Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, faced a barrage of international journalists today, fielding questions on everything from the war in Ukraine and the US intervention in Venezuela to the looming 2026 general election and Europe’s migration crisis. He largely sidestepped domestic issues, preferring to dive into global affairs. Yet when migration came up, he spoke at length – and even touched on Hungary’s own guest workers.
‘Illegal migrants are destroying Europe’s cultural roots’
Responding to a GB News reporter’s question on whether Europe could rediscover its patriotism, Orbán launched into a passionate defence of Hungary’s stance. He called it a “miracle” that his country had become a safe haven from illegal migration. By contrast, he painted a grim picture of Western Europe: Christian birth rates plummeting, a “population replacement” underway, and the number of non-Christian children from migrant backgrounds surging.
Orbán recalled the shocking sight of thousands of migrants crammed outside Budapest’s Keleti railway station. “Saying no wasn’t hard,” he declared. “Sticking to it? That was the real battle.” Germany piled on the pressure, he said, and Hungary faced unjust EU fines. Western nations, he quipped, “would give an arm and a leg” to escape the migrant chaos they now endure.
- PM Orbán stands alone once more in the EU with rejecting key statement
Germans, Italians and French flock to Hungary – or so Orbán claims
The EU fines? “Still cheaper than the chaos of illegal migrants,” Orbán insisted. He stressed that Hungary isn’t a magnet for such influxes – instead, it attracts “west Europeans” like Germans, French and Italians.
Official figures tell a more nuanced story, however. Data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office (HCSO), cited by 444.hu, reveals over 135,000 Europeans (mainly Serbs and Ukrainians) living in Hungary, alongside nearly 100,000 Asians and more than 11,000 Africans. Numbers from Africa and Asia have skyrocketed in recent years.
So what about those guest workers?
The stats don’t distinguish between permanent residents and temporary guest workers, who sign fixed-term contracts (up to 2+1 years) and must leave once their job ends. Most Asians and Africans fall into this category, with a smaller group studying at Hungarian universities.
- PM Orbán’s fiery international press conference about Huxit, elections, war: Hungary won’t admit a single migrant!
The government caps guest worker numbers tightly: 65,000 in 2024, dropping to 35,000 for both 2025 and 2026. They mostly fill gaps in automotive and manufacturing – industries starved of local talent, as many Hungarians chase higher wages abroad.
In a recent Bild interview, Orbán dropped a bombshell: well-behaved guest workers could now apply for citizenship. That’s a sharp U-turn; his cabinet once insisted third-country nationals could work here but never settle permanently.
Péter Magyar, Orbán’s election rival, vows to slash third-country guest workers to zero if he wins in April.
- Click for more guest worker-related articles.
Featured image: depositphotos.com
As a White Southerner, I am very used to this kind of oxymoronic double-speak policy.
Example?
We, of The South are endlessly ridiculed for our slavery (which was the primary source of funding for the United States’ Government 1789-1861) and, as well, for our Jim Crow practices.
Nevertheless, The United States’ Government, a New England Government, has currently going the greatest slave empire known to Man.
Untold tens of millions of tan-skinned folks they, The New England Yankee United States’ Government – that is run for the benefits of International Jewry – have imported to our country, to do menial labour, at the lowest conceivable wages – all without social security benefits, without voting rights, and often without proper medical care or housing.
This is slavery.
Of course, they do not call it slavery’ – but ‘migrant labour’.
As well, they, The United States’ Government, fills our stores full of products made in sweat-shoppes, all of which has completely undermined local business.
Thus, The American Dream (carefully put together by FDR’s New Deal economy) is gone, out children cannot find good-paying jobs, nor can they leave home, because the strain on housing drives up prices so much that 1st homes are very hard to manage for young people.
This is the opposite of how life was in our country, when I was a child.
Do they call this slavery?
Oh no … of course not.
No, they, The New England Yankee United States’ Government calls it ‘Free Trade’.
As to Orbán – he may sell out some out Hungarian workers and some aspects of the economy, BUT, unlike our government, he does not sell the Hungarian race or culture.
Thus, Orbán is a far better choice, for Hungarians, than are our leaders.
In the New England Yankee United States everything is sold – from your economy to your race, your culture, and, even, your history.
All of it, every single bit, is monetized and put up for sale.
As a result, today my country is only 50% white – as opposed to 89% when I was a child.
By contrast, Hungarians are spoiled.
At least you are not being replaced, or, at least … not yet.
You shouldn’t believe the hoax.
Read my other comment.
Guest workers are fuel for the economy. Mouton confuses them with illegal immigrants and slaves.
It’s is true that the United States is run for the benefit of you-know-who but at least it’s the right choice because they have the values of freedom and prosperity!
“Guest workers are fuel for the economy. ”
Very true, Person with a Brain – Guest workers are fuel for an economy – one that hurts the citizens of the country whose economic prospects are badly marginalized by the pseudo-slave labour.
“Mouton confuses them (guest workers) with illegal immigrants and slaves.
If you bring others from other countries to work at subsistence wages in your country, and do not allow them to vote or accrue a retirement pension, they are slaves.
‘Guest-worker’ is a term slave-holders use.
“It’s is true that the United States is run for the benefit of you-know-who but at least it’s the right choice because they have the values of freedom and prosperity!”
With respect, Dear Person with a Brain, Americans are no longer ‘prosperous’. 60% of us live paycheck to paycheck, and most of us are leveraged out to the max’ on credit cards.
Our young people have little opportunity, cannot afford to leave home, and, in general, one income households are very rare.
When I was a child, none of what I just stated was valid.
It is, however, now, utterly valid.
‘Guest-workers’ and ‘Migrant-labour’, (both words the slaveholders and their news channels use) along with the Globalization of our economy, for the benefit of You-Know-Who, has utterly destroyed The American Dream.
Sadly, our great country has been ruined, and, in the final analysis, we have ourselves to blame, because we have allowed it to be stolen from us.
The good news, however, is that we can always start from the beginning and straighten these things out.
Time will tell whether Americans prefer to live in a country that works for them, or be slaves in one that does not work.
But, hey – slaves can still watch Netflix, online porn’, smoke dope, and eat frozen pizza in the slave shacks that You-Know-Who has told us we will be happy to have, instead of owning our own houses..
Csoth Magdolna, the octagenarian economist for Mi Hazánk, has the only acceptable understanding of an economy.
And that is?
‘We build an economy for the people – we do not build a people for an economy.’
Weren’t you guys the ones, who were crying blood, for the poor guest workers, who were deported when your sensibilities disagreed with the decision?
The Bild interview was a hoax.
I could not find such an interview on the internet, and found no link in your articles either, even though I speak German, I was unable to locate in on Bild’s own website.
I even watched the Parliamentary session, where Toroczkai asked the government about the exact same thing, and the state secretary responded with “We all know, the Western media often mistranslates”.
I could imagine the mistranslation being true, and the article being pulled, but I even asked Bild.de’s own AI to dig the article up, and this was the response:
“Ich habe im BILD-Archiv nach genau so einem Artikel gesucht.
Gefunden habe ich eine Stelle, wo Orbán über Deutschland und Staatsbürgerschaft für Migranten spricht – aber nicht über Gastarbeiter, die in Ungarn die Staatsbürgerschaft bekommen sollen….
Einen BILD‑Artikel, in dem Orbán sagt, Gastarbeiter könnten in Ungarn die Staatsbürgerschaft bekommen, finde ich nicht. Diese Information taucht in den durchsuchten BILD-Quellen nicht auf.”
So no, no guest worker can gain citizenship. Even Bild says that there is no such article in their archive.
Thank you, Dear Márk, for your excellent comment here.
Thank you, as well, for doing the research.
I speak German, too, though, I did not trouble myself to check this article, because this theme, Fidesz bringing in many ‘guest-workers’, is so common in Hungarian political circles – whether Tisza or Mi Hazánk.
In any case, Orban’s guest worker program is vastly less troubling than what we have in the United States.
Concerning Toroczkai László – I have been listening to his speeches in the 6 years I have been studying Hungarian, and I think it is patently obvious that his comprehensive program for Hungary is the only one that is truly sovereign, or that will make for a Hungary that is robust in it’s healthy, creativity, and cultural life, with robust institutions that are minimally corrupt.
so if Magyar is going for 0 guest workers, thats all? he wont the election by default? i mean it seems to be what the Hungarians want, no chance for orban to win with such statements
We only want Germans, French, Italians, etc. who did NOT vote for those who turned their countries into the third-world sh..holes they are now. Compare it to the imbeciles in California, New York, Washington state, and elsewhere, who voted Democrat over and over and over, and when the inevitable happened, high-tailed it to the red states of Texas and Florida… – and STILL vote Democrat.
The Germans who voted for Merkel and her successors (does anyone even know their names??), the Brits who voted for Johnson and for Stormer, the French who voted for Macron, etc. should be legally mandated to stay in their countries and enjoy the fruits of their choices.
@michaelsteiner – I know I asked before – when you do have a moment, could you list those three benefits of Brexit? Sovereign, etc.?
Secondly – the point is that we are NOT attracting droves of EU citizens wanting to live in Hungary. There are the pensionados, attracted by low prices, mainly, and there are highly paid execs for companies, who turn up, work here for 2-5 years and happily leave, again.
“…there are highly paid execs for companies, who turn up, work here for 2-5 years and happily leave, again…’
You can be sure, Dear Norbert, that your language has a lot to do with it.
When I was a child I was required to learn French in school, until 8th grade, at which point my school gave us a choice of continuing French or studying German, Latin, Russian, or Spanish.
I chose German, and, when I became a soldier I was sent to language academy where I not only received instruction in it, 8 hours a day, I was lucky to be mentored by two very kind older German men who had fought in WWII.
I also received secondary training in Czech.
Some time after I was again a civilian, I found myself surrounded by Poles, Mexicans, and Venezuelans. Though I did learn several hundred words in Polish, I did undertake to study Spanish every day, 5 years later I attaining a fluency in it.
Along the way I was befriended by a Russian immigrant who, other than my wife, I regard ass my dearest friend. He has taught me more than enough Russian to the point where I consider myself to be a respectable hack at the language.
Some time ago my wife became very interested in Italy, so we studied that language for 10 years.
So, when I began to study Hungarian, 6 years ago, I had an immense foreign language experience and ability.
Nothing, however, prepared me for Hungarian. No, even with my great language ear, Hungarian words flew right past me and I simply could not get it. Worse yet : when memorized Hungarian words, I simply could not retain them, even though my memory is far above average.
Every day I put at least several hours listening to Hungarian programs and taking classes, but, it was only after 2 years that the ice began to slowly thaw.
Finally, in the last year, I have begun to understand Hungarian well enough to need no subtitles, though I still miss many details.
Tucker Carlson, who was very impressed with his first visit to Budapest, remarked,’I went there and could not learn a single word. There language is a special defence barrier of it’s own kind.’
That said, plenty of Americans have immigrated to Budapest and live there, even though they never learn your language.
Ah, Mouton’s linguistic CV grows again—now a hyper-polyglot bot trilling in Spanish, German, and “a lot of Polish.” A true digital Renaissance program, if only its Russian masters had coded in a basic grip on reality. Its confidence is matched only by its glitches, like a phrasebook that only knows how to say “This is Western propaganda” in twelve dubious accents. The most fluent thing about it is its lies.
man we follow your nonsense, watch out! 😂
Ah, Steiner’s latest dispatch from the geopolitical ether, where every headline confirms his secret master plan. He connects dots that don’t exist to reveal a plot everyone missed—except him, his newsletter subscribers, and probably a few Russian bots who find his work deliciously useful (yes Mouton I mean you!!).
It’s less strategic forecasting, more creative writing with a side of paranoia. One must admire the consistency; the world may change, but Steiner’s bullshit is a constant.
And how the heck will you differentiate between those who voted for accepting migrants and those who didn’t???
If they would make a IQ test for stupidity, Steiner you will be our Einstein! 😂
Did I ever mention I do appreciate @michaelsteiner posting his points of view and reasoning? I may not agree – however I do appreciate him, sharing and explaining.
Now, I even miss @mariavontheresa – sometimes…
I very much appreciate you willingness and interest to examine different viewpoints, Dear Norbert.
In this way you not only are like The Left used to be, a far better Left than what exists today, you show respect for others and a developed sense of justice and curiosity in something beyond yourself.
These are all very good things.
Yes, I, too, appreciate Michael Steiner’s comments.
We are apparently both Trump supporters, but, represent the opposite wings of that camp.
Thank you for being you!
Though Mr. Steiner and I have a very different view of what ‘conservative’ is, I can assure I never have read any of his comments that were not carefully reasoned and logical in their expression.
His comments are not in any way ‘stupid’, unless, of course, by that you mean that it is ‘stupid’ to have a point of view different from yours.
Let’s keep out the Korean and the Chinese. And those select contractors they bring in. You know – the ones with the skills to set up and operate those high-tech factories our Politicians keep on showcasing? Samsung SDI! SK! CATL!
There is NO such skillset in Hungary. Or the EU. So – yeah. Interesting.