Nation-Building and Contested Identities - MEK

Nationalizing Minorities and Homeland Politicsonly Hungarians. However, achieving this goal is not just impractical, butalso theoretically impossible. In public debates, this question was formulatedas a dichotomy between the freedom of choice in defining one’s own nationalidentity and the requirement of proving one’s Hungarianness. Theoretically,this dispute can be translated as a debate between the objective and subjectivedefinitions of the nation.The draft of the law enounces the scope as follows:§1 (1) The Act covers those persons of Hungarian nationality who arenot Hungarian citizens and reside in the Republic of Croatia, the FederalRepublic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Austria, Romania, the Republicof Slovenia, the Slovak Republic or the Ukraine, whoa. have lost their Hungarian citizenship for reasons other than voluntarydeclaration of renunciation, andb. are not in possession of a permanent residence permit in Hungary,c. are in possession of an identification document as specified in §20.(2) This Act also applies to the spouse living together with the personidentified in article (1) and to the children of minor age being raised intheir common household even if these persons are not of Hungariannationality.One can observe that only the “neighboring countries” are included. Forthis, the following explanation has been provided:The Act will cover those persons of Hungarian national identity who arenot Hungarian citizens and reside in the Republic of Croatia, the FederalRepublic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Austria, Romania, the Republicof Slovenia, the Slovak Republic or the Ukraine. Therefore the Lawexclusively affects individuals of Hungarian national identity in theneighboring countries, and not members of the Hungarian diaspora(emigration) living in Western Europe, and overseas. However, this Lawdoes not have any negative effect on the established rights of the diaspora(emigration). Therefore, persons of Hungarian national identity, whohave already obtained Hungarian citizenship or are in possession ofa permanent residence permit in Hungary are not entitled to becomesubjects of the law. The definition of the subjects of this law is primarilybased on the basic human rights principle on the free choice of identity. 34The reason for excluding the Western diaspora from the benefits is probablythat they live in countries characterized by a better economic situation, and it265