A szétszórtsági tudat létrejötte magyar Amerikában
The Origins of Diaspora Consciousness in the Hungarian American Experience

Summary/Abstract: The 20th century was a time of great trials and tribulations for Hungarians throughout the world. Four historical events had particularly drastic consequences for their existence: the First World War, the Treaty of Trianon, World War II, and the 1956 Revolution. Each one of these events – as well as the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1989 – contributed to the global dispersal of the Hungarian population. The Hungarians migrating to the USA were drawn from each of these developments. Even prior to World War I from the late 19th century Hungarians had already arrived in large numbers for economic reasons. Looking back over the preceding hundred years we can see that the migration included “immigrants” as well as “emigrés”. The former were motivated mainly by economic considerations, while the latter were political refugees or dissidents. The offspring of these migrant waves, when they were already second or third generation, however, either became assimilated into the majority population or they became members of a “diaspora” community. The emergence of the diaspora self-definition and its separation from “immigrant” and “emigré” groups begins to take hold after the 1956 Revolution. The origins of a selfconscious American-Hungarian “diaspora” is compared and contrasted with “immigrants” and “emigrés” in the United States. The English language version of this study first appeared as “The Origins of Diaspora Consciousness in the Hungarian American Experience,” in Minority Studies, 2014, 17:68-84.

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