Hungarian migration between 2010 – 2021

   In the no. 2 and 3/2021 issues of the journal Demography (Demográfia) several articles are treating with the trends of Hungarian migration. We can see that the movement of the population is not just one way and has a different pace. After joining the EU, due to domestic political issues and economic conditions, more people left the country than before. Their increasing number more than doubled in 2012 compared to 2010. On average, 50.000 people left Hungary in these years, till 2017 when the number of emigrants decreased considerably, while in 2020, because of the unfavourable changes provoked by the Covid pandemic, more people returned to the country than left it. There are many details concerning the migrational trends, but in general, we can state, that younger and better-educated people tend more to emigrate, and those with high education degrees tend to leave altogether with their families and never return. There is a correlation between political affiliation and migration, too. We can conclude that those with affinity to the opposition are leaving in a higher proportion.
   The most preferred host country till 2019 was Great Britain, and London preserved its status of being the third biggest "Hungarian" town further. Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic changed considerably the preferences and now Germany and especially Austria is the main host country for the newcomers. In Austria, the number of Hungarians, commuters included, is about 100.000 persons.

Original: Prof. Dr. Birtalan Iván -  Magyar migráció 2010 - 2021 között (extract)