Migrationonline.cz

The website for critical discussion about migration in Central and Eastern Europe.
24. 8. 04
Dumitru Sandu
Zdroj: migrationonline.cz

Emerging transnational migration from Romanian villages

The paper of prof. Dumitru Sandu from Bucharest University presents the first results of a community census (December 2001) on external migration at the level of all Romanian villages. Local key informants filled in the questionnaire on the village migration and socio-demographic profile. The form was filled in about 12300 out of the total 12700 villages the country has in rural areas. Even if the information on migration is affected by errors related to the fact that recording was at village and not at personal or household level, the data processing indicate a high consistency level of obtained information. The general image is that of a strong regionalization of the circular migration abroad from the rural areas. Function of the key destinations, the Romanian villages cluster in some basic external migration fields: Germany, Hungary, Italy, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Spain and France. At a more detailed level, considering multiple destinations, those fields break into 15 regions of migration. Village level analysis of the phenomenon indicates a strong selectivity of migration function of village characteristics. About 4% out of the total villages of the country accounts for more than 60% out of the total return migration from abroad. These are villages of high probability of transnationalism. Hypotheses involving human, social and cultural capital are strongly supported by the data. The innovative circular or transnational migration is proved to be connected with basic characteristics of the migration system of the country: the villages where village to city commuting declined sharply after 1990 and where return migration from cities was high recorded a higher propensity for circulatory migration abroad. A set of about 2700 villages of high migration prevalence are described as ?proable transnational communities?.
24. 8. 04
Zdroj: migrationonline.cz

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