The New Migration Patterns of Educated Romanians to the EU: What Challenges for the Individuals and for the Nation-State?

Abstract

Romanians, together with other Eastern Europeans, endured under communism confinement to the communist space, often described in terms of a geographic prison. The fall of communism brought Eastern Europeans the possibility of free movement. However, most Western states adopted restrictive admission policies towards the low-skilled and selective policies that favour the highly-skilled ones. Romanian skilled migrants recurred to a wide range of strategies in order to move around in the European space. In this paper, the case study on the Romanian community in France provides an insight into the life of the recent wave of Romanian skilled migrants to France: from the reasons to leave the country and the strategies adopted, to problems of professional and social integration. But, the physical absence does not mean that all the ties with the home country have been cut. Due to the development of information and communication technologies and price drop of means of transport, the ties with the home community are easily maintained. The virtual and real contacts create a flow of values, information and ideas generating a culture of networks that could play an important role in the process of convergence to the European values and institutions. The challenge facing the Romanian state is how to encourage this process, and, at the same time, how to help spread these flows at the level of the entire economy.

Keywords: highly-skilled migration, brain circulation, trans-national networks, information and communication technologies, state policy

JEL Classification: F 22, D86, O15, O38