In 2023, being confronted by a drastic decline in the community’s population was one of the biggest slap of the year in the face of ethnic Hungarian community in Vojvodina. By contrast, in 2011 their number was 253 889, yet in 2022 only 184 442 people declared themselves as ethnic Hungarians in Serbia. That means a drop of nearly 30% compared to the previous census.
Analyses of the figures suggest that the reasons behind this phenomenon also include emigration facilitated by dual citizenship. Yet, earlier there have been no accurate data on the number of Hungarians in Vojvodina holding dual citizenship. Our data visualisations show the interrelation of emigration rates and the introduction of simplified naturalisation.
The Hungarian minority in Serbia is the second largest national community behind the majority Serb nation. In addition, there are nineteen other national minorities (with over 2000 members) in the country. The census was taken in October 2022 and the aggregated population data were published later, in December. These data revealed that Serbia’s population was nearly half a million less than in 2011.
The final results – including the data on the ethnic distribution of municipalities – were published by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (Republički Zavod za Statistiku – RZS) in April 2023. These results showed some relevant data for the Hungarian population in Vojvodina, such as the drop in the number of Hungarians in Serbia by 70 000, the change in the ethnic distribution in the Hungarian municipalities of Vojvodina, and the fact that in Subotica, for the first time in the city’s history, Serbs outnumbered Hungarians.
It came to light from the detailed data released in June 2023 that only 92,64% of the 184 442 people of the country’s total population of 6 647 003 who identify themselves as Hungarian consider Hungarian as their first language. The difference of 13 567 persons in this category, presumably, do not use Hungarian at all or hardly at all.
The population of Hungarians in Vojvodina has more than halved in the past 75 years
Statistics on the Hungarian population in the territory of the present-day Republic of Serbia have been kept since 1948. The first, more than ten-years long increase after 1948 in their number may, at first glance, appear to be a positive change, but that temporary rise was only due to the fact that after the World War II many Germans declared themselves as Hungarians in order to avoid expulsion.
From the 1970s onwards, the number of Hungarians in Vojvodina decreased by about 40 000 per year due to the disproportional birth and death rates, assimilation and emigration, and this latter was a typical phenomenon in the region because of Yugoslavia’s foreign employment policy.
The 50 000 drop measured after the 1990s Yugoslav wars, stands out in this tendency. However, the last more than ten-year long period resulted in an even more drastic population decline of almost 70 thousand.
The record in the reduction of population size coincided with the introduction of the simplified naturalisation procedure by the Hungarian government from 1 January 2011. Previously, one could assume any correlation based only on hunches, impressions and empirical knowledge, because no factual data were available.
The data provided by the Government Office of the Capital City of Budapest (BFKH) show that the number of naturalisation applications from Serbia has increased by orders of magnitude since the introduction of the simplified naturalisation procedure.
The highest number of applications was received in 2013, when
nearly 40 000 persons applied for Hungarian citizenship from Serbia that year alone.
It should be noted that in Serbia, not only Hungarians from Vojvodina, but also those who declared themselves as belonging to the majority or other minority according to their ethnicity, applied for Hungarian citizenship on the basis of a Hungarian ancestor.
Nevertheless, the acquisition of Hungarian citizenship does not explicitly mean that dual nationals have left their country of origin, although the correlation is indisputable.
Based on the data – beyond the negative demographic indicators –
dual citizenship has accelerated the population decline of Hungarians in Vojvodina by around 75%.
The right to vote went along with Hungarian citizenship
The Hungarian Parliament introduced the preferential naturalisation procedure on 26 May 2010, according to which, as of 1 January 2011: “(…) every non-Hungarian citizen is eligible for preferential naturalization, if he or she or any of their ancestors was a Hungarian citizen or if he or she serves reason to believe his or her origin is from Hungary, (…) and proves their knowledge of the Hungarian language.”
In April 2011, the Hungarian Parliament adopted Hungary’s new constitution, the Fundamental Law, wherein it does not bind the right to vote to residence in Hungary. This was confirmed by Act CCIII of 2011 on the Elections of Members of Parliament of Hungary, under which the Parliament – as of 3 March 2014 –
“guarantees (…) that Hungarian citizens living beyond the borders of Hungary shall be a part of the political community.”
Act XXXVI of 2013 on Electoral Procedure was adopted in that context, and was applicable for Hungarian citizens living outside the borders of Hungary.
Bearing all that in mind, from the 2014 parliamentary elections onwards, all those who applied to be entered on the electoral register have been eligible to vote in parliamentary elections and referendums. Despite of that, relatively few people have taken advantange of the opportunity to vote. A total of 17 521 valid votes were cast in Hungary from Serbia.
As of 2018, the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ) launched a targeted registration campaign to encourage the Hungarians in Vojvodina to get registered on the electoral register and cast their votes in the Hungarian elections. Thanks to the field campaign, 53 900 Serb-Hungarian dual citizens were enrolled in the electoral register by April 2018.
Since the introduction of the simplified naturalisation procedure, the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians has continuously encouraged Hungarians in Vojvodina to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the national unification procedure the more the better. Considering all Hungarian communities living outside Hungary, in terms of numbers, the largest number of applicantions for Hungarian citizenship arrived from the Hungarians in Vojvodina.
However, it is a fact, that when taking up Hungarian citizenship
Hungarians from Vojvodina were more keen to exploit the opportunities offered by holding an EU passport which provided free access to labour market,
rather than voting.
The Alliance – which is the largest advocacy organisation enjoying the trust and strategic partnership of both Serbian and Hungarian governments – strongly rejected public claims about the link between dual citizenship and emigration. In its statement, the party sought to deflect any blame.
According to them, decisions to emigrate were overwhelmingly driven by “the lack of jobs, the employment ban, the wage freeze and pay cuts, the years of belt-tightening policies dictated by the IMF, hopelessness generated by most of the media”. Their conclusion is that without the party’s actions, the figures would be even more dismal. They argue that blaming dual citizenship is “politically short-sighted and morally deeply troubling”.
“The Party Presidency firmly believes that this was the only acceptable, honest position and procedure that the Alliance could take.”
– says the party’s press service statement.
Text by: Virág Gyurkovics
Data visualisation: Krisztián Szabó (Átlátszó.hu)
The text was originally published in Hungarian on 09. 02. 2024.