Hungary has seen a number of recent developments and investments that continue to place a high demand on its labor force.Continue reading
According to the latest data of the Hungarian Central Statistics Office, 2022 was the seventh year in a row when more Hungarian citizens moved home than emigrated, Világgazdaság reports. Meanwhile, an increasing number of foreigners are choosing Hungary as their place of residence.
Last year, a total of 35,950 Hungarian citizens immigrated to Hungary, 21,900 of whom were born here, left the country for at least 12 months, and have now returned. There are also more than 14,000 who were born abroad as Hungarian citizens but moved to Hungary.
The total figure of nearly 36,000 is by far the highest since 2010, with the previous peak of 33,625 registered in 2018.
In addition, the number of immigrant foreign nationals arriving in Hungary in the year 2022, also set a record at 55,550.
However, people are not only arriving in Hungary, but also leaving. Last year, 26,500 Hungarian citizens moved abroad, the highest number since 2017. A further 29,550 foreign nationals formerly living in Hungary also left the country.
Commenting on the statistics, labor market expert Piroska Szalai wrote that according to UN statistics,
Hungary had the lowest proportion of citizens born in the country living abroad in relation to the current population in 2020, among the neighboring Eastern European countries.
This indicator was even higher in Slovakia and Slovenia, that otherwise have the lowest emigration rates among the former Eastern bloc countries. The expert also noted that the difference between the share of immigrants and the share of the expatriate population shows that Hungary, Estonia, Finland, and Cyprus are the most balanced in Europe, with a difference of less than 1.5 percentage points between the two groups.
Meanwhile, opposition voters and politicians are fond of saying that everything is bad in Hungary, that money is scarce, and that there is no way to make a living, so Hungarians prefer to move abroad because they earn better in neighboring countries, especially in Austria. While it is true that in certain areas people can have a better salary abroad, the recent figures show that the situation may not be so bad in Hungary after all if people living abroad also return home.
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