Shaping Migration Discourse: A Text Analysis of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Speeches
Shaping Migration Discourse: A Text Analysis of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Speeches

Summary/Abstract: Migration policies have been a highly contested issue in Hungary, with political actors playing a pivotal role in shaping public opinion. This study examines the discourse on migration in the 1,421 English-language speeches of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán from January 2014 to December 2023. The research aims to enhance the understanding of migration-related rhetoric in political communication by employing natural language processing and quantitative text analysis techniques. Grounded in a theoretical framework of political discourse and migration narratives, the study explores shifts in the relative frequency and temporal patterns of key migration-related terms. Specifically, it analyses the usage of the terms ‘refugee’, ‘immigrant’, ‘migrant’, ‘migration’ and ‘immigration’, comparing their prevalence in speeches delivered within Hungary and on the international stage. The findings reveal significant shifts in Orbán’s migration rhetoric – notably, a decline in the use of the words refugee and immigrant in favour of migrant (which was not commonly used before). These results provide empirical evidence of discursive changes over time, contributing to a broader understanding of how political leaders strategically adapt their language to influence public perception. By contextualising these linguistic trends within Hungary’s sociopolitical landscape and in relation to previous research on political communication, this study offers valuable insights into the evolving role of migration discourse in political rhetoric. The findings also serve as a methodological contribution to the study of political speech analysis through computational text analytics.

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