Discursive Frames of Migration in Contemporary Politics

Ildikó NÉMETHOVÁ 

https://doi.org/10.53465/JAP.2025.9788022552806.369-381

 

Abstract: This paper offers a multi-layered rhetorical and theoretical analysis of Viktor Orbán’s 2025 migration discourse, examining three key speeches that articulate a coherent ideological framework across normative-political, cultural-symbolic, and socio-demographic registers. Drawing on political philosophy, development economics, and cultural theory, the paper demonstrates how Orbán strategically redefines migration as a civilisational concern, transforming it from a domain of administrative governance into a narrative of national survival and cultural continuity. The analysis identifies how rhetorical devices, such as metaphor, personification, synecdoche, and hyperbole, are deployed to frame migration not merely as a policy issue, but as a symbolic contest over sovereignty, identity, and democratic legitimacy. Rather than opposing European integration per se, Orbán advances a model of plural sovereignty rooted in bounded community, cultural inheritance, and anticipatory governance. The paper situates this rhetoric within a broader shift in European political discourse. It contributes to critical debates on the evolving relationship between migration, symbolic politics, and the normative architecture of democracy.

Keywords: migration discourse, sovereignty, civilisational identity, rhetorical strategy, anticipatory governance, absorptive capacity, cultural continuity

Fulltext: PDF

Language of the paper: English

Online publication date: 23 December 2025

Pages: 369 – 381

 

ISBN: 978-80-225-5280-6 (online), 978-80-225-5279-0

ISSN: 2729-8973 (online), 2729-8981

Publisher: Bratislava University of Economics and Business, Vydavateľstvo Ekonóm

 

How to cite this conference proceedings paper (APA 7^th Edition):

Némethová, I. (2025). Discursive Frames of Migration in Contemporary Politics. In R. Štefančík (Ed.), Jazyk a politika. Na pomedzí lingvistiky a politológie X (pp. 369–381). Vydavateľstvo Ekonóm. https://doi.org/10.53465/JAP.2025.9788022552806.369-381