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This presentation will examine how diasporic subjectivities are shaped by two autocratic but ideologically divergent regimes. While Hungary has institutionalized one of Europe’s most extensive diaspora engagement strategies within a far-right nationalist framework, Venezuela - characteristically of socialist states - has framed westward migration as betrayal and constrained migrants’ political and humanitarian involvement. Despite these contrasting approaches, I argue that both states also adhere to principles of what I termed ‘ideological citizenship’, extending recognition to politically aligned nationals while marginalizing those critical of the regime across borders.

Nonetheless, my talk argues that migrants are not passive subjects of transnational state power. Although home-state ideologies are often key to migration trajectories as they shape success narratives, coping strategies, and critiques of the host society, migration also becomes a site for challenging state legitimacy, particularly where migrants perceive abandonment or failure. The analysis demonstrates that while autocratic regimes attempt to consolidate power through transnational processes, their capacity to define diasporic belonging remains limited, while other factors, like kinship and community ties are often more significant in structuring migrants’ homewards orientation.

ºÚÁÏÌìÌà the speaker

is a Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Visiting Research Fellow at ANU. She has recently completed her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Oxford, where her research focused on the impact of home state ideologies on diaspora subjectivities amongst Hungarian and Venezuelan migrants in London, the United Kingdom. In 2024-25, Judit also held a fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.

Judit has a Master's degree in Anthropology from the University of Vienna, Austria and another MLitt degree in Cultural Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. She has previously worked with the UN's International Organization for Migration, the European Commission's Cabinet for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, and the Hungarian State Secretariat for Nation Policy.

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