Constructing & Resisting Non-democratic Practices in Hungary’s Diaspora Outreach

• In Event: Mobilizing and Mobilized Diasporas

Abstract

While there is a substantial literature on transnational repression of diaspora communities by authoritarian homeland states and transnational outreach to diaspora communities by mostly democratic homeland states, we know less about how the specific conditions of competitive authoritarianism impact diaspora politics and policies. This paper addresses this question by focusing on the case of the post-2010 Hungarian government and its cross-border policies regarding ethnic kin in neighboring states, as well as its deepening interest in engaging its broader global diaspora. Based on research conducted in Hungary in spring 2022, I compare and contrast how Hungary’s competitive authoritarian regime since 2010 has constructed its policies towards the different communities of external Hungarians that it has targeted: ethnic diaspora communities living as national minorities across the border versus diaspora communities outside the region. I outline the ways in which Hungary has used increasingly non-democratic practices to structure its cross-border outreach and support, and how these practices have come to shape – and limit - its global nationhood strategy that encompasses the Hungarian migrant diaspora communities throughout the world. I highlight in particular three aspects of Hungary’s cross-border approach that have come to impact its global diaspora policies: 1. Paternalistic policies based on hegemonic ideas of political and identity loyalty; 2. Reliance on non-transparent political patronage networks, often funneled through church and semi-private institutions; and 3. Construction of a closed and complex policy system that creates inefficiencies and parallel efforts for the sake of political control. Finally, the paper addresses some of the ways in which some members of Hungary’s cross-border and global diaspora communities, particularly those living under more democratic conditions, have attempted to resist the hegemonic and non-democratic practices embedded within Hungary’s policies.

Author

• Myra A. Waterbury, Ohio University