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Future Challenges | Romania | bpb.de

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Future Challenges

István Horváth

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In the 1990s, Romanian authorities tolerated labour emigration because it functioned as a safety valve, defusing the increasing social tensions generated by the collapse of Communism and the rather difficult transition to a market economy.

It seems that this flow has become self-perpetuating and, even if the causes behind the massive labour migration have disappeared, a future continuation cannot be ruled out. However, the authorities are interested not only in containing this flow, but in creating the domestic conditions necessary to encourage Romanians working abroad to return to Romania. This is a challenging policy issue indeed: considerable economic adjustments (e.g. wage increases) would need to be made and programmes for the (re-)integration of returnees created. How the administration will go about designing and implementing effective policies in this field remains to be seen, since no concrete steps for implementation have been discussed publicly since the new immigration policy was announced at the beginning of 2007.

On the other hand, Romanian authorities will need to turn their attentions to attracting foreign workers in order to meet shortages in the domestic labour market. Since Romania has never experienced major inflows of foreign citizens, the authorities and society in general might have to face a genuine challenge in dealing with increased diversity and integrating a large number of newcomers. The National Strategy on Migration contains some rather general strategies in this area (e.g. relying on the experience of other EU member states). However, EU countries have different means of managing immigration and integration, none of which can be considered unequivocally as best practice. A recent survey reveals that intolerant attitudes toward immigrants and immigration are not currently widespread among the Romanian population. However, it should be noted that Romanian society has only recently begun to face the social issues that arise from immigration. Recent conflicts between foreign and domestic employees working at the same firm have shown that Romanian society (including the media) is still not prepared to face the intercultural issues that go along with increasing diversity, and that benevolent reactions on the part of the general public toward immigrants cannot be taken for granted.

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  1. The study was carried out in the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania. It was conducted in December 2006, under the leadership of the author. The results of the study can be viewed here (in Romanian): Externer Link: http://www.dri.gov.ro/documents/MINORITATI_Nationale.ppt

  2. See Magradean, V. (2007): "Autostrada 'la negru.'" Monitorul de Cluj, 15 March.

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