I'm only speaking from experience and can't really talk about Hungary. As for Poland, I can tell you that the difference with Italy is like night and day. As

I'm only speaking from experience and can't really talk about Hungary. As for Poland, I can tell you that the difference with Italy is like night and day. As Italians, we are often asked to make sacrifices for Europe (and we did, look up "tesoretto"), like if we were in danger of being kicked out of the EU. It's a complicated matter, but in general Italy is more corrupt and hardly takes any meaningful step to improve its citizen's lives, while Poland (although barely less corrupt if I remember correctly? Not sure) looks after Poland's interests first, and then at what Germany would like Europe to do. The result is that living here is about 100 times easier compared to Italy.