Best Practice Options: Romania

Abstract

The purpose of the Cooperative Efforts to Manage Emigration (CEME) site visit to Timisoara, Romania was to evaluate three hypotheses. First, creating the economic conditions that attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) brings growth and job creation, which in turn can be expected to reduce emigration pressures and speed the acceptance of Romania into the European Union (EU). The foreign investment initially attracted by low wages will create jobs and hope of continued economic improvement, anchoring workers, managers, engineers, and other professionals to Romania. Over time, jobs and wages will rise, further reducing emigration pressures.Second, Romania has several sizeable ethnic minorities, notably Hungarians, Germans, Ukrainians, and Roma, or Gypsies. All have a propensity to emigrate. Government policies that reduce discrimination against minorities by respecting their languages and cultures, using public institutions such as the police and schools to demonstrate tolerance and sensitivity to minorities, and enforcing Romania’s anti–discrimination laws will reduce emigration pressures in such groups.Third, the EU and outside organizations can best help to reduce emigration, transit migration, and trafficking by meeting regularly with Romanian officials and non–governmental actors to discuss migration issues in the context of Romania’s desire to meet the criteria for EU and NATO membership. This will cause Romanians to take more seriously issues such as the need to integrate Roma into Romania’s economy and society, the need to manage borders to prevent trafficking of migrants through the country, and modernizing border management to facilitate the movement of legitimate travellers and goods while discouraging illegal migration.These hypotheses were borne out by the information gathered at Timisoara, Romania, but actual progress on the measures that would help was found to be very uneven.