Bloomberg Businessweek USA 09.30.2019

E C O N O M I C S

26

Edited by

Cristina Lindblad

Bloomberg Businessweek September 30, 2019

AKOS STILLER/BLOOMBERG

SatwinderSinghcausedquitea stirwhenhearrived

inSarud,a sleepyHungarianvillage,fouryearsago.

Hewasamonga handfulofguestworkerswho’d

beenbroughtoverfromIndiatoworkata dairy

farmthatwasstrugglingtostayafloatbecauseofa

laborshortage.Thelocalsweren’twelcoming.

Speakingona recentmorning,hedescribed

beingpeltedwitheggsbysometownsfolk.Others

called him a terrorist. Some of Sarud’s residents

took their concerns straight to their mayor.

“Someone came to me saying the Indians will inject

poison into the milk and contaminate the whole

country,” recalls Istvan Tilcsik. “Then people saw

they just came to work and never had run-ins with

the law. Things have settled down now.”

Hungary’s prime minister would probably pre-

fer that Singh and his compatriots go unnoticed.

Viktor Orban heads an anti-immigrant vanguard

● Hungary and Poland are

among those quietly importing

workers to ease a labor crunch

Europe’s

Anti-

Immigrant

Leaders

Have a

Secret

inside the European Union, which he claims to

protect from “invaders.” He’s erected barbed-wire

fences to keep out refugees and withheld food from

some housed in detention centers. U.S. President

Donald Trump says he’s like a “twin brother.”

Yet Hungary and other nearby nations with

an anti-immigrant bent are quietly nudging open

a back door to foreigners. Central and Eastern

Europe are the fastest-growing part of the EU, and

with declining birth rates and the departure of mil-

lions of workers to Europe’s richer west, home-

grown labor forces can’t fill companies’ demands.

▼ Indian workers

in Sarud, Hungary