40,000 Asian people in Hungary

According to 24.hu, the number of the Asian population in Hungary doubled in the past 10 years. An especially large number of Chinese people arrived since 2013, mostly thanks to the residency bond program. On the other hand, 40,000 fewer dwellers from other European countries live in Hungary than in 2007.

The number of Asian people living in Hungary doubled in the last decade, while 40,000 fewer people from other European countries live there than in 2007.

Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) states that in 2017, 151,132 people lived in Hungary who were not citizens of the county. This number used to be 206,000 in 2011.

Most of the migrants are still European today as almost 100,000 of them came from the other parts of the continent.

Romania is still leading the chart, but the number of Romanian citizens living in Hungary decreased from 68,000 to 24,000. Ukrainians show a similar tendency, as their numbers decreased from 15,000 to barely 6,000 since 2007.

KSH explained this decrease by the law of 2011 that made it possible for many people with Hungarian ancestry to receive citizenship in Hungary, including many Romanian and Ukrainian citizens who could prove their origins.

KSH does not have separate statistics about dual citizens: anyone with Hungarian citizenship is recorded as a Hungarian, not as a foreigner. By November, the number of people receiving Hungarian passport with the help of the new law exceeded one million.

However, not all tendencies are decreasing. There are 3,000 more Germans in Hungary than 10 years ago, while the number of Austrians doubled from 2,000 to 4,000. Slovakians and Russians also keep coming to the country.

However, the most rapid growth can be observed in connection to Asians: there were about 20,000 of them in Hungary in 2007, but now they are above 40,000.

The most notable tendency is related to the Chinese, who increased their numbers from 9,000 to 19,000. The number of Syrians and Japanese is increasing, while the number of Israelis and Mongols slightly dropped.

Residency bond probably played a role in this. The bond had ceased to exist recently and Antal Rogán stated in December that there are not any people in Hungary with that bond. According to the data of Immigration and Asylum Office, the program provided an opportunity for more than 20,000 migrants to settle in Hungary since 2013. 6,585 foreigners participated in the program and additional 13,300 received permission due to family unification.

More than 80 percent of them are Chinese, but many came from Middle-Eastern countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

Though the number of Americans and Africans is far behind Asians, their presence has also increased. The population originating from the continent of America doubled since 2007 from 3,000 to 6,000. The number of migrants from the USA grew by a thousand, while there are twice as many Canadians in Hungary as in 2007.

Egypt provides the most settlers among African countries, 1,187 to be exact. The African community tripled in the past decade up to 6,000 members.

If we take a look at gender, we can see that the number of foreigner women in Hungary decreased by 16,000. The number of men, however, is relatively constant.

KSH stated that on 1 January 2017, citizens from 181 countries were living in Hungary or intended to stay more than 12 months.

In 2009, this number was 172.

The international database about migration contains the records about immigrants, emigrants, settlers, refugees, as well as foreigners with Hungarian citizenship and Hungarian migrants. The data is collected every year by KSH.

Source: 24.hu