The Kin-state Policies of Hungary, Romania, and Serbia in 2015: An Increasingly Centred Approach on Extraterritorial Citizenship

Abstract

This article compares the kin-state policies of three countries: Hungary, Romania, and Serbia. It analyses the evolution of their legislation on kin-minorities focusing on the changes introduced in 2015. Even though the historical contexts greatly differ, all three countries became kin-states as a consequence of border changes: Hungary after the First World War, Romania after the Second World War, and Serbia following the disintegration of Yugoslavia. I show here that in spite of the normative prominence of the Act LXII of 2001 on Hungarians Living in Neighbouring Countries in Europe, recent changes in the legislation of the three countries indicate that facilitated access to extraterritorial citizenship rather than identity recognition and support for culture has come to define the nature of their current kin-state policies.