The Representation of Migration in the Hungarian Context

Abstract

Despite the decreasing number of immigrants and their negligible presence, migration has dominated Hungarian public discourse. The article investigates issues related to migration in three contexts. First, samples from the government’s immigration discourse, including a legislative package proposal and billboards, are subjected to critical discourse analysis to establish what terminology and rhetorical devices are used to evoke particular kinds of emotion in the readers. Second, the billboards of a counter-campaign organised by a Hungarian joke political party are explored to examine how they managed to turn around the message of the official campaign. Third, the paper investigates whether state education in Hungary can establish the golden mean and provide a balanced view of migration. For exploring the latter question, documents, such as the Hungarian National Core Curriculum in general and the section on the teaching of foreign languages in particular are analysed. The findings of the analyses show inconsistencies in the use of the relevant terminology and a predominantly biased view of migration in Hungary.