The United States home to 1.4 million people of Hungarian origin

According to the latest US census data, more than 1.4 million people in the United States identify themselves as Hungarian or of Hungarian descent, the president of the Hungarian American Coalition said in an interview with the Hungarian Public Media (MTI) on the occasion of the Day of National Unity. (the Day of National Unity is June 4th in Hungary, as it is the anniversary of the 1920 Trianon Peace Treaty, as a result of which Hungary lost a significant part of its territory and population to neighbouring countries. -TN)

Andrea Lauer Rice, the head of the biggest American Hungarian organisation, added that today, the Hungarian community in the United States is organised into more than 100 organisations, 78 churches, 33 Hungarian schools, 25 scout troops, 12 Hungarian houses, museums and libraries. There are Hungarian communities in almost every US state.

She identified the Diaspora Council, which she has chaired since November 2019, as one of the most effective organizations in the field of national policy affecting the diaspora. The Council functions as a kind of global Hungarian network, whose members learn a lot from and help each other.

There are two big challenges facing the Hungarian American community in the future," Lauer said. The first is the involvement of the younger generation in the life of the diaspora, where the two most important organisations are the Hungarian Scouts Association Abroad and the network of Hungarian weekend schools. The second challenge, she said, is to involve those who do not speak Hungarian in the life of Hungarian communities as much as possible. Of the 1.4 million Americans who consider themselves Hungarian or of Hungarian origin, about one million do not speak the language, these are typically second, third or fourth generation U.S. residents (the total U.S. population is estimated at 333 million).

The Day of National Unity highlights the importance of preserving national unity and our Hungarian identity

- István Simicskó, leader of the parliamentary group of the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), said in a statement sent to MTI on Sunday.

He recalled that on 4 June 1920, the peace treaty ending the First World War was signed at the Le Petit Trianon Castle in Versailles between Hungary, which had just regained its sovereignty after four centuries of foreign rule, and the Entente powers. Posterity is right to regard it as a peace dictate, since Hungary had no real say in shaping the terms.

Simicskó, pointed out that thanks to the Naturalisation Act, in recent years the nation has been symbolically reunited. Those who were stuck outside the borders and their descendants can now formally join the motherland and experience what belonging to the Hungarian nation is like. "Along with more than 1.2 million of our new compatriots, we believe that the values that define and form the basis of our thinking and culture are still valid today and continue to enrich and strengthen the community of European peoples. We look to the uncertainties of the future with optimism and confidence, rooted in the experience and faith of the past, which has sustained us for a thousand years." – István Simicskó said.