Employment and working conditions of migrant workers —Hungary

Disclaimer: This information is made available as a service to the public but has not been edited or approved by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The content is the responsibility of the authors. Migrants are defined by citizenship; looking at data on work permits or evidences on illegal migrants, the picture is similar. men are typically employed in craft and related occupations, women in various personal services and unskilled occupations. Employment of men is most common in construction. Demand for foreign labour is due to the shortage of particular occupations and the wage difference, especially in illegal employment. Evidence on wages is limited, however. Some difference is evident across the sending countries: There is a Chinese community in Hungary involved in petty trade partly as self-employed, while Romanian (ethnic Hungarian) men are involved in construction (both skilled and unskilled). Ethnic Hungarian women from Romania are more involved in personal service provision (cleaning private houses or working as a maid, taking care of elderly family members etc.). More recently Slovakian skilled labourers in industry turned to be significant on a daily commuting basis. Most of these activities are mixed, legal or illegal work colours the picture. Quality of work and employment of migrants is not a much discussed issue in Hungary, share of foreign labour has remained rather low until recently. This Report intends to investigate the employment and working conditions of migrant workers, that is of persons who migrate from one country to another for any reasons and work as employees or self-employed in the country of destination. Clearly, migrants workers include both EU citizens and non-EU citizens moving from their country of origin to one of the countries covered by this study. In other words, you should consider both migration across EU member states, Bulgaria, Romania and Norway and (im)migration from outside this area. The general objective is to compare the employment and working conditions of non-nationals and nationals