Hungarian International Migrations in the Carpathian Basin, 2011-2017

Abstract

International migration into Hungary is markedly differentiated into two types: that due to global migration, and that due to processes ongoing between Hungary and its neighboring countries, the latter which date back a long time. The main characteristic of international migration in Hungary is that the largest part of the immigrant population is of Hungarian nationality. Population movements in the late 1980s and early 1990s made it clear that the demographic processes taking place in the Hungarian linguistic community – despite the fragmentation occurring in 1918, and nearly 100 years of differentiated development – can only be fully understood if we examine them together as a single process. It is important to recognize that demographic processes within and outside of the current border are similar in nature. All that is happening in Hungary is only one part of the demographic processes of the entire Hungarian language community. The migration processes described in the paper would have a significant impact on the ethnic spatial structure of the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin were the number of members of other ethnicities not similarly decreasing. Strengthening the number of people staying in their home country and increasing the number of return migrations and the fertility rate of local Hungarians could all be partial solutions to the problem of population decline.