Budapest Chinese find wealth, isolation

The number of Chinese citizens resident in Hungary has more than doubled since the mid-nineties and many are assuming middle-class lifestyles, said business daily Napi Gazdasag on Thursday.

The number of Chinese residents in Hungary rose from 3,470 in 1995 to 8,979 in 2007.

Most of the Chinese living in Hungary are not finally settled -- or at least this could be concluded from the fact that only 117 have taken up Hungarian citizenship since 1998.

The improvement in their income is indicated by the fact that more and more are moving from high-density housing estates to garden suburbs, where they typically spend around 30 million forints (126,582 euros) in cash on a house, which is above-average in Hungarian terms. They tend to go for the outer leafy districts on the Pest side of the capital, said the paper.

According to police data, the overwhelming majority of the Asian community does not pose any danger to public order and their criminal profile is low. Chinese tend to sort out issues within their own community, said police sources.

According to the state's health fund, the number of Chinese on the health insurance register has grown by 1,000 people in a year.

Sociologists consistently highlight the language barrier as the special feature of Hungarian-Chinese relations, whether it concerns the areas of health, crime or the property market, said the paper.

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