Spatial dimensions of the foreign resident population
in small towns in Hungary
Réka Horeczki – Gábor Lados
CITY.HU Várostudományi Szemle. 5(2), 137–154.
Abstract
In line with the primary objectives of the journal, which seeks to present significant economic and socio-spatial issues in various types of urban areas, this study addresses a specific category of settlements: the small towns of Hungary. The analysis of rural areas and their small town centres is particularly crucial, as the overwhelming majority of Hungarian settlements has less than 30,000 inhabitants as indicated by the most recent census.
The societies of these small urban areas are strongly affected by general demographic and social trends including extremely negative demographic dynamics, ageing induced by outmigration (Pirisi, Máté 2014), the rise of ethnic segregation (Váradi, Virág 2014), low educational attainment, increasing prevalence of social pathologies such as alcoholism and mental illness, all of which contribute to an overall deterioration in quality of life (Fehér, Virág 2014). At the same time recent years have also witnessed a resurgence in the attractiveness of small towns as residential destinations, driven not only by internal migration but also by international (and return) migration flows, a trend mainly due to COVID-19 pandemic and by geopolitical security risks.
The present paper pursues two primary objectives
1) to assess the proportion and spatial distribution of the foreign-born residents in Hungary’s small towns, and
2) to explore whether these changes generate tensions or resilience within the social fabric of these communities.
While previous research has delineated clear spatial patterns in the distribution of foreign residents within the Hungarian settlement network (Lados, Brucker, 2023), the specific role of small towns in this context remains unexplored. Moreover, small-town societies typically exhibit rural characteristics, making it particularly relevant to investigate how newcomers – both international migrants and returnees – into these communities can integrate, and whether historical connections influence settlement choices, as these factors may be critical for long-term population retention.
The research is based on an analysis of statistical data on registered foreign citizens in Hungary and complemented by national census data for the period 2001–2022.
Keywords: small town, foreign resident, population, migration, Hungary
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