Migration is a rather new phenomenon in Romania after 1990. The difference between in-flows and out-flows is significantly in favour of out-migrants in terms of volumes and experiences. In terms of out-flows probably labour migration is the most important form of Romanians moving to a foreign country. Student mobility represents less than one-fifth of the total volume of migrant workers after 1990 and emigration for good has been constantly declining since 1995. There are also significant pull factors that account for labour migration and it is enough to mention here the case of Moldavians migrating to Italy (the northeastern part of Romania is referred to, here, not the Republic of Moldavia). As regarding in-flows, business immigrants are the first who settled on the Romanian territory (during early 1990s), a large proportion coming from China, Turkey and some other Arab countries (Syria, Lebanon). The future trends of out-flow migration refer to a dramatic change of destinations from Central Europe to Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Greece). As migration policies will become more restrictive in new destination countries, it is likely that Romanians will seek work in the new candidate countries (Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland) until the year of accession.
In fact this booklet is part of a product of comprehensive research and analysis of migration trends in each of six participating EU accession countries: Poland (N°3), the Czech Republic (N°2), Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania (N°4) and Bulgaria (N°1). |
