THE CHANGE OF EMPLOYMENT, URBAN STRUCTURE AND THE NUMBER OF INHABITANTS FROM THE 1980S TO THE PRESENT DAY, AROUND THE CITY OF SZIGETSZENTMIKLÓS

Abstract

This study describes the changes in the employment and urban structure and in the number of inhabitants in the region around Szigetszentmiklós, a satellite town in the south of Budapest, Hungary, from the 1980s to the present day.

Owing to the constant development of the heavy industrial complex in Csepel (a southern district of Budapest), the villages in the commuter belt bordering Csepel formed a system of strongly related settlements by the second half of the 20^th century. During this process, land usage and urban structure also changed. However, the change of the regime in 1990 was the beginning of a new age for the area. Hungarian heavy industry went bankrupt, socialist state-owned companies were liquidated. A large proportion of employees flowed into the service sector, inducing a new migration and changing the urban structure. In the region discussed here this general tendency can be clearly seen, indicated by measurable phenomena, such as the spectacular strengthening of the tertiary sector, the outflow of inhabitants from the capital, the integration of inherited industrial sites and infrastructure into the service sector and the changes of urban structure.

New residential areas and parks needed to be set up to receive the new inhabitants of the satellite settlements. Therefore, these settlements – namely Szigetszentmiklós, Halásztelek, Szigethalom, and Tököl – had to build in their inner areas or use new plots for the development. Only those settlements could solve this problem that has large free areas, e.g. Szigetszentmiklós.

The industrial and service sector has exercised a strong pressure on the settlements here, as well. The dynamically developing logistic bases and new industrial parks pleaded for lands. Only Szigetszentmiklós could satisfy such needs, providing large areas for greenfield investments. The most important brownfield investment in the area has taken place in the former Pestvidéki Gépgyár (Tököl, Szigethalom), where an industrial park and a shopping centre replaced the former huge industrial complex.