Why is the Asian workforce steadily increasing in the Hungarian labour market?

More and more Asian migrant workers are expected to enter the Hungarian labour market, especially in the field of tourism and hospitality. The majority of guest workers come from Indonesia, the Philippines and Mongolia, but more and more workforce is coming from Vietnam and India as well.

Asian migrant workers are considered to be reliable and hard-working people. This is why more and more domestic recruitment or temporary employment agencies are trying to attract Asian workforce to Hungary. The primary sectors where they are recruited are tourism and hospitality where the labour shortage is the highest since the Covid crisis. After the recovery of the economy in Western Europe, the previously dominant Ukrainian workforce has started to leave the country. Thus, by spring, the situation in Hungary had become so critical that, according to a recent report of the Hungarian Statistical Office (KSH), nearly 90,000 workers are missing from the Hungarian labour market – reported by the Hungarian news portal Index.

In order to counterbalance the situation, the Hungarian governments came up with a solution last July. Accordingly, companies were allowed to employ non-EU Asian workers, including Filipinos, Vietnamese, Indonesians and Mongolians, in shortage occupations under certain conditions. One year after the emergency measure was introduced, 13 intermediary firms have now been granted so-called ‘qualified employer status’.

Companies that have been authorised to legally employ Asian migrant workers have undergone serious due diligence. They were also required to set aside a deposit EUR 124,000 (~HUF 50 million) as security. However, the companies involved are very optimistic. Experts say that Asian workers have the same wage demand as Hungarians. In addition, they are less likely to go home after a while, meanwhile this was more common for workers arriving from the neighbouring Ukraine. Currently, the majority of guest workers come from Mongolia, Indonesia, the Philippines and some from Vietnam.

Mongolian workforce

Mongolian workers have already been present in Hungary, around Mór and Győr. They mainly get positive feedback. According to their employers, they are basically skilled workers, who compensate for their low skills with a high work ethic. They mainly come to Hungary for a few years to save money and then return to their home country. They are hard-working and well adapt to domestic and professional environments.

Indonesian workforce

Indonesian workforce are typically more educated than Mongolians or Vietnamese: many of the applicants come to Hungary with secondary or higher education. There are already many of them working in the country. Despite the cultural and religious differences, experts say that Indonesians can easily integrate into the local community. This is especially true for those fields where the labour shortage is more remarkable.