Ágnes Erőss

„Hát megpróbálunk küzdeni”: átalakuló boldogulási stratégiák Kárpátalján az Euromajdan után

Ukraine’s recent turbulent history created serious economic and social consequences on its westernmost region, Transcarpathia. The East Ukrainian armed conflict, accompanied by a serious economic downturn, resulted in major modifications in individual and family life strategies determined by emigration and the neighboring states’ migration policies. In this research we focus on the effects of recent political events (Euromaidan, the Russian takeover in Crimea and the Donbas conflict) on Transcarpathia and its ethnic Hungarian population and how this transformed individual and family life and migration strategies especially in terms of Hungarian–Ukrainian cross-border relations. The above issues are inseparable from Hungary’s kin-state and neighbourhood politics, thus we attempted to reveal the policy measures implemented by Hungary influencing migratory decisions. The study is based on 26 semi-structured interviews conducted in spring 2016 in Transcarpathia and Budapest, complemented by information deriving from statistical data and policy documents. We found that in the past few years, individual and family coping strategies were transformed by the Eastern Ukrainian unrest (including the military drafts), the political instability and the country’s economic crisis culminating in falling living standards and feelings of insecurity and hopelessness. The dysfunctions of Ukrainian state – like in many other postsoviet countries – hampers people’s to rely access to the on state welfare system. Due to difficulties of livelihood in Transcarpathia, mobility (e.g. work abroad) and cross-border informal economic practices received a novel impetus in Transcarpathia, a region already traditionally characterized by high migration potential. While circular mobility is a main feature of both labour migration and other cross-border movements (e.g. smuggling, commuting), recently, final resettlement in a foreign country became more dominant. The dynamics of emigration are highly influenced by Hungary’s kin-state politics, especially its preferential (re)naturalisation simplifying the acquisition of Hungarian citizenship. Since 2014, the Hungarian governments have elaborated several economic and cultural programmes and projects for the Transcarpathian Hungarians in order to foster their well-being in their homeland. Nevertheless, since migration became the new norm due to the changing social and economic conditions, the above projects supporting staying at home are no longer appropriate; even more, the preferential naturalisation generated extensive emigration from Transcarpathia.

A Vajdaságból Magyarországra irányuló tanulmányi célú migráció

This study tries to present the theoretical framework, history, geographical peculiarities and influencing factors of the educational migration from Vojvodina to Hungary as well as the background of decisions about migration. We approach the issue from the brain drain theory to understand the phenomenon, and we analyse it from each region’s perspective. The first part of the paper is mostly based on statistical data which we try to illustrate later by including presentations of individuals’ and families’ decisions about education and resettlement in Hungary (through interviews with Vojvodina Hungarian students in Hungary). Considering the migration between Serbia and Hungary, educational migration (with a focus on higher education) became one of the most significant types. The migration under study concerns primarily the Vojvodina Hungarian minority – first of all those with high qualifications. So, from the Vojvodina Hungarian point of view, the process involves the risk of a brain drain. At present, educational migration is determined by both ethnic and economic factors. The push and pull factors that emerged during the Balkan wars in the 1990s as well as the transnational migrant networks, which promote and support migration, seem to have remained stable. Although the outcome of such transnational migration is considered to be open (resettlement, return, move to a third country, circulation) our research indicates that, in the majority of cases, educational motives constitute the first step towards permanently leaving the native country. Since the beginning of the two-decade-old transnational educational migration, Hungarian nation policy (as defined by the Hungarian ministry of foreign affairs) which also affects Hungarians living outside Hungary, and its related educational policy attempt to influence the nature and extent of this form of migration (e.g. through the scholarship and/or fee-paying system). However, this policy, with its associated instruments – despite its intention – is unable to influence educational migration directly and basically. The present Hungarian nation policy is controversial, and we could not establish which its most important purpose is: to help Hungarian minority communities sustain a livelihood in their native country or to implicitly encourage resettlement. The Vojvodina Hungarian nation policy could not reach its goals (education in the native country and return from abroad) yet. However, the results of the change of the scholarship system will be seen only a few years later.

„Kulturálisan vagyunk magyarok, mentalitásban szerbek vagyunk szerintem, igen.” Magyarországon élő vajdasági magyar migránsok és a jugóbuli

During our fieldwork we found that a great number of ethnic Hungarians who resettled from Vojvodina go to so-called Balkan or Yugo parties in Budapest. This led to questions about what these public occasions mean for the Vojvodinian Hungarians and how they connect to the memory and commemoration of Yugoslavia. Based on this interest, the research has been enlarged: direct questions regarding the Yugo parties were incorporated into the interviews and participatory observation data about five Yugo parties contribute to deeper insight. Yugo parties have been organised in Budapest five times a year since 2002. The primary goal of Yugo parties was to serve as a place and occasion for Vojvodinian Hungarian migrants to meet, to be together, to party. The Yugo party is a “Southern” festivity. “Southern” is understood here as pulsating rhythm, the kolo (circle dance), abandon partying till morning, the foods and the special quality of a feeling of togetherness. The welcoming community atmosphere contributes to the fact that today Yugo parties attract a wider circle of participants, not only the prime target group, i.e. the Hungarians from Vojvodina. Now youngsters who were born in the nineties and came to Hungary to attend high school or university and do not have personal memories of Yugoslavia also go to these parties; in addition, people who travel to Budapest especially for such events from the ex-Yugoslav area; foreigners from different countries, and Hungarians from Hungary. During the interviews, the notion of “nostalgia” often emerged. With the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the strengthening nationalism in the successor states has attempted to sharply distance themselves from the other former constituent six socialist republics of Yugoslavia by emphasizing their ethnic, linguistic, religious and economic differences. At the same time Yugoslavia was described as a failed and artificial state which only tried to supress the birth of independent successor states. Nevertheless in the 1990s, a “Yugonostalgia” emerged. Most research projects primarily study and analyse the content, subject and phenomena of Yugonostalgia in the successor states. According to some researchers, restorative Yugonostalgia has to be distinguished from reflexive Yugonostalgia. Restorative nostalgia can be characterised as the longing for fantasies of an idealised Yugoslav past. In contrast, reflexive Yugonostalgia should rather be interpreted in a political context and can be seen as a reaction to both the destructive forces of nationalist nostalgia and Yugonostalgia as a pejorative marker in the contemporary discourse about former Yugoslavia. Comparing the analyses about Yugonostalgia in the successor states we can identify both some common points and some deviations. The most obvious difference is the absolute lack of a political context or political interests. The other main item of Yugonostalgia, the Tito cult is not present at all in the case of Vojvodinian migrants. The Vojvodinian Hungarians have not participated in either discourse about Yugonostalgia, or in the typical Yugonostalgic manifestations. If nostalgia arises from the desire to sustain the continuity of memory, in case of the Vojvodinian Hungarian migrant community the Yugo party is not only the scene to remember their youth, but it also offers a possibility to live together the continuity of one’s individual walk of life – in most cases broken by involuntary migration (forced by the war and its consequences). Above all, we understand the importance of Yugo parties in Budapest in recreating and strengthening a special identity, which differentiates the Vojvodinian Hungarians from the Hungarians in Hungary.

Tanulmányi célú migráció, migráns élethelyzetek: vajdasági diákok Magyarországon

Educational migration is considered to be one of the most significant types of migration from Serbia to Hungary. During the last twenty years, many Hungarian families in the Vojvodina (the northern region of Serbia) have decided that after finishing primary school in Serbia, their children should pursue their secondary and tertiary education in Hungary. The present study analyses empirical data and aims to present the features of educational migration across the Serbian–Hungarian border. We define cross-border educational migration as a form of transnational migration, although the specificity of this migration is that migrants who are ethnic Hungarians move to a country which many of them considers as their mother country. The two-decades-old transnational educational migration at the Hungarian–Serbian border is a process determined by both ethnic and economic factors, and concerns primarily minority communities with Hungarian ethnic background on the Serbian side of the border. Previous research has shown, and we have also confirmed, that Hungarian national policy with its associated instruments is unable to fulfil its most important purpose, which is to safeguard the existence of an intellectual elite in Hungarian minority communities and to help them sustain an adequate livelihood in their country of birth. The analysis of migrants’ biographies have revealed the permanent push and pull factors and transmigrant networks, which not only foster educational migration but make it a supported, legitimate individual and family strategy as well. The educational form of transnational migration is characterised by migrants being linked to two worlds simultaneously, though the connection differs according to individual circumstances, and its intensity changes over time. Although the outcome of such transnational migration is considered to be open, our research indicates that in the majority of cases, it is the first step towards permanently leaving behind the country of birth. Thus strategies and decisions concerning children’s education are at the same time long-term migratory decisions and strategies.

On Linkages and Barriers: The Dynamics of Neighbourhood along the State Borders of Hungary since EU Enlargement

By contrast to the Hungarian-Austrian border discussed in Chapter 3 (the only ‘eastern’ one Hungary has), the borders between Hungary and its neighbours Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania discussed here relate to ‘Eastern’ — i.e. post-communist — neighbours. The eastern expansion of the EU has brought these countries into the new, shared neighbourhood of the EU and generated a process of Western integration. EU accession of Hungary and Slovakia in 2004, their incorporation into the Schengen zone at the end of 2007, and EU membership for Romania in 2007 have brought about major changes in the cross-border relations of this region. This has had implications for policies and neighbourhood relations at the transnational, national and local levels, but has also affected people’s everyday life in the border regions.