Take, for instance, the Socialists' dire warnings about the arrival of "23m Romanians". At least they had a clear motivation: the Socialists had to keep their chips in in an escalating rhetorical war. But that's not the case this time. There are no election campaigns to fight at the moment: this gesture brings Semjen's party no benefits.

First we had Csurka, who had dire visions of new Jewish settlements. Then the Medgyessy team experimented with a pragmatic does of anti-Romanian rhetoric. And now Semjen takes the stage, warning of a tide of Asian migrants, and calling for the resignation of justice minister Jozsef Petretei. Semjen knows very well that there is little chance of millions of Asians arriving in this country. Nobody is even considering opening the doors in this way. To do so would be political suicide for a major politician. He is referring to a document that cites, by way of example, the extreme option, plucking a figure of 1m more or less out of the air. This radical right-wing politicians, up until now known mainly for campaigning against gay rights, has now moved on to immigration, which he argues "runs wholly against the interests of the Hungarian nation and the national culture." This is because, "it serves the needs not of Hungarian families but of multinational companies." Thus the third horseman: after gays and foreigners, foreign capital that destroys the nation. Maybe the whole thing is just part of a concentrated media campaign.

Of course, that a particular politician oversteps the mark doesn't mean that there aren't legitimate questions that can be asked about immigration. It's legitimate to ask whether, given the Paris riots, there aren't certain minorities large sections of which pose major social, employment and integration problems to the receiving country. The thing is, these issues relate primarily to North African and Middle Eastern populations, not Far Easterners.

Asians arriving in Hungary are characterised by a strong tradition of trade and a developed work ethic. Their fast food restaurants and shoe and clothes shops are popular among the less well-off of our society. Racist aversion towards them is much weaker than towards Arab refugees. Certainly, there is organised crime within the Chinese diaspora, but less of it than among Slav, Caucasian or Balkan communities.

Further, our Chinese community hasn't concentrated into local Chinatowns, and so is far better integrated. This is ideal if we want to see members of an eastern civilisation integrate, by way of assimilation, mixed marriages and ethno-cultural adaptation, into our society, becoming valuable members of our community. The fact is that the decline in the country's population is not going to change direction in the short term. So we'll need educated (or educable) immigrants who want to work.

We shouldn't just look to the Far East, but there's no question that our demographic problem is going to get worse as time passes. One obvious solution would be mass immigration by the Hungarians of neighbouring countries, who would integrate more easily because of their linguistic and cultural similarities. The problem is that politicians chasing the nationalist vote would start screaming about "a nation-destroying power emptying our living space." In practice, no problem has an ideal solution - we're doing well if we can come up with the optimal version.

But it is clear that the solution lies in a sober discussion of the demographic trends, not in ideological, xenophobic hysteria.

Tamas Laszlo Papp