Future-orientation analysis amongst the youth at South-Heves

Abstract

In my study I shall present the plans of the youth who live at the internal periphery of South-Heves, regarding their education, occupation, family foundation, and especially on migration. The region with a number of social-economic crisis symptoms has suffered a significant decrease of the population in the past decades. All of this justifies the examination of the future-orientation of the near future’s young adults, since the backward nature of the region is an obvious reason for young people to long elsewhere. The empiric research was conducted in the only high school at the centre of the district (Heves), and in the elementary schools of three villages (Átány, Kömlő, Tiszanána). Altogether more than 500 high school students who live and study in the region participated in the research, along with slightly more than 100 elementary school students who live and study in the examined villages. As a result we are able to draw a picture on the plans and perspectives of young people of this disadvantageous region. Our respondents have limited opportunities, a more uncertain and unpredictable perspective, and a higher level of intention to migrate, compared to the results of studies allowing for a national comparison. All of this calls for an urgent intervention, otherwise the currently ongoing process of ghettoization continues and deepens, and the lagging of the region will become irreversible.