Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said reducing immigration and protecting "ethnic homogeneity" is key to Hungary's success.
Addressing the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Budapest yesterday, PM Orban said that improving competitiveness was not the only way to bolster economic growth and "enhance the value" of the "homeland".
According to the UK's Daily Mail, the prime minister said that this can be done by "preserving ethnic homogeneity".
Hungary's population, like those of many European nations, has a mix of ethnic backgrounds, but PM Orban said this diversity "is within a certain band ethnically... within one civilization."
Hungary's government "cannot risk changing the fundamental ethnic character of the country," he said.
He added that it would not enhance the value of the country but downgrade it instead, and turn it into chaos.
He also claimed that limited diversity was culturally important because the problem of parallel societies is undesirable, an allusion to worries that societies unable to integrate migrants can increase crime levels and terrorism.
"We ourselves have to do the work required to keep our country going, from scrubbing toilets to nuclear science," he said.