Border Control Reinterpreted: Collective Memory and the Narrative Self

Abstract This article explores the potential of historical narratives to inform and guide action, taking case border control in Hungary. The Hungarian government has recently criminalised irregular crossing made a comparison between Ottoman Occupation contemporary challenges mass migration legitimise its new measures. Qualitative interviews conducted 2019 seem suggest that some members police, consciously or unconsciously, have drawn from this narrative repertoire make sense their own role control. Drawing on concept self, outlines how collective memory conquest may shaped understanding self-interpretation those involved