The impact of EU membership on the integration of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary

Abstract

Nowadays, most of the countries of the European Union have a population that is not entirely made up of one nationality. Europe has provided many reputable and innovative policies to facilitate the concurrence of nationalities. Within certain parameters this has proved to be successful, but in essence this has proved to be somewhat different, in terms of the practicality of the concept. This discrepancy between these two notions has been the prime motivator behind this thesis. The main objective behind this thesis therefore centres on the prospect of how the European Union has been able to peacefully consolidate the National and Ethnic groups found in Hungary with the mainstream society. A prominent factor that comes out of the thesis is the need for a deeper understanding of the situation of minorities in Hungary. The process of Hungary's accession into the European Union eventually led people to ask whether the policies initiated by the EU were enough to render the process of integration a successful one. Thorough analyses led me to determine whether the Minorities Self-Governments were indeed a means of facilitating the civic lives of minorities in Hungary and whether the media, education system and other legal instruments were contributing enough to make the system function as per EU regulations. Results show that the EU, although it has certainly helped towards the recognition of minorities by the mainstream society, is still working towards the integration of minorities. The process of integration is still in a works-in-progress phase. Having said that, the current political issues that Hungary is facing will nonetheless set the process of integration of minorities back by a couple of years. This is because priorities will be shifted towards pressing agendas that the government thinks are of greater concern, even though they incorporate Minority issues amongst other issues.