At the beginning of the 21st century the European Union faces the greatest challenge in its history. Several problems were raised due to the joining of new member countries to the EU, one of which – the free movement of people – was the most important.
The 15 EU member-states, with fears of the cheap labour of the ten joining countries, in 2003 introduced days of grace for seven years to restrict the free movement of labour. However the majority of basic rights came into being before the joining to EU, the free movement of people and rather the free movement of employees became a question of serious debates. Facts did not prove these fears even in the case of France where the fi gure of a Polish mechanic became a topic of voting campaign in 2005. The expected wave of migrant workers never arrived consequently; countries having opened their labour marked after 1 May 2004 were out of danger.
At the same time the areas that lost their inhabitants started to decline in terms of both economy and society. This is one of the main reasons for revitalization, which could support the improvement of socio-economic factors of rural areas, decreasing the unfavourable effects of migration.  The newer reconsideration of the transition period is coming at an early date; we made a quantitative research with face to face method in Hungary in August 2008. In the questionnaire we analyzed the migration potential of the Hungarian people with 1200 members national representative sampling.

At the beginning of the 21st century the European Union faces the greatest challenge in its history. Several problems were raised due to the joining of new member countries to the EU, one of which – the free movement of people – was the most important.
The 15 EU member-states, with fears of the cheap labour of the ten joining countries, in 2003 introduced days of grace for seven years to restrict the free movement of labour. However the majority of basic rights came into being before the joining to EU, the free movement of people and rather the free movement of employees became a question of serious debates. Facts did not prove these fears even in the case of France where the fi gure of a Polish mechanic became a topic of voting campaign in 2005. The expected wave of migrant workers never arrived consequently; countries having opened their labour marked after 1 May 2004 were out of danger.
At the same time the areas that lost their inhabitants started to decline in terms of both economy and society. This is one of the main reasons for revitalization, which could support the improvement of socio-economic factors of rural areas, decreasing the unfavourable effects of migration.  The newer reconsideration of the transition period is coming at an early date; we made a quantitative research with face to face method in Hungary in August 2008. In the questionnaire we analyzed the migration potential of the Hungarian people with 1200 members national representative sampling.