Hardline message from Hungary’s new Magyar government to guest workers: time to pack up?

Parliamentary committee hearings are continuing apace as the government led by Péter Magyar prepares to take office in record time, armed with an unprecedented two‑thirds majority set to last until 2030. Already, a minister and a Tisza MP have delivered a stark warning to the guest workers employed across Hungary.

Economy reliant on guest workers

As is well known, the Hungarian state has permitted the recruitment of guest workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) in sectors facing acute domestic labour shortages. Agriculture is a prime example, particularly livestock farming and seasonal work. In many cases, Hungarian employers rely on labour from South-East Asia; a significant share of the country’s cattle, for instance, is tended daily by Indian Sikh workers. Seasonal roles, meanwhile, are often filled by Ukrainians and Romanians arriving from neighbouring countries. Manufacturing and logistics are similarly dependent on foreign labour.

Some analysts warn that the departure of an estimated 100,000–120,000 guest workers would deal a severe blow to the Hungarian economy, disrupting even sectors such as healthcare, where staffing levels are already critically stretched. We wrote about how important guest workers are in Hungary in a separate article last week.

Ban on new arrivals from summer

Guest workers from outside the EEA operate under a stringent and tightly regulated system. In practice, this often means long hours, additional shifts, and wages and conditions that fall short of what was originally promised. They have no realistic pathway to permanent residency or citizenship, being permitted to stay for a maximum of two years, extendable by a single year, after which they must return home.

It now appears that the incoming Tisza government not only intends to maintain a regime resembling that of certain Gulf states, but may go further by suspending it altogether. During the election campaign, the party pledged to halt the intake of new guest workers from 1 June—a position now reiterated during committee hearings.

While Fidesz had accused Tisza of encouraging illegal migration during the campaign, the latest signals suggest the party may seek to curb even legal forms of migration.

Ministers strike a firm tone

Dr Vilmos Kátai-Németh, the incoming Minister for Social and Family Affairs, told the Social Committee that the government taking office this afternoon would ban the inflow of third-country guest workers, in order to prevent them from displacing Hungarian workers in the labour market, Telex wrote.

Zsolt Tárkányi, a Tisza MP elected in Debrecen, criticised what he described as “unacceptable practices” at the CATL battery plant, where, he claimed, Asian workers—sometimes lacking professional qualifications—have been employed after entering the country on tourist visas in circumvention of immigration rules. Tárkányi previously attended an informal meeting with István Kapitány, the newly appointed Minister for Economy and Energy, and CATL’s Hungarian leadership.

According to the MP, the Tisza government will suspend the arrival of guest workers from all non‑EEA countries from 1 June for an indefinite period as per the Hungarian News Agency. “This was a serious point of contention, but we have said the same as during the campaign, so there are no surprises,” he added—suggesting that internal debates remain and that the policy could yet be softened.

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Featured image: depositphoto.com