- Title: German retirees find low-cost refuge in Orban's anti-migrant Hungary
- Date: 6th December 2024
- Summary: BALATONBOGLAR, HUNGARY (NOVEMBER 23, 2024) (REUTERS) VIEW OF LAKE BALATON SZOLOSGYOROK, HUNGARY (NOVEMBER 23, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF VILLAGE GERMAN MIGRANTS INES IWAN AND ANDRE IWAN STANDING BELOW THEIR HUNGARIAN FLAG ON THEIR RENTED HOUSE AND SAYING THEY ARE HUNGARIANS NOW INES AND ANDRE POSING FOR PHOTO INES AND ANDRE UNPACKING UTENSILS FROM THEIR CAR VARIOUS OF INES POURING COFFEE INES AND ANDRE TAKING CUPS AND BISCUITS INTO THE LIVING ROOM AND SITTING DOWN BISCUITS ON TRAY (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN MIGRANT, INES IWAN, SAYING: "It was a bit difficult (to move). But it wasn't really my country anymore. The way things have developed over the last few years. As I said, I no longer felt comfortable." ANDRE AND INES SITTING ON COUCH (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN MIGRANT, ANDRE, IWAN SAYING: "With the policies that have taken place in the so-called Federal Republic of Germany, with Mrs Angela Merkel's 2015 invasion by refugees, you could see how the situation was getting worse and worse every year. And you somehow had the feeling that you were a second-class citizen. Only exist to work and to pay. The highest tax burden in the world, that's all I can say. And other people who have come into the country don't respect our values. They behave as if it were their country. And they can do whatever they want. They are not sentenced for criminal offences. They don't have to go to work." INES AND ANDRE WALKING IN THEIR GARDEN COVERED WITH SNOW GYENESDIAS, HUNGARY (NOVEMBER 23, 2024) (REUTERS) HOUSE OF GERMAN MIGRANT, JUERGEN WICHERT WICHERT ENTERING HOUSE WICHERT OPENING FIREPLACE WICHERT PUTTING LOG ONTO FIREPLACE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN MIGRANT, JUERGEN WICHERT, SAYING: "So I take a very critical view on the developments in Germany. I believe that many people are still doing too well. And only when the economy sinks further, when the middle class deteriorates again, then perhaps there will be a rethinking and then there can also be a change, as there is now in America. And I think that was a good choice in America." BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (NOVEMBER 21, 2024) (REUTERS) BOATS ON DANUBE AND CITY VIEW CHURCH TOWER AND VIEW OF BUDAPEST GERMAN-HUNGARIAN MARVIN BILLMANN TAKING VIDEO OF HIMSELF WITH DANUBE VIEW BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (NOVEMBER 21, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN-HUNGARIAN TO MOVED TO BUDAPEST, MARVIN BILLMANN, SAYING: "What would have to happen for me to go back to Germany? First of all, crime has to go down and national pride has to return. You have to be proud to be German. If you have a German flag in front of your house, you're labelled a Nazi. It makes no sense here in Hungary. Everyone has a Hungarian flag, everyone is proud of their country. And that should definitely come back, that you can be proud of your country. Because at the moment I can't say that. I'm proud to be German, but I'm absolutely not proud of my country. That should definitely come back. And those are the main factors." BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (NOVEMBER 21, 2024) (REUTERS) SOCIOLOGIST OF HUN-REN CERS INSTITUTE, MONIKA VARADI, TALKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) SOCIOLOGIST OF HUN-REN CERS INSTITUTE, MONIKA VARADI, SAYING: "Those who have been coming here lately seem to see a kind of political panorama; which includes that here there was no obligatory vaccination, there was greater freedom, that (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban does not support Ukraine and that he does not allow migrants in." VARADI SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) SOCIOLOGIST OF HUN-REN CERS INSTITUTE, MONIKA VARADI, SAYING: "They really perceive the situation in Germany as a crisis, a complex crisis." BERLIN, GERMANY (DECEMBER 2, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BRANDENBURG GATE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANTHROPOLOGIST AT HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY, KRISTOF SZOMBATI, SAYING: "Their life in Hungary is much better. Why? Because they have access to cheap housing, they can buy a house which they can't afford to do in Germany. Even if their (monthly) pensions are low - let's say 800-900 euros ($846-951) - in Hungary that's sufficient to make a very decent living. The weather is better in Hungary, many of them apparently say this and it's important to them." VARIOUS OF BERLIN TV TOWER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANTHROPOLOGIST AT HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY, KRISTOF SZOMBATI, SAYING: "It's very beneficial for the Hungarian government to be able to portray a wave of migration from Germany to Hungary. Why? Because it shows: a, that Orban's politics is successful if there's people coming to the Hungary, it must be a great place. B, It also underscores the so-called decline of the West, which is the narrative that the right wing regime in Hungary has been promoting as a way of legitimising itself." EXTREMISM RESEARCHER AT THE ANTONIO AMADEU FOUNDATION, NIKOLAS LELLE, WALKING DOWN HALLWAY POSTER BY THE ANTONIO AMADEU FOUNDATION (German): "HATE AND AGITATION NEEDS TO BE MEET WITH RESISTANCE" (SOUNDBITE) (German) EXTREMISM RESEARCHER AT THE ANTONIO AMADEU FOUNDATION, NIKOLAS LELLE, SAYING: "It's about multiple crises. We have been living in a time of very different crises for many years now. We are living in a time of upheaval. It's about economic crises, during the corona pandemic it was also about health crises. It all plays into it, so to speak, and I think it's very much about this kind of uncertainty." BERLIN TV TOWER
- Embargoed: 20th December 2024 09:47
- Keywords: German expats German migrants cost of living migration
- Location: BALATONBOGLAR, SZOLOSGYOROK, GYENESDIAS, AND BUDAPEST, HUNGARY / BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BALATONBOGLAR, SZOLOSGYOROK, GYENESDIAS, AND BUDAPEST, HUNGARY / BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: Europe,Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001491905122024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Andre Iwan and his wife moved to a village in Hungary from eastern Germany a few months ago, complaining of high taxes and a feeling that immigration had turned them into "second-class citizens".
Iwan, 55, bought a plot of land in 1998 in Szolosgyorok near Lake Balaton - once a favourite meeting place for east and west Germans under communism - with vague plans to retire there. However, recent political and social changes in Germany accelerated the move, he said.
Thousands of Germans, mostly retired, have settled in Hungary over recent years, lured by relatively cheap housing and low living costs. But there is another draw for some, expats themselves and political analysts say - right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban's hardline anti-immigration rhetoric, widely shared in social media groups dedicated to emigration.
"With Angela Merkel's 2015 refugee invasion, you could see the situation was getting worse and worse every year," said Iwan, who worked as a construction foreman.
Former Chancellor Merkel opened Germany's borders in 2015 to more than one million migrants, many of them Syrians, fleeing war and poverty. It won her plaudits abroad but proved controversial at home and eroded some of her political capital.
Iwan's language echoes that of right-wing influencers and the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has scored a series of electoral successes, particularly in the poorer, less diverse east, with its assertion that Germany is overrun by immigrants and is no longer able to control the situation.
The German government has said migrants are vital to the workforce and the economy, though it has pledged to take a tougher line on irregular arrivals.
There were some 22,100 Germans living in Hungary in 2022. The numbers arriving peaked in 2021 when 4,036 came, according to Hungarian official data. About half are aged over 60.
Monika Varadi, a sociologist at Hungary's HUN-REN Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, who has researched the new arrivals, said those arriving saw the situation in Germany as a crisis.
Arrivals in Hungary are dwarfed by the hundreds of thousands of Hungarians who have gone in the opposite direction to study or work in Europe's economic engine-room, and there has been no increase in overall emigration from Germany.
There is no evidence that Hungary is any safer than Germany: crime rates are comparable, and polls show that Hungary, far from being a happier place, shares with Germany among the lowest levels of life satisfaction in Europe.
Older people often move to warmer places where their pensions stretch further.
But Hungary's particular image, promoted by its government and widely echoed in Europe's far-right media, of countering Western Europeans' alleged pro-immigration liberalism, might be an added draw, said anthropologist Kristof Szombati of Berlin's Humboldt University.
Pro-government media has celebrated the arrival of German emigres as proof of Hungary's success, he added.
Juergen Wichert moved to Hungary in August to the small town of Gyenesdias on Lake Balaton. He wanted to remain close enough to Germany to reach it by car.
Wichert sympathises with Orban's conservative policies and welcomed Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. elections.
"I take a very critical view on the developments in Germany. I believe that many people are still doing too well. And only when the economy sinks further, when the middle class deteriorates again, then perhaps there will be a rethinking and then there can also be a change, as there is now in America", he said.
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