Radio România Internațional

Tag: labour migration

  • Life between work shifts for foreign workers in Romania

    Life between work shifts for foreign workers in Romania

    According to the latest survey conducted by the Centre for the Comparative Migration Studies, a little over 200 thousand foreign citizens were living in Romania at the end of October 2023, 87% of whom were holders of temporary residence permits. With a rejection rate of humanitarian protection applications of over 83%, the latter makes up for the least numerous group among foreign citizens living in Romania.

    Due to the many opportunities it provides in terms of employment, education and leisure, the capital city Bucharest accounts for 26% of the total number of foreign citizens in Romania, followed by Ilfov county with 10%, Timiș county, in the west, with 7%, Cluj county, in the northwest, with 6%, and Constanta county, in the southeast, with 6%. The survey also shows that Nepali citizenship is the most numerous (accounting for 9%), followed by Turkish (with 8%), and Italian, Sri Lankan and Moldovan (with 7% each). While Italian, Turkish and Moldovan labour migration is the result of historical links and cultural and economic similarities, South Asian migration is the result of labour agreements and is yet insufficiently studied and understood.

    A survey entitled “Bridging Communities: An exploratory study on labour migration in Romania” has analysed in detail the rights of Asian workers, their working and living conditions and to what extent these are respected. According to the Romanian Labour Code, immigrant workers should enjoy the same rights, working conditions, rest periods, social benefits, wages and protection against discrimination as Romanian citizens.

    However,  researchers found that workplace exploitation is the most frequently cited issue, and which has a major impact on the decision to re-migrate to other countries. Among the jobs most vulnerable to potential exploitation and rights violations are those of food delivery courier and kitchen worker. The risk of exploitation is even greater for those without valid work permits, for example the people waiting for the necessary documents to be issued.

    Anatolie Coșciug, the coordinator of the study, believes that the state institutions should verify and ensure compliance with the legislation, including the rules related to the necessary qualifications and skills:

    “According to the General Inspectorate for Immigration, workers must prove a number of things; either some qualification in their field or a practical test. There are a few things that clearly don’t work. One of them is mastery of the language; they must know Romanian or an international language and this is not the case. They just give a statement that they know, but we should have a practical test. Very often we see people come in and they don’t know or have no qualifications in that specific area. Which is unthinkable for countries like Germany, where this aspect is state-owned and over-controlled. You’re not allowed to bring in a worker who has to weld and doesn’t know how to weld. And there are a few other things, for example healthcare. The responsibility lies with the companies that bring the workers in, but they must be supervised, that is, they must be clearly controlled by public authorities in various forms.”

    One aspect we know even less about when it comes to foreign workers is how they spend their free time, what music they listen to, where they hang out, and what small businesses owned by other members of their community facilitate their meeting together. In October, for example, a well-known performance venue in Bucharest known as Arenele Romane, the Roman Arenas, hosted a concert by the most popular band in Sri Lanka. It was a huge success, with people coming from all corners of Romania, from cities as far away as Arad, in the west of the country.

    Similarly, a recently opened restaurant in the Pantelimon area of ​​Bucharest has become a meeting and hangout place for the Sri Lankans living in the Romanian capital. The restaurant is owned by a young couple who arrived in Romania on work visas, aware of their community’s need for a place that represents their culture. In addition to traditional food, the restaurant hosts electronic music events, inviting DJs from the local Sri Lankan community and musicians from around Europe.

    We often forget that recent arrivals bring with them more than labour. They bring music, cuisine, local businesses, a different lifestyle and way of being that slowly make their way and strengthen the community and ultimately enrich the host culture.

  • Parents working abroad, children left at home

    Parents working abroad, children left at home


    Its been quite a few years now since Romania has been faced with a new social phenomenon, with a major impact on children: parents migrating to countries with a stronger economy. For a better standard of living, lots of parents leave their native countries, entrusting their children to their relatives. Better wages may cover some needs and wishes, yet emotionally, living apart from one or even both parents is very likely to leave an immense void in the souls of the little ones. They experience a true drama, since nothing and nobody can ever replace a missing parent. Children feel abandoned and have to face emotional, social and educational difficulties. According to psychologists, missing ones parents leads to depression, alienation, low self-esteem and a sense of guilt.



    Furthermore, children whose parents work abroad show a low motivation for school, for life in general. Some of them even have suicidal tendencies, as no one understands their plight. Reality by far exceeds the figures the authorities made public. Were speaking about 94, 662 children whom the national Child Protection and Adoption Authority presented as the most-recently reported figures, of which 20,560 have both parents working abroad and 12,837 having just one single supporting parent abroad, therefore children who are left in the care of a relative. In another move, surveys also estimated a number of 350.000 children in such a situation, accounting for 10 per cent of Romanias children.



    Petruta Soare looks after a nine-year old niece. Her parents are in England and come home twice a year. The child is happy because she receives lots of gifts.


    “For the time being, she does not miss her parents as she speaks with them every night. We get a lot of help from the Save the Children Organization. The children are placed in groups, they do their homework and perform various activities together and go on lots of trips. The child is satisfied as all her whims are fulfilled, parents buy her whatever she wants from abroad. She, in turn, makes her parents happy with her achievements in school. I am satisfied too, because shes doing fine in school and let me say that once again, she very much likes the activities ran by the Save the Children Organization, she simply couldnt have done this well without Save the Children.”



    Elena left for Spain 10 years ago. She left two primary school boys with her relatives. Although she spent 2-3 months a year with them, the boys were unable to adapt and suffered a lot.


    “Actually, it was rather difficult to leave two small children behind. Ten years later I realized I hadnt made a good choice, children grew up without me and I wasted the most beautiful years of our lives. Although I returned home every year to spend 3 months together with them, it was not enough to raise and educate them properly.”



    The extent of this phenomenon, of children left home by parents who work abroad has led to the development at national level of a network of specialized services for these children. The “Save the Children” Organization has created such services, for both children and parents, on the one hand, and for the persons who actually have these children in their care.



    Anca Stamin, a program coordinator with the “Save the Children” Organization told us:


    “Back in 2010, Save the Children initiated services of support for the children whose parents left the country to work abroad, as well as for the persons who actually take care of these children. For instance, the organization started such programs as School after school. There are 17 such local programs in which children come after school, do their homework, take part in various leisure activities together with other children, are helped to communicate with their parents abroad through technical means, using the internet. They also benefit from psychological counseling, which helps them overcome this difficult situation. At the same time, those who actually take care of the children also benefit from psychological counseling, to help them better understand the childrens needs during this period, to better relate to them and interact with them. If the person who takes care of the children is a relative of theirs, he or she benefits from counseling, also as regards the procedure of delegating the parent authority, for a specific period of time, when one or both parents are working abroad”.



    In 2015, the “Save the Children” Organization launched the first helpline and online counseling service for the children affected by economic migration. Anca Stamin again:


    “It is a free of charge service, a helpline they can use from Monday to Friday to get information and legal, administrative, psychological and social counseling. Also, there is a phone number available for the parents who work abroad. We also have an online platform copiisinguriacasa.ro which has a section of interesting news and articles on this issue, as well as a section where people can leave their questions, which will be answered in due time by experts from the Save the children organization.”



    At European level, there are 1,500,000 children affected by the absence of their parents, who are working abroad, and therefore the European institutions make sustained efforts to find solutions. MEP Victor Negrescu wants to initiate, with European funds, a national program which will be submitted to the Romanian Parliament for debate. Under this program, Romanians in the diaspora will be helped to return home and get reintegrated on the labour market in Romania. Mechanisms will be created to help get faster diploma equivalence, qualification certificates and other documents attesting the acquired professional experience, as well as a smoother integration of the children who lived in the diaspora in the education system in Romania.




  • Absentee parents gone to work abroad

    Absentee parents gone to work abroad

    With their parents leaving the country to find work abroad, many children relegated to the care of parents or relatives. This was not without consequences for the children, as noticed by family members, educators and psychologists. The phenomenon of the missing parents, with their authority but also loving care, has visible effects on the behaviour of children. Sociologist Florian Nitu told us what some of these manifestations are:



    “Statistical studies have clearly shown that there is an impact in school performance and interest towards school. At the same time, we see more vulnerability to deviant behaviour: alcohol, tobacco and drug consumption, etc. There is also a higher risk of gravitating towards or becoming victims of law breaking groups. However, the most important impact is in terms of personality development. This is caused by the ‘absentee parent syndrome’, which has been widely studied, not only in Romania, but all over the world. It has been shown that the lack of a parent or both can lead to low self-esteem, feelings of guilt and a very high level of anxiety.”



    Not all children left at home by parents working abroad have these problems, but the vulnerability is there. For that reason, the number of such children needs to be known as precisely as possible.



    The Foundation for Open Society is running a project which is now several years old. Victoria Cojocariu from the foundation told us about the project’s results:



    “We started this project in 2007 with one study, and realised that we need to know precisely how many children are left at home without parents, because official statistics were hard to believe. Starting with 2004, the statistics from the national child protection department stayed at around 80,000. Knowing the strong fluctuations in the number of Romanians leaving the country, we wanted to see how accurate that figure was. This is why we ran an independent study, which we concluded in 2009. At the same time, the Save the Children organisation ran a parallel count of these children. Both our organisations found that in 2008 there were around 350,000 such children. At the same time, data from the national department for child protection was a little over 82,000. We drew attention to that difference, and put it on account of the department’s inability to collect accurate data due to the lack of reasonable infrastructure. We also saw that social workers were clustered around certain urban centres and that they were unable to structure data bases. Today, in 2015, official statistics for 2014 are still gravitating around 80,000.”



    One person we talked to who spent a lot of time studying and conversing with these children is sociologist Florian Nitu from the Orizont_FemRural run by the Association for the Promotion of Women in Romania.



    The sociologist found that everyone involved, both parents and children, perceive the separation as a fracture, a fracture that each person manages in their own way:



    “There are various ways in which this fracture is coped with by both parents and children. I met children who suffered because their parents were not around, others who adapted very well. We have to point out that this is an evolving relationship, which can have dramatic moments, but also functional moments. There are times in a child’s life which are extremely difficult without parents, but also times when it is easier. There are periods of high vulnerability, depending on age and circumstance, but also periods of normalcy. We shouldn’t believe that the negative effects of parents going away are absolute.”



    One of the aims of the project was to counteract the negative effects by identifying the mistakes parents make in managing a long distance relationship with their children, and come up with improvements. Here is Florian Nitu:



    “It seems that one fundamental mistake parents make is to lay the responsibility of their leaving for work abroad on the child’s shoulders. When they see the child crying and going through a difficult time, they tell him that he or she is the reason they are leaving. Parents saying to their children ‘I am going away for you’ is understood as ‘I’m going away because of you, if it weren’t for you I’d be staying’. The child suffers, and the idea that parents are leaving because of them is a burden they carry around. Often, parents also tell their children that life is difficult for them abroad, which makes it even worse for the children. In this way, the child gathers even more guilt: mom and dad are going away because of me, and over there they feel even worse. When the mother is the one who leaves, many times things end up in divorces. This means that in those cases, the child also bears the guilt of the separation between parents.”



    Another mistake parents gone to work abroad make is not keeping in touch regularly and frequently with the children and their school, along with lavishing gifts on them. Experts recommend frequent and regular communication by any means. The relationship with educators is also important, especially since in the last few years another situation is emerging, according to Victoria Cojocariu:



    “The economic crisis has brought about some changes. Even though children continue to be left at home, with one of the parents or with friends and relatives, there is this new category of children who return from abroad themselves. The Ministry of Education signalled this situation to us about a year and a half ago. County departments of education tell us that they are faced with dozens, even hundreds of school children who are sent back from the countries where their parents work because the parents cannot support them there. They come back to the Romanian school system from a foreign school system. Obviously, some of them have gaps or difficulties. Some return with their parents, some alone. However, we unfortunately have no data on them.”



    Even though generally speaking children come to terms with parents going away, there have been extreme cases in which the children do not accept at all this situation, in some cases resulting in suicide. Which is why a deep study is necessary to get precise figures, and parents need to be better educated in order to improve their long distance relationship with the children.