The Relationship Between Migration Background and Career Benefits in the Lives of Hungarian Mobile Workers in German-Speaking Countries

Labour migration from Central and Eastern Europe plays a significant role in the labour market of the European Union, yet few studies examine the direction and extent of occupational mobility triggered by migration. This study introduces a new analytical tool, the Career Benefit Index, which measures the direction of change in occupational status between the labour markets of the country of origin and the host country. The tool also enables the assessment of sociological factors that explain these changes. The index was developed using data from Hungarian workers living in Austria and Germany. The analysis revealed that educational attainment has no significant impact on career mobility. In contrast, demographic factors such as gender, age, and particularly very high-level German language proficiency strongly influence career trajectories. The index demonstrates that labour market capacities play a limited role in shaping migrants’ career paths, as the host labour markets tend to “evaluate” migrant workers primarily based on their linguistic and demographic attributes. The index and the findings contribute to a deeper understanding of labour market integration among Central and Eastern European migrants and may offer new directions for migration and employment policy analysis.