Can Hungarians working in Austria bypass the government’s new border protection measures?

Based on non-official information, this may affect tens of thousands of Hungarians working currently in Austria. Interestingly, their number went back to the level before the coronavirus crisis.

According to mfor.hu, the number of Hungarian citizens working in Austria was 98 thousand at the end of July. Based on the data of the Sozialversicherung.at, that is only a couple of thousands less than the absolute maximum of 2019 July, 101,449. As a result, the crisis curve of the Hungarians’ employment in Austria resembles a V meaning that the number of Hungarians working there decreased quickly after the outbreak of the epidemic but increased to the previous level soon after the virus’s spread stopped. 

In the last month,

the number of Hungarians who started to work in Austria was 5,571

while in the case of the Germans that was only 2,200. This number is 2,400 in the case of the Slovaks and 1,200-1,500 in the case of the Romanian, Pole, Bosniak or Turkish employees.

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However, the number of those who lost their jobs in March and April was much lower in the countries mentioned above than in Hungary, too. Mfor.hu argues that the trend is understandable since many Hungarians do not live in Austria but just commute to their workplace in the Alpine country.

The big question is how the government’s recently implemented measures concerning the closure of the border to all Hungarians working farther than 30 kilometres from Hungary will affect them. For example, Vienna is 60 kilometres away, where thousands of Hungarians commute every day from the Western cities.

The Eastern-Austrian section of the ORF said that

there will be exceptions, mostly the commuters, those taking part in a business trip and the lorry drivers.

Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) confirmed that information after she talked with the Hungarian foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó. Other ministers of the Austrian regional governments are also in talks with their Hungarian counterparts to find a solution for those working, for example, in the agriculture sector.

Source: mfor.hu