identity abroad” (Zemplényi, 2022). Hungary has also financed Hungarian language studies for children in Central Europe and even created a study exchange program. As Hungary’s neighbors joined the EU, did border and minority issues with Hungarians abroad diminish? Hungary’s border and minorities abroad issues did not improve as more of its neighbors joined the EU, but instead worsened. For example, Slovakia and Austria are EU countries that do not allow their Hungarian minorities to have dual citizenship; individuals must choose. Ukraine, now on a fast-track towards EU membership, voted in 2017 to “adopt a new Education Act that restricts the rights of national minorities to receive education in their native language,” (Kovács, 2017) which would prevent Hungarian schoolchildren from receiving schooling in Hungarian. This increased tensions between Hungary and its neighbors, despite the EU ties. Another factor contributing to border dilemmas is the war Russia has waged against Ukraine. Not only have thousands of refugees surged into Hungary daily (ethnic minorities and Ukrainians alike), but also the war fueled the political contest between democracy and autocracy. Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister of 12 years, won reelection in April this year. Orbán is an ally of Vladimir Putin and shares in his beliefs, with which many domestic Hungarians do not agree. This raises the question: how did Orbán manage to win reelection? Unquestionably, his focus on making Hungarians abroad citizens of the mother country helped. “The Hungarian government sends millions of euros every year to neighbouring countries with Hungarian minorities. According to analysts, Orbán’s intention is to buy votes of Hungarians living abroad” (Hudec, et al., 2021). Thus, even 16 years after Oh’s article was written, politicians still use the Hungarian minority as a political tool for domestic support. References Hudec, M., & Makszimov, V. (2021, October 28). Why Orban Pumps Billions abroad. www.euractiv.com. Kovács, Z. (2017, November 2). Ethnic Hungarians: a nation in a united Europe. About Hungary. Zemplényi, L. (2022, February 3). Hungary and Hungarians – ethnic minorities in Central Europe. Hungarian Conservative. Retrospective by Sidney Jankanish ’23, Political Science and International Relations Martindale Retrospectives 5 December 2022
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