diaspora
The term diaspora is used to describe geographically dispersed communities of migrant origin that are integrated into their surrounding society, but not fully assimilated, and are connected to related communities of other areas, of the same perceived origin, their real or imagined old country or kin-state (motherland). The Hungarian diaspora means Hungarians (of the West) living outside of historical Hungary, which mainly includes Hungarians who emigrated from Hungary and neighbouring countries. These migrants can be divided into four groups, according to their attitude towards Hungarian culture: 1. persons who use the Hungarian language to communicate with family, 2. persons who speak Hungarian, 3. persons of Hungarian origin and 4. persons who participate in Hungarian community life. From a historical point of view we can speak of first- or multi-generational Western Hungarians in the wake of the great waves of emigration (early 20th century, those who emigrated after 1944 or 1947, those who emigrated in 1956, refugees from Transylvania in the 1980s). Based on Hungarian origin, about 2.2-2.5 million Hungarians live in the West, but in North America, for example, only about 10% of the 1.7 million Hungarians speak Hungarian at home. Hungarians who have been working in Western Europe since the late 1990s are called the “new diaspora” (around 400,000-600,000 people). (See also: dispersion.)