„Tanulni jöttek Magyarországra.” Kínai vendégmunkások Győrben, 1987–1990
“They Came to Hungary to Learn”: Chinese Guest Workers in Győr

Summary/Abstract: In the wake of China’s 1979 economic reform and opening up, Hungary and China sought to further expand bilateral trade. Hungary exported heavy industrial goods, such as Rába trucks and bus parts made by the Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory in Győr, and imported Chinese consumer goods. However, in the 1980s, Rába faced a looming labor crisis of rising wages and an aging workforce that threatened to undercut profitable exports. The Hungarian government and the Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory pursued foreign guest workers as a solution; in 1987, 350 Chinese guest workers joined the production line in Győr, and the factory director hoped more would join. This article explores the context and experience of Chinese guest workers in Győr, arguing that Chinese guest workers in Hungary represented the market and profit reorientation of “socialist globalization” in the 1980s and prompted local backlash from Hungarian workers that combined economically and racially motivated anxieties.

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