Hardi Tamás - Tóth Károly (szerk.): Határaink mentén. A szlovák-magyar határtérség társadalmi-gazdasági vizsgálata (2008) (Somorja, 2009)
Esettanulmányok
Summary 227 conditions, and the barriers of the seasons of the year. After 1999 the development of commuting was also promoted by a framework agreement between the two countries, allowing a larger number of employees to work in the other country (which was evidently Hungary in the first place at that time). In fact, the frameworks were so generous in the years preceding the EU accession that the barriers to the movement of labour practically ceased to exist in these years. The May of 2004, the accession of Hungary and Slovakia to the European Union, was not a shock to the labour market then. In 2005 the number of Slovak citizens employed in Hungary was approximately 30 000 already, and this number has remained largely the same since them, with some ups and downs. Since the accession to the Union, Slovakia has undergone a very rapid economic development. This fact also affects the labour market of Slovakia of course. In the western part of the border region, the number of those travelling to work to Hungary is decreasing and is probably going to stabilise at a natural level: those will choose to work in Hungary for whom the nearby town or city in Hungary is a spatial advantage. At the same time, a process of opposite direction has already started. Hungarian labour force is attracted by Slovak employers to the other side. It is especially the tackling of structural problems, i.e. the lack of experts that makes Slovak businesses seek Hungarian skilled labour: from Komárom-Esztergom county, for example, workers commute to Tmava, employed in the automotive industry. A very recent phenomenon is that in the eastern part of the border region, struck by significantly higher unemployment, Slovak entrepreneurs are now trying to find labour force in Hungary. It is the demand for skilled labour again that plays a dominant role, especially in the peripheral border areas from where the majority of the skilled workers have already moved. We only have estimations concerning the composition of the 30 thousand employees. From regional aspects, approximately twothirds of them are from the border districts of West Slovakia, from the Dunajská Streda, Komárno, Nove Zámky and Levice districts inhabited by mixed population, i.e. both Hungarians and Slovaks. In December 2007 a total of 9,780 persons from these four districts were employed directly by Hungarian firms - 2,220 employees from the Dunajská Streda, 6,000 from the Komamo, 1,200 from the Nove Zámky and 380 from the Levice district (Source: Eures Danubius Conference, Dunajská Streda, 14 March 2008). The rest, i.e. approximately 10,000-10,200 persons found employment in Hungary via Slovak labour recruitment agencies. As regards the similar breakdown of the by and large 10 thousand labour force living in East and Central Slovakia, we do not have exact figures, we only presume that mostly the same tendencies are also valid in their case as in West Slovakia. Our researches highlighted that the phenomenon of cross-border employment in the region does not only depend the elements of economic boom. The respondents thought it was important to have higher salaries in the neighbour country, but the spatial proximity of the workplace was just as important. We can say with certainty that the commuting employment in our region is not a traditional international migration; it is based on the classic urban-rural relations. Its intensity and volume are influenced by the wages available, but we also have to see that the bulk of the commuters have more poorly paid jobs where the wage differences will not change much across the two countries. The introduction of Euro in Slovakia will evidently set back movements to some extent, but it will not eliminate them. It is worth continuing the professional talks in this field and promoting an even broader cooperation in the fields of vocational training and retraining, strengthening thereby the cross-border labour districts.
