Piotr Kazmierkiewicz,
Political Science Department
Central European University, Budapest
Paper presented on 7 November 1999
at School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London
at the "Between the Block and the
Hard Place: Moving towards Europe in Post-Communist States?"
Published in Slovo,
Special Issue 2000
1/
Central Europe In the Context of East-West Migration
2/ Hungary on Its Own: Formulation
of National Interest
3/ Hungary Within An International
Human Rights Regime
4/ Hungary Within the Framework
of Regional Security
ABSTRACT
Given the sensitive issue of a large diaspora in the neighbouring countries, and a vulnerable geopolitical location on the verge of the Balkans, Hungary has been pressured to work out a comprehensive migration and asylum policy. But the economic and political constraints accompanying transition to liberal democracy have diminished the government’s ability to implement a strategy of its own. Growing participation of NGOs and international organisations (UNHCR, EU) in developing protection mechanisms, drafting the legislation, and overseeing its implementation, have resulted in a move away from the narrowly defined national interest to international norms as a rationale for action. However, as the Western European legislation increasingly restricts access to asylum in the name of immigration control, the early gains of NGOs and UNHCR in promoting human rights might be jeopardised as Hungary follows the trend. The presentation will sketch the difficult path of adoption of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees, national Aliens and Asylum Laws into the Hungarian legal and administrative system against the background of the migration flows affecting Hungary since 1987. It draws on the interviews with Hungarian and UNHCR officials, as well as on the documentation of the relations between the government and the UNHCR, gathered in Budapest and Geneva in May-September 1999.
Hungary has been widely praised for relatively smooth integration with the European political and economic institutions. The seeds of its success lie in a long heritage of political pragmatism and economic openness, dating back to the late-Kadarist ‘goulash communism.’ However, the country suffers from an acute crisis of its identity, which is expressed in acrimonious debates over the fate of its compatriots in neighboring states and even more deeply from the uncertainty over the meaning of its recent history. By joining the European and global regimes on migration and asylum, Hungary had to reconcile its national identity with international commitments to fairness and justice. When the path along which the country institutionalized its ad hoc policies is revisited, it appears that the new institutions have been effectively used to pursue the national priorities. This does not need to cause alarm among the proponents of human rights, though: the gradual adjustment of the national institutions to the international rules has been accompanied by the growth of vibrant civil-society organizations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Prof. Boldizsar Nagy (Central European University) for allowing me the access to some of the most relevant literature on the early stages of Hungarian legislation; the staff of the Center for Documentation and Research as well as the Bureau for Europe at the Headquarters of United High Commissioner for Refugees, in particular, Irene Khan, Jefery Crisp, Isabelle Mihoubi, Michael Petersen and Claire Hamlisch, for guidance on the focus of this work.