Discussion Papers 2004.
New Aspects of Regional Transformation and the
Urban-Rural Relationship 36-44. p.

THE CONTACTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF
POLAND WITH HUNGARY IN THE LIGHT
OF SURVEY STUDIES
TOMASZ KOMORNICKI
Introduction
The regional analysis of any kind of international contacts in Poland is not an easy
task. The statistical data are most often available on the national level, less fre-
quently in the setting of provinces, and only sporadically at the more detailed levels
(counties, communes). The situation is even more difficult with respect to the study
of social contacts with abroad on the personal level. The sole way of gathering
information on the international connections of the citizens is constituted by the
survey studies. Such a study was carried out in the year 2001 at the Institute of
Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in the
framework of the research project of the State Committee for Scientific Research,
entitled “Regional differentiation of the socio-economic connections with abroad
across the territory of Poland”. The study was carried out in 33 towns of Poland
(see Figs. …). The selection of towns was purposeful. All the province capitals
were taken in, along with one smaller town in each of the provinces, except for the
capital province of Mazowieckie (Masovia), where two such smaller towns were
selected. In view of the nature of selection we should emphasise that the study does
not concern in a continuous manner the territory of the country, but only the con-
crete 33 urban centres. There were altogether 1314 respondents, who answered the
questions of the survey questionnaire. The selection of the respondents had a mixed
character. The survey was conducted in public places, with participation of persons
formally residing in a given town, according to the division into genders and age
groups (strata). The selection within the particular age groups of each of genders
was random (objective). In the province capitals 50 questionnaires were to fill in,
while in the remaining towns – 30.
The survey instrument was composed of 15 items. The groups of items con-
cerned:
–  the basic data of the respondent (the heading),
–  the travels abroad of the respondents during the last five years (1996–2001),
–  the maintenance of contacts with abroad via telecommunication (telephone,
mail, electronic mail) during the last five years (1996–2001),

Tomasz Komornicki : The Contacts of the Inhabitants of Poland with Hungary in the Light of Survey Studies.
In: New Aspects of Regional Transformation and the Urban-Rural Relationship.
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 2004. 36-44. p. Discussion Papers, Special
THE CONTACTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF POLAND WITH HUNGARY …
37
–  the direct personal contacts with the citizens of other countries (family and
friends abroad, hosting of foreigners at home during the last five years),
–  the access to and the use of foreign language media (cable and satellite TV,
internet, press), including the knowledge of foreign languages,
–  the own assessment of the respondents as to the directions and intensity of
foreign contacts of individual provinces.
The purpose of the present report is to analyse the survey material from the
point of view of assessment of the Polish–Hungarian contacts at the personal level.
The analysis omits the questions concerning the knowledge of languages and the
access to foreign media, since the percentage of persons speaking Hungarian and
taking advantage of the Hungarian mass media in Poland was next to null.
Travels to Hungary
According to the data from the Border Guard Head Quarter, Poles went abroad in
2001 as many as 54 million times. A vast majority of these “foreign trips”, though,
lasted just a couple of hours (shopping in Germany, tourist wandering along the
border, including the mountains at the Polish-Slovak border). Thus, each and every
Pole went abroad 1.4 times in 2001. Now, among the persons included in the study
considered here, 55.6% were abroad at least once in the period 1996–2001. This
share was perceptibly higher for the province capitals than for the small towns
(60.1% and 48.5%, respectively). The respondents would decidedly most often
travel during the last five years to Germany (28%). The subsequent ranks were
occupied by Czech Republic (visited by 14.2% of respondents) and Slovakia
(9.5%). The percentage shares of persons visiting France and Italy were also close
to 10%. In case of Hungary it was 3.4% (4.0% for province capitals), similar like
for Greece, Great Britain and Sweden, but definitely less than for Spain and Aus-
tria (however we should remember that in case of European Union countries some
trips are connected with illegal work an in case of Hungary the real tourism is
dominating). Thus, we can conclude that Hungary is still among the popular direc-
tions of travels in Poland. This is caused by the relatively small distance, tourist
attractiveness of the country, long tradition, as well as the fact that some of the
transit routes to the countries of Southern Europe pass through Hungary.
A simple indicator of intensity of foreign trips was constructed on the basis of
the total number of trips and their frequency. The overall value of the indicator for
the entire sample is 2.08 and it is higher for the inhabitants of the province capitals
(2.31) than for the respondents from the smaller towns (1.72). The generally higher
intensity of foreign trips is observed in the southwestern part of the country, and it
decreases towards the East and Northeast (see Figure 1). The intensity of travels to

Tomasz Komornicki : The Contacts of the Inhabitants of Poland with Hungary in the Light of Survey Studies.
In: New Aspects of Regional Transformation and the Urban-Rural Relationship.
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 2004. 36-44. p. Discussion Papers, Special
40 TOMASZ
KOMORNICKI
traditional mail, and the e-mails. A simple coefficient was constructed of the inten-
sity of contacts with the (tele)communication media, Wł (encompassing all the
three manners of communicating).
The average intensity of contacts through the communication media for the en-
tire sample was Wł = 3.06, with the value being much higher for the voivodship
capitals (Wł=3.59) than for the small towns (Wł=2.23). A similar role was played in
the overall intensity of contacts maintained with the communication media by the
telephone connections and the traditional mail (each of them accounting for
roughly 40% of the entire result for the whole sample), while the significance of
electronic mail was by half smaller (20%). In total, during the last five years,
46.2% of respondents made phone calls abroad, 40.9% of them sent letters abroad,
and only 14.8% maintained electronic correspondence. Yet, the contacts with the
use of the communication means with Hungary turned out to be very rare. The
analogous percentages for this country correspond merely to 0.4%, 0.5% and 0.2%.
In the regional setting a much higher significance of the traditional correspondence
with Hungary was observed in Warsaw (4.0%) and Lublin (4.0%).
The summary index Wł, calculated for individual countries, was characterised
on the countrywide scale by the distinct domination of Germany (as much as 0.9),
followed by the United States (0.5). The subsequent positions in the ranking were
occupied by the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Sweden, and Czech Republic. In
the case of Hungary the value of the index was 0,02. This was similar as for Portu-
gal and clearly less as for the down-under Australia. Generally the highest value of
index Wł was observed in Warsaw and in the cities of South Poland (see Figure 3).
In the Western part of the country the (tele)communication connections with Ger-
many were strongest, in the Eastern one the position of United States was stronger.
The connections with Hungary were noted only in Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin.
They would not occur in other parts of the country.
Direct contacts
Hosting of the citizens of foreign countries at home is a far less frequent phenome-
non than travelling abroad or the international phone calls. It is most often a proof
of a close personal contact. It can also be the expression of the intensive economic
ties, like, for instance, the contacts in the framework of the economic activity con-
ducted at home (unofficial room renting), or the illegal employment of foreigners
(mainly form Ukraine and Belarus). The scale of the latter two kinds of phenomena
is indirectly illustrated by the fact that while the number of visits of foreigners in
Poland in 2000 was roughly 84.5 million, only 3.5 million persons were accommo-
dated in a hotel or another facility of this type. The other ones either stayed in Po-
land just a couple of hours, or were, exactly, hosted in private homes.

Tomasz Komornicki : The Contacts of the Inhabitants of Poland with Hungary in the Light of Survey Studies.
In: New Aspects of Regional Transformation and the Urban-Rural Relationship.
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 2004. 36-44. p. Discussion Papers, Special
42 TOMASZ
KOMORNICKI
There were 40.3% of respondents, who admitted having hosted at home for-
eigners during the last five years. On the scale of the entire sample the citizens of
Germany are decidedly most often hosted (close to 20% of respondents had them
as guests in their homes), followed by the citizens of the United States (5.3%).
Relatively frequently the Russians (3.5%), British (3.0%), and Ukrainians (2.8%)
are hosted as well. Now, it is surprising how rarely from among the neighbouring
countries the citizens of Slovakia, Lithuania and Belarus’ were hosted at home by
the respondents. Only 0.6% of the respondents admitted having Hungarians as
accommodated guests. This share, though, was much higher for Rzeszów (8.0%).
Poland was for decades a country of emigration. According to various estimates
8 to 15 million persons of Polish extraction live currently outside of Poland. The
respective item of the survey instrument, though, dealt not just with family, but
also with close acquaintances. The purpose was namely not to analyse the family
ties of the Polish diaspora, but to identify all the strong personal ties, irrespective of
their character. Close to ¾ of the respondents stated that they have family or close
acquaintances abroad. Decidedly the highest percentage shares of the respondents
declared having family or acquaintances in Germany (33.1%) and in the United
States (24.7%). The third rank was occupied by Canada (6.5%), followed by
France, United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, and Australia. Again, a surprise was con-
stituted by the low numbers of persons admitting of having such close personal ties
in all the neighbouring countries except for Germany. Also in the case of Hungary
this was just 0.5%.
The assessment of contacts with Hungary
The respondents were also asked to provide their own, subjective assessment of the
intensity of the socio-economic contacts of their voivodship with other countries.
They would indicate the countries, with which the region of their residence had
very strong, strong or at least medium strong relations. A simple indicator of the
perceived intensity of contacts (WPNK) was constructed on the basis of their re-
sponses. The decidedly highest values of the indicator WPNK are noted for the per-
ception of contacts with Germany (the average for all the respondents in the sample
as high as 0.999). The ties with Hungary were paid attention to almost exclusively
in two bigger centres located relatively closer to this country, that is – in Rzeszów
and Lublin. The existence of connections with Hungary was practically not sug-
gested by anybody from North and Western part of Poland.

Tomasz Komornicki : The Contacts of the Inhabitants of Poland with Hungary in the Light of Survey Studies.
In: New Aspects of Regional Transformation and the Urban-Rural Relationship.
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 2004. 36-44. p. Discussion Papers, Special
THE CONTACTS OF THE INHABITANTS OF POLAND WITH HUNGARY …
43
Summary
On the basis of the general analysis of the entire survey material the primary fac-
tors were distinguished conditioning the geographical differentiation of the inter-
national connections at the personal level. These factors are as follows:
–  geographical distance,
–  historical connections,
–  earlier migration flows,
–  spatial distribution of ethnic minorities,
–  distribution of the economic activities, including foreign investments,
–  incomes of the population (conditioning not only foreign trips, but also inter-
national phone calls).
It appears that with respect to the personal contacts with Hungary the factors of
geographical distance and incomes of the population are decisive. In the second
case the dependence, however, is not linear. Since the basis for the bilateral con-
tacts is constituted by tourism, we must remember that the travels to Hungary are
often undertaken by the persons of relatively lower incomes (Hungarian camping is
often one the cheapest of the ways of spending vacation time abroad).
A definite significance for the distribution of the bilateral ties must also be as-
signed to the spatial pattern of economic activity. This is demonstrated by the par-
tial similarity of the spatial distribution of the centres featuring stronger contacts
and the distribution of the Polish-Hungarian trade (Komornicki, 2000), Figure 4
(first of all the case of Warsaw, Kraków and Lublin).
As mentioned already, it should be considered that the basis for the personal
contacts of the Polish citizens with Hungary is constituted by outbound tourism.
This tourist movement involves the persons from the entire country, first of all,
though, from the South-eastern Poland (region closest to Hungarian territory). A
clearly less pronounced role is played by the contacts associated with economic
ties. The latter concern mainly Kraków, southern Poland in general, and Warsaw.
There is, on the other hand, an almost complete lack of the “family” ties (except for
Rzeszów).