STRATEGIES, PATTERNS, AND MIGRATION PRACTICES IN (POST)COMMUNIST ROMANIA
STRATEGIES, PATTERNS, AND MIGRATION PRACTICES IN (POST)COMMUNIST ROMANIA

Author(s): Rarița Mihail
Subject(s): History, Social Sciences, Sociology, Economic history, Recent History (1900 till today), Special Historiographies:, Demography and human biology, Post-Communist Transformation, Migration Studies
Published by: CEEOLPRESS
Keywords: Romanian migration; communist regime; internal migration; mass migration; passport liberalisation; post-communist period; socio-economic transition;
Summary/Abstract: Romania is part of the global migration phenomenon, with a history marked by alternating periods of rise and decline, primarily shaped by internal economic, social, and political conditions. During the communist regime, Romanian migration had two dimensions: one within the borders, as an effect of labor redistribution and colonization for industrial development, and another outward, as a form of denial and avoidance of the communist system. Internal migration generated by the country’s industrialization intensified starting in 1970 and later waned as international migration gained momentum. This type of migration had a pronounced ethnic character and was based, especially in the second half of the communist period, on economic interests and questionable political agreements. The shift in Romania’s migration regime after the fall of communism and the liberalization of passport policies set the context for the emergence of mass migration, which became a major social phenomenon of the post-communist period. Based on these considerations, this paper argues that the liberalization of passport policies was not the main cause of this phenomenon but rather certain trends that emerged particularly in the second half of the 1980s, clearly indicating that the migration potential within Romanian society was already increasing. Migration after 1990 represents the third major transformation in Romanian society, the first being the transition from totalitarianism to democracy and the second from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. The departure of Romanians abroad, crossing borders, became a way to compensate for what they did not find in the other two changes: genuine democracy and well-paid jobs. To analyze Romanian migration over the last three decades, we consider the changing nature of the phenomenon, reflected in migration practices generated by various demographic, socio-economic, and political contexts after 1989.

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