Programmes will continue this year under the Hungarian government’s Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Scholarship Program designed to help diaspora Hungarians maintain their Hungarian identity and language, State Secretary for Hungarian communities abroad Árpád János Potápi said at a press conference on Tuesday. About it Hungarian Register reports.

Under the scheme named after the renowned Hungarian orientalist, 100 young Hungarians will be assigned to assist local Hungarian communities in five continents again this year, Árpad János Potápi said.

New destinations this year will include Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, the state secretary said, adding that those who had taken part in the programme during the previous two years would be invited to apply again.

The programme’s budget for this year is 1 billion forints (EUR 3.2m). In 2013, the first year of the programme, 47 young Hungarians were sent to diaspora communities while in 2014 – due to the success of the programme – the number of participants was raised to 100.

According to statistics relating to 2011, the Hungarian diaspora numbers in Australia about 67,000, in Canada 316,000, in the US half a million, in Latin America 200,000 and in Western Europe about 388,000.