SZOLOSGYOROK, Hungary –
Andre Iwan and his wife moved to a village in Hungary from eastern Germany a few months ago, complaining of high taxes and a feeling that immigration had turned them into "second-class citizens."
Iwan, 55, bought a plot of land in 1998 in Szolosgyorok near Lake Balaton — once a favourite meeting place for east and west Germans under communism — with vague plans to retire there. However, recent political and social changes in Germany accelerated the move, he said.
Thousands of Germans, mostly retired, have settled in Hungary over recent years, lured by cheap housing and low living costs. But there is another draw for some, political analysts and expats themselves say — right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban's hard-line anti-immigration rhetoric, widely shared in social media groups dedicated to emigration.