Migration as a social and legal category

Migration and its related problems have to be taken into consideration in this research as the examined children and their families are from a special aspect the subject of this social phenomenon. In this chapter the reasons and effects of migration will be discussed and an up-to-date picture of the transfer of our age will be provided and it will be examined how the present research topic is embedded in it. In connection with migration human rights and especially language rights will be discussed on the basis of acknowledged authors’ points of view. In the end, the presence of language rights in Hungarian education will be scrutinised as our setting in Pápa is a representative example of migrant children’s and their families’ living environment.

2.5.1 Migration as a social and legal category

As the basis of multiculturalism can be migration, it is worth examining the phenomenon from socio-legal aspects. Although migration is as old as humanity, there are ages when it has new waves in rising tendencies, and the beginning of the 21^st century is undoubtedly belongs to this era.

If the modern definitions of migration are taken into account, clear similarity can be noticed among them. Migration is “a word of Latin origin which means wandering, going, moving, travelling from one place to the other” (Rédei, 2007, p.13) and its final outcome is the translocation of the place of work and residence (Rédei, 2007). According to Münz (2009) migration is a process where individuals or groups of people change their place of living and the surrounding society and the change will become permanent. In another work of his, he gives a very brief definition of migrants stating that they are “persons moving (or having moved) from one country to another” (2008, p. 48). Aranyos (2005), taking EU-law into consideration, gives a minimum time-limit for migration and adds that a criterion of migration is that the migrants want to stay at least another year in the country where they are staying at present. Tóth (2001) emphasises the complexity of migration declaring that migration is highly impacted by the actual social, economic and political processes which are combined with personal interests and will. Additionally, he classifies migration according to its internal vs. external (i.e. within a state or across states), forced/ artificial vs. spontaneous/ voluntary characteristics. The category of legal and illegal migration, with trafficking involved, appears

59 as a criminological class in Hungarian literature (P. Tóth, 2001; Wetzel, 2011; Jungbert, 2013), but due to the characteristic of the present topic, this latter category will be neglected.

Cseresnyés (2005), citing Delfs, completes the aforementioned typology with the time factor, i.e. how long migrants are staying in the host country (short-term, long-term or continuous migration).

To the reasons of migration Cseresnyés (2005) also adds that the motives of migration can be extremely combined: religious, ethnic and political reasons may overlap. All of these reasons are supported by the so-called “pushing” and “pulling” factors which were introduced by Ravenstein in the 19^th century (Hárs, 1992; Cseresnyés, 2005; Rédei, 2007). Pulling factors (advantageous socio-economic circumstances) strengthen, while pushing factors (disadvantageous circumstances) drive away the motivation of migrants as their future prospects’ success may depend on them. Wetzel (2011) classifies developed economy, better job opportunities, already existing diasporas in the host country as pulling factors, while socio-economical unsteadiness, poverty and the lack of jobs as pushing factors.

Migration has not only reasons but also effects on the society especially from demographic point of view. Among them Rédei (2007) mentions the increase of the population in a given country and the change in the population pyramid and age diversity. She also emphasises the economic results in a society where migrants mean new labour sources while they also appear as consumers in the target country’s society. Cseresnyés’s (2005) observations about the outcome of migration coincide with those of Rédei. He remarks that the new host countries in Europe face real challenges of creating their self-image and identity.

Besides, on the basis of 19^th century Malthusian theories, he notices modern fears of migration such as the fear of the diminishing living space and ecological problems.

“The number of estimated migrants in the world is about 175 million people; 35 million of them live in the USA”, cites Wetzel (2011, p. 15) the data of the survey made by the House of Commons International Development Committee in 2000. In most West-European countries the rate of immigrants is over 10%. In Europe the so-called “quality immigration” (Wetzel, 2011, p.20) is supported with the help of the Blue Card, which means the stimulus of immigrants with a higher academic background. Hungary, however, has not become a favourite target country for immigrants. On the other hand, Hungary does play a role in the migration process, whihc is due to the Hungarians who live outside the borders of Hungary and who can be regarded as supplies, i.e. potential employees instead of the aging population of the country. Wetzel (2011) also draws our attention to the age of the immigrants who usually belong to the younger generation. It is also relevant for our study as the age

60 group between 20-39 years can be considered to be young adults with children who are integrated in the Hungarian education system. The demographic problem of Hungary could be resolved by the reception of 1,8 immigrants as a recent study revealed (Dobszay, 2013). At the same time, at the end of 2012 fewer than 100,000 people intended to settle down in Hungary, and half of them are from non-EU countries (Migration, n.d.).

Britain, which can be called one of the target countries of international migration, has a much higher number of immigrants. 195,000 people became British citizens in 2010, which stimulated different research activities in the field. For instance, an in-depth survey titled Understanding Britain started in 2013 and focuses on the special needs and problems of immigrants such as education, employment, health, family life and their attitudes in and across their ethnic borders (A new picture, 2012). One of the most surprising early results suggests that British identities can be noticed better in ethnic minorities than in the white majority (Just who, 2014). It seems to be supported by the appreciation of the British passport among immigrants which has become the tangible symbol of Britishness. Belonging and integration highly depend on locality, neighbourhood and the length of time a migrant spent in Britain. According to the Economic and Social Research Council, some more aspects of integration should be examined as well, for instance English language learning and interaction opportunities (Becoming, 2013).

In the European Union the official number of third country nationals reaches 11 million people who can be categorised as labour migrants (with their family members), ethnic returnees (due to repatriation), and asylum seekers. Naturally, clandestine migrants are not counted here. Geddes (2003) points out a changing paradigm of migration by 1990. Since then more attention has been paid to discrimination laws, xenophobia, immigrant integration and the protection of minorities. The roles of “unwanted migrants” (Geddes, 2003, p. 85) are also in the limelight as they are the ones who might threaten Western welfare states. In order to help integration, the author urges to understand different cultures as basic components of modern societies.

The reasons of modern migration can also be seen in the foreign labour recruitment programmes, the end of the Soviet bloc, the new democracies in Eastern Europe and the new enlargements within the European Union. Instead of static cultures, Romaniszyn (2003) writes about the “migration of cultures” (2003, p. 103) which are the outcomes of ethnic migration.

Migration here also appears as the reason for merging cultures or globalization. In trade, for instance, one of its manifestations is “McDonaldisation” (2003, p. 103).

61 To see the difference between earlier and modern migration clearly, the following table will summarise the scene, the aims and the outcome of the phenomenon (Figure 16):

Historical migration (3^rd-8^th cc. BC)

Modern migration (movement of masses)

Scene Europe All over the world

Aim Conquering Co-habiting, mixing, integrating

Outcome Demolishing conquered countries’ culture

Confrontations and conflicts

Figure 16. Historical overview of migration (Hegedűsné, 2013)

While Hegedűsné (2013) tries to catch the basic factors of migration, she seems to omit other characteristics of it. For instance, the aim is not necessarily co-habiting or integrating in the case of some migrant individuals or groups, and mentioning only confrontations and conflicts as an outcome is superficial. In the present research it will be seen special strategies in education which intend to eliminate confrontations and instead, the modes of cooperation will be searched for and analysed.

Literature about the types, categorisation and characterisation of migration is sometimes not only one-dimensional or sketchy, but from our point of view is relatively defective. The gap is obvious when the legal status of the foreign parents in Pápa has to be identified. Although labour force migration is a well-known category, literature usually deals with the problem of labour market (Cseresnyés, 2005), the general status of foreign employees in Hungary (Jakubovich, 2001; J. Tóth, 2001), career migration (Nagy, 2001), employment of foreigners in Hungary (Borók, 2001), migration of the highly trained (Rudolph  Hillmann, 1998) and the study visits of Erasmus-students (Rédei, 2007), but it does not provide researchers with clear and reliable guidelines about foreigners who are sent abroad for other, in our case military, reasons. They do not seem to fit into any of the categories as they are neither individuals seeking for a job, nor refugees or asylum seekers who have poor academic or economic background.

Vasilescu (2011) and Gubcsi (2011) lead us closer to the problem by introducing these foreigners’ work. Although they do not clarify the status of this group either, they depict that they are from those who work in a peace keeping mission in one of the multinational military capabilities, under the auspices of a partnership called Strategic Airlift Consortium (SAC).

62 More information can be gained about the history of Pápa Air Base in the Military Installations Booklet (2014) where important details are given also about the educational institutions which are available to these families’ children. Here Fáy András Kindergarten is mentioned as the designated pre-school for children, but the information about the curriculum is not precise as the kindergarten applies a bilingual Hungarian–English programme, and not an exclusively Hungarian one, as it is suggested here.

What may be concluded on the basis of available relevant literature is the fact that foreign parents who came to Pápa into a military installation belong to qualified professionals who enjoy free movements in the European Union according to the Articles 52-58 of the Treaty of Rome (Borbély  Lukács; 2001) and may work according to special partnership agreements (Lukács, 2001). They may be considered the so-called ”seconded personnel”

which in law means that their company or institutions send them into a foreign country for a special time limit (Csóka, 2001). In a way they are similar to diplomats who are not actually employed by the host country, but are sent there to work (Ónodi, 2001).