Oldal 82 [82]
OCR
80 | Zoltán Simon and Tamás Dezső Ziegler The same is true about giving Hungarian citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary - many of whom travelled to Hungary for the first time after receiving citizenship. According to the first, technocratic perspective, Europe and ageing European societies need migration, because otherwise they would be unable to cope with their decreasing workforce. In many countries in Europe, we see that the lack of foreign workers may lead to serious pitfalls in industries. Incidentally, this is in line with some of the statements of dual labour market theory: Piore (1979) has been the most forceful and elegant proponent of this theoretical viewpoint, arguing that international migration is caused by a permanent demand for immigrant labor that is inherent to the economic structure of developed nations. According to Piore, immigration is not caused by push factors in sending countries (low wages or high unemployment), but by pull factors in receiving countries (a chronic and unavoidable need for foreign workers). This built-in demand for immigrant labor stems from four fundamental characteristics of advanced industrial societies and their economies. (Massey et al. 1993, 440) For most non-experts, most of Western European mainstream parties and the European Union also seem to propagate openness. EU leaders regularly express the same view towards controlled migration: as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put it, “migration has always been a fact for Europe - and it always will be. It enriches our societies, it brings new talent to our countries, when well managed” (Von der Leyen 2020). An example for such kind of openness could be the EU Blue Card directive (Council Directive 2009/50/EC), which was recently re-formulated to serve the demands for migration. However, if we scratch the surface again, we see that the Blue Card system has never really been as open as it is portrayed: only 36,806 Blue Cards were issued in the whole of the EU in 2019, and most of these by Germany (see European Parliament 2021).* In public debates, this technocratic openness is opposed by voices calling for limited or no immigration into Europe, which is a view often, but not only, represented by xenophobic far-right parties. For example, in Hungary, a constant topic on the government's communication agenda since 2015 has been to portray migration as highly dangerous for national culture and identity. In several campaigns, the government spread conspiracy theories claiming that George Soros was behind the EU’s open border policies, and 4 In October 2021, many of the former limitations were modified, but not completely abolished. Thus, for example, even if someone is highly educated, a certain amount of salary - a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 160 per cent of the average salary in the country of origin - is still needed to be able to receive a Blue Card: a nonsensical limitation, which shows a reluctance to openness. Furthermore, arrivals also need to have a work contract, which is quite problematic to get when staying outside the destination country.
