Overview
- The government published an ordinance on Saturday, June 6, that immediately stops issuing new residence permits under the previous simplified guest-worker regulation.
- The text says existing permits remain valid until they expire and does not clarify whether expiring permits can be renewed or how future non-EU hiring will be handled.
- About 90,000 non-EU workers, roughly 2 percent of Hungary’s employed population, work mainly in battery and auto manufacturing, construction, seasonal agriculture and delivery services and come largely from the Philippines, Ukraine, China, Vietnam and India.
- Magyar made restricting the guest-worker route a campaign promise and framed the ordinance as a way to get more Hungarians into jobs and to curb recruitment through placement agencies linked in reporting to Orbán-era business networks.
- Industry and employer groups warn the restriction could deepen labor shortages, risk production slowdowns in key sectors and put pressure on wages and hiring processes unless new legal procedures are announced.