“FROM BEING A CO-OP TOWN, WE HAVE BECOME A TOWN OF UNEMPLOYED”
“FROM BEING A CO-OP TOWN, WE HAVE BECOME A TOWN OF UNEMPLOYED”

Summary/Abstract: The economic and social changes following 1990 have in all respects had an unfavourable influence on the life of the small Hungarian town of Túrkeve (Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County on the Hungarian Great Plain). From the 1970s the town’s inhabitants had enjoyed a secure livelihood and relative prosperity. The collapse of the socialist economy resulted in mass unemployment. The privatisation and the transformation of the structure of ownership were experienced in a positive way by only a few, the majority of the town’s inhabitants have been living in existential crisis for two decades now. A high percentage, close to 50% of those of active age, live on social benefits. The fewer than half a dozen medium-sized enterprises that strengthened after the turn of the millennium, and agriculture – which is characterised by a strong concentration of land-holding – are able to employ only a small proportion of the population. The majority of the town’s inhabitants are characterised by “invisible impoverishment” and struggle against loss of status. The lack of prospects leads to the out-migration of young people with qualifications. It is projected that fifteen to twenty years from now the town’s population will be made up of the inactive with low qualifications and the elderly. The economy, society, demography and health care all show an unfavourable picture. Anomie has become a permanent state. Comparative analysis of the economic and social indicators shows that Túrkeve can be described as an “average” settlement in Hungary today.

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