“Out of Romania!” -Reasons and Methods as Refl ected in State Security
“Out of Romania!” -Reasons and Methods as Refl ected in State Security

Summary/Abstract: Could we identify with the refugee situation within the history of Romanian-Hungarian relations in 1987–89? We know that the answer is no, yet appearances persist even today. The wave of refugees arriving from Romania seemed to shield other dimensions of confl ict in the relationship of the two countries, by the fact that the citizens of other countries increasingly targeted Hungary as a destination country. Furthermore, the migrating masses coming to Hungary gave an advantage to the Hungarian political elite in that they represented the positive alternative of a “reforming socialist” country in the West. This work of research seeks to examine factors that motivated, and, in turn, infl uenced, the mass migration of Romanian citizens in the mid-1980’s. The situation is unmistakable: “In the past few years, mainly due to the discriminating measures against citizens of Hungarian nationality, the lower living standards, the number of legal and illegal migrants, the majority of whom are ethnic Hungarians arriving in Hungary is increasing, and they have no intention to return to the Socialist Republic of Romania. Up to the mid-1980, Hungary gave refugees to the world;but from 1987 onward, the country has taken refugees. Between 1988 and 1995, more than 130,000 refugees were registered in the country. The number of those who arrived in Hungary receiving support from private persons, that is, without registering with the authorities, may be substantially more. Chief among the reasons for this exodus were certain features of the Romanian-Hungarian relationship such as the socalled regional and settlement reorganization – in Romanian official language – systematization, in colloquial Hungarian “village destruction” that began in Romania in 1987. Furthermore, the practice of Ceaucescu’s dictatorship violating human rights also played a signifi cant role, coupled with the discrimination against Hungarian, German and Jewish minorities. An increasing number of social and economic problems were also important migration factors. The immigration of Romanian citizens demanded measures of border control, administrational control, state security and public safety from the part of the Hungarian law enforcement, while the negotiations between the “fraternal socialist parties” was also needed as much as diplomatic and international political solutions. In the examination of the complex problem of migration, our research intends to focus on three characteristic processes, based on the contemporary documents: the instruments of the Romanian policy, including use of state secret services in the national settlement reorganization, the “incidents” along the Hungarian-Romanian border, and the differences in handling refugees.

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