Abstract
This paper analyses Hungary as a small state within the EU and the policy it applied during the refugee crisis of 2015/2016 that changed the landscape both on the European and Hungarian level. During the crisis, Hungary acted as a small, interest-maximizing Member State constrained by domestic political interests and it did not only refuse to participate in common European policy proposals to solve the crisis, but it also engaged in unilateral actions perceived as solutions, such as erecting a border wall on the Southern border of Hungary. This paper examines how Hungary acted during the refugee crisis with the help of small state theories. Presenting the events, legislative changes and discourses surrounding migration policy in the past years will show that Hungary managed to take advantage of the refugee crisis by acting as a norm entrepreneur which gave the Prime Minister the opportunity to articulate his own views and convictions about the right way to solve the crisis and also about the future of the EU as a whole. Many EU Member States joined Hungary in its migration strategy and so it became the leading country of the anti-immigration block in Europe.
Highlights
This paper discusses migration and asylum policy in Hungary in light of European Union regulations, with a special focus on the refugee crisis of 2015/2016, which changed the landscape on both the European and Hungarian level
It refused to participate in common European policy proposals aimed at solving the crisis, but it engaged in unilateral actions perceived as solutions, such as erecting a border wall on the southern border of Hungary
Small state theories come to our rescue in explaining some of the Hungarian governments’ interest-based acts during the refugee crisis, and we can determine that Hungary acted as a norm entrepreneur in projecting its own views about refugees onto other EU Member States
Summary
This paper discusses migration and asylum policy in Hungary in light of European Union regulations, with a special focus on the refugee crisis of 2015/2016, which changed the landscape on both the European and Hungarian level. The research presumes that the Orbán government managed to take advantage of the refugee crisis by acting as h nga a a no m en ep ene in mig a ion polic a norm entrepreneur – a smart small-state strategy – which gave the Prime Minister the opportunity to articulate his own views and convictions about the right way to solve the crisis, and about the future of the EU as a whole. This paper will try to provide conclusions about Hungary’s performance as a small EU Member State in the policy area of migration and asylum. It will apply an inductive method: showing the impact of specific Hungarian migratory regulations and actions on the EU level of handling the migration crisis. The paper will show how Hungary took advantage and became a norm entrepreneur in this policy area during the crisis
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