The aim of this study is to describe long-term changes in intergenerational social
mobility in Hungary between 1973 and 2018 and to provide an overview of the current
situation that has not been examined previously. Our main questions are whether trends
of the earlier periods continued and whether previous gender differences persisted
at the end of the 2010s. According to our results total mobility continued to decline
and it hit its lowest point in decades at the end of the 2010s. In addition, decreasing
proportion of the population move upwards compared with their fathers and an increasing
proportion experience the deterioration of their social position. While earlier research
found that structural changes in society triggered upward mobility the polarising
class structure after 1990 set into motion contrary trends. In this period, structural
mobility increasingly typically meant downward mobility. As regards relative mobility
chances associated with working in high and low occupational positions, we concluded
that the ceiling seems to be stickier than the floor as a rule, that is, the role
of origin is more decisive in keeping a favourable social position than in the transmission
of a disadvantaged position across generations. The odds for someone born into unfavourable
circumstances to rise are greater than for those of someone who was brought up in
privileged circumstances to slide down.
