History/Political Science paper by Vass, Ágnes
Reconfiguring Ethnopolitics: post-territorial nationalism and diaspora
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
In the last couple of years, Hungarian ethnopolitics has experienced a significant shift, largely due to the nationalist rhetoric of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. We believe this change reflects a turn of Hungarian nationalism into what Ragazzi and Balalovska have called post-territorial nationalism (Ragazzi & Balalovska 2011), where national belonging becomes disconnected from the territory. Post-territorial nationalism thus reconfigures the nation as something global, where it does not matter in which country ‘co-nationals’ live exactly.
The aim of this paper is to examine how the concept of post-territorial nationalism has developed in Hungary and how it is integrated into its ethnopolitics. We seek to answer what is the relation between internal political developments and kin-state practices and how kin-state policy is synchronized with the real demands, needs and challenges of Hungarian communities living abroad. We believe it is because of this new conception of Hungarian nationalism that we witness that Hungarian communities living in other countries are approached by the Hungarian government in new ways, with new policy tools: the offer of extra-territorial citizenship; political campaigns to motivate them to take part in Hungarian domestic politics by voting in legislative elections; or the never before so high state budget allocated to support communities abroad. This paper is based on data from focus group discussions conducted in the Hungarian community of Western-Canada to understand the effects of this new politics on Hungarian-Hungarian relations through a critical case – a most distant and diverse Hungarian community, consisting of immigrants from Ukraine, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Agnes Vass is an international relations expert with a focus on extra-territorial citizenship and kin-state politics of CEE countries. She is currently working on her dissertation at Corvinus University of Budapest. In 2015 – 2016 Ágnes served as research fellow at University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Prior to this, she served as Junior Research Fellow at the Institute for Minority Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Currently, she is working as Project Manager in a Budapest-based think tank organisation, where she is responsible for international projects focusing on Central and Eastern Europe. agnesvass87@gmail.com