Back to the Countryside: Urban Refugees in Post-Socialist Rural Hungary

David L. Brown, Cornell University
Laszlo Kulcsar, Szent Istvan University
Laszlo J. Kulcsar, Cornell University

This study examines the population distribution implications of the post-socialist transformation in Hungary. We identified two streams of post-1990 population deconcentration, suburbanization and net migration to villages, using secondary data. The stream into rural villages is consistent with observations made by a number of scholars that workers who lost their jobs in urban industrial workplaces are piling up in rural "ghettos," thus exaccerbating spatial inequality. We examined this hypothesis with a household survey conducted in 49 villages in four distinct regions of the country. In contrast to previous observations, we find that very few recent migrants to Hungarian villages came from Budapest or other large industrial centers, and we find that in-migrants are younger, better educated, and are more likely to be employed than longer term village residents.