1. Economic circumstances, labour market, and migration patterns – the background of

the comments 1.1. Economic and social circumstances A brief summary of the demographic trend in contemporary Hungary1:- aging society (the proportion of citizens over 60 years is about 22 % of the population),- life expectancy at birth both for males (68.4 years) and females 76.7) is low (only some Baltic states have lower values (in 2002, Vukovich, 2004)),- shrinking (the volume of the population in 1980 was 10,708 thousand person, in 2004 it was only 10 117 thousand),- the natural growth of the population is negative (since the early 1980ies, in 2002 it was – 3.5, the second highest among the EU 25 after Latvia). Due to historical reasons (the Trianon Treaty after World War I) Hungary became an ethnically homogeneous country (the only sizeable national minority is the Roma (Gypsy), about 5 % of the population). During the four decades of communism Hungary was a closed country with only two politically determined and small immigration waves (Greeks and Chileans) and one large emigration wave (in the aftermath of the 1956 revolution), consequently even today foreigners constitute a very small proportion of the Hungarian population. Comparing the proportion of foreigners in two OECD membe