Introduction

This chapter provides a brief overview of the main migration trends in Hungary since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It has two main objectives. First, it examines the most significant characteristics of the integration of migrant communities and second, it investigates the policy implications following accession to the European Union (EU) in May 2004 and to the Schengen Area in January 2008. Despite the increasing salience of the topic, migration is a recent phenomenon in Hungary. Prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain in November 1989, Hungary was a ‘closed’ country, with limited migration flows caused by the state-controlled inward and outward migration policy. Following the fall of communism and the subsequent opening of borders, the country experienced considerable migration inflows from neighbouring countries. This was particularly due to its geographical location, which made Hungary both a transit as well as a destination country for regular and irregular migrants. Accession to the EU and, more recently, to the Schengen Area, has expanded the rights and possibilities of Hungarians to move outside their country of origin and to work in certain EU15 countries which did not impose restrictions. Only Germany and Austria continued to apply free movement restrictions in the period 2009-2011, and these must be lifted by mid 2011.

Despite a common communist heritage with other Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), Hungary represents a unique case study in the area of migration (for an in-depth analysis on European migration integration regimes, see Chapter Two, this volume). Its particularity lies in the peculiar structure of migration. The majority of migrants are ethnic Hungarians, often from neighbouring nations. For instance, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that more than 2.5 million ethnic Hungarians still live in neighbouring states and might, as a consequence, one day increase the country's immigration inflows. This unique situation is rooted in the country's history. As a result of the Treaty of Trianon (1920), following its defeat in the First World War, Hungary lost more than two thirds of its national territories and people, and, as a result, millions of Hungarian citizens found themselves living in bordering countries, practically overnight. As discussed later in the chapter, the large number of ethnic Hungarians in neighbouring nations has had a direct impact on the country's migration policy, since several reforms have been attempted to find a solution to this problem.