This article seeks to explain the varied policy responses to the large wave of emigration from Central and Eastern European states during the last two decades, focusing on the cases of Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland. Differing degrees of emigrant engagement by these states are explained by the role of internal minorities as active members of the emigrant population and the overall political and demographic relevance of historical kin. This study contributes to our understanding of what shapes state policies towards different types of external populations. It also highlights the particular challenges of state-led transnational engagement in a supranational border regime.

This article examines the domestic politics behind Hungary’s controversial 2001 “Status Law,” which granted special cultural and economic benefits to ethnic Hungarians who are citizens of other states. It argues that Hungary’s increasingly interventionist policy toward ethnic Hungarians beyond its borders in the late 1990s was driven not by a growing sense of ethnic nationalism in society or as a reaction to the plight of ethnic kin but by the party-building strategy of right-wing elites. These elites utilized and co-opted transnational ties with the diaspora to further their own political goals. Specifically, engagement with the diaspora issue provided the then-governing Federation of Young Democrats (FIDESZ) government with symbolically charged ideological content, important organizational resources, and the basis of a longer-term strategy for governance and institutional embeddedness.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract