Is the West so much better? Here are the countries Hungarians give up their citizenship for

The latest Eurostat survey revealed which countries the most Hungarians move to and which ones they are ready to give up their Hungarian citizenship for. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of Hungarians who successfully applied for citizenship in other countries showed a dynamic increase.

In 2017, member states of the European Union approved 825 thousand new citizenships to applicants, reports Menedzsment Fórum. The No. 1 target country is Italy, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, and Spain. According to the survey, 8% of the applicants were originally citizens of Morocco, while 7% were of Albanian origins, and 4-4% came from Turkey and India.

In terms of where the highest number of Hungarians apply for citizenship, data from 2010 to 2017 was analysed.

It turns out that the number of Hungarians applying for citizenship drastically increased in Great Britain, while the increase in the number in Germany slowed down significantly.

Sweden is in a steady 3rd place, while Italy and Switzerland are also in the top six target destinations.

It is important to know, however, that the ratio of Hungarians getting citizenship is still relatively low, even in the countries that are in the top three. For instance, in 2017 in Germany, over 115 applications were approved, but most of them were submitted by people from Turkey. In 2010 in Austria, for example, only 68 Hungarians were granted citizenship out of the 6100 overall approved applications. However, this number quadrupled, as 2017 saw 227 Hungarians gaining Austrian citizenship.

The effects of the migrant crisis on citizenship applications

In most EU member states, granting citizenship (and not just a residence permit or a work permit) is tied to a lot of serious conditions, such as several years of registered work in the country in question, as well as an official residence. Since the European migrant crisis peaked between 2015 and 2017, how all this affected Hungarians waiting for citizenship in some of the most popular target destinations is an interesting question to consider.

Interestingly, with the exception of Sweden, all other countries including the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and Italy showed stagnation or even an increase in terms of the citizenships awarded to Hungarians.

People applying for Hungarian citizenship

Apart from the data about Hungarians applying for citizenships abroad, it is worth looking into the matter of who and how many people apply for citizenships in Hungary. In 2017, Hungary awarded 2787 new citizenships to people, 2415 of whom were from Europe.

It is not surprising that the highest number of citizenships (1757 to be precise) was given to people from Romania, considering the efforts of the Hungarian government to provide Hungarians abroad with Hungarian citizenship.

From Ukraine, 186 people applied, while this number was 136 from Slovakia and 93 from Serbia.

In 2017, 301 people got Hungarian citizenship from Africa, 181 people from Asia, and 78 people from Russia.

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