Large numbers of Hungarians looking to emigrate

According to a recent Tarki Poll, the amount of Hungarians who wish to emigrate reached a record number; doubling since 2014 with the most preferred European Union country of destination for a permanent move abroad being Germany.

Last year, five per cent of Hungarians wanted to emigrate however this year it is now one in ten people. In 1993, when the company based in Budapest started to monitor the trend, only one per cent of Hungarians considered emigrating. This latest report was released last Monday without its methodology being cited.

A researcher of the report, Endre Sik, said the people who consider emigration the most include men, young people, renters, inactive voters, those of Roma origin and the unemployed.

Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister, has supported a clampdown on people migrating to the EU for economic reasons, however more people have been leaving for western Europe and Hungary has also been serving as a transit country for those people outside the bloc of 28 nations.

Over the past five years, Germany has overtaken the UK as the most preferred destination for those wanting to emigrate. Austria has climbed to second place, leaving the UK in third position. One in three of those surveyed indicated that they would consider moving to any of the three top countries.

Those seeking “long term employment” abroad rose two percent since last year to 13 per cent and those considering “short term employment” was up one percent from 2014 to 11 per cent.