Árpád János Potápi, State Secretary for Nation Policy at the Prime Minister’s Office introduced Hungary’s scattered communities policy and the Hungarian Government’s most important programmes intended for young people living in scattered communities in the West at the international conference Diasporas 2017 – International Seminar held in the Israeli Parliament on Tuesday.

In his lecture, the State Secretary stressed: the Hungarian Government pays particular attention to the Hungarian communities scattered around the world. He mentioned among the most important programmes the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Programme which has been a great success ever since 2013. The State Secretary highlighted: thanks to the achievements of the programme to date, the number of scholarship holders will be raised from the former 100 to 115 this year, and scholarship holders will be sent to the Hungarian communities living in Israel in 2017 as well.

He further spoke about the significance of weekend schools operating in scattered communities. He highlighted: the Hungarian Diaspora Council adopted the document entitled Hungarian Diaspora Policy – Strategic Guidelines at its latest meeting held on 30 November 2016, in which the development of the weekend Hungarian schools operating in scattered communities and their integration into the education systems of Hungary and the recipient countries was designated as a top priority.

The State Secretary described the introduction of the expedited naturalisation procedure as one of the greatest successes of Hungarian nation policy. Since its launch, the number of Hungarian citizens has increased by 940 thousand: some 830 thousand persons acquired citizenship through naturalisation, and eligibility for citizenship was established in approximately 110 thousand cases in scattered communities.

(Prime Minister's Office)