Governmental Measures supporting Return and Reintegration of Romanian Migrants

This paper summarizes the most important governmental initiatives aimed at return migrants or Romanian citizens settled temporarily abroad. Romania’s membership in the European Union has transformed the notion of migration into mobility, enabling Romanians to become mobile E.U. citizens with a regulated legal status. The status of Romania as one of the top countries of emigration in the last years, with over two million citizens living in other E.U. member states, lead to a high economic, demographic and social impact. Most Romanian emigrants have economic reasons and are part of the active population - thus creating shortages in some economic sectors in their country of origin. The immigration process as a possibility to compensate the mass emigration is far from being a valid alternative, with the number of immigrants in Romania representing less than 1% of the total population. Therefore the interest of Romanian authorities to convince its citizens to return should be more consistent, taking into accounts the induced positive consequences (e.g. social and economic remittances that migrants are bringing back with them). The paper is based on data provided by authorities responsible for relevant information about Romanian emigrants or the integration of those who already returned (e.g. Ministry of Labour; National Agency for Employment). Our analysis shows that although the emigration of Romanians became an important fact during the last years, the initiatives aimed to sustain their return or reintegration are still rather limited in scope and effects, and that they should be expanded to address a larger variety of needs.

Keywords: return migration, governmental initiatives, emigration, reintegration