Introduction

Whereas West European countries often treat economic migration from poorer countries with a certain degree of misgiving, in departure regions migration is often viewed as a valuable opportunity, a way of opening new horizons. This chapter deals with temporary Romanian migrations to Western Europe, focusing particularly on understanding their causes and effects in the source country.

The chapter draws on several years of qualitative fieldwork conducted with Romanian migrants both within their home regions and during their stays in France (Paris and Nice), Spain and the UK. It concentrates on two particular groups. The first is composed of relatively young adults, aged 18-30, who come from Târgoviste, a mid-sized city located near Bucharest, and were working in London, Paris or Nice at the beginning of the 2000s. The second group involves individuals who come from rural parts of the Danube Plain, from the Teleorman County, and who were working in Almeria province in Andalusia in the same period.

The first group mostly migrated to Nice between 1998 and 2000 as tourists and then extended their stay by claiming asylum, or by remaining illegally. The principal occupation of these migrants was as street newspaper vendors and, although some settled in France for several years, the more common migratory pattern consisted of short stays of a few months, renewed regularly, but always interrupted by long periods (at least six months) in their home city. This practice changed at the end of 1999 when newspaper agencies, under pressure from public authorities, increasingly refused to employ foreigners without a work permit. Then some of these migrants turned to London, where unskilled work abounds and where the black market is relatively tolerated. London has become a particularly popular destination because salaries in the construction and hotel sectors are substantially higher than in Southern Europe and the authorities are perceived as less likely to expel foreigners having entered illegally.

The social profile of the second group of migrants is different, in that they are of diverse age groups, are less often qualified and are more often from small cities or villages.