According to preliminary data, the positive trend of recent years continued into 2020, because while 19,300 immigrated from the country, 23,100 of those born in Hungary returned, the Statistical Office said in the People’s Movement 2020 publication, which said that Wallet processed. The positive balance of about 4,000 people can be clearly explained by a further decrease in the desire to emigrate – the last time there was an example of emigration to less than 20,000 people in 2012. Meanwhile, return has remained stagnant in recent years after the recovery in 2012-2018. .
The top immigration destination since 2018 is not Germany but Austria, which was no different last year. Last year, 7,200 people officially migrated to our western neighbor, which is a slight decrease of 250 people. However, nearly a thousand people went to Germany and the United Kingdom, and other countries also saw a decrease of about five hundred.
The reduction is justified in the direction of the United Kingdom, as those who did not immigrate to the island nation by January 2020 can only obtain a work permit under stricter conditions due to Brexit. The desire to return jumped mainly from Austria, which was offset by the fact that fewer people returned home from Germany. At first glance, perhaps surprisingly, despite Brexit, there has been no major repatriation from the UK, meaning that anyone who actually left before the island nation’s dissolution has a good chance of survival.
According to the specialized portal, the data provided so far supports that the coronavirus pandemic has primarily geographic impacts on international migration. The desire to migrate has not decreased significantly towards the closer destination country, Austria, but more people are returning home, mainly due to the fact that Hungarians are more mobile and have a better chance of returning in a difficult life situation (job loss, salary cut, etc. to it), which is why they are more likely to migrate there. In the case of faraway Germany, especially the UK, moving home is more difficult, which makes you think more about who wants to immigrate there now.
Featured image: Measures due to coronavirus, partial border controls at the Hungarian-Austrian border, in Hegyeshalom, on the night of March 12, 2020.
