Fears about migration in Hungary in the view of representatives of civil society organizations

Abstract

The article is based on interviews conducted with representatives of civil society organizations. The interviewees shared their thoughts about an ever-growing fear present in the population of Hungary with regard to migration. The author talked about the roots and reasons of this fear, and the ways and means of facing it, with Andras Kovats, the Director of the Menedek Association for Migrants, Marta Meszaros, staff member of the Cordelia Foundation, and two representatives of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Gabor Gyulai, the Head of the organisation, and Andras Lederer, a staff member of the Refugee Programme. The present article provides a synthesis of these interviews. As such, it may contribute to a more refined understanding of some of the central issues examined in this journal special issue: namely, the demand for, and the precise dynamics of, the securitisation of migration, and the ways and means of coping with challenges related to it, to be able to provide for the needs of asylum-seekers as required in terms of universal human rights and the basic moral principle of solidarity.