What can changes to the built environment of a country cause
- will bring benefits to some groups
- but can provoke hostility from other groups that perceive migrants as a threat to their culture.
- Migrants may experience a sense of social exclusion. (🌎 Budapest)
What did the EU vote hungary as in 2018?
- Joined EU in 2004
- 2018: EU votes Hungary to be ‘a systematic threat to democracy’
Give an example of a change to built environment in Hungary as well as it pros and cons
- The building of a mega-mosque in Budapest would be a change to the built environment
+ Syrian refugees who remain in Budapest to study at university, would benefit
- Hungarians feel hostile – they perceive the introduction of Islam / languages as a threat to their culture
Consequently, they are hostile towards Syrian refugees – socially excluding them
What is the long term context of Hungary
Throughout its history, Hungary has long been invaded / conquered / liberated – Tatars, Ottomans, Nazis, Russians, losing 2/3 of its land at the end of WW1.
What is the medium term context of Hungary within Europe
- 2015 – George Soros (a Hungarian born, New York millionaire) declared Europe should take 1 million asylum seekers (from Syria)
- Viktor Orban was elected on a campaign to ‘Stop Soros’ – in 2018 a Soros-funded university in Budapest closed
- 2010s Europe, identity politics intensified liberals worry about xenophobia, nationalists about lack of free speech
What’s wrong with Hungary
They have a nationalist attitude which makes syrian refugees feel socially excluded
Evidence of syrian refugees being socially excluded in Hungary
- Kaleti, a major train station in Budapest, becomes a gigantic Syrian refugee camp in 2015
- A Hungarian survey shows that 60% of Hungarians would be resentful of foreign immigrants shot up to 60 percent in 2019 (a 20% increase from 2017).
- In Hungary, the government’s messaging is perceived to have legitimised hated towards all minority groups
How have syrian migrants responded
- Most Syrian migrants moved on through Europe, but about 40,000 remained to study at Hungarian universities, financed by Turkey.
Consequences of Hungary’s nationalism..
- 2019: President Orban declared that ‘it would take responsibility for all the world’s Christian communities, particularly those persecuted in Islamic countries’
- The EU has threatened to strip of Hungary of it’s voting rights if it does not stop victimising Muslim refugees – caging them, starving them and denying legal representation
Pros of nationalism?
- pride in national achievements
- culture is not diluted, tourist commodity
- independent country: can confidently make its own decisions
-prioritise social development within their country rather than providing for asylum seekers
Why is nationalism bad?
- implies inequality is ok so children adopt this attitude
- caste syetm forms
- legitimise extremist groups
- tension with other countries not just in the nationalist countries (wars/protests)
