The Response of the Visegrad Countries to the Refugee Crisis

CímThe Response of the Visegrad Countries to the Refugee Crisis
Közlemény típusaKönyv / Book
Év / Year2016
SzerzőkHegedűs, István, Kocsis Györgyi, Nagy Kata, Schweitzer András, Stahl Zsófia, Strausz Erzsébet, Uszkiewicz Erik, Végh Zsuzsanna, Vidák Zsófia, Krempaska Alena, Lassen Christian Kvorning, and Weisenbacher Peter
Sorozat cím / Series TitleVisegrad Countries to the Refugee Crisis
Oldalak száma / Number of Pages64
Kiadó / PublisherHungarian Europe Society
Város / CityBudapest
A publikáció nyelve / Publication Languageeng
Összefoglalás

During the early months of 2016, the Hungarian Europe Society started to implement its project called “The Refugee Crisis and the Reactions of the Visegrad Countries”. The project included comprehensive and comparative research in the four countries as well as a one-day workshop in Budapest. Experts of the Hungarian Europe Society and further researchers from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary examined the various – political, legal, social and cultural – aspects of the unprecedented phenomenon of the previous year, that is the mass inflow of mostly Muslim asylum seekers from the Middle East into Europe and the way the V4 countries – all members of the European Union - responded to it. By September 2016, individual case studies have been completed focusing on different dimensions of the subject matter – they can be found as attachments to this report.

The following text gives a concise summary of the most important findings of the project with a strong emphasis on Hungary as the main point of entry for refugees towards the Western part of Europe. We begin with the historic-cultural impact on the handling of the crisis in the Central European region, followed by the analysis of an expert survey managed by the Hungarian Europe Society, then, the analysis of the new characteristics of the Visegrad cooperation regarding the migration problem follows. The next chapter is about the “frontcountry” Hungary: this case has been investigated thoroughly also because of the central role the country played during the peak of the crisis and also since its government’s rhetoric and measures represent the most radical anti-thesis to the crisis management of the European institutions and the German government. At the end of our report, summaries of the Slovak and Czech situation can be read – since Poland remained practically untouched from the crisis, there is no special case study about the Polish development.