"We want Hungarians to continue to exist." A solution to the problem of global demographic decline

Last Tuesday, April 30, we met at the Sánc útca 3b offices in Budapest, with part of the team from the Research Institute for Demography and Family KINCS (by its Hungarian acronym) María Kopp, specifically with the person in charge of international affairs, Mrs. Kriszta Kállay-Kisbán, and her advisor, Réka Szász, who have specialized in the construction of demographic policies in the last 14 years of the government of Hungary that have turned out to be tremendously successful.

The foundation is named after María Kopp, a psychiatrist, pro-family, and former deputy scientific director of the Institute. Semmelweis University of Behavioral Sciences,  who helped a lot in the demographic analysis of Hungarians in the 80s, considered one of the best researchers of the mental well-being of Hungarians, her work was also highly recognized internationally for the important contributions. Without a doubt she would be proud of the continued work that the Hungarian government has done recently.

In its Family Protection program in Hungary 2010-2022, it has presented outstanding figures in various aspects within the European context and that have been an example for many nations that come from all over the world to listen to its "magic" recipe (no magic, just the political will and of a society concerned with these fundamental issues).

This formula is based on 5 pillars:

1.- Raising children must be economically advantageous.

2.- Families must receive help to own a home.

3.- Family policy must focus on mothers.

4.- All aspects of the country's life will be family-friendly.

5.- Families and children must be protected by law.

If compared in terms of number of births, Hungary has the highest number of children per woman; In 2022 the rate in the Magyar country was 1.52, versus 1.16 in Spain and 1.24 in Italy (these two countries have a high number of Latin and African immigrants who have much higher rates). They have also been able to increase the number of marriages since 2011 with a total of 35,520, reaching 64,000 by 2022, all thanks to the support of a package of pro-family measures and economic incentives that can even reach up to 30,000 euros for a marriage. family with more than three children, where aid begins in the 12th week of pregnancy.

Some might ask, why does a State come to deal with these matters? The answer is simple, because the market is not capable of doing so and is not the answer to matters of this type, so the State enters with its natural function and dictates rules that encourage (not determine) as guarantor in its representation of the communities and corrects things as serious as the possible disappearance of fellow citizens of any country.

This shows in a concrete way the importance for the Hungarian state of being able to stop the decline of compatriots, although they still feel that there is still a lot of progress to be made. Not only are they concerned about having more children and encouraging Hungarians to get married, but also that this does not harm women in the workplace and allow their effective reintegration into the system; In 2011, female employment in women between 20 and 64 years old reached 59%, while in 2022 it reached 75.3% (this ratio in the EU is 50% for the same year), which shows that for them the hand of Priority work must be local and not import uncontrolled immigration to replace it with the consequences in terms of stagnation of real salaries and technical qualifications that are often difficult to verify.

The meeting provided a space for the exchange of experiences and the situation in Chile, in which we do not have policies nor demographic incentives to increase the number of Chileans in the long term, a fundamental issue even to continue calling ourselves Chileans beyond the fact of "inhabiting" that geography.

Finally we talked about the global context of developed countries that have a strong aversion to building a family, the challenges linked to accelerated secularization in our societies and the marked individualism of the liberal policies prevailing in most Western countries that disregard collective well-being. of nations and sometimes become a "save yourself."

All nations that wish to project themselves in time and do not want to disappear, must consider policies of this nature that provide their citizens with the peace of mind that the conditions of work, security and harmonious development that are typical of the sovereignty of the peoples are protected. .