Number of Chinese residents in Hungary plunges

The number of Chinese residents in Hungary has dropped by three quarters since the mid-1990s, social-welfare expert Andras Kovats said in an interview on recent trends in migration in latest issue of business weekly HVG.

The number of Chinese residing in Hungary has declined from 40,000 in the mid-1990s to below 10,000, he said, attributing the tendency to strict immigration rules and heavy taxes on businesses.

At present, 3.5 percent of Hungary's population of 10 million are foreign nationals or naturalised Hungarian citizens born abroad. In other European countries, the corresponding proportion is generally above 9 percent, he said.

"Without the annual migration surplus of 16,000 to 17,000, Hungary's population has for long dipped below 10 million," Kovacs said.

Over the past two decades about 700,000 ethnic Hungarians have emigrated from neighbouring states but at most 180,000 settled in Hungary. The majority migrated to western Europe or overseas, though Hungarian laws offer relatively easy access to Hungarian citizenship, he said.

Citing international surveys, Kovats said the rejection of foreigners is stronger in Hungary than in the European Union on the average but fewer crimes are committed against them than in other countries on the continent.

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