Rich Chinese migrants are welcomed in Hungary
Print Edition
HUNGARY Prime Minister Viktor Orban, known for his outspoken “dislike” to migrants, has quietly opened his country’s doors to foreigners rich enough to pay to live there.
A “residency bond” scheme, launched in 2013, has attracted thousands of mostly affluent Chinese keen to enjoy the cleaner air, educational opportunities and the more relaxed pace of life that Europe offers — and, unlike the refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, these immigrants feel very welcome.
“It’s a successful scheme because it brings money into the country and not a penny leaves the country,” Orban told parliament on Monday.
Orban has in the past ordered the building of a razor-wire border fence to keep refugees out.
Yan Ding, who arrived in Budapest with his wife and young daughter in April 2015, is one of the nearly 10,000 Chinese who have moved to Hungary under the residency bond scheme.
After selling property he inherited from his parents, Beijing native Ding bought a bond worth 300,000 euros (US$336,360) that gives him and his family the right to live for five years in Hungary, which is a member of the European Union.
“I came not for myself but solely for my daughter’s education, her future,” he said.
His daughter Xue Er, now enrolled in a local school and able to speak some Hungarian, received warm support from teachers and administrators who had gone out of their way to accommodate her, Ding said.
“In China the economy is developing rapidly but pollution is bad and the cities are growing so fast that you can’t get the kind of education you would like for your child,” he said.
He said he wanted to spare his daughter the extreme competition among students in China which he attributed to the high number of pupils in each class. Hungary typically has up to 25 pupils in a class, which is very low by Chinese standards.
Participants in Hungary’s residency scheme must stomp up funds not only for the bond but also for a hefty commission fee of 50,000 euros to the agency processing their application. But when their bond is redeemed after five years, they recover their 300,000 euros and keep the right to stay in Hungary.
Several other EU countries operate similar schemes but Hungary’s is less expensive than most and offers residency rights straight away.
Orban says the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have fled to Europe over the past year, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, pose a threat to Europe’s security and Christian civilization.
Ding rejects any comparison between the migrants now barred from Hungary by the new fence and bond purchasers like himself. “Chinese immigrants are in completely different shoes,” he said. “They have savings in China, property, therefore they have expectations. It is a different demographic.”
Many of the Chinese bond buyers have an entrepreneurial background and are keen to seek new investment opportunities.
Ding has co-founded a company to advise new arrivals on ways to invest their money in Hungary and beyond.
“We want to export Hungarian technology, good solutions to China,” said Zhang Jinjun, Ding’s business partner, adding that the new arrivals had invigorated commercial ties between Hungary and China.
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