Emerging transnational migration
from Romanian villages* §
Dumitru Sandu**
University of Bucharest
September 2002
Keywords: circular migration, transnational space, probable transnational community, migration
regions and fields, community capital
The paper develops themes initially presented under the Romanian version entitled Migraţia transnaţională a
romanilor din perspectiva unui recensamant comunitar (“Transnational migration of Romanian from the point of view
of a community census”), in „Sociologie Romanească” ("Romanian Sociology") No. 3-4/2000. The development refer
to theoretical interpretation and consistency with findings from other previous studies and to introducing the new
concept of “probable transnational community”. The present form of the paper give up descriptive details related to
county level aggregation of figures and to data collection design and difficulties. Paper finalised as Oxford College
Hospitality Scheme invitee, September 2002.
§
Translation from Romanian by Şerban Filipon. Revision of translation for technical terms by author.
**
For communication purposes use the em address: dsandu@dnt.ro
*
The paper 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”.
Foreword
Transnational migration is a quite new phenomenon, associated with globalisation
processes, with the development rationale of contemporary capitalism (Portes, 1996: Portes, 1997).
Emerging of certain life styles integrating values and resources from the origin or destination of
flows and perpetuation of the migration movement among communities and regions from different
countries require analyses and researches to make the new phenomenon scientifically
understandable. Migration is not only circular or recurrent but it is also transnational to the extent to
which it succeeds to associate transnational cultural models, "dual" life styles (Portes, 1996:4) and
to develop itself within life areas that are defined most appropriately by transnationalism (Pries,
2001a). Migration movement between the United States and Mexico (Massey, Goldring, Durand,
1994; Pries, 2001a) is illustrating in specialised literature exemplary models for the new type of
phenomenon. In this case, multiplication and durability of migration communication forms between
the two countries played a considerable role for the structuring of life areas and styles of
transnational type. During the decades similar migration areas have also been developing in other
parts of the world, such as Turks in Germany (Faist: 1999), Swedish in the United States (Smith,
2001), Algerians from France, etc.
Emergence of new democracies in Central and Eastern European area after 1989 has
entailed an unprecedented high migration movement between Eastern and Western Europe. To what
extent the new flows bear the mark of transnationalism? What is the role played by individual,
community and regional variables in the selectivity of international circular migration, and
particularly of the transnational one? To what extent migrants from post-communist states in
Eastern Europe develop a new type of "regional transnationalism" (Rogers, 2000)?
This research tries to answer the questions above by reference to a particular case - that of
the migrants from Romanian villages to foreign countries during the period 1990-2001. Circular
migration outside Romania, as a particular type of temporary migration is the main objective (Box
1) of the analyses performed within this research1. Focus is on identifying external migration
structures not defined in terms of individuals but of communities and regions. It is about the role
played by the village, as local community - due to its location, resources and population - in
conditioning the flows of transnational circular migration. If in the case of definitive migration the
main unit of reference is the individual, in the case of temporary or circular migration, the role of
the local community and of the area of origin is much stronger. This operates as a mean of
1
information communication, as support for organising the various networks of migration circulation
and as beneficiary or impact area of emigration s.
Data on which the analysis2 is based were produced through a community census on the
circular migration between Romanian villages and localities abroad.
Box 1. Objectives
Identifying the main features of circular migration of Romanians from rural areas towards foreign countries
for the period 1990-2001. Particularly we try to provide answers to the following items:
VOLUME:
 what was the volume and
 intensity of external circular migration from rural areas by countries of destination.
REGIONALISATION:
 what is the structure of the country by migration fields or regions;
 what are the features of migrants by destination countries, departing flows and migration regions.
COMMUNITY SELECTIVITY
 what are the features characterising the migrants' communities of origin or of the permanent
domicile;
 which are the rural communities with the highest probability of international temporary migration of
transnational type.
EXPLANATION
 which are the factors conditioning at origin the circular migration.
EVALUATION
 to what degree abroad circulation of Romanian villagers is “transnational”, involves changes in
styles of life of circular migrants and their communities;
 are there any signs of the emergence of “transnational villages”
Method and hypotheses
The community census on migration (CCM)
In order to identify the quantitative features of circular migration as to rural population, the
IOM team initially examined the possibility to organise a poll at national level. The method could
have offered useful results at household and personal levels but not at community level. Firstly, its
disadvantages would arise from the fact that it could not record the models of phenomenon
development with quite low frequency of occurrence. Secondly, there would have been little
chances to acknowledge the entire range of rural and regional communities with direct impact on
migration patterns. And finally, irrespective how extensive a poll might be as regards its volume it
would not have allowed for identifying the varied forms of the phenomenon.
The solution adopted, in order to cope with the mentioned obstacles, was to organise a
recording of census type not at the personal or household level but at community level (Box 2, Box
3). How can a migration census at the level of the almost 12700 villages in Romanian communes be
made? With the fairly limited resources that IOM could activate, the solution of principle was to
send a questionnaire by mail to local institutions at the level of the communes3.
Box 2. Why "community census on migration"
The community census on migration was carried out by IOM based on the data gathered through the
Ministry of Public Information and the Ministry of the Interior during late November and early December 2001.
The recording has the nature of a census because it considered all Romanian villages.
It is a community census because the recording unit was the village. Census takers were local experts,
persons that had very good knowledge about the village, selected according to the instructions received along
with the census form (see Annex 2). Questions in the census form relate to features of the village. It is mostly
about agreed measures, resulting from information on households and persons with international emigration
experience. Also, data were gathered as regards internal migration history of the village population as well as
regarding the locality development level.
It is a community census a community census of ethnographic type, carried out by key informants,
focused on recording the local context of the analysed phenomenon. The fact that the selection of the key
informants was made at the level of each local community according to the Judgement sampling rationale
(according to the instructions in Annex 2) is not of nature to annul the characteristic of villages census on
migration. With a questionnaire answering rate of over 98% (considering the village as data gathering units) and
of 99.06 (considering communes4 as reference units - 2661 communes filled in the forms out of the total of
2
2686) the recording is comprehensive 5.
The selection method for data recording units (villages) is the one that determines the nature of the
main method. As villages were selected based on the principle of examining a complete list, the census (of
qualitative, ethnographic type) is the specific method for data gathering within this project..
The data required in order to achieve the mentioned objectives was gathered through a form
sent to all 2686 communes of the country. The form (see Annex 2) included 98 questions regarding
temporary displacements towards foreign countries and returns of migrants to the locality during the
period 1990-2001. For each village of the commune there was filled in one column of the form so
that data was obtained as to migration behaviour at the level of the entire Romanian rural
environment (over 12300 villages out of the total of 127006).
Box 3. Substantiation hypotheses for the community census on transnational migration
The main hypotheses which formed the base for the elaboration of the census questionnaire and for data
interpretation allege that "Romanian villages - foreign countries" circular migration:
 is characterised by strong variation according to features of the community capital (Massey, Goldring,
Durand, 1994; Sandu ,2000) and, consequently it is important to be recorded simultaneously with
descriptive data on external migration, data regarding the ecological and development profiles of the
community (COMMUNITY CAPITAL HYPOTHESIS - for direct confirmation refer to Table A1 in Annex
1 and Table 8);
 may only be understood as a part of the national migration system, with its different internal and external
components, of temporary or definitive movements, circular or non-circular , for longer or shorter
distances, within intra-regional, inter-regional, trans-border, or transnational areas (MIGRATION SYSTEM
HYPOTHESIS7 - for direct confirmation see Table A2 in Annex 1);
 is characterised by strong variation according to the flow or context at the time when it has occurred 8
(MIGRATION FLOWS HYPOTHESIS - in order to support this it is useful the comparison between return
migration, associated to a greater extent with the first flows, and the rate of temporary migration recorded at
the time of the census);
 it is a component part of the functioning manner of three conjunct networks - transnational networks at the
beginning of the 1990s, national-local networks relevant for migration and actual transnational networks.
Internal economic shocks, changes in migration policies of the various nearby or far off states, sluggishness
of cultural-historical type with the attached networks and ideologies, all of them are simultaneously
mirrored in the internal and external migration flows, in the manner in which they interact. It is only now
that an approach of the migration system on the Romanian territory is beginning to become possible to
undertake with the support of certain data such as those of the community census that this article is
summarising (NETWORKS HYPOTHESIS9).
 it develops according to the cumulative mechanisms rationale: a migration act increases the occurrence
probability of subsequent such acts; one more migrant from the community contributes to the extension of
migration networks accessible for the members of the community; higher income obtained from migration
and returned to the family at the origin contributes to increasing relative deprivation at community level and
implicitly to stimulating other displacements; circular migration contributes to the creation of a
transnational culture with strong multipliable effects in the migration process (CUMULATIVE
CAUSALITY HYPOTHESIS - Massey et all, 1994).
 Circular migration abroad could be spread in very many villages over the country or concentrated in a
rather small part of them. To the degree that the majority of the cross-border circular migrations comes
mainly from a rather small number of villages with a high prevalence of external migration rates one can
assume that it takes the form of transnational migration. The mere fact of concentration of the streams in
very distinct origin-villages is relevant for the fact that emigration is done from there under the laws of
networks, flows and cumulative mechanisms as described by previous hypotheses. Local communities
together with communication channels abroad , migrants and non-migrants and migration culture become
part of transnational social spaces. The opposite idea - of having circular migration concentrated to a high
degree in communities of migratory prevalence but without the co-presence of structured networks and
culture of migration - is hard to support from the sociological point of view 10. (TRANSNATIONAL
SPACES HYPOTESIS).
 As a whole, the CCM is elaborated starting from the premise that circular migration is highly
interdependent on changes at community capital level, in its forms of social, economic and human capital.
As data is gathered indirectly from local experts and not directly from migrants or their families - subjective
or personal-familial variables of migration - culture type of migration, relative frustration, networks, etc. come out only at the level of data or variables interpretation that are approximated. Case studies carried out
pursuant to the census tried to compensate for the measuring limits of the CCM.
Local experts performed filling in of the forms, people that had very good knowledge of the
village population, according to a guide attached to the questionnaire (for details see Annex 2).
Provision of data for the 12357 villages from the 2661 communes that answered the IOM
3
questionnaire required the involvement of about 13 thousand key informants - mayors, deputymayors, secretaries within locality halls, accountants, agricultural agents, letter carriers, priests,
teachers, villagers without any specific institutional role, etc11. Certainly, the real number of those
effectively working at the filling in of record cards was lower. Case studies carried out in 10
villages, selected according to the results of the CCM12 analysis, clearly indicate an overrate of the
number of persons effectively contributing to the filling in of the forms.
Box 4. Validity and accuracy of the data gathered through the community census on migration, IOM
November 2001









out of the total of 2686 communes of the country, 2661 answered the questionnaire and out of the total
of 152 small towns (with less than 20 thousand inhabitants) 148 filled in migration forms;
there were filled in and accepted as valid migration questionnaires for 12357 villages in the rural areas of
the total of approximately 12700 villages existing in this residential environment;
the categories of functionaries and persons who played the role of local experts, of people with good
knowledge of the locality included a broad range of roles;
although the questionnaire was forwarded to localities through police stations, in most cases their were
filled in by functionaries from locality halls. Mayors, deputy-mayors, secretaries of locality halls and
agricultural agents were the local experts who contributed to the greatest extent to the filling in of the
forms (approximately 50% of the total of 13 thousand persons having contributed to the filling in of the
forms). More precisely, over 60% of the persons who participated to the filling in of the forms were
functionaries from locality halls.
as the data gathering project involved such a large number of persons were and the questionnaire
requested for non-personal and extremely varied data, the possibility of institutional controlling or
manipulation of information was extremely reduced.
phone conversations I had , as census coordinator, during the data gathering, upon the request from local
informants, were mainly focusing on technical problems and showed that the project was clearly
perceived as a sociologic research project (where should the migration for "small traffic border" be
inserted or the commuters from Covasna and Harghita to Hungary, how should the form for more than 8
villages be filled in, what is the procedure for very large villages of over 8 thousand inhabitants, why
does the data gathering form mention the MIP and MI only and why does it not mention also the MAP,
etc.).
the average size of the village calculated according to the data reported in the CCM is only about 15
persons more than the one estimated for 1998, based on the official figures of 1992.
analyses herein presented describing inter-community variation of migration behaviour based on the
CCM data resulted in consistent sociological interpretation, conclusive to a great extent. Within these
analyses there was integrated a set of variables with high degree of feasibility, produced within various
researches (distance to the closest town, level of village development, level of county development,
central or peripheral position of village within the commune, existence of an European road nearby the
commune, central or peripheral position of commune within the county, etc.). Many of the said variables
work as efficient predictors of the community migration behaviour, measured through the CCM. This
structural consistency among data from different researches is one of the strongest validity indicators for
the data produced through the census performed through community experts (see Annex 1).
regionalisation of transnational migration behaviour by areas and regions, according to the origins and
destinations of flows are entirely consistent with the prior qualitative information given by community
studies on migration (Diminescu 2000a, Diminescu 2000b, Lazaroiu 2000, Sandu 2000, Serban and
Grigoras 2000, Stanculescu and Berevoescu 1999,Gangloff et all, 2000, Potot 2000), with the
expectation resulting from the regional sociology of the country. This is another strong argument
proving the validity of the data gathered through the CCM.
4
FAVORABLE TO MIGRATION
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
youth, ethnic and religious
minorities, qualified people,
social polarity
MATERIAL RESOURCES for
transnational migration
INSTITUTIONS SUPPORTING
MIGRATION
visa regulations, job market
companies, formal communication
channels
COMMUNITY SOCIAL CAPITAL
favoring migration
DYNAMICS OF
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
AFTER 1989
migrants of the second, third
wave..
return migrants from the first
wave
pioneers of the first wave
FRUSTRATION AND
COMPETITION WITHIN
COMMUNITY
unemployment
local networks
transnational networks formed
after 1990
transnational networks existing
before 1989
frustration non-migrants versus
migrants
Internal/external migration
experience before 1989
Definitive international migration
after 1989 creating networks
(Germans)
Decline of internal rural to urban
commuting after 1989 and increase
of return migration to countryside
MIGRATION
CULTURE
AND EXPERIENCE
Figure 1. Categories of transnational migration predictors at rural community level
5
Although it is obvious that estimations made by local experts are altered by regular errors
for this kind of sociologic researches, the data gathered as a whole presents a high degree of validity
and accuracy. Despite the fact that the number of local experts used in order to answer the
questionnaire was higher as the population of the village or town was higher, probable estimation
errors reached higher levels precisely in cases of large localities.
Typologies and indicators for measuring community migration
The community census performed through local experts identified more categories of
migrants traveling abroad. The best represented category both in Romanians' temporary migration
abroad and in the data of this census is the one of circular migrants staying more time abroad. Due
to this basic fact, the longer stay, they act as agents of communication between the society of origin
and domicile and the societies of temporary destination. Their migration is, very likely and
predominantly, of transnational 13 type . Their situation is very different from that of the persons
moving abroad definitively (definitive emigration ) and from that of the trans-border migrants
traveling for short periods of time among localities nearby the border. The data provided by the
CCM regarding temporary migration abroad from Romanian villages measures especially this
phenomenon of circular migration as key manifest form of transnational migration. It is a raw,
"crude" measure considerably affected by short term, trans-border migration but also by the
definitive migration. There is also a fourth type of migration that is of interest in this paper. It is that
of circular migrants abroad that are not at all or not so much influenced by their external migration
experience. Community estimations from which we started do not allow for a clear differentiation
among the four types of migration (transnational , trans-border, return without transnational marks
and definitive). The rate of the definitive type seems to be extremely reduced 14 taking into account
that we are talking about rural population with quite reduced human capital and implicitly with
serious difficulties in settling abroad definitively. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that return
migrants are a "clean" component of the temporary migration phenomenon. The distinction between
transnational and non-transnational migrants of circular type can be done , at empirical level, only
by individual measures. CCM is not able to distinguish between the two categories. But inferences
on the process and the communities of high probable level of transnationalism could be done. If a
large number of persons from the same village engage in circular transborder migration one can
support the hypothesis that their movement is relevant for living in communities with a structured
culture of transnational migration. High prevalence rates are in this paper proxies for transnational
communities.
Indicators used for measuring migration from villages abroad (Box 5) are constituted
according to the number of persons departed from the locality by the time of the census and to the
number of persons who returned to the village after having stayed a period of time abroad.
Box 5. Indicators of international migration used for analysing the CCM data
In order to measure intensity of migration at community level, we used indicators referring to return
migration, persons departed from the locality by the time of the census and community migration experience,
by comparing certain absolute migration volume figures and certain estimations of the phenomenon intensity
(migrants/population).
 DEPARTED, Volume of temporary emigration abroad (preponderant): persons departed abroad
from the locality after 1989;
 RETURNED, Volume of return migration from abroad to the locality after 1989;
 REMIG, Rate of (preponderant) temporary emigration from the locality to abroad;
 RIMIG, Rate of return migration from abroad to the locality;
 PREVAL Total migration abroad during lifetime ("prevalence of external migration" = DEPARTED
+ RETURNED;
 RPREVAL Prevalence rate of migration abroad = PREVAL * 1000/population of locality in 1998.
 CIRCULAT Volume of circular migration abroad = (DEPARTED - persons who have never
returned since they left) + RETURNED
 RCIRCUL Rate of circular migration = CIRCULAT*1000/population of locality in 1998.
The total volume given by the number of persons departed from the locality and by the number of those who
have returned during the period 1990-2001 is an approximation for the migration experience of the
6
community and, indirectly, for the migration of circular type. Cumulating the two types of migrants leads to
a measure similar to the "total migration during lifetime" (arrivals plus departures). By dividing that figure by
the total population of the locality the result is the "prevalence rate of migration"15. It should be emphasised
the fact that the prevalence rate of migration is only offering an approximation of the circular migration. The
agreed figures from which we started do not allow for an accurate identification of those effectively
exercising migration of circular type. The questionnaire applied at the level of villages contained questions
relating to the number of returns in the locality of those who were or are departed. As it is about counting
certain events that took place in the community for a large number of people, the reports from local experts
are quite fragile (figures do not "correspond" very well according to the different verification keys). It is
possible that reports regarding those who were departed by the time of the census are more correct than those
regarding the number of returns for the persons who are in the locality. Although, we have to say it again,
this kind of approximation is somehow relative, it is however to note that only 18% of those departed from
the village after 1990 have never returned to the locality. The others, approximately four fifths seem to be
migrants of circular type.
If measurements of the migration recorded through the CCM would have been seriously
altered by reporting errors, than it would not have been possible to find significant relations
between the features of departing villages/regions and the amplitude of the flows of temporary
migration abroad. However, the results of the multiple regression analysis indicate the existence of
certain strong statistic relations between migration indicators and community-regional indicators,
measured through variables derived from data that resulted out of the 1992 census or produced
within certain other researches (Table A1): circular migration between Romanian villages and
different countries tends to be stronger for large villages, that are centre of communes, with a quite
high level of development, mainly located in Transylvania or in the counties nearby the western
border of the country.
Both for the purposes of interpreting the data gathered through the CCM and for organising
of the conversation guide afferent to case studies on circular migration we used (Table A1): I.
trans-border migration, II. transnational migration, III. definitive international emigration and IV.
residual international migration (other types). For the difference between trans-border and
transnational migration it is essential the type of "border" or of social space that interposes between
origin and destination and duration of stay at the temporary destination. In the first case,
international temporary migration is performed by crossing for a short period of time a border or a
very permeable area (for example: the Bulgarian territory between Romania and Turkey or the
border between Romania and Hungary). In the second case, the displacement is for a longer period
and operates effectively, irrespective of the migration intentions or ideologies, as a mean of
communication among different national societies, as a manner of structuring "transnational
spaces"16 (Massey, Goldring, Durand, 1994).
For cases of societies in transition, with quick and structural changes as to the context
parameters for the international migration, such as the Romanian society of the year 2000, we
consider it is opportune to consider immigration , emigration and return migration as perspectives
of the phenomenon and not as real migration types17. The same event of domicile changing may be
considered from the perspective of emigration , immigration or returning. The temporary emigrant
from Crangenii Teleormanului may be considered as immigrant at Coslada in Madrid but,
subsequently, as returning migrant to Crangeni in the "island" (the isolated place, forgotten by God)
in the Romanian Teleorman.
Trans-border commuting and small trans-border traffic (subtypes 3 and 4) form an
intermediary category, a combination between transnational and trans-border. Displacements of this
type have also a transnational nature as a result of the fact that they are, due to their systematic,
regulate nature, communication means between national societies and the involved migrants are
subject to the influence of the two societies, society of origin and society of temporary destination.
7
Table 1. Typology of the forms of migration abroad, according to duration, regularity and motivation
Duration of
continuing stay at
destination
reduced (as of
days or weeks)
Regularity of
displacements
without precise
regularity
Motivation
of
migration
work
Type of migration
I. Trans-border
migration
others
with relative
precise
regularity
("commuting"
type)
work
without precise
regularity
work
Mixed types,
trans-border and
transnational
Other types of
migration
3.
4.
5.
II. Transnational
migration
others
with relatively
precise
regularity
1.
2.
others
long (as of
months or years)
Subtype of migration
6.
trans-border circulation for work
(occasional)
occasional, frequent traffic for
trade with nearby or far off
countries (such as Turkey nearby or Turkey - average
distance)
trans-border commuting for
work
trans-border migration for
seasonal work
small regular (weekly) traffic for
trade
long term migration for work,
non-seasonal
7.
work
others
III. Definitive
emigration
IV. International
residual migration
(other types)
temporary, long term migration
with multiple motivation
8. seasonal circulation for work
9. commuting of highly skilled
specialists / responsibility in the
field of multinational companies
or of international organisations
10. definitive emigration
11. circulation of persons with two
citizenship
12. illegal trade of women, arms,
drugs, etc.
* To a broad meaning „transnational migration” includes also trans-border migration phenomena
What kind of migration did CCM record?
Data gathered through the community census mainly measures, very probable, transnational
migration of Romanian rural population after 1989, of preponderant circular type. A set of other
forms of external migration - of temporary or definitive trans-border type are still present as "noise"
phenomena within the obtained information. The said measurement errors are compensated to a
great extent by aggregation at the level of migration county, region or field. As a whole,
interpretations at supra-community level are less questionable than those having as referent a given
local community.
Is the migration recorded by the CCM of transnational type or not? Wouldn't it be more
prudent to characterise it only as being of circular type? These questions could only receive
answers of operational type, dependent on the adopted definitions and on the reference scientific
tradition. Neither definitions have a sole referent, nor scientific traditions are unitary (Rogers,
2000).
The tradition based on which we operated the classification of the migration phenomena as
being of circular type is the one starting from the works of Massey, Goldring and Durand (1994)
and from more recent conceptual specifications in the works of Luger Pries (2001). Massey,
Goldring and Durand measure the various features of transnational migration from Mexico and the
United States of America by extensively using the prevalence indicator described above, calculated
at the level of 19 communities18. Just like in the case of migrants from Romanian villages, the ones
recorded in the Mexican poll have different migration experiences - with a sole cycle departure8
arrival, with multiple cycles or with definitive departures abroad. Similarly, like in the case of
Romanian villages, migration prevalence is calculated for communities with very different
migration experience.
Subsequently, the specifications brought by Pries are of nature to strengthen the statute of
the concept to a greater extent. He directly relates the phenomenon of transnational migration or of
"trans-migration" with the one of "transnational space". Transnational social spaces are, according
to his concept, "multi-local reference frameworks shaping daily practices, social positions,
occupational routes and biographies as well as human identities (Pries, 2001: 69). Local
communities, persons, networks, social positions in connection, in relation of mutual inter-influence
beyond the limits of national borders define the content of transnational spaces. And, transmigrants
could be defined as “migrants whose lived experiences transcend the boundaries of nation-states”
(Blanc, Basch and Schiller , 1995: 684) and “who develop and maintain multiple relationships –
familial, economic, social, organizational, religious, and political –that span [these] borders”
(Basch, Glick Schiller, Szanton-Blanc 1993:7)
The thinking stream we are reporting to is in fact pleading for the fact that transnational
migration is a phenomenon specific to transnational spaces. It develops multifarious - circular ,
seasonally or permanently. Or it seems that it is exactly this diversity of forms that predominantly
characterise migration from Romanian villages towards foreign countries between 1990-2000.
„Circular ” or „permanent” refer to the manner of displacement and "transnational " to the intensity
of the relation between the life style of the migrant and the specific transnational type of space.
Obviously, the transnationalism of Romanians' migration abroad has unequal structuring intensities
and anyway it is identified in emergence stage (see Table 8). The different local communities where
migrant leave from are integrated to different extents in transnational spaces. The differences as to
the extent are recorded as such but do not annul the transnational nature of the phenomenon.
The probability of circular migration of being of transnational type is higher for the case of
villages of high prevalence rate. The focus of the paper is not on transnational migrants but on the
identification of the communities of high probability of migratory transnationalism. It is in the
communities of high prevalence that very likely functions a culture of migration (Kendall and
Massey, 2002) as an essential mechanism for cumulative causation of the process. To the degree
that the majority of circular migration is concentrated in villages of high prevalence one can
consider that the circular migration of the Romanian villagers abroad is predominantly of a
transnational type.
How can the CCM data be used?
In processing the data included in the file resulted from the application of the IOM
questionnaire it is useful to take into consideration the recommendations we make in Box 6. It is
about data that, at first glance, is week due to their nature of "secondary" reports - not the migrants
or their families provided the information but the local experts, the persons with good knowledge of
the village. Or, we can not know how "expert" they were or how much influenced by different
ideologies related to migration or by institutions requesting the data. However, the same data says
very much provided it is aggregated at regional level and included in "strong" data structures, such
as those referring to the central or peripheral nature of the villages, their regional appurtenance,
demographic features, etc.
Box 6. Principles for using data produced by the community census on migration
In principle, due to the gathering manner used, data in the CCM file should be processed by observing the
following principles:
1. data at county or region levels is more feasible than data at locality level;
2. structure data (for example, the rate of migrants by countries) are more feasible than level data (number
of migrants);
3. population figures reported by localities (gosp1 – number of households and pop01 – number of
inhabitants in the data file) are tendentiously overestimated or estimated incorrectly. Figures from the
census of 1992 or the ones derived thereof are preferable.
4. data regarding persons who returned are more correct than those regarding departed persons;
9
5.
it is a high probability that the declared number of persons departed from the locality towards foreign
countries be lower than the real number, due to more reasons: local experts’ lack of exact information;
their fear to declare certain persons, especially those whom are known to practice infraction related
behaviour abroad; very intense circulation, difficult to synthesise through instant measurements, etc.
(according to data obtained through case studies);
6. weathering by countries is more correct than the one referring to very delicate criteria such as the
number of departures/arrivals;
7. it is preferable to work with the estimated number of departures or returns, measured through the
variables “departed” and “returned” that are corrections of the incomplete data at III and VII (according
to cod. in the questionnaire)
8. the rate of total external migration during lifetime (calculated as number of persons departed from the
locality outside the country plus number of those returned from abroad and present in the locality
divided by the number of population of the locality), also called the prevalence rate of migration
(Durand and Massey) measures both the intensity of the phenomenon and the migration experience at
community level;
9. comparisons between departures recorded by the time of the census and return migration should be
operated by eliminating villages where the rate of persons departed for Germany is higher than 50% of
the total number of persons who are departed. It is a manner to leave out of the calculation villages with
massive, definitive emigration of Transylvanian Saxons (239 villages, out of which 97 from SibiuBrasov, 56 from Banat and 24 from Arad-Bihor). The migration profile of villages that used to be
inhabited by Saxons is very special, being characterised by an intense transnational circulation of the
Roma19.
10. analyses by destination countries should be undertaker starting from a very fine weathering. In the initial
file destination countries were recorded as alphanumeric variables within five areas (country 1, country
2, …, country 4, other). Subsequently we derived 18 fields signifying 17 destination countries for
emigration plus an “others” field. Similarly, there were designed 18 variables describing the countries
where the migrants had returned from. For the cluster analysis of migration regionalisation – Figures 2
and 3 – we held 13 countries (the first ones in Table 2)
11. comparability of the information presented in this research with other eventual analyses starting from the
same data base would be considerably reduced unless the above mentioned principles and procedures are
applied. For example, it is sufficient to include villages with high rates of Saxon population or to use
local population estimations for calculating indicators instead of those derived from the 1992 census and
the results obtained would be different from those reported in this research. Similarly, if one starts by
identifying a lower number of destination countries, the regionalisation of the phenomenon would appear
as different.
Systematic use of certain data produced within the COMREG academic research (see note
1) starting from official statistics or through geographic measurements in correlation with those of
the CCM was of nature to contribute substantially in order to correct errors associated with the latter
ones20.
Explanatory hypotheses
Due to the fact that data is not available at individual level but at community level (village),
explanatory hypotheses have as referent the community selectivity of transnational migration.
Transnational migration has the statute of dependent variable, of latent nature, indirectly noticeable.
Temporary migration, return migration, prevalence rates of migration are proxy variables) for
transnational migration21.
Given the fact that villages are spaces of social life and units for information recording, data
gathered are more relevant for migration spaces than for migration phenomena. Through cumulative
effects and combination, different forms of temporary external migration confer the nature of
“transnational space” to certain villages more than to others.
The basic hypothesis of the model for data interpretation (Figure 1 , Box 3) is that
transnational migration from Romanian villages during the years 1990-2001 has been directly
influenced by time and space related variations regarding:
 community social capital (local and transnational networks);
 economic resources at personal or household level;
 communication and support institutions for international migration and
 phenomena of frustration and competition within local communities.
10
The social structure of the community and internal or external migration experience work as
blocks of final variables, with indirect influence on the transnational migration phenomena.
Through its essential terms, the proposed model is, in its essence, consistent with the “new
economics of labour migration” including however certain relevant variables, especially for relative
deprivation, family mobility strategies, role of information and communities of origin for explaining
the process etc. (Arango, 2000: 287-288). Through completeness of specifying relevant variables it
was inspired by the “value-expectancy” model proposed by De Jong and Fawcett (1981).
Routes and profiles of migrants
Intensity of circulation. By the time of the poll, in December 2001, there were departed
from Romanian villages to foreign countries, with different motivation, approximately 200
thousand persons. It is a quite high rate of temporary migration (19‰), with only 6 percentage
points less than the rate recorded at the same time for small towns (under 20 thousand inhabitants).
Certainly, the said figure blends in it a variety of situations – long or short term migration, recent or
not so recent departures, recurrent and definitive, for work or due to other motivation, etc. Within
temporary migration abroad, circular migration seems to be predominant with many returns during
the stay abroad: almost 59% of the total number of persons from rural environments who had left
for foreign countries returned at least once time to the locality of domicile and 37% at least two
times.
A much clearer indicator of the circular migration is provided by the number of persons
who had stayed abroad for a period of time then returned to the locality. There were almost 120
thousand such persons. Intensity degree of migration circularity is given by the fact that 47% of
them have returned in the country for at least two times during the period of their residence
abroad.22
Routes. Despite its diversity, the field of circular migration abroad is structured in six
major routes or axes that group together over 50% of the total departures from rural areas (Table 2)
Persons who were abroad, during
the period 1990-2001, and live in
villages
small towns
Persons departed* by the time
of the poll, from
villages
small towns
Hungary
Germany
Turkey
Italy
Spain
Yugoslavia
Israel
Greece
France
Austria
USA
Portugal
22.8
9.7
9.6
9.4
2.3
4.6
3.9
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.8
0.7
23.3
19.7
12.8
8.7
5.9
3.1
3.7
2.2
2.4
1.2
0.5
0.1
12.7
8.9
2.6
24.2
7.8
1.1
4.4
3.6
2.5
1.6
1.8
1.7
21.4
22.0
1.3
11.1
10.9
1.7
1.9
1.5
1.7
1.4
1.7
0.4
Total by communes and
small towns
persons
persons
returned
departed
22.9
14.2
11.1
11.1
10.0
2.3
9.3
21.9
2.9
8.4
4.3
1.2
3.9
4.0
2.9
3.2
2.1
2.4
1.1
1.5
0.7
1.8
0.6
1.5
England
Poland
Ireland
Canada
Czech Republic
Others
0.4
0.3
0.1
0.1
0.1
29.1
100.0
116167
0.3
0.0
0.9
0.0
0.6
14.6
100.0
19468
0.8
0.2
0.5
0.2
0.1
25.4
100.0
194113
1.1
0.0
0.3
0.1
1.2
20.3
100.0
40635
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.2
27.1
100.0
135635
major, of first rank
Types of
routes
Country of
destination
of second rank
migration of the population from communes and small towns, by countries of
of third rank
Table 2. Circular
destination
Total %
N**
11
0.9
0.1
0.5
0.2
0.3
24.5
100.0
234748
* There were eliminated from the analysis of departures those localities where more than 50% of the total number the
departed persons were of German ethnic, considering that in the said situations definitive displacements are predominant. We are
talking about 239 villages from where there are departed temporary or definitive 55 thousand inhabitants (out of whom 49 thousand
are German) and 8 small towns with a displacement volume of 7 thousand inhabitants (out of whom 4 thousand Germans). As returns
are not influenced by definitive emigration they were calculated for all localities.
** It is very probable that total figures underestimate seriously the volume of the phenomenon. Errors of underestimation
derive from poor knowledge of migration cases especially in large communities but also from certain reticence to report on
phenomena that was blamed as negative for decades during communist times. However, effects of compensation between
overestimation and underestimation are still possible to undertake. Reports on structure are more accurate than those on volume and
intensity.
The six major rank routes are directed towards nearby western territories (Hungary,
Yugoslavia), far off Northwest (Germany), nearby Southeast (Turkey) and far off Southwest (Italy
and Spain).
Routs towards Italy and Spain, with much higher rates for persons actually displaced than
the rates of returned persons, seem to be particularly dynamic routes, tending to attract more and
more migrants from the Romanian rural environment. Migration policies of destination countries
and, possibly, linguistic facilities for a rural population with low levels of foreign languages
knowledge, are major factors facilitating migration to such countries. The German route, with
similar rates of departures and returns appears to be a relatively stable one as to the volume of
migrants in time. It is possible that the route to Turkey, with significant lower departure rates as
compared to returns, might be a declining one23.
Routes to nearby countries, and especially to Hungary and Yugoslavia, are travelled through
by multiple migration forms, difficult to record using instruments of the type we used for this
analysis. Average duration travels for work or trade intersect those of commuting type, small traffic,
etc. As regards Hungary, the volume of circular displacements is expected to increase significantly
as a result of regulation alterations associated with the provisions of the Hungarian identification
cards proposed by the Hungarian state or with the recent conventions between Romania and
Hungary.
Table 3. Main types of circular migration routes for rural population
LOCATION
nearby
far off
West
Southwest
North
ROUTES RANK
FIRST (MAJOR)
Hungary
Yugoslavia
SECOND
Austria
THIRD
Czech Republic
Poland
East
Northwest
West
Germany
CSI
Southwest
Southeast / South
Italy, Spain
Turkey
France, Austria
USA
Canada, England,
Ireland
Portugal
Israel, Greece
Rural population displacements tend to be South oriented - Italy, Israel, Turkey, Greece and
even Portugal - to a greater extent in comparison with the population of small towns. By the time of
the poll the Italian route proved to be the most attractive for the inhabitants of the Romanian
villages, attracting almost a quarter of the total number of departed persons.
Social-demographic structure. Young men dominate external circular migration from
rural areas. For small towns, rates of men in migration flows are also high but still lower than for
rural areas. Adult population aged over 30 years who leaves from small towns is greater in number
than temporary migration from rural areas (Table 4).
Migrants' profile seems to be very much related to the period of time when the displacement
occurred. Available data does not allow for a classification by years or periods of the circular
migration flows. There is a high probability that returned persons, present in villages by the time of
the poll approximate quite good the features of the first wave migrants and those displaced by the
time of the poll are representative for the last wave migrants. The most important change as to time
is associated with the activities practised at destination. Constructions remain the dominant sector
where rural population is employed (45% of the migrants). The most important variation is related
12
to employment in agriculture, characterised by a slight reduction between first and last waves: out
of the total number of persons returned from abroad, 20% worked in agriculture while for those
displaced by the time of the poll, the estimation was of 13%.
There is a high probability that the difference derives from the fact that adult population of
towns has a higher level of instruction, an increased human capital allowing them to manage better
the stay abroad.
As a whole, the type of selectivity indicated by the community census data we use are
consistent to a great extent with those gathered at individual level within polls conducted by the
Open Society Foundation during the years 2000 and 200124.
Table 4. Indicators of social-demographic structure for persons
who returned to the locality after having stayed abroad
Rate of persons returned in
* Minority social groups, of religious or ethnical type,
the village/town from the
are much more mobile than those of Romaniantotal number of return
Orthodox majority population.
migrants
* Social structure of return migration derives from the
fact that, during the first stages of international circular
villages
towns
migration, ethnic and religious channels had a particular
men
71.0
61.2
importance.
young persons under
* The rate of the Roma in the total of return migration
the age of 30 years
47.8
41.5
from abroad is much higher in small towns as compared
Protestants (Lutherans,
to the communes.
Calvinists)
6.1
2.5
* Example of reading manner: 71% of the total number
Neo-Protestants
6.8
6.8
of persons who returned from abroad to the rural
Catholics
17.9
20.7
environment are men.
* Very high rates of men and young persons could be the
Romanians
56.9
50.5
result deriving from misinterpretation of two questions
Roma
9.9
19.0
in the census questionnaire in certain villages (finding of
Hungarians
17.9
20.0
case studies).
Germans
0.4
2.8
The phenomenon of international circular migration is strongly selective and the said
selectivity seems to be a dynamic one, different at the beginning of the 1990s as compared to the
present. During initial stages of the process ethnic, religious or local selectivity were particularly
strong. Hungarians, Germans and the Roma provided much more important contingents of migrants
than it was expected based on the rates they have in the population of the country. Subsequently,
there is a reduction of the ethnic-religious selectivity in favour of the one associated with social and
human capital resources. More particularly, the relational capital - own, family or community plays an essential role in shaping migration behaviours.
Fields and regions of circular migration
Romania is very strong regionally structured with regard to temporary/circular migration
behaviours of rural population. According to the main country of destination there are six major
groups of counties ("migration fields"25) with a configuration given by overlaps among historic
regions, areas of ethnical or religious specificity and development areas:
 Moldavia is dominated by the flows to Italy;
 Dobrogea and Eastern Muntenia have best knowledge on the way to Turkey;
 orientation towards Germany is dominant in Banat, Southern Transylvania and the
Western part of Oltenia;
 the arterial road for flows oriented to Hungary starts in Covasna and goes on straight
to the West crossing Harghita, Mures, Cluj, Salaj and Bihor;
 the smaller field in Oltenia (except for Valcea county) mainly attracted by the
Yugoslavian area;
 the field of counties mainly attracted by Spain or by Spain and France (Figure 2).
13
Spain
Spania
Franta
France
Satu Mare
Botosani
Maramures
Suceava
Iasi
Salaj
Bistrita Nasaud
Bihor
Neamt
Cluj
Ungaria
Hungary
Mures
Turcia
Bacau
Arad
Vaslui
Alba
Germania
Germany
Covasna
Sibiu
Timis
Turky
Harghita
Brasov
Italia
Vrancea
Galati
Italy
Braila
Tulcea
Hunedoara
Buzau
Caras Severin
Gorj
Vilcea
Prahova
Arges
Dimbovita
Mehedinti
Ilfov
Iugoslavia
Jugoslavia
Dolj
Ialomita
Calarasi
Olt
Constanta
Teleorman Giurgiu
Israel
Figure 2. Main destination countries for circular migration of rural population
(map of fields of external circular migration)
Counties marked in the same manner have the same preferred destination country. The origin of the arrow
indicates the county that provides the greatest number of migrants for the target country. In all cases departures from a
county are to more destination countries. For the purposes of this diagram only the main destination country was
considered. Circular migration intensity was estimated by adding the number of persons departed towards the target
country by the time of the poll to the number of persons returning from that country in the said county.
14
The regional configuration of the country as to circular external migration may not be
identified only according to the main destination. From the same locality, from the same county
departures take place towards different destinations. Considering a set of 13 destination countries
and grouping the counties with similar profiles, a number of 15 circular migration regions resulted
that are very important for the manner in which the phenomenon was structured at the and of year
2000 at country level (Figure 3). The six large migration fields - oriented towards Italy, Turkey,
Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Spain - and second rank fields - towards France and Israel - are
structured in 15 migration regions with clearly defined identity.
For example, the migration field oriented towards Germany (see Figure 2) is divided in three
regions formed by the groups of counties Brasov-Sibiu, Arad-Timis, Caras-Severin- Hunedoara. In
each of these regions, Germany is the main destination but it appears in different combinations.
From Timis-Arad departures are not only towards Germany but also towards Spain, Portugal and
Italy. South of this region, in the group Hunedoara-Caras-Severin Germany, Spain and Italy are still
in place but in addition there are Austria and Hungary.
According to the relation between the country with the highest attraction strength and the
others in the set, we can make a distinction between two types of regions, namely single-pole or
bi/multi-pole regions. The Covasna-Harghita-Mures-Salaj region is a clear case of single-pole
region. Out of the total of 15 migration regions, 5 have an obvious single-pole structure (with over
30% of the circular migration oriented to only one country):
 Covasna-Harghita-Mures-Salaj - 70% towards Hungary;
 Sibiu-Brasov - 47% towards Germany;
 Timis-Arad - 32% of the migrants towards Germany;
 Neamt-Bacau-Vrancea-Galati - 41% towards Italy;
 Constanta-Braila-Vaslui - 32% towards Turkey.
15
France 17%
Franta
17%
Italy
Italia 17% 17%
Portugal
Portugalia17%
14%
Hungary
70%
Ungaria 70%
Germania 5%
Germany
5%
Spain
28%
Spania 28%
Hungary
26%26%
Ungaria
Germania
Germany
8% 8%
Germany 32%
Germania
Spain
11% 32%
Spania
France
7% 11%
Franta
7%
ItalyItalia
7%
7%
SUCEAVA
BISTRITA-NASAUD
BIHOR
NEAMT
CLUJ
MURES HARGHITA
VASLUI
BACAU
ARAD
ALBA
SIBIU
TIMIS
8%
IASI
SALAJ
BRASOV
HUNEDOARA
Germany
14%
Germania
14% CARAS-SEVERIN
Hungary
Ungaria14%
14%
Austria
Austria
8% 8%
Italia
8%
Italy
8%
Spania
Italy28%
28%
Italia
Israel
Israel 7%
7%
Turcia
7%
Turky7%
BOTOSANI
MARAMURES
Germania
Germany47%
47%
Italia
Italy 17%17%
Ungaria
6%
Hungary 6%
Italy
Italia 26%26%
Germania 16%
Germany
16%
Israel 15%
15%
Israel
COVASNAVRANCEA
GALATI
Italia 41%
41%
Italy
Ungaria 7%
Hungary
7%
Turcia 6%
Turky 6%
BUZAU
VILCEA
GORJ
ARGES
PRAHOVA
BRAILA
BRAILA
TULCEA
DIMBOVITA
MEHEDINTI
IALOMITA
ILFOV
Iugoslavia 16%
Jugoslavia
Germania16%
14%
Germany
14%
Italia
15%
Italy 15%
DOLJ
CALARASI
OLT
Turky 32%
32%
CONSTANTA Turcia
Italy 14%
Italia 14%
Israel 6%
6%
Israel
Turcia
Turky 18%
18%
Spania
11%
Spain 11%
Germany
Turcia 21%
21%
Germania20% Italia
Italy 7%7% ItaliaTurky9%
20%
Turcia
7%
Italy 9%
Germania
7%
Turky
Italia 7% 7%
Germany 7%
TELEORMAN
GIURGIU
Spain
28%28%
Spania
Germany
Germania14%
9%
Italy
Italia8%
8%
Italy 7%
Figure 3. Main regions of external circular migration for Romanian rural population
Counties graphically marked the same have similar profiles of circular migration.
Internal bars of the type
link counties that are similar as migration profile but discontinuously placed on
the territory. The migration profile of a county was determined through a set of 28 variables measuring the intensity of
departing and returning phenomena towards and from 13 countries (those of first and second rank plus England and two
special measurements for the total number of departing and returning persons (see Figure 4). The figures written down
for each country indicates the rate of circular migration between the Romanian region and the country of reference in
the total circular migration associated tot the region of origin. Example of reading manner: out of the total circular
migration involving rural population inn the region Timis-Arad, 32% follow the route towards Germany, 11% the route
towards Spain, 7% the route towards France and 7% the route towards Italy. The reminder up to 100% is represented by
the flows to other countries. Volume one circular migration flow between a Romanian rural region and a given country
was estimated by adding to the number of persons departed on that route the number of persons who returned from the
country of destination.. This measure is similar to the total migration during lifetime which is used in demography.
The migration field of Moldavia, with its dominant attraction towards Italy, is mainly
divided according to the Eastern or Western location of the counties within the historic region.
Counties in the Northeast part, Iasi, Botosani, and Suceava are mainly attracted by the configuration
Italy-Israel26. However, migrants in the Western group Neamt, Bacau and Vrancea, are also
attracted by Hungary, besides Italy.
The migration field predominantly oriented towards Turkey is also structured in three main
regions: Constanta-Braila-Vaslui, Buzau-Prahova and Calarasi-Ialomita. The specificity of the first
group is given by the secondary flows towards Italy and Israel. In the second group, besides the
preference for travels in Turkey, we also have those associated with Spain and Italy and in the third
group secondary flows go Italy and Germany.
Counties of Oltenia are characterised by rural population mainly attracted by Yugoslavia
and then by Germany and Italy.
The 15 migration regions have specific identities not only due to the profiles given by the
immigration countries but also due to the social structure of the migrants (Table 5).
16
Table 5. Social-demographic profile of the migrants who returned to the country, by regions of rural
migration %
Migration regions
Departed
Returned
Total persons
Germans
Hungarians
Roma
Catholics
NeoProtestants
Protestants
Out of the total number of migrants who returned to the
village during the period 1990-2001, there are
young persons
aged below 30
years
(groups of counties
with similar profiles of
circular migration)
men
Migration field
mainly oriented
towards...XXX
and then
towards...xxx
GERMANY
BV SB
74
51
2
4
2
26
7
3
1.5
4.8
Spain
TM AD
68
47
1
23 11
24
5
2
3.2
6.0
Hungary
BH CS HD
68
29
4
11 9
13
7
1
3.4
4.5
Turkey
ILFOV
81
69
0
0
2
12
0
0
0.7
0.3
HUNGARY
HG MS CV SJ
64
41
23 5
34
15
64
1
23.2
13.0
Spain
BN CJ
68
45
4
19 6
4
37
0
4.8
6.1
ITALY
GL VR BC NT
69
56
0
1
44
1
0
0
16.5
23.8
Israel
BT IS TC VL
79
57
0
3
7
3
0
0
9.6
8.8
Germany
G SV
77
54
0
20 3
2
0
1
8.5
9.5
France
MM SM
69
45
2
10 19
4
10
0
4.7
8.9
TURKEY
BL CT VS
82
52
1
5
0
4
0
0
4.4
2.0
Spain
BZ PH
74
55
0
4
0
14
0
0
5.1
3.5
Italy
CL IL
70
37
1
1
0
4
0
0
1.1
0.6
YUGOSLAVIA
GJ MH DJ AG OT
77
43
0
1
1
22
0
0
8.8
4.0
SPAIN
DB TR AB
69
37
6
9
1
15
6
0
4.4
4.2
Total %
71
47.8
6
6.8 17.9 9.9 17.9 0.4 100
100
N
116167 194114
Example of reading manner: 74% of the total number of persons who returned from abroad to communes in
the counties Brasov-Sibiu, are men. For departures there were not included villages that provided mainly definitive
migrants for Germany.
Although the rate of young persons aged below 30 years in the total number of return
migration, regional variation on this issue is significant. "Youngest" flows are those from the field
oriented towards Italy, starting from Moldavia, traditional area with high birth rates and, implicitly,
high rate of young persons. The oldest migrants come from regions of Campia Romana (Romanian
Plane) and from Banat, fact that, once again, is consistent with the demographic structure of the
country.
The map illustrating regions of international circular migration is strongly influenced by the
religious features characterising the area of origin and the country of destination. Italy, the country
of Catholicism attracts mainly migrants from Western Moldavia and from areas in Transylvania
where Catholic population is located. Neo-Protestant migrants are concentrated mainly in the
attraction field of Germany, Spain and France.
In the ethnic structure of migration flows, besides the majority of Romanians, highly visible
are the Hungarians and the Roma. Obviously, Hungarians presence is very high within the
circulation towards Hungary. Roma presence reaches its peak within migration fields attracted by
Germany, Yugoslavia, and to a quite important extent Spain.
Intense regionalisation and ethnicisation of the migration flows recorded through the
community census are, very probable, under a process of relative decline. This hypothesis is
supported by analyses of certain data at individual level carried through sociologic polls27.
17
Dendrogram generated by
cluster analysis with complete
links, starting from matrices of
similarities given by factors of
correlation among profiles. The
profile of a county was identified
through 28 indicators, out of which
26 relate to the number of departed
persons (13 indicators) and to the
number of returned persons (13
indicators) to/from Spain, France,
Italy, Portugal, Germany, Israel,
Turkey,
Greece,
Yugoslavia,
Hungary, Great Britain, USA,
Austria. There were excluded from
calculation of profiles the countries
with a relatively reduced number
of migrants (Canada, Ireland,
Poland
and
the
Czech
Republic).Two other indicators
measured the total number of
persons actually displaced from the
village and the total number of
persons returned from abroad.).
Both for variable relating
to departures and for those
measuring arrival of returning type
there were avoided localities that
provided
mainly
definitive
migrants for Germany.
Figure 4. Similarities among counties as to the circular migration from villages to
abroad
Community context of circular migration
Regional representations of temporary/circular migration suggest its overwhelming
presence at country level. In fact, once the unit of analysis is changed, by passing from region to
village the image is different. The phenomenon is still limited, with a high degree of community
concentration. Approximately 530 villages (4.4% of the total number of villages in rural areas)
concentrate very much, almost 60% of the total return migration and about 36%% of temporary outmigrants (Table 6). Those villages, of very high circular dynamism have as an average over 2000
inhabitants (compared to the national average of 800 inhabitants per village).
18
Table 6. Indicators for the concentrating degree of circular migration by villages
Village category,
according to the
number of return
migrants
Villages
number of
villages
percent of
villages
average
size of the
village*
Migration
percent of
return
migrants
Percent of
persons
departed
from the
country
average rate
of return
migration by
village ‰
average
rate of
departures
by village
‰
501
.00
8.87
5252
43.3
0.0
14.2
771
9.10
14.08
4869
40.2
15.7
23.3
1451
24.64
26.38
1463
12.1
25.5
26.5
2057
54.54
45.28
369
3.0
19.7
17.6
2705
139.81
77.16
165
1.4
39.1
18.4
802
10.22
15.13
12118
100
100
100
Calculation made by using the villages population we estimated for 1998 , starting from the official population
figures by commune for 1998 to which we applied the demographic structure by villages within the commune, as
identified at by the last census in 1992. Returning and departure rates are calculated by reference to 1000 inhabitants in
1998.
0
1-10
11-40
41-100
101+
Total
Data produced by the census fully supports the idea that ethnic and religious channel
predominate for the first waves of transnational migration: at the level of villages with maximum
prevalence rates, the share of ethnical and religious minorities in the total number of migrants is
much higher than in those communities with limited migration (Table 7).
The villages with very high rates of prevalence (over 30‰) have a very specific profile (see
Table A4 in annex 1).. They are not only the most heterogeneous form the ethnic and religious point
of view. They are also defined by a larger proportion of young people, higher education stocks and
large number of former village to city commuters and return migrants from cities. This is a
demographic profile significant for high unemployment of rural youth. Such villages with highest
migration experience, quite well integrated in transnational spaces, are mainly located close to cities
and highly modernised roads (in the context of Romania) .The about 2700 villages of high rate of
prevalence are , very likely, the closest ones in the Romanian countryside to the model of
“transnational villages” (Levitt, 2001). They have not only a special community profile but also a
specific regional location. In terms of historical regions they are easier to be found in other regions
than Muntenia. The migration fields with the highest density of “probable transnational villages”
are those of Germany, Hungary and Italy.
The about one fifth of the villages in this category (out of the total number of country
villages ) concentrate about three quarters of the total returned migrants and temporarily outmigrants for the villages for the period 1990-2001. At the level of these villages (about 2700 out of
the total of 12700) one gets the highest probability of high structured patterns of transnational
migration.
Villages in incipient stages of integration in transnational spaces are located close to big
towns to a greater extent than those with high experience of migration. Their preponderant locations
are in the migration fields for Turkey, Yugoslavia and Spain.
Data gathered through the CCM as to external circular migration at village level indicates a
strong dependence of the phenomenon on the demography related features of the village,
development level of the region which the village belongs to and features of the village as to
commuting and return migration from towns to the village (Table 8, Table A2, Table A3).
Temporary emigrations abroad, with higher or lower frequency as compared to returns, tend
to be more intense in cases of villages with large number of inhabitants, for centre of commune
villages, with high rates of young population and located in rather developed counties.
19
Return migration from towns, decline of commuting and of employment contributed
together to increasing social pressure for finding new jobs, new resources for survival. Obviously,
the pressure was more intense in villages in with high rates of young persons.
Table 7. Profile of villages according to the prevalence rate of migration abroad
average prevalence rate - Roma
average prevalence rate - Hungarians
average prevalence rate - Hungarians, Roma
and Germans
average prevalence rate - Catholics,
Protestants and Neo-Protestants
average prevalence rate - young persons aged
below 30 years
average distance village - town of more than
30 thousand inhabitants
average population of the closest town with
more than 30 thousand inhabitants
average rate of village population aged over
60 years sat in 1992
average education level for the village in
1992*
average number of commuters in 1990 per
1000 inhabitants in 1998
average number of commuters in 2001 per
1000 inhabitants in 1998
average level of village development
LEVEL98*
average level of county development
DEVJUD98*
average rate of returns to the locality from
towns, after 1989
village average rate of households owning a
car
rate of villages within the migration field:
"Germany"
"Hungary"
"Italy"
"Turkey"
"Yugoslavia"
"Spain"
Percent of total migrants (returned and
temporarily departed) in the category
No. of villages included in the calculation
Prevalence rate (number of persons departed abroad and returned from
abroad per 1000 inhabitants)
below ‰
1‰-10‰
10‰-30‰
over 30‰*
villages
villages in
villages with an
villages
without
incipient stages
average degree
integrated in the
migration
of integration in
of integration in
transnational
experience
transnational
transnational
migration system
social spaces
spaces
0.0
0.2
0.8
5.7
0.0
0.2
1.1
14.2
Total
villages
1.6
3.6
0.1
0.4
2.0
21.1
5.4
0.0
0.5
2.4
24.5
6.4
0.1
2.4
8.4
36.8
11.4
23.5
20.8
21.3
19.8
21.3
144369.7
145855.7
132899.7
125844.6
137278.1
32.1
25.2
25.3
23.8
26.3
6.5
6.9
6.9
7.0
6.9
79.6
106.1
107.0
121.8
104.4
28.5
38.7
38.1
38.8
36.4
-4.3
1.4
0.5
1.3
0.0
5.6
-11.5
-12.9
-4.5
-6.8
33.4
31.7
35.4
37.4
34.4
11.5
14.8
14.5
17.2
14.6
26.0
15.5
10.5
24.8
26.7
34.8
25.5
18.1
22.3
38.2
38.4
28.3
27.7
29.7
33.7
26.2
26.1
24.5
20.7
36.7
33.5
10.8
8.8
12.4
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
0
2489
5.7
3344
17.2
3490
77.1
2716
100
12039
Prevalence rates for ethnic, religious or age categories are calculated as per thousand of that population
segment in the total number of village inhabitants. Figures should be considered as to their relativity because during the
control carried out at sites, errors were identified, impossible to correct for the entire data, generated from
misinterpretation of certain indicators by local informants. The 239 villages with large number of (very likely
definitively) departed persons to Germany have been excluded from computations. *For the calculation manner refer to
D.Sandu „Saracie si dezvoltare în satele Romaniei ”, Sociologie Romaneasca, 4/1999 ("Poverty and Development in
Romanian Villages", Romanian Sociology, 4/1999 - t.n.).
* As the average size of the rural households at the last census from March 2002 was 3.01 persons per
households (INS Rezultatele preliminare ale recensamantului populatiei si locuintelor din 18 martie 2002) results that
the minimal rate of prevalence in terms of households for that category of villages was of about (3.2*100/33)= 9%.
Finding a job, small business - more or less clear as to their legal status- became targets of a
new life strategy for more and more persons. The stock of migration experience at community level
20
- developed either by the former commuting to towns, by living permanently in towns or by
relatively limited displacements for work abroad - has also influenced the dynamics of the new
flows as to attitude by consolidating an orientation which is favourable to migration as life strategy.
It is clear that when they had this possibility, people converted internal migration experience into
external migration experience, more or less circular , more or less recurrent in "shuttle", "come-andgo" systems. Although the number of persons who could have gone to work before 1990 was low,
the fact left its clear mark on the migration flows after 1989: almost 70% of the persons departed by
the time of the poll originated from villages where at least one person had been outside the country
before 1989.
Table 8. Prediction rates for temporary emigration s from villages
Predictors
Estimated population 1998 POP981
% persons aged over 60 years in 1992
Rate of population who is not Christian-Orthodox
Commuting village-town in 1990 per 1000 inhabitants (with
population figures of 1992)
Commuting village-town in 2001 per 1000 inhabitants (with
population figures of 1992)
Employees per 1000 inhabitants at the level of the commune
Return migrants from town to village after 1989 per 1000
inhabitants (calculations made with the population of 1989)
Rate of return migration to the village per 1000 inhabitants in
1998
Where there displacement from the locality before 1989 (1
yes, 0 no)
Village located in Moldavia (1 yes, 0 no)
Village located in Muntenia (1 yes, 0 no)
Village located in Dobrogea (1 yes, 0 no)
Village located in Banat or Crisana-Maramures (1 yes, 0 no)
Village located in Transylvania (1 yes, 0 no)
Rate of German population in the locality in 1992
DISTANCE from village to the closest town2
Population of closest town 1992
County development level DEVJUD983
R2
N
Dependent variable: rate of emigration s from the village,
with models for
peripheral
centre of commune
total villages
villages
villages
+
0
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
0
0
+
+
+
+
+
+
0
0
+
0
+
013
12001
+
+
0
0
+
0
+
0.12
9452
+
+
0
+
+
+
0
+
0.20
2548
The table above present in a simplified manner of three multiple regression models. The + marks positive indicators
and significantly different from 0 for p=0,05 and the - negative indicators, significant for the same level. The 0 marks
indicators insignificantly different from 0.
Unless otherwise specified, data are recorded at village level.
1
. POP98. Calculation made by using the population we estimated for the village, for the year of 1998 , starting from
the official population figures at the level of the commune in 1998, to which we applied the demographic structure by
villages within the commune, as determined by the last census in 1992.
2
DISTANCE. Distance from the village to the closest town of over 30 thousand inhabitants (source of data:
measurements carried out by geographers within the project C8, COMREG, University of Bucharest (coord. D.Sandu).
3.
DEVJUD98. Indicator of county development formed through successive factorial aggregation, from 11 primary
indicators relating to human capital, employment, demographic modernity and economic capital of households (D.
Sandu, coord, The villages of Romania: development, poverty and social capital, World Bank, Bucharest, March
2000).
Example of reading manner: the more intense the returns from towns to the village were after 1989, the higher was the
probability of temporary emigration s from the said village to abroad, keeping under control (as an average) the values
of all other variables of the model. The relation is valid for total villages and for centre of commune villages but not
for peripheral villages.
Rural-urban commuting has been suffering a decline of approximately two thirds during the
period 1990-2001. The decline was not unvaryingly. Most affected were villages situated close to
21
small towns (Table 9). As one might expect, it also here, near small and medium size towns, where
the most intensive flows of temporary migration abroad have formed. Regional researches, such as
the one undertaken by the University of Bucharest in the Rosiori de Vede area, County of
Teleorman (Serban and Grigoras, 2000; Sandu 2000a) or by IOM in Suceava County (Lazaroiu,
2000) identify details of such situations.
Table 9. Village-town commuting and circular migration abroad by size of the town nearby
Size of town near the village
under 50
51 -99
over 100
thousand
thousand
thousand
inhabitants
inhabitants
inhabitants
Total
Village-town commuters in 1990*
257090
311173
615998
1184261
Village-town commuters in 2001*
71848
100469
242925
415242
Percentage of commuting reduction in
2001 as compared to 1990
72.1
67.7
60.6
64.9
17.65
11.39
16.61
15.13
Rate of temporary emigration s ‰
13.53
8.77
9.73
10.22
Rate of returns from abroad ‰
* By strictly observing the wording of the census questionnaire, there were included not only
commuters for work but also those for education. It is possible, according to the information received from
case studies, that the work manner was different in the various localities, some of them including commuters
for education purposes, and others failing to do so.
The location of the village in the social space of the country is particularly important for the
circular migration to abroad (Table 11). It has an impact the position within the commune, within
the urban micro-area, within the county and within the historic region. Temporary-circular
emigration s of rural population are particularly undertaken from centre of commune villages, with
a large number of inhabitants, close to small and medium size towns. As we have already noted,
these are types of situations where the decline of rural-urban commuting and return migration from
town to village have particularly contributed to the intensification of the pressure for external
circular migration, for finding solutions of living outside the country.
The location of the village within the county and within historic region also has multiple
consequences. Not only high development level of the county facilitates circular migration but also
by its location within the country. Location towards the Western border contributed significantly to
stimulating external migration flows. Closeness to the border is not, by its own, a deciding factor.
Counties close to Southern and Eastern borders do not record, only due to this fact, an increased
tendency towards migration abroad. Location of counties in the areas beyond the Carpathians or in
Moldavia (versus the location in Oltenia, Muntenia or Dobrogea) is favourable for higher values of
circular external migration rates. The specific structure of certain social-economic forces
determines that counties with maximum rates of temporary emigration s are Sibiu and Brasov in
Transylvania, Satu Mare and Arad in Crisana-Maramures, all counties in Banat and in Moldavia –
Suceava, Bacau and Neamt (Table 10)28.
Table 10. Regional location of 8 villages with highest rates of temporary displacement abroad
Historic regions
Counties with maximum rates
of temporary displacements
from villages to abroad
Villages with maximum emigration rates
within the region for temporary
displacements from the villages to abroad
Transylvania
Brasov
Sibiu
Caras-Severin
Timis
Satu Mare
Sercaia, Sercaia
Slimnic, Slimnic
Garnic, Garnic
Cheveresu Mare, Cheveresu Mare
Tarsolt, Tarsolt
Arad
Neamt
Suceava
Bacau
Pildesti (Cordin), Sabaoani
Bodnareni, Arbore
Mateiesti, Sanduleni
Banat
Crisana-Maramures
Moldovia
22
The role played by the isolation of the village as to migration abroad is reflected by the
distance between the village and the closest town as well as by the location of the village within the
borders of the county. The farther the village is located from town and the closer to the edge of the
county, which area is usually poor covered by public transportation, health care and postal services,
the more reduced is the circular migration abroad. This finding confirms once again that any type
of migration is a phenomenon of human communication stimulated or prevented by presence or
absence of other communication forms.
The difference between central and peripheral villages is not only related to the intensity of
circular migration, which is higher in the first case than in the second one, but also to the
conditioning structure of migration phenomena. The higher degree of poverty and isolation of
characterising peripheral villages as compared to the centre of commune villages determines that
within the first category the social pressure for migration is stronger and the selectivity of the
process is reduced. For example, the structure by age is more important for central villages than for
peripheral ones. Similarly, return migration from village to town seems to influence the tendency
towards international circular migration to a greater extent in central villages as compared to the
peripheral ones (Table 11).
Table 11. Prediction of temporary displacements from villages to abroad, by location of the village
Non-standardised
regression
indicators
9.04
0.00
0.92
Standardised
regression
indicators
Level of
significance
Predictors
Constancy
0.00
Estimated population 1998 POP98
0.08
0.00
Level of village development LEVEL98**
0.02
0.06
Villages central (1) or peripheral (0) within
the commune
-0.82
-0.01
0.42
DISTANCE from village to the closest town
-0.04
-0.01
0.20
Population of closest town of over 30
thousand inhabitants
0.00
-0.02
0.02
Level of county development DEVJUD98
0.33
0.08
0.00
Location of the village within the county (1
yes, 0 no)
-1.77
-0.02
0.01
Location within border county (1 yes, 0 no)
-6.07
-0.07
0.00
Location of the village in Moldavia (1 yes, 0
no)
16.12
0.17
0.00
Location of the village in Muntenia (1 yes, 0
no)
-3.90
-0.04
0.00
Location of the village in Dobrogea (1 yes, 0
no)
-1.57
-0.01
0.55
Location of the village at the Western border
(Banat, Crisana-Maramures)
13.12
0.11
0.00
Location of the village Transylvania (1 yes, 0
no)
3.82
0.04
0.00
Rate of return migration to the village from
abroad per 1000 inhabitants 1998
0.34
0.25
0.00
R2
0.11
+ positive statistical relation, significant between migration (y) and the variable in the first column (x);
- negative statistical relation and significant between migration (y) and the variable in the first column (x);
0 insignificant statistic relation between migration (y) and the variable in the first column (x).
Example of reading manner: the shorter the distance between the village and the closest town, the more intense
is the tendency to temporary displacements from the village to abroad, keeping under control the influence of the other
variables.
** Indicator for village development formed through successive factorial aggregations of 17 primary indicators
relating to human capital, housing quality, demographic modernity of the village, its demographic potential, isolation of
the community and development of the commune which it belongs to (Sandu, 1999).
23
Conclusions
Regularities of migration
According to the theoretical expectation we mentioned at the beginning of the research
(Figure 1) the "village - foreign countries" circular/transnational migration proves to be from the
CCM perspective a network phenomenon. Its development involves activating and expanding of
certain complex social networks, localised or transnational , directly dependent on the social
structure of the country and on migration history of the various categories of social communities
and segments. The decline of rural-urban commuting and expansion of village-town return
migration contributed decisively to the emergence of social pressure for first wave circular
migration at the beginning of the 1990s. Subsequently, the secondary and tertiary of circular
migration from villages to abroad were supported by the networks created through the migration of
first wave and through the new transnational networks developed in connection with various
processes such as definitive migration of Saxons, particular forms of globalisation through
businesses, transnational cultural communities, etc.
Circular migration of Romanian rural population towards foreign countries during the
1990s was mainly characterised by certain constraints and opportunities of regional type. The
phenomenon seems to have been determined to a greater extent at regional level rather than limited
to the community. Constraints related to the decline of jobs in urban micro-regions, particularly in
areas nearby small and medium size towns, with direct consequences as to the decline of ruralurban commuting and to the expansion of return migration from towns to villages contributed
directly to the structuring of the local rejection environment favourable to external migration and
particularly to circular migration (Table 12, Table 9). The tendency of rural population to
undertake the circular form of external migration is more intense than in the case of urban
population due to the limited human capital the former has. The status of unqualified worker or
illegal worker associated with such human capital is of nature to make rural population highly
vulnerable to economic policy changes in countries of destination.
Prior qualitative data from researches at village level indicated as probable the relation
between the decline of rural-urban commuting, return migration from towns to villages on the one
hand and the intensity of temporary emigration s for work or commerce (Sandu, 2000). Data
produced by the community census on migration proved the hypothesis was convincingly validated:
emigration s of rural migrants were more intense for villages with high rates of returns from towns
to the village. Return migration from urban to rural, decline of commuting (from approximately
1200000 persons to approximately 400 thousand in 2001) and of local employment contributed
together to increasing social pressure for finding new jobs or new survival resources. Naturally, the
pressure emerged in villages with high rates of young persons. Finding a job or small business,
more or less clear as to their legal status, became for more and more persons targets for a new
strategy of life.
Community-regional opportunities to change economic discontentment of rural population
into tendencies towards temporary migration abroad were produced mainly by prior migration
experiences at the level of the village, of the commune micro-region of domicile. Initially the
process started in its mass form, and not sporadically as before the year 1989, on kinship networks,
on ethnical and religious networks. Different types of ethnic or religious minorities were the most
mobile groups at the beginning of the 1990s. The massive migration flows of Germans from South
Transylvania and from Banat decisively contributed to the structuring of certain transnational
migration networks. The displacement of Germans was an exceptional one belonging to the type of
definitive migration. However, subsequent to this migration wave complex networks were
generated that brought about the circular migration movement of a large region which unfolds as an
almost continuous lane between Southern Transylvania, Banat, Southern Crisana and Western
Oltenia. The minority, which is best connected to the networks created by Germans' displacements,
is the Roma. The fact is fully supported by the data of this quantitative type research (see, for
example, the massive presence of the Roma in the German field of circular migration - Table 5) but
24
also by prior qualitative researches at community level (Stanculescu and Berevoescu, 1999; Sandu
and Tufis, 2000). Within the set of regional opportunities that facilitated migration, there should be
mentioned the increased communication facilities of the population nearby the western border of
the country or of rural population nearby towns.
Table 12. Main categories of factors that favoured external circular migration of Romanian rural population
during the period 1990-2001
Categories of factors
Sub-categories
Factors
COMMUNITY REGIONAL
CONSTRAINTS requiring
for life strategies through
external circular migration
attractive jobs deficit in
the urban region which the
village belongs to
COMMUNITY / REGIONAL
OPPORTUNITIES
accessible information on
opportunities related to
jobs / businesses / manner
to get abroad, favoured
through
1.
unemployment in the close urban centre
2.
town-village return migration
3.
reduction of village-town commuting
especially in rural micro-regions around
small and medium size towns
migrants from the village / region who
went abroad before 1989
migrants displaced and returned to the
village/ region from abroad after 1990
migrants from the village / region actually
departed abroad
structured networks of formal or informal
communication between origin and
possible destination
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
INCREASED
PROFESSIONALFAMILIAL
OPPORTUNITIES for
external circular migration
COMMUNITY-REGIONAL
IDEOLOGIES favourable to
certain forms of external
migration
social capital
10.
human capital
11.
economic capital
12.
ideologies of destination
countries
ideologies about the time
spent in own country
13.
ideologies on "means"
15.
ideologies on "objectives"
16.
14.
increased chances of information in
western border regions
increased chances of information in
villages located nearby towns
integration in transnational networks of
kinship, religious, ethnical, business type
etc.
education
professional experience
resources for travel and accommodation at
destination
„the best country" for emigration /
circulation
perception of limited chances for things "to
sort out" in the own country as to personal
life objectives; worse "now" than yesterday
and tomorrow worse than "today" in the
own country
the best manner to get and to succeed there,
according to the resources
what could be obtained for the own person
and for the family by migrating
The stock of migration experience at community level - developed either by the former
commuting to towns, by living permanently in towns or by relatively limited displacements for
work abroad - has influenced the dynamics of the new flows as to attitude by consolidating an
orientation which is favourable to migration as life strategy. From accepting internal migration as
life strategy, there was elaborated a new strategy for survival or success through external circular
migration. The former town commuter or the former migrant from village to town, subsequently
returned to the village, is closer to the mentality of the "shuttle" migrant from village to Istanbul,
Madrid, Paris or Tel Aviv than the non-migrant who has never leave his/her village.
At first sight the human capital, the stock of education the person has, does not have a very
strong influence on the circular migration or anyway it is less important than the stock of relational
capital. In fact the probability is very high that it is not about a hierarchy of importance between the
two forms of capital but about a functional difference. Social capital provides support for travel and
accommodation at destination, for penetrating the new immigration environment. Subsequently, as
25
the duration of stay abroad gets longer, the role of human capital, of language knowledge, of
professional knowledge and of information in general, gains more and more importance. It is
probable that the duration of stay abroad and eventually the conversion of temporary migration into
definitive migration occurs to an important extent according to the human capital parameters. The
higher the values of these parameters, the higher the possibility of the said conversion for the rural
migrant.
Qualitative and quantitative researches on circular migration abroad emphasised the
positive economic consequences of the phenomenon on persons, families and communities involved
in the process, at its origin. It is very probable that the opening of the Schengen area as of January
the 1st 2002 contribute to increasing circular migration flows but also to their restructuring.
However, the starting point, the behaviour structures that will strongly condition the development of
the process in the future, are those already instituted during the past years and described in this
article.
The circular migration from Romanian villages after 1989 developed by waves. The villages
that gave migrants for the first wave were mainly those of high proportion of ethnic (Germans and
Hungarians especially) and religious (protestant and neo-protestant) minorities .For the subsequent
waves started to act more and more the social factors related to the high pressure of unemployment
especially high for villages near small and medium towns and having a large number of former city
commuters or return migrants.
Villages of high prevalence are at the same time “probable transnational communities”.
They have a very specific profile marked by higher youth unemployment in the conditions of a
quite high education stock and high community social capital given by the presence of ethnic or
religious minorities. Such villages represent about one fifth out of the total villages of the country
and concentrate more than three quarters of the total circulant migrants between Romanian villages
and foreign countries for the period 1990-2001. Different community studies in Romania , like
those from Dobrotesti-Teleorman (Serban and Grigoras), Crangeni-Teleorman (Sandu, 2000),
Bosanci-Suceava (Lazaroiu, 2000), Mosna-Sibiu (Stanculescu and Berevoescu, 1999) support the
view that villages of high prevalence are at the same time locus for real transnational migration.
Villages of zero or very low prevalence (under 10‰) are, very likely, the privileged locus
for definitive emigration or for non-transnational circular migration abroad. Even if they represent
about half of the country’s villages (columns one and two in table 7) only a very small share of total
circular migration is related to them (about 6%). Villages of medium level prevalence (between
10‰ and 30‰) are the locus for mixture between all the types of external migration – permanent,
circular-non-transnational and circular transnational. Considering the snow-bass nature of the
transnational migration, the category will very likely evolve in the direction of transnational
villages.
There are no clear evidence that transnational entrepreneurship of the type described by
Portes et all (2002) became a significant phenomenon in the emerging process of transnational
migration of Romanian villagers. The proportion of migrants that worked abroad in the area of
business is under 1%. The questionnaire used for the survey did not asked on the activities
performed in the return villages . This an area of research that should be covered because it is very
likely that one can identify not only an immigration entrepreneurship but also one related to
returned migrants.
Communities of high prevalence (about 2700 out of the total 12700 rural villages) could be
considered at the interpretation level as “probable transmigrant communities”. They are marked by
higher ethnic heterogeneity, high stock of human capital, high unemployment of youth and location
in regional points of intense communication (close to European roads and close to the cities).The
fact that one fifth of the country villages concentrate about three quarters of rural transmigration is
relevant for the fact that at their level started to be crystallised a certain culture of migration
(Kendall and Massey, 2002) with processes of contagion, socialisation and adaptation to new
cultural norms and values. The papers shows not so much that in Romania there are transnational
26
migrants but that there is a process of transnationalization29 through migration and emerging
transnational spaces or communities.
Migration and development policy implications
The issue that has to be addressed from the practical point of view is optimising flows of
external circular migration, structuring them - not through direct control but through measures of
social and economic development policy - so that to be functional for migrants both at origin and at
destination. In the same respect of defining features for this increased operability there is also the
one referring to the possible role of circular migration in reducing definitive migration. The
relevant ideas for social-economic policies and for international migration could not be
substantiated through general researches on migration but by focusing on particular segments of the
phenomenon. For different social spaces - rural, urban, of qualified workers, of highly qualified
workers or of unqualified workers – specific substantiation has to be provided.
This research, focusing on the rural world, is mostly relevant for actual social problems of
the Romanian rural world. One of its major implications stands for the fact that in order to provide
solutions to rural problems it is not enough to orient development policies towards agriculture and
rural infrastructure. Market economy mechanisms in agriculture may not operate without the relaunching of the urban demand for agricultural products, in its turn conditioned by the strengthening
of urban economy. Analyses clearly indicate the huge impact of the severe reduction of rural-urban
commuting. The shock was particularly strong in rural areas nearby small towns dependency on the
urban economy, mono-industrial in most of the cases, was extremely powerful.
Although the setting up of the European Union model in respect of regional development
has passed certain significant stages (commencing with the Regional Development Law No.
151/1998 and continuing with the setting up of the associated institutional system), the regional
development practice is still at low levels. Sectorial type thinking continues to be excessively
present in development decisions. Or, for rural environment, re-launching of development may only
derive from based on a regional approach in which development targets and actors should not be
only villages and agricultural exploitations but villages and agricultural exploitations in the context
of the urban micro-areas which they belong to.
Similarly, the results of the research indicate the necessity to consider more carefully
differences related to development problems between centre of commune villages and peripheral
villages. The latter are poorer and consequently exercise a special type of pressure for migration.
The solution of principle in order to optimise circular migration flows towards foreign
countries rests in co-ordinating policies of regional development and the population related ones so
that to increase opportunities of professional and family success through profession, income,
community services, tourism, etc. inside the country or through circular migration abroad.
Determining the population to move abroad by inadequate regional and economic policy constraints
if the said population is not endowed with sufficient human, economic or social capital is of nature
to contribute directly to the expansion of anomic forms of circular migration. Certainly, there is a
long way between wording out these principles and making certain concrete suggestions for policies
of development and population. It is the task of certain researches specialising in migration and
development policies to draft such proposals.
An ambiguous and even negative attitude as regards external circular migration is still
present to an important number of functionaries of central or local institutions or even within mass
media, more or less explicit and with different extents. In many cases, through a simple
linguistically game, circular
migration is assimilated with definitive migration. Useless
preconceived ideas or concerns leave their mark on more or less important decisions, with
consequences on circular migration movements. Disseminating through mass-media of more and
more researches bringing valid information relating to problems and consequences of external
27
circular migration can only be positive for the forming process of a correct social evaluation of the
said social process.
Given the economic and social importance of circular migration abroad, the phenomenon
should be more and more carefully analysed from a scientific point of view. Eventual policies
impacting on migration may prove their efficiency only if they are scientifically grounded.
An information tool, such as this community-ethnographic census, may contribute to
increasing chances to effectively integrate migration and development policies.
It can help to think development not only in the standard terms of localities, regions or
countries but also at the level of transnational networks of communication (Robinson, 2002) as
those of migratory type.
28
Annex 1: Prediction of transnational migration
Table A 1. Prediction of migration variables by community features and regions of origin
Predictors
Dependent variable
RIMIG
REMIG
RPREVAL
Rate of return
Rate of (temporary)
Prevalence rate of
migration to the
emigration abroad
migration abroad
locality from abroad
b
beta
b
beta
b
beta
Constancy
8.87
12.10
16.86
Estimated population 1998 POP98*
0.00
0.04
0.00
0.09
0.00
0.05
Level of village development LEVEL98**
1.15
0.04
1.31
0.03
2.14
0.17
Village central (1) peripheral (0) within the
commune
0.69
0.01
-0.58
-0.01
2.23
0.07
DISTANCE*** from village to the closest town -0.01
0.00
-0.05
-0.01
0.01
0.01
Population of the closest town over 30 thousand
inhabitants
0.00
-0.01
0.00
-0.02
0.00
-0.02
Level of county development DEVJUD98****
-0.08
-0.03
0.30
0.07
-0.04
-0.03
Location of the county at the periphery of the
county (1 yes, 0 no)
-1.66
-0.03
-2.34
-0.03
-0.27
-0.01
Location in border county (1 yes, 0 no)
-1.99
-0.03
-6.76
-0.08
-2.24
-0.09
Location of the village in Moldavia (1 yes, 0 no) 4.04
0.06
17.51 0.18
7.66
0.26
Location of the village in Muntenia (1 yes, 0 no) -3.03
-0.04
-4.95
-0.05
-3.64
-0.12
Location of the village in Dobrogea (1 yes, 0 no) 4.48
0.02
-0.03
0.00
2.05
0.03
Location of the village nearby the western border
(Banat 0, Crisana-Maramures)
0.62
0.01
13.33 0.11
4.96
0.13
Location of the village in Transylvania (1 yes, 0
no)
7.14
0.10
6.28
0.07
1.81
0.06
R2
0.02
0.05
0.12
The table presents non-standardised indicators of regression (b) and standardised ones (beta) from multiple regression
models, calculated for N=11884 sate (excluding those where departures for Germany represented more than 50% of the
total number of departures). By marked by shadowing indicators insignificantly different from 0 for p=0.05. As it is
about a complete recording, putting down of the significance level is conventional.
*POP98. Calculation made by using the population we estimated for the village, for the year of 1998 , starting from the
official population figures at the level of the commune in 1998, to which we applied the demographic structure by
villages within the commune, as determined by the last census in 1992.
**LEVEL98. Indicator for village development formed through successive factorial aggregations of 17 primary
indicators relating to human capital, housing quality, demographic modernity of the village, its demographic potential,
isolation of the community and development of the commune which it belongs to *.
***DISTANCE. Distance from the village to the closest town of over 30 thousand inhabitants (source of data:
measurements carried out by geographers within the project C8, COMREG, University of Bucharest (coord. D.Sandu).
****DEVJUD98. Indicator of county development formed through successive factorial aggregation, from 11 primary
indicators relating to human capital, employment, demographic modernity and economic capital of households (D.
Sandu, coord, The villages of Romania: development, poverty and social capital, World Bank, Bucharest, March 2000).
For details refer to Dumitru Sandu, „Dezvoltare şi saracie în satele Romaniei”, Sociologie Romaneasca,
4/1999 ("Development and Poverty in Romanian Villages", Romanian Sociology, 4/1999)
*
29
Table A 2.. Predicted rate of departures abroad from villages, by other migration indicators
B
-23.59
0.00
0.04
-0.04
0.01
Standard
error
26.87
0.00
0.00
0.01
0.01
Beta
Level of
significance
0.38
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.12
(Constancy)
Population of village in 1998
0.08
Commuters per 1000 inhabitants in 1992 NAV90
0.12
Commuters per 1000 inhabitants in 2001 NAV01
-0.07
Dynamics of commuting (NAV01/NAV90)
0.02
Rate of return migration from towns to the village,
after 1989
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.05
Rate of persons departed abroad RPLECATI
0.29
0.01
0.21
0.00
Were there emigrants from the village to abroad
before 1990 (1 yes, 0 no)
28.77
26.83
0.01
0.28
Share of religious minorities in the village, in 1992
0.24
0.02
0.15
0.00
Number of inhabitants in the closest town
0.00
0.00
-0.04
0.00
Development level of the county where the village is
located DEVJUD98
0.12
0.04
0.03
0.00
2
R
0.11
Dependent variable: REMIG Rate of (preponderant) temporary emigration s. N=10134 villages
Table A 3.Predicted rate of returns from abroad, by other migration indicators
B
-4.11
0.00
0.01
-0.01
-0.01
Standard
error
19.98
0.00
0.00
0.01
0.01
(Constancy)
Population of village in 1998
Commuters per 1000 inhabitants in 1992 NAV90
Commuters per 1000 inhabitants in 2001 NAV01
Dynamics of commuting (NAV01/NAV90)
Rate of return migration from towns to the village,
after 1989
0.02
0.01
Were there emigrant from the village to abroad before
1990 (1 yes, 0 no)
9.70
19.95
Share of religious minorities in the village, in 1992
0.32
0.01
Number of inhabitants in the closest town
0.00
0.00
Development level of the county where the village is
located DEVJUD98
-0.17
0.03
2
R
Dependent variable: RIMIG rate of returns from abroad. N=10134 villages
30
0.03
0.04
-0.02
-0.01
Level of
significance
0.84
0.00
0.00
0.12
0.28
0.03
0.01
0.00
0.27
-0.02
0.63
0.00
0.06
-0.05
0.00
Beta
Table A 4. Predictors of being a village of high prevalence rate (over 30‰)
Level of village development LEVEL98
Estimated population of the village 1998
POP98
Percent of 60+ old population in the village
in 1992
Education stock in the village in 1992
Percentage of religious minorities
in the village in 1992
Percentage of Hungarians in the
village 1992
Percentage of Gipsy in the village
1992
Percentage of Germans in the
village 1992
Rate of commuters in the village in 1990
Rate of commuters in the village in 2001
Rate of returned migrants in the village after
1990
There have been out-migrants from the
village before 1989 (1 yes, 0 no)
Central village within commune (1
yes, 0 no)
Population of the nearest town of
over 30 thou. people
Distance from village to the nearest
town
Village located in Muntenia (1 yes,
0 no)
Village close to a modernized
European road (1 yes, 0 no)
Fields of migration function of key
destination country (with Spain field as
reference)
Germany field
Hungary field
Italy field
Turkey field
Yugoslavia field
Constant
B
-0.19
S.E.
0.05
Sig.
0.00
Exp(B)
0.83
0.00
0.00
0.87
1.00
-0.03
0.19
0.00
0.06
0.00
0.00
0.97
1.20
0.02
0.00
0.00
1.02
0.00
0.00
0.10
1.00
0.01
0.01
0.04
1.01
0.03
0.00
0.00
0.02
0.00
0.00
0.06
0.00
0.00
1.03
1.00
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.00
0.61
0.05
0.00
1.85
0.07
0.07
0.30
1.07
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.00
-0.01
0.00
0.00
0.99
-0.60
0.10
0.00
0.55
0.17
0.06
0.01
1.19
0.30
0.62
0.97
-0.04
-0.37
-2.71
0.13
0.13
0.11
0.13
0.13
0.43
0.00
0.02
0.00
0.00
0.74
0.00
0.00
1.35
1.86
2.64
0.96
0.69
0.07
R2 Nagelkerke=0.22; percent cases correctly predicted by the model 79.2
The dependent variable in the logistic regression model is “transnational village” (1 yes, 0 no)
according to the definition from table 7. N=11891 villages out of which 2694 are of high prevalence value.
31
Annex 2: Questionnaire used for data gathering
Ministry of the Interior
Ministry of Public Information
Total
Questionnaire on migration abroad
Locality ________________ County________________
Please carefully fill in each box of the table, based on the information you obtain from persons who have the
best knowledge on the component villages of the commune or town. Please refer to the annexed instructions before
starting filling in.
We thank you and we ensure you that the undertaken is intended to finding means to support
localities in the country.
Name of component village for which data is provided
To be filled in only for persons who are actually departed abroad
irrespective of their fixing residence there or not
To be filled in for households that had or
have at least one person departed abroad
after 1989
Population and
households by
villages
(information
from locality
halls)
POPULATION AND
HOUSEHOLDS
Number (No) of households
existing tin the village or town
Population with domicile in the
village or town
No. OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT
AFTER 1989 HAD OR HAVE
AT LEAST ONE PERSON
DEPARTED ABROAD
out of which households
with car
with newly built house
with company / private business
with one person departed / who
had been departed
with two persons departed / who
had been departed
with three or more persons
departed / who had been
departed
No. PERSONS THAT ARE
ACTUALLY DEPARTED
ABROAD, AFTER 1989,
IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR
FIXING RESIDENCE THERE
OR NOT,
of which
men
young persons aged under 30
years
Orthodox
Protestants (Lutherans,
Calvinists)
Neo-Protestants (Adventists,
Baptists, Pentecostals, etc.)
Catholics
Romanians
Roma
Hungarians
Germans
WHAT COUNTRIES DID
THEY LEAVE FOR (AND
HOW MANY FOR EACH OF
THE COUNTRIES)
Country 1.........
Country 2.........
32
Total
Country 3.........
Country 4.........
Other countries ..........
WHAT IS THEIR MAIN
OCCUPATION THERE
activities in constructions
house-keeping, elder care,
children care, health care
assistance
qualified workers
agriculture
work in pubs, restaurants, hotels
business
departed for studies /
specialisation
other activity (specify).........
HOW MANY TIMES DID
THEY RETURN TO THE
LOCALITY AFTER THEY
HAD DEPARTED
never
once
twice
more than twice
NUMBER OF PERSONS WHO
LIVED ABROAD AFTER 1989
BUT NOW ARE PRESENT IN
THE LOCALITY,
of which
men
young persons aged under 30
years
Orthodox
Protestants (Lutherans,
Calvinists)
Neo-Protestants (Adventists,
Baptists, Pentecostals, etc.)
Catholics
Romanians
Roma
Hungarians
Germans
WHAT COUNTRIES HAD
THEY LEFT FOR (AND HOW
MANY FOR EACH OF THE
COUNTRIES)
Country 1.........
Country 2.........
Country 3.........
Country 4.........
Other countries ..........
WHAT WAS THEIR MAIN
OCCUPATION THERE
activities in constructions
To To be filled in only for persons have lived abroad after 1989 but now are present in the
be locality
fill
ed
in
on
ly
for
pe
rs
on
s
ha
ve
liv
ed
ab
ro
ad
aft
er
19
89
bu
t
no
w
ar
e
pr
es
en
t
in
th
e
lo
cal
ity
To be filled in only for persons who are actually departed abroad
irrespective of their fixing residence there or not
Name of component village for which data is provided
33
Other data that does not refer to emigration s after
1989
house-keeping, elder care,
children care, heath care
assistance
qualified workers
agriculture
work in pubs, restaurants, hotels
business
studies / specialisation
other activity (specify) .........
HOW MANY TIMES DID THE
PERSONS WHO HAD BEEN
GONE AND WHO ARE NOW
IN THE LOCALITY TRAVEL
ABROAD
once
twice
more than twice
During the last two years
departures abroad for purposes
of work have been made mainly
through (circle the answer
accordingly)
OTHER DATA REGARDING
THE LOCALITY
(only for rural environment)
Number of commuters from
village to towns in 1990
(only for rural environment)
Number of commuters from
village to towns in 2001
No. of persons who returned
from towns to the village after
1989
No. of private cars per total
households in village / town
Were there persons in the
locality who had worked abroad
before 1989 (circle the answer
accordingly)
Questionnaire filled in by
Family name and name
purchased visas (black market)
legal visas
without visas
1.
yes
2.
no
1. yes
2. no
1. yes
2. no
1.
yes
2.
no
1.
yes
2.
no
position / profession
34
1. yes
2. no
1.
yes
2.
no
1.
yes
2.
no
Total
Name of component village for which data is provided
INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILLING IN OF THE FORM
WHO FILLS IT IN
WHAT ARE THE
LOCALITIES
FOR WHICH IT
WILL BE FILLED
IN
HOW DOES THE
FILLING IN
TEAM WORK
WHAT DO THE
CATEGORIES OF
QUESTIONS
REFER TO
FILLING IN
MANNER FOR
EACH BOX OF
THE FORM
Data that has to be filled in will be obtained by setting up of a group of two or three persons
who have very good knowledge of the village / town. You will decide who these persons are.
They may be veterinary agents, policemen with long duration of service in the locality, priests,
secretaries of locality halls, mayors, retailers, or ordinary people with very good knowledge of
their locality.
It will be filled in for all communes in the country, by villages, and for small towns of less than
20000 inhabitants.
In order to answer questions in the questionnaire, selected persons will recall the situation of the
members from each household of the village / town as regards migration and to total up cases
according to the questions in the form.
Questions I and XI refer to demographic and economic capital per total village or town and will
be used in order to related them with the ones regarding temporary migration abroad. They
usually can be obtained from town halls.
Questions II to X shall be filled in by the group of persons with very good knowledge on the
locality and they refer to characteristics of persons who are departed or who were departed
abroad after 1989.
Questions in package two refer to households in the locality that include at least one person who
has left for foreign countries after 1989 or who had been departed after 1989 but who returned
and lives in the locality.
Questions III, IV, V and VI shall be filled in with data regarding to persons actually departed
abroad after 1989 irrespective of their fixing residence there or not.
Questions VII, VIII, IX and X refer to persons who had left the locality for foreign countries
after 1989 but who returned and are actually living in the village or town.
For each written down in the rows of the table answers shall be filled in for a number of
columns equal with the number of villages in the commune plus the last column for totals. In
case of town only the last column for totals shall be filled in.
As an example, for a commune with three villages, data shall be filled in four columns, one
column for each village and one column for total village.
In those cases when in a village or town there are not persons actually or formerly departed
abroad, mark a line in appropriate boxes.
There are only two questions, X.5 and XI.5, that require provision of answers by circling one of
the options written down in the table. To all other questions there will be written down figures
resulted from the numbering operated by persons having knowledge of the locality or from
evidence kept by locality halls.
If there are more than 8 villages in the commune, please make a copy of the form and add on it
information on villages 9, 10... .
Grey boxes, such as the one here presented, shall not be filled in:
WHO CAN
PROVIDE
CLARIFICATION
AS TO THE
MANNER OF
FILLING IN THE
FORM
For any questions related to the content of the form you may contact the co-ordinator of the
research, Professor Dumitru Sandu, PhD, between 8.30-10.00 a.m. at phone no............
35
Annex 3: Features of circular
migration fields
migration of rural population by
Main countries that attract migrants
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Turkey
Yugoslavia
Spain
Total
Number of households - census of 1992
458138
383438
1049160
533091
470436
272154
3166417
Estimated population for the year 1998
1399350
1144116
3321026
1648804
1375440
827528
9716264
Persons departed abroad from the village in
November 2001
Migrants returned to the village from abroad
30161
37071
99051
11805
7822
8204
194114
10182
32493
45707
12393
10233
5159
116167*
% households with migrants from total households
6.0
7.2
9.5
3.0
3.2
3.5
7.0
5.9
12.1
18.3
14.3
6.5
10.9
12.4
2.6
10.9
3.6
4.0
2.0
4.8
4.0
3.6
14.9
0.5
0.2
0.5
3.3
3.8
% households of migrants who have:
newly built house
company / private business
Out of the total departed from the "field" of
reference, there are
Protestant (Lutherans, Calvinists)
Neo-Protestants
11.8
13.0
7.3
6.8
4.4
13.5
9.2
Catholics
15.7
27.3
22.2
0.4
0.8
1.8
19.1
Roma
8.9
8.6
1.3
3.4
19.2
9.3
5.1
Hungarians
8.7
47.7
1.5
0.0
0.0
2.4
11.3
Germans
8.1
1.7
0.3
0.4
0.0
1.7
1.8
29.5
10.5
38.9
7.4
50.6
18.3
35.6
8.3
34.0
9.5
39.7
16.4
43.0
14.0
9.6
11.8
8.2
8.4
6.0
8.4
9.1
agriculture
12.4
16.2
10.4
9.1
17.0
11.8
12.1
work in pubs, restaurants, hotels
business
4.9
0.6
4.6
2.0
3.6
0.3
4.3
0.7
5.3
1.0
5.2
0.3
4.2
0.7
Protestant (Lutherans, Calvinists)
2.2
19.6
0.4
0.3
0.0
6.1
6.1
Neo-Protestants
13.3
7.5
6.6
4.0
1.3
8.9
6.8
Catholics
7.8
29.0
23.0
0.0
0.8
1.0
17.9
Roma
19.3
13.4
2.2
8.9
22.3
15.5
9.9
Hungarians
5.9
59.4
1.3
0.0
0.0
5.6
17.9
Germans
1.4
0.6
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.2
0.4
36.3
40.4
51.8
46.9
35.3
41.5
44.8
7.6
4.6
10.1
5.2
4.9
8.0
7.3
qualified workers
5.9
7.3
7.0
8.2
6.4
6.2
7.0
agriculture
18.3
25.6
14.8
13.7
32.6
14.0
19.5
work in pubs, restaurants, hotels
4.1
2.7
3.0
2.8
2.5
4.0
3.0
business
1.4
1.7
0.3
0.7
0.4
1.3
0.9
commuters from village to towns in 1990, per
1000 inhabitants
149.7
119.8
102.2
127.4
119.7
162.6
123.0
commuters from village to towns in 2001, per
1000 inhabitants
67.9
40.5
30.9
39.7
48.6
51.6
43.1
Out of the total departed from the "field" of
reference, there are involved in occupations such
as:
activities in constructions
house-keeping, elder care, health care
assistance
qualified workers
Out of total migrants who returned to the
"field" there are
Out of total persons who returned to the field of
reference, there were involved in occupations
such as:
activities in constructions
house-keeping, elder care, health care
assistance
Features of the village
36
Main countries that attract migrants
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Turkey
Yugoslavia
Spain
Total
% reduction of commuting rate 2001/1990
54.6
66.2
69.8
68.8
59.4
68.3
65.0
persons who returned from towns to the village,
after 1989, per 1000 inhabitants
24.0
25.5
30.9
36.6
35.0
30.3
30.7
% households from the village that have own car
24.7
19.6
14.1
15.7
18.3
19.6
17.6
% households of migrants that have a car
31.6
33.8
21.4
22.1
14.3
29.0
21.6

Differences from data in Table 3 derive from the fact that in this case there were not included in the
calculation the 239 villages with high rates of departures to Germany presumed to be definitive displacements.

It is useful to consider recommendations in Box 6 when interpreting data in the table.
Notes
1
The first quantitative approaches regarding external migration of Romanian after 1989 were developed by
International Organisation of Migration IOM polls (IOM, 1993).
2
The research is based on integrating information produced within a community census on migration (IOM in
collaboration with the Ministry of Public Information and Ministry of the Interior) with the one generated within C8CNCSIS research project, entitled "Regional Development in Romania - the role of social and human capital,
COMREG".
The responsibility for the fieldwork methodology, for the analysis and interpretation manner of the data in this
community census is entirely incumbent on the author and not on the institutions involved in data gathering (IOM, MPI,
MI). Dana Diminescu (coordinator of the whole OIM project), Sebastian Lazaroiu and Louis Ulrich contributed to the
design of the questionnaire..
3
We knew from the prior experience of a research team in Cluj - through commune halls, based on a form on
public administration issues, forwarded through the Ministry of Public Administration - that the answering rate had
been of over 60%. Although acceptable for a regular poll by mail, the performance was not very encouraging for the
objectives of the research on migration. Consequently, we resorted to the solution that data should be requested from
local institutions through two ministries, Ministry of Public Information and Ministry of the Interior. Forms were
effectively forwarded through the Ministry of the Interior at the beginning of November 2001.
4
Communes are rural administrative units made up of one or more villages. Villages are not endowed with
administrative status but they are social units with territorial identity.
5
For analogy, but only relating to population and not to aggregated units such as villages, it should be
mentioned that the covering degree of the census in 2002 was of 99,83% (INS, 2002:53).
6
Considering village as data gathering unit, it results that the rate of questionnaire answering was of
approximately (12300/12700 )*100= 96.7%. Absence from the recording of those approximately 350-400 villages is not
of nature to annul its quality as a census. It is probable that the answering rate is higher than 97% due to the fact that the
total number of rural villages is lower than it was back in 1992 used in estimating the total number of 12700 villages.
7
With the possibilities limited by the context of the 1980s as to the access to weathering data in Romania, the
systematic nature of migration was identified for this country as regarded inter-residential and inter-regional flows, but
without including external migration, nevertheless "frozen" due to the rigours of that period (D. Sandu, 1984, Chapter
5).
8
„We also underscore Durand and Massey's caveat that care must be taken when attempting to generalise from
isolated community studies. As we have shown, depending on whether one selects a community where transnational
migration is incipient or well established, the "nature" of transnational migration may be characterised very differently
in social, demographic, and economic terms and the patterns of movement may vary considerably. In order to aid in
future comparative work, investigators undertaking case studies of migrant communities should report the degree of
migratory prevalence so that others can determine what phase the community has achieved in the developmental
process and can avoid comparing communities at markedly different stages. ……. If identifiable patterns are associated
with the expansion of migratory behaviour and accumulated experience, then these differences should be the result of
diverse histories and levels of migration experience. Simple cross tabulations of data from multiple sites offer little
insight into the process of migration unless they are standardised for purposes of comparison. We introduce the
prevalence of migration as a conceptual and empirical measure that can capture the cumulative process of migration as
it unfolds” (Massey, Goldring, Durand, 1994:1529).
9
„Cumulative causation at the individual level leads to other mechanisms of self-perpetuation at the social
structural level, one of the most important being network formation. According to network theory, each act of migration
creates the social structure necessary to sustain additional movement (Massey 1990). Migrants are linked to nonmigrants through social ties that carry reciprocal obligations for assistance based on shared understandings of kinship,
friendship, and common community origin. Non-migrants draw upon these ties to gain access to employment abroad.
Every new migrant reduces the costs and risks of migration for a set of friends and relatives and with these lowered
37
costs and risks, they are induced to migrate, which further expands the set of people with ties abroad. (Massey, Arango
et all: 1994: 734).
10
The study of Massey et all (1994) on nineteen Mexican comunities is the most direct support for the view
that communities of high prevalence of external circular migration are also spaces of transnational migration. Romanian
community studies as those published by Stanculescu and Berevoescu (1999), Potot (2000), Serban and Grigoras
(2000), Lazaroiu (2000) and Sandu (2000) are clear support for the same transnational space hypothesis .
11
Although IOM forms reached the localities through police stations, personnel of locality halls provided the
highest rates of local specialists who answered the questionnaire.
Through its content and the attached instructions for filling in, the
Who filled in the form Filling in
form was of nature to stimulate a very large range of persons who
at locality level
villages
towns
had knowledge of the local life. Despite the fact that locality halls
Mayor
2960
75
did not receive directly the form, the said entities had a major
Deputy Mayor
754
21
contribution to its filling in. In exchange, it is very probable that
Secretary of locality hall
2494
63
sending forms through police stations contributed to obtaining an
Agricultural agent
830
8
exceptional answering rate of almost one hundred percent but also
to a certain underestimation of the number of migrants due to the
Accountant
151
1
fact that migration is still perceived in many cases as a negative
Cashier
67
0
phenomenon.
Councillor
99
3
Of course we knew that the procedure adopted for data gathering
Registrar
57
4
involved risks: a form arrived through the Ministry of the Interior,
Referent
554
26
even if the instructions for application contained a lot of details
Fiscal agent
113
1
indicating the fact that it is a sociologic research, could generate a
variety of misinterpretations of the research; a tool of sociologic
Head of station
3674
112
knowledge could have been mingled as a tool of institutional
Assistant Head of Station
601
22
control. However, we considered that the said risk is reasonably
Police agent
25
29
reduced because we did not request any personalised information
Engineer
92
10
but only evaluations at level of total village; secondly, the data
Inspector
91
14
requested by the form were so diverse that it would have been
Villager
224
24
difficult if not impossible to be filled in by only one person.
Thirdly, a phone contact with the sociologist responsible for the
Letter carrier
66
0
330
74
project (the author of the paper) was intended not only to provide
support but also to reduce eventual distrust or suspicion reactions.
Other functionaries
It is probable that the number of mayors is overestimated. The
administrative reflex to indicate them as participants to the group
that filled in the questionnaire, even when it was not the case, could
13182
487
lead to such overestimation.
12
Results of the 10 case studies as well as presentation of other versions of census data analysis are under the
process of publication by IOM.
13
„Trans-migrants adapt themselves to uncertain and unpredictable situations, they learn to manage risks and
to live with them, they accumulate cultural and social capital in and between the two countries. Concerning their spatial
residence and their work, their life projects and plans are not fixed or very long-term but 'oriented in exploiting
opportunities'. They are not free in defining the conditions of their action, but the horizon of their realised options of
action and expectations is not limited to the region of departure or the region of arrival, it spans between and over them.
....we hold that, first, the bulk of international migration theory until now focused on immigrants and return
migrants, but not on trans-migrants; second, since the end of the 20th century we could observe a qualitative and
quantitative breakthrough of transmigration and trans-migrants as an empirical phenomenon; and, third, in the context
of globalisation and new communication technologies the durability of transnational social spaces is increasing.” (
Pries, 2001a:.68).
14
According to the provisional results of the census of March the 18 th 2002, the number of persons departed
abroad for a period longer than one year was, by the time of the census, of 178 thousand (INS, 2002).
15
„The conceptual framework called for by Durand and Massey requires a technique that permits direct
comparison among communities with different histories and levels of migration. In order to satisfy this methodological
need, we introduce a new analytical tool: the migration prevalence ratio. For any community in any year, the prevalence
ratio is defined as the number of people with international migratory experience divided by the total number of people
alive. It can be calculated retrospectively for any year in the recent past given just two pieces of information about every
community member: the date of birth and the date of his or her first foreign trip.
This ratio, when calculated for different years within a community, provides a simple indicator of how
widespread migratory experience has become at any point in time. It serves as a proxy for the extent of a community's
involvement in the migratory process and allows us to compare communities at very different stages of migratory
development. In this way, the prevalence ratio partially controls for the effect of differences in the history and timing of
migration. In essence, it standardises the units of comparison.” (Massey, Goldring, Durand, 1994:1495).
38
16
My study operates mainly with the concept of "transnational space" (Massey, Goldring, Durand, 1994, Pries,
2000) rather than with the one of "transnational community” (Portes, 1996, 1997). I consider, on the line of Faist (2001)
approach, "transnational communities" as particular forms of "transnational spaces", characterised by a high degree of
structuring and by preponderant defined by social networks. Certainly, personal and community social, plays a very
important role for circular migration of Romanian villagers. The structuring degree of transnational space that involve
migrants from Romanian villages is still a limited one, or anyway characterised by strong variations. That is why we
preferred the concept of "space" rather than that of "community" of transnational type. The available data of the
community census do not allow us to differentiate among different fors of the transnational space as mentioned by Faist
(2001:2): “The concept of transnational spaces covers diverse phenomena such as transnational small groups,
transnational circuits and transnational communities. Each of these is characterized by a primary mechanism of
integration: reciprocity in small groups, exchange in circuits and solidarity in communities.”
17
As it includes components of circular migration, of travelling or small business type, for Saxons departed to
Germany or for their relatives, neighbours or friends in the country (Stanculescu and Berevoescu: 1999; Sandu and
Mihailescu, coord., 1999).
18
In each of the 19 communities samples aleatory households samples were selected. The prevalence indicator
of migration was calculated by dividing the number of persons who had been at least once in the USA aged 15+ years
from the households sample. Starting data were at individual level and allowed for annual calculation of the prevalence
indicator. Although authors note that it was possible to fail to record persons departed definitively from the locality to
abroad, they indicate the fact that in calculating ratios circular type of migrants were considered, that is the ones with
more departure-return cycles but also migrants with a sole displacement and those definitively departed (Massey,
Goldring, Durand, 1994:1507).
19
Out of the persons who returned to the villages from abroad and live in villages where a massive
displacement of Saxons took place (over 50% of departures), 22% are Roma, as compared to only 9% that is the rate in
villages which were not affected by emigration of Saxons. Subsequently, for recent waves of transnational migration,
the above mentioned difference is not valid any longer. The analysis by migration fields, which we shall present in
subsequent chapters of this article, indicates the same phenomenon of massive presence of Roma in the circular field
towards Germany. Villages of Saxon emigration are communities where the presence of the Roma has already been
very strong immediately after the migration of the Saxons: by the census of 1992 average ratio of Roma in villages of
Saxon emigration was of 9% as compared to only 2% in the other villages.
20
The table below presents correlation among certain "strong" ecological indicators, specified by lines and
indicators of circular migration. We marked with an * the indicators computed by reference to the estimated population
of the village within the COMREG project and with ** the indicators using references to the population recorded
through the CCM. For the definition of REMIG and RIMIG, see Box 5. As a tendency, migration indicators calculated
using the population estimated by COMREG (*) relate better with the ecological indicators as compared to the
measures based on population recorded through the CCM (**).
REMIG* REMIG** RIMIG*
RIMIG**
village-town distance DIST
-0.048
-0.039
-0.034
-0.026
rate of commuting 1990 NAV90
0.089
0.038
0.040
0.014
village development LEVEL98
0.070
0.056
0.048
0.038
county development DEVJUD98
0.048
0.039
-0.002
0.003
population of town nearby
PORAS
-0.035
-0.039
-0.039
-0.037
% persons aged over 60 years in
the village 1992 AGED
-0.109
-0.065
-0.060
-0.037
Regression model, with beta indicators, where RIMIG* is the dependent variable indicating:
RIMIG*=-0.06* (elder population in the village 1992) +0.26* (rate of religious minorities in the commune in
1992) -0.03* (population of closest town) +0.03* (rate of commuting in the village in 1990). Multiple determination is
of 8%. In case that the dependent variable is RIMIG**, the variable calculated with data from the CCM, multiple
determination decreases to 2%.
21
The relation between transnational migration as latent variable and direct manners to measure it (through
international circular migration indicators, such as temporary emigration/immigration, etc.) is similar for the purposes
of this research with the relation between the demographic phenomenon of fertility and birth rate indicators.
22
Figures regarding frequency of returns to the country, both for those who left and for those who returned,
should be considered with prudence as it is about information from secondary sources given by persons who have
knowledge of the village but not effectively by migrants. The methodological hypothesis for evaluation that we used
pledges for the fact that local experts have made a better reconstitution of returns than of departed persons and that
collective memory related to destination countries is better than the one referring to the frequency of circulation
movements.
39
23
To the same evaluation leads the data gathered at destination, namely in Istanbul. Turkish tradesmen were
speaking at the end of the 1990s about the "good days of 1993/1994”: „Some time ago – said one of those in December
2000 – I had up to 100 Romanian clients per day and today there are no more than 20" (Gangloff et all, 2000:8).
24
„Le migrant de villages roumains vers l’étranger (vers l’occident spécialement) est , fonction des données de
l’an 2000, un homme de jeune âge, à éducation secondaire, professionnelle ou supérieure. Il n’a pas un profil ethnique
spécifique. Du point de vue de la religion il est plutôt chrétien non-orthodoxe qu’orthodoxe. Du point de vue du capital
social, il est une personne avec de bonnes connexions données par des parents à l’étranger. Il a aussi une riche
expérience de migration soit par le fait d’avoir eu l’expérience des voyages à l’étranger, même avant 1989, soit par
migration domestique avant 1989.” (Sandu, 2001a).
25
The concept is used within the context of this article with the meaning of space of circular migration, with
relatively diffuse limits, mainly oriented towards the same immigration country. "Migration regions" that will be
described hereinafter are spaces with better defined limits and structured according to more countries of destination.
26
The former consistent presence of Jewish communities in Northern Moldavia could condition the actual
configuration of circular migration from Northwest Moldavia. However, the relation should be analysed through case
studies in order to eliminate alternative hypotheses.
27
„Both tendencies of de-ethnicisation de-regionalisation of external temporary migration are natural and they
will probably expand during the upcoming period. Initially, at the beginning of the 1990s, this type of migration was
ethnically, relationally and religiously influenced because on those lines there could have been identified lower social
costs of the international movement. Social networks based on ethnical, religious and regional minorities operated as
launching support for international circular migration of Romanians. As the social innovation called international
circular migration expands in the Romanian space, the phenomenon of social contagiousness in transmitting life
strategies of migration type develops and ethnical, religious and regional specificity of the phenomenon disappears. The
hypothesis statistically generated is entirely confirmed by sociological researches at community level." (Sandu, 2001b).
28
From the perspective of emigration volumes, hierarchies are slightly different from those relating to the
intensity of flows (refer to the annexed Table A2.1). More precisely, hierarchies herein presented refer to counties
comprising more villages with very high rates of departures to foreign countries.
29
At least for countries like Romania is perfectly suited the recommendation of an international
conference of trasnationalism , nation-state and culture: “The consensus of the conference was that rather use
the term “transnationalism” we should speak of transnational processes and their theoretical implications.”
(Blanc, Basch and Schiller, 1995: 684).
40
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