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Record number of Hungarians return to the country from Austria and Germany
According to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, a growing number of Hungarians are returning home from Austria and Germany. However, these countries continue to attract large numbers of migrants.
Record number of Hungarians return
Pénzcentrum reports that a record number of Hungarians have returned to Hungary from Austria and Germany in 2024, according to the latest data from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Nearly 15,700 arrived from Austria, while 6,000 came from Germany, contributing to a total of approximately 28,900 returning citizens. However, emigration to these countries has also surged, with 41,300 nationals leaving in 2024, 15.7% more than in the previous year, marking the highest emigration figure in the past 15 years.
The UK is becoming less popular
The United Kingdom remains the only country where more Hungarians are returning from than moving to, with 1,950 returnees compared to 800 emigrants. Meanwhile, the migration trends in the Netherlands and Switzerland have shifted, as they are no longer among the top emigration destinations. However, Austria and Germany continue to attract more people from Hungary than they lose, reinforcing their status as the primary destinations for emigration.
Migration patterns
Broader migration patterns reveal that the total number of Hungarians emigrating to other countries outside these key destinations began to decline after 2015, with a notable drop of nearly 10% in both 2018 and 2020. Between 2018 and 2021, the balance between emigrants and returnees remained relatively stable, but by 2024, a gap of nearly 3,000 had emerged in favour of emigration, highlighting a renewed outflow of Hungarian citizens.
Austria still has a big Hungarian community
As we have recently reported HERE, Austria’s population growth continues to be driven in part by foreign nationals, including Hungarians, who now number over 112,000 in the country. According to Statistik Austria, the Hungarian community grew by 5,100 individuals in the past year, marking a tenfold increase compared to Austria’s overall population growth rate.
Vienna remains the most popular destination, with nearly 30,000 Hungarians residing in the capital, while Burgenland has the highest proportion of Hungarians relative to its population. With Hungarian citizens now making up just over 1% of Austria’s total population, they form the fifth-largest foreign community. As many seek opportunities in Austria, this trend is expected to continue, reinforcing their presence across the country.
Read also:
- Is life better on the other side of the border? New data on the number of Hungarians in Austria
- Leaving home in hopes of a better life: Here’s how much Hungarians in Austria earn
Featured image: depositphotos.com
Gee, I wonder why…
Could it be that they realized that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence? That a higher salary is not everything? That streets free from marauding violent third-world savages are more valuable than being able to afford a second vacation in a year? That kids being taught actual knowledge in schools rather than being brainwashed with “gender” and “critical race” garbage matter far more than approving yet another $50 billion to Ukraine?
Yeah, pretty sure that’s it.
Those who continue to emigrate will realize the same betimes.
The fact is … More leave than return? And to be honest – from my experience, the reasoning for returnees is more family than our Land of Milk and Honey.
This is cherry picking of statistics. People come and go, that’s the nature of migration, especially in the European labour market with free movement for EU nationals. It’s axiomatic that as the number of emigrees increases across the bloc, the quantity of returnees will also increase due to a host of reasons, not all of which are connected to dissatisfaction with their host destination. People retire, family members at home fall ill, people are made redundant and may be unable to find a suitable job local to where they live, etc.
What’s telling is that the gap between numbers of emigrants and immigrants has grown, moreover that more people are leaving than ever before. If Hungary presented as such a persuasive proposition for its diaspora abroad, surely more Hungarians would choose to return home than to leave? Such trends are visible in other regional countries, Poland being one of the most notable examples enjoying net inward Polish migration. Hungary would love to (and needs to be) in such a situation in order to loosen the strangehold of an extremely tight labour market. Instead of welcoming Hungarian returnees with open arms, the government chooses to label well over 50% of them as unwelcome insects due to their political orientation and calls into question their patriotism, not only arising from their politics but also from their decision to have left the country in the first place. This divisive rhetoric is a cul-de-sac. I’ve spoken to members of the Hungarian diaspora in the UK who express the view that they wouldn’t return even if Hungarian wage levels were the same and that finances are no longer their primary motivation to remain abroad.