Paper short abstract:

The Hungarian government has set up billboards in the Summer of 2015 against the flow of migrants and refugees. People of the Internet answered again with digitally altered jokes. In the paper I investigate these memes and the dialogue between the Hungarian government and the „folk” as folklore phenomena.

Paper long abstract:

The european migrant crisis began in 2015 when increasing number of Syrian and Afghan refugees and migrants arrived to the European Union. The Hungarian government has set up billboards in the Summer of 2015 against the flow of migrants and refugees. These roadside posters gone up all over the country and said: "If you come to Hungary, you cannot take away Hungarians' jobs" and "If you come to Hungary, you must respect our laws." Dozens of digitally altered humorous memes have spread on social media sites responding the anti-immigrant billboard campaign of the government. Later the government has buildt a four-meter high fence along border with Serbia to stop migrants on Balkan route. People of the Internet answered again with digitally altered jokes. In the paper I investigate these memes and the dialogue between the Hungarian government and the "folk" as folklore phenomena.

The immediately digital reaction against the anti-migrant campaign seems emotionally motivated and ineffective because the Hungarian society is mainly xenophobic according to recent social reserches.