Administrative Background and the Process of Migrant Integration in Hungary

Some EU member states have been migrant destinations for a long time, while others have lost a considerable part of their population since their accession to the EU. Hungary belongs to the latter. Large numbers of immigrants have not been arriving here since the end of the war in former Yugoslavia. However, in 2015 Hungary was suddenly strongly affected by mass migration, mainly because of the country’s geographical location. Mass migration has strongly influenced politics as the decision-maker and public administration as the executor of political decisions. Both the decisions and the policy-makers have been strongly criticised for taking a different approach to the situation compared with many other European countries. The Hungarian government’s priority was to reduce or stop mass migration and it used political, legal, and physical instruments selected for this purpose. This study does not aim to judge whether they are right or wrong. Hungarian public administration has had to adapt to the situation and it has done so by way of implementing new and modified legal rules. However, due to the political decisions described above, it has developed and changed at the same time.