Employment characteristics of Ukrainian citizens working in Hungary

Pakurár, Miklós – Oláh, Judit – Cehla, Béla

Keywords: Ukrainian employees, employment, labour relations, residence permit

Migration between Hungary and neighbouring countries has become increasingly important, mainly in the border regions because the citizens of these regions suffer from long-term unemployment, and they are afraid of foreign competition. In Hungary, Ukrainian workers are concentrated mainly in two areas: the North Great Plain region and the Central region. The aim of our research is to have a clear picture about the employment characteristics of the Ukrainian working people in Hungary.
The most important characteristics of Ukrainian employees in Hungary are: the majority is middle aged men satisfied with their income, the main reason for them to work in Hungary is the higher earnings, their expectations toward their employer and workplace are moderate, and the most of them do not intend to settle down in Hungary. We found that, overwhelmingly, workers who could speak Hungarian had arrived from Ukraine and therefore the expansion of the scope of Register of Certificate of Hungarian Nationality and uncomplicated administration should have helped them to find jobs in Hungary.
Due to the changes in the policies toward people of Hungarian nationality living abroad our suggestions have become reality as people living in foreign countries with Hungarian nationality can obtain Hungarian citizenship via a simple and quick process.
At the time of the research, people of Hungarian nationality from Ukraine applied for Hungarian citizenship in order to attain a similar position in the Hungarian labour market as their fellows, the Hungarian citizens.

Full article