REPORTING. Hungary toughens its immigration policy but lacks workers to keep its economy running

Despite the government’s anti-immigration rhetoric, Hungary faces a labor shortage: the country needs 500,000 additional workers to keep its factories running.

A few days before the European elections on June 9, Franceinfo focuses on Hungary on Wednesday May 29, known for its drastic policy against immigration. But the country is facing a shortage of labor to such an extent that it has relaxed its legislation to bring in immigrant workers. The country therefore oscillates between hardness and flexibility.

Rifle loaded on the back seat, Erik Molnár parks at the foot of the Asotthalom wall: two barbed fences approximately five meters high which have separated the country from Serbia since 2015. The country guard in fatigues, looking like rugby player shows pieces cut and then patched up after clandestine passages. There haven’t been any for a few months, Erik notes, but thanks to the Serbs, he insists, not thanks to the European Union. “This is the border of a country, it is not the fence of a playgroundhe is indignant, “All over the world, borders are defended by armed guards.” “If someone wants to enter illegally, they tell him to stop and if he doesn’t stop, they shoot him.” he maintains. “Now, under pressure from the European Union, we are not defending our borders, we cannot even hit him, we cannot shoot him down, we cannot hit himhe complains. It doesn’t exist anywhere else.”

Erik takes on an anti-immigrant discourse. The government has made it a basis of its policy, but the country is faced with a problem: it needs 500,000 additional workers to keep its economy running. So the executive has changed its measures, it authorizes the hiring of immigrants called “guest workers”.

Prysmian, an electric cable production factory on the outskirts of the village of Kistelek, employs “guest workers”. “We were having difficulty finding labor because the current unemployment rate in Hungary is around 2%, it’s very low, explains director Okan Deniz, Finding the right people, mainly around our factory, was really difficult.”

Out of 300 employees, there are now 50 Indonesian workers including Muhammad Fikri Firdaus, 24 years old who has been here for two years. He says that upon his arrival “It was very difficult because of the cultural differences.” for a month or two. “In Indonesia, everyone is very nice, everyone says hello but here… what’s the problem ?” But he assures that after several months “it’s okay, no more problems, we made friends here”.

To better integrate them, the company has installed a prayer room and provides accommodation ten minutes by bike from the factory. A well-amortized investment, believes the human resources manager, Mélinda Czeglédy. “It was really a very good decision to take them despite these additional costs, she congratulates herself. With absenteeism and turnover, we lost a lot of trained people, this created additional training costs and with them we stabilized our teams.” However, the Hungarian government has tightened the rules again. From now on, “guest workers” will only be able to stay for a maximum of three years compared to five today.