I read with interest a recent Telegraph article regarding the decision of the Hungarian government to grant passports to up to 500,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Croatia, Serbia and the Ukraine.

This will, by Proxy, grant these “new” EU citizens the freedom to move around Europe and to work in the UK, Republic of Ireland or Sweden (the other EU states have restrictions on workers from the 2004 influx states).  Many of these new citizens are, apparently, planning to work in Britain.

This is the sort of geopolitical change that means a lot to us here at Applied Language Solutions.

If we suddenly notice an increase in Hungarian (or indeed Serbo-Croat or Ukrainian), we’ll be able to activate our resourcing plan to cope with these languages.  We prefer to tell our clients that a “new” language is coming their way and we have resources in place, rather than just react to a new situation. Proactivity, in old money.

It did get me thinking though… what if every nation did what Hungary has just done?  As a Belfast boy, the thought of everyone of Irish descent suddenly arriving back on our little island might cause it to sink.

Similarly, if everyone of British heritage returned to Blighty it could suddenly be a little over-crowded.  Of course, the 1948 British Nationality Act, which passed through Parliament with hardly a word of debate, gave full British Citizenship to all 800 million people in the British Commonwealth.

Although the Act was heavily amended between 1962 and 1971 it was as late as 1983 when it was finally repealed.

The thinking behind the original act was that no one living in the old Empire would ever want to come to the UK, with its shattered post-war economy and drab weather, compared to the sunny Caribbean, oil-rich Nigeria, vibrant newly-independent India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and East Pakistan (later Bangladesh) and indeed the “British California” of Australia.

Clement Attlee’s government from 1948 might have been a little surprised at the subsequent waves of immigration since then, but maybe that most radical and reforming administration would feel gratified that a newly-Hungarian Ukrainian thinks immediately of making his way to work in Britain.

Perhaps in this time of recession and emergency austerity budgets, we should be a little more proud that the UK is seen as a country where hard work can bring success – and the enshrined British sense of fair play still holds true.