Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has spoken out against importing labour, asserting that increased ethnic and religious diversity bring problems to a nation.

Addressing the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Budapest on Tuesday, Orbán said importing foreign workers to boost economic growth would “downgrade” the country.

“Preserving ethnic homogeneity” is important to Hungary’s economy, according to the prime minister, who said “life has proven that too much mixing causes trouble”.

He insisted the government “cannot risk changing the fundamental ethnic character of the country.

“That would not enhance the value of the country but downgrade it instead, and toss it into chaos.”

Orbán stressed that “the problem of parallel societies is undesirable”, alluding to other countries in Europe which have large communities of non-European migrants and experience high crime and terrorism.

Speaking as Hungary’s unemployment rate is at a record low of just above 4 per cent, with some employers claiming the country has a labour shortage, Orbán warned business leaders against a recourse to so-called guest worker programmes.

He said: “I would not like to see the country drift toward a situation where lower-skilled work would only be carried out by foreigners.”

“We ourselves have to do the work required to keep our country going, from scrubbing toilets to nuclear science.”

In his speech to business leaders, the prime minister also stated the government is aiming for full employment. He added it is important that banks and financial institutions in Hungary serve national interests.

Hungary has begun building a new fence along its southern border with Serbia amid fears that, when the weather allows, hundreds of thousands of migrants could once again attempt to travel up through the Balkans in attempts to reach Western Europe.

Last month Orbán asserted mass migration is being used by globalists like billionaire financier George Soros to “crush the will of the people”.

The “open society” sought by the Hungarian hedge fund manager and other globalists, the prime minister said, is a place where “people, ethnic groups and cultures are stamped out to size like hamburgers, so that they can be turned into merchandise [and] countries are transformed into railway stations, with everyone being able to move in and out”.