Levente.Maier wrote:ffrench wrote:But what if they're living abroad temporarily? As soon as they return, those political decisions will affect them.
I'm also a Hungarian national, and I'm considering voting in the next elections. I care about the country and I may well live there in future. It's not necessarily a whim.
I don't know why but Hungary offers citizenship for every Hungarian-speaking person
even if they never lived there and are not planning to move there.
But as a Transylvanian Hungarian I don't see any point in voting in the Hungarian elections
because I never lived there and I'm not planning to do so.
If they have a permanent residency there then it's okay.
If a Romanian moved to Italy and planes to stay like 5 years and then to return
then it's okay to vote.
Levente,
I don't know how often you come to Hungary, or which university you are studiying at or plan to,
but many overborder Hungarians are happy with citizenship possibility.
Many Hungarians in Vojvodina for example, but I can imagine the same in Ukraine for example, don't have a proper tertiary education in Hungarian in their homeland. So they come to Hungary instead. Each time they travel home and want to come back to the university on Sunday, they have a very humiliating process of border-controls at EU border, as they are not part of the "country". While they speak the same language as the border guard, culturally very similar, etc...
Also, they have more access to proper education with being citizens. I guess there are good EU-funds or even the Norwegian fund to fund their Hungarian education at Hungarian universities. It is much easier this way.
Those who don't need Hungarian education, and don't want to come to the country simply don't apply Hungarian citizenship. Everyone is happy.
Note, that Hungary has been struggling with decreasing population since 1979 and a fastly narrowing work-age population. Pure business or not, but our country has a unique opportunity to fill in that gap with immigrants with the same native language and similar cultural background. (And if you ask me, overborder Hungarians are usually even more down-to-earth and less the complaining type than homeland ones, which is good for our society)