Fencing off reality: Hungary's reactions to the arrival of refugees and their interpretation in a European legal, political and moral context | Professor Boldizsár Nagy
Listen to the podcast of the 17 February seminar, part of the Hilary term 2016 Public Seminar Series
Presentation slides are available here >>
RSC Public Seminar Series Hilary Term: 'Destination: Europe'
Convenors: Cathryn Costello and Stephanie Motz
About this seminar
This lecture will address the sequence of measures adopted in Hungary in the course of 2015 gradually achieving the diversion of practically all asylum seekers to Croatia and Slovenia. It will be interpreted as a mix of denial, deterrence, obstruction, punishment, free riding and breaches of law. That interpretation will show that the discourse and the legal environment established by the government creates a parallel reality to the one experienced by the forced migrants and other European states. This imagined reality claims that "illegal immigrants" are threatening the Hungarian culture and that terrorists hidden amongst the arriving persons are a menace to all of us, against which not only Hungary, but the whole of Europe had to be defended by the Hungarian actions, including the erection of the fence at the external border. Finally, the interaction between Hungary, its neighbours and the EU as a whole will be scrutinised in order to seek opportunities for return to legally, politically and morally solid grounds.
Boldizsár Nagy read law and philosophy and received his PhD at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He pursued international studies at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Bologna Center. In addition to uninterrupted academic activity both at the Eötvös Loránd University (since 1977) and the Central European University (since 1992), he has been engaged both in governmental and non-governmental actions. He acted several times as expert for the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Europe and UNHCR and participated at various inter-governmental negotiations. In the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros case before the International Court of Justice he acted as one of Hungary's counsel. He is a co-founder and former board member of the European Society of International Law and member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Refugee Law and of the European Journal of Migration and Law. He is co-founder and editor of the on-line Refugee Law Reader. His earlier teaching venues include Beijing, Brussels, Geneva, Moscow, and New York. He has co-authored and/or edited more than two dozen books. In October 2012, he published a monograph on the development of Hungarian refugee law and refugee movements between the end of the Cold War and Hungary's accession to the EU.
A Mobile Milieu: Humanitarian Equipment and the Politics of Need | Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2019
Sonopolis: Sound, citizenship, and migrant activisms in Athens | Dr Tom Western
Civil solidarity and the hunt for undocumented migrants: resisting the politics of bare life. Two Belgian case studies | Dr Robin Vandevoordt
Podcasts from the RSC Conference 2019 'Democratizing Displacement' are now online
Exploring gendered 'vulnerability': Syrian refugee men and humanitarianism in urban Jordan | Dr Lewis Turner
Sudanese constellations of home: refugee NGOs, social networks and urban homemaking in Cairo | Dr Anita Fábos
The accidental city of Kakuma, Kenya: humanitarian urbanism and the development of the refugee camp environment | Dr Bram J Jansen
Urban refugee economies in Ethiopia | Professor Alison Brown and Dr Peter Mackie
Building inclusive cities: emerging learning from a knowledge exchange with UK cities| Jacqueline Broadhead
Refugees and the UK labour market | Dr Carlos Vargas-Silva and Dr Isabel Ruiz