In the course of the YOUMIG project, the City of Graz conducted a study visit to Pécs, the fifth largest city of Hungary. Like Graz, Pécs is a university city. It focuses on building a strong education industry and on fostering international collaboration.

In autumn 2017, Priska Pschaid and Lucia Schnabl from the City of Graz as well as Ádám Németh from the University of Vienna visited Pécs in order to exchange views in real-life situations about the manifestations of the “push and pull” theory of migration, especially in connection with people moving from Hungary to Austria. According to this theory there are always factors which attract (pull) people towards the country of destination and factors which encourage them to leave (push) the country of origin.

From November 13 to 15, the three members of the YOUMIG project team conducted several interviews with representatives of institutional and administrative units that deal with migration or youth issues in Pécs to find out more about young migrants’ possible motivations.

Pécs in the past and present

Due to its coal and uranium mines, Pécs was a very prosperous city until the late 1980s. When the mines were closed, 15,000 families lost their income. Since then, Pécs has not been able to rebuild its economy. Among the main reasons János Girán, former vice mayor of the city of Pécs, listed the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Foreign companies did not choose Pécs for investments due to the closeness (30–40 km) of the violent conflict. So far, no other branch could make up for the loss of the city’s mining industry.

In the early 2000s, Pécs tried to rebuild its former prosperity by promoting its rich cultural heritage and it even became European Capital of Culture in 2010. Unfortunately, even this could not put a halt to the city’s fast economic recession.

The University of Pécs

The University of Pécs (PTE) is not only the oldest in the country and one of the oldest in Europe but also one of Hungary’s major higher education institutes. Established in 1367, it was divided into two separate institutions, one for medicine (Medical University of Pécs) and one for other studies. The Medical University of Pécs has a large English-language programme for general medicine and dentistry with students from America, Asia, Africa and European countries, and it also offers degree programmes in German.

Even though the city focuses on building a strong education industry by making major investments and fostering international collaboration, the number of students has been diminishing in the last few years. Currently, only approximately 20,200 students are enrolled at the University of Pécs, according to the head of the International Erasmus Office Judit Németh.

Studying abroad

In a meeting with current and former students of the University of Pécs, Priska Pschaid, Lucia Schnabl and Ádám Németh tried to figure out the most relevant reasons for students to leave the country. Speaking with the students, it became clear that most of them left Hungary in the past or want to leave the country in the future in order to study or work abroad. The opportunity to earn more money in a foreign country or even in the capital of Budapest seems to be one of the most important “pull” factors. According to them, Pécs lacks jobs with appropriate salaries for academics. One student also named the current political situation in Hungary as a “push” factor.

Gábor Pirisi and András Trócsányi, professors at the university’s Institute of Geography, also believe that the main reason for young Hungarians to leave their home towns (and Hungary) is money. “Often, the chance to find an adequate job are higher in cities and/or abroad. But leaving is also fashionable and very common among Hungarian youth. Many follow their friends, which results in a chain reaction.”

Number of emigrants

The population of Hungary has constantly been decreasing since 1981. In 1981, 10.7 million people lived in Hungary; nowadays it is less than 10 million. Hungary is suffering from a severe brain drain and the recent emigration of young, well-educated Hungarians and the ongoing retirement wave both have tremendous effects on the labour market. At the moment, the Hungarian labour market offers a huge amount of jobs ­– most unfortunately poorly paid.

Counter-measures

Several (governmental) programmes and projects aim to keep young people in Hungary (e.g. “Lendület”). More often than not, these programmes are too bureaucratic and complicated for the young Hungarians. The municipality, on the other hand, does not have the necessary tools to change the situation.

It would be essential, however, that emigrants return. “The Hungarian economy is falling more and more behind. In the last 200 years the distance between the Austrian and the Hungarian economic development has never been this big”, András Trócsányi states. The researcher and his co-workers recently published the article titled "Where Have All the Youngsters Gone? The Background and Consequences of Young Adults’ Outmigration from Hungarian Small Towns" (Bernadett Makkai et al. 2018 European Countryside, Vol. 9. No. 4.) where more questions are answered about youth migration in the region.

According to another view, expressed during an interview by Tímea Németh, senior lecturer at the PTE Department of Languages for Specific Purposes, emigration also offers an immense potential for further development: “Returnees might have a different view on the Hungarian system and see its strengths as well as its weaknesses clearer.”

Photo and text by: City of Graz/Lucia Schnabl