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Notes on global migration from a small Slovak village
In the village where I’m living you can meet people from different nations. Mostly Slovaks and Hungarians. A few Czechs, Serbs, some Vietnamese and Chinese. Sometimes Gypsies. And also someone of clearly Sub-Saharan origin. A football championship between various groups living in our area took place recently at our local stadium where I […]
Read all posts for ‘Central and Eastern Europe’
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The Challenges of Fixing the Hungarian Brain Drain
As ever more Hungarians decide to leave the country, Hungary faces a creeping social crisis. Who will replace those young talents who emigrate? And what effect will this have on the way we Hungarians define ourselves? To understand such questions, you have to dig deeper into the history of the […]
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Suitcase without a handle
Sasha and I were colleagues in university. He was a mediocre student. After graduation I didn’t manage to find any work paying more than 30 euro a month. So I started my “career” as a clerk in a music shop. One day Sasha dropped by and said he was going […]
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Roma in Bulgaria: a neglected abandoned minority
At the moment Bulgaria is governed by a caretaker government appointed by the president because the ruling party GERB resigned at the end of February after a series of country-wide protests. They started innocently enough against the unexpectedly high electricity bills people were unable to pay. All that citizens wanted […]
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Breastfeeding vs. Breadwinning
Decades into the fight for equality in the workplace, policies for women keep failing. A drawing released this year by the European Parliament shows a bleak picture of so-called equality: there are more women in the EU holding university degrees than men, yet men enjoy a higher employment rate and […]