Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe - Multiple Choices

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Migration through Gender, Age and Class Perspectives
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42
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New Forms of
Mobility among
Western European
Retirees: German
Migrants in
South-Western
Hungary
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Alexandra Szõke
Carolin 1 buried her spouse a year ago. She
chose to bury him in a small remote village
of a few hundred inhabitants in the southwestern
part of Hungary, where she now
lives. The couple arrived from Munich six
years ago and bought a broken down peasant house in the
village after their retirement in Germany. They arrived without
knowing much about the place, and without speaking any
Hungarian at all. They gave up nearly everything connected to
their previous life in Germany and have only visited Germany
a few times since, to see their children or to resolve administrative
issues. The old peasant house they bought is still
not entirely renovated. Nevertheless, Carolin has chosen to
stay in Hungary. Like her husband, she also wishes to be
buried in the village. She explained: “This is my home now.
I still follow what is happening in Germany, because my
children live there, but I consider Hungary my home. I have
my house here, I live here, this has become my home.”
The situation of Carolin and the problems and
choices she faces are not unique. In the last ten to fifteen
years a number of foreigners – among whom Germans constitute
the largest group – have bought houses in Hungary.
The new property owners initially visited their Hungarian
homes only for holidays. However, in the last few years an
increasing number of house-buyers have decided to settle
down permanently in Hungary, whilst retaining links with
their former place of residence through family ties, along
with administrative and financial matters. There are no
direct statistics about the number of these migrants, but
it could be estimated as being between 4,000 and 7,000 on
the basis of Stammtisch participants. Stammtische are informal
clubs regularly organised for Germans in several of the
larger towns in the region. These clubs serve as sites for
casual meetings among German migrants living in Hungary,
while they also fulfil an important role in helping the
German residents with administrative and official matters.
The age structure of the migrants and their social
status make this migratory form particularly interesting. The
majority are retirees, with a smaller group of self-employed
middle-aged workers; they are mostly lower middle class
people arriving from a Western welfare state. The experiences,
practices and problems seem to diverge remarkably from
other, more widely discussed forms of migration, such as
labour migration. Here I will examine some of the specific
features of this migratory form by outlining the main factors
that have contributed to its recent development and by
discussing the practices of the migrants along such vectors
as the difference in age and social status.
GERMAN SETTLERS IN HUNGARY
The most popular destination region for German
migrants is the south-western part of Hungary, where Lake
Balaton and the numerous thermal baths unquestionably
constitute the foremost attractions. In this area, Somogy is
the most popular county, gauged on the number of houses
sold to Germans. Somogy has a hilly landscape that is scattered
with small towns and villages. Apart from the three
main cities (Kaposvár, Fonyód, Siófok), most of the towns
and villages have only a few hundred inhabitants and no
through traffic. Moreover, these villages often face serious
problems such as insufficient infrastructure, a shortage of
medical and social services, and unemployment. While
their original inhabitants choose to escape to larger towns,
the Western European holidaymakers and settlers enjoy the
calm and picturesque environment.
I conducted fieldwork in several towns and villages
of Somogy County in the summer of 2004 and spring of
2005. Altogether, I conducted fifty-one in-depth interviews
with Germans who settled in this particular region and who
met the criteria of: owning a house, spending at least half of
the year in Hungary, and not being 'ethnic Germans'
(Svabs). 2 In addition, I participated in local events; those
made for tourists as well as for local inhabitants. I went
to village festivals in several locations and observed local
happenings such as travelling jongleurs, on the rare occasions
that these remote villages could afford to hold public events.
I also visited several Stammtische in the region. I participated
in the meetings, made observations, and took part in
informal talks. Finally, I received forty questionnaires from
Western Europeans of diverse nationalities who own
Hungarian holiday homes in the region.
Migration Processes in Central and Eastern Europe: Unpacking the Diversity