CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Kis, Bernadett Borbála |
|---|---|
| Title | Meaning Making and the Figure of the Migrant, The Use of Humor in Rural Hungary |
| Summary | This thesis explores how Hungarian young adults living in rural areas construct the figure of the migrant, taking into account government propaganda, media representations, and interpersonal information exchange. I chose this age group because they are currently of voting age and were teenagers during the pivotal moment of the 2015 Refugee Crisis. The central focus of the research is the use (or rejection) of humor in shaping the image of the migrant, and how this relates to broader themes of European integration and identity in contemporary Hungary. The study draws on in-depth interviews with seven participants, supplemented by observations from an unplanned focus group, which provided insight into the natural flow of political conversation among peers. Following the interviews, I transcribed the recordings, coded the data thematically, translated relevant segments, and compiled a data table of approximately 200 entries. The findings reveal that, contrary to literature from other contexts (e.g., the United Kingdom or Greece), there is no unified pattern in how Hungarian young adults who took part in the research use humor when discussing migration. Instead, their engagement with political topics and the figure of the migrant is shaped by their personalities, interaction styles, and social positioning. I identified several types of humor, including mocking (used to entertain close peers), irony (often involving self-reflection), and sarcasm (frequently as a coping mechanism for distressing political news). Ultimately, participants’ responses were closely tied to the identity they sought to present towards me as the interviewer and toward each other, echoing Goffman's (1959) theory of the presentation of self. |
| Supervisor | Kurowska, Xymena |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/kis_detti.pdf |
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