Migration and its impact on the labor market
Case Study: Romania
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds...There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter..."(Rachel Carson)

1. General theoretical aspects of migration. Historical and social perspective
Migration is defined as a "change from a social, economic, political and / or cultural environment to another, in order to develop a project and answer to any individual or group expectations."
Migration phenomenon has always existed, resulted through transhumance, invasions, colonization and crusades, generally caused by the attraction of the richest regions on the poorest populations. Labor migration is the supportive factor of globalization,'' a process that allows reducing geographical constraints on social and cultural processes in which individuals are increasingly aware of this." There is currently no state or part of the world that does not import or export workforce.
During the 20th Century the migration process developed significantly. In this period, Romania was predominantly a country of emigration and still is. Acording to some sources, by 1914, a large number of people decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean, most focusing on the U.S. and Canada, the rest of them going to Argentina and Brazil. The presence of Romanian immigrants in the U.S. can be very well demonstrated; the first Romanian immigrants in the present-day country’s territory is attested by the names of the soldiers participating in the union army during the war of secession. It was a massive voluntary migration, with a temporary character, as the Romanian emigrants hoped that they would earn more money and it will be possible to return to the country.
Moreover, the post-1880 period historiography has been exhibited an increased emigration, especially overseas, from Transylvania and Banat. Among the emigrants, 28.2% were Saxons and Swabians (especially those from rural space), Hungarians (19.7%), Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats (6.9%) etc. Of the total number of Romanian emigrants from Transylvania, by 1914, 6.5% had as destinations Germany, Austria and the Balkan countries. Furthermore, 69.7% of Romanian emigrants have turned to large American cities as Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh or Cleveland.
The importance of migration increases in the postwar period. In this respect, developed countries become diverse societies, multiethnic, by permanent migrations and temporary workforces. Since the 90s, unskilled foreign workforce is growing, especially in agriculture, construction and public works. Domestic services (for Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal) are also growing, but there was a constant movement of highly-qualified professionals and students from Central and Eastern Europe to Western Europe. However, migrants occupy the deficient areas which are rejected by the locals, while the best jobs are occupied by the state’s citizens.
Against this historical background, the emigration from Romania during the interwar period focused, in particular, to countries such as Canada, Argentina or Brazil. So, according to some contemporary statistics, it is assumed that 11,700 Romanians fled to Argentina (of which over 2,000 have been returned to the country) and in Brazil, where the number of Romanians was lower than that of Bulgarians, Hungarians, Russians or Jews (approx. 2,000 persons).
Countries such as Britain, Germany and France have adopted measures to facilitate the entry of highly qualified people, mainly IT specialists, to face the global competition for such workers. In this way, it appeared the so-called "brain migration'' provided by developing countries. Social Security regulations at national level must be continually improved and adapted to the evolution of migration. The capacity of the capitalist states is no longer appropriate to the requirements: illegal migration has acquired new dimensions and became more dangerous. Also, infrastructures, transport institutions and communications are key factors for migration, shaping globalization of migration. People do not only work so migration has consequences on the social, cultural and political environment. The political boundaries are extending, creating new empires. However, workforce exporting countries face a shortage of young workforce and a increase of the aging workforce. A consequence of globalization in multicultural societies is the national identity. The capitalist states want to implement a real-multiculturalism which relies on the support of civil society. The most important current concern is that foreign workforce will create imbalances in the social system, so, protectionist measures from the old member states are encouraged, even if the free movement of workforce is a fundamental principle in EU legislation.
What matters the most in the migration phenomenon is the ability of the migrant to adapt to the already existing structures in that society: adapting to the rules and values of the destination, adapting to a new economic, social, political and cultural environment. The difficulties they may encounter relate the most to the differentiation between the backgrounds of immigrants and the host country.

2. Specific issues concerning the free movement of individuals and the free movement of the workforce
Domestic markets main constituent element is taking any constraints on circulation of persons and the removal of internal border controls. But, over time, this concept has been distorted in terms of significance. Although initially the free market proposed the free movement of professionals, by extension also included the concept of agent watched as an individual. Removing restrictions on state borders has brought an unbalanced dynamism of masses.
a) What means the freedom of movement for workers?
Free movement of persons is one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by Community law and includes the right to live and work in another Member State. It is an essential element of the Internal Market and of European citizenship.
Free movement of workers is beneficial to the workforce because this predicament of being unable to obtain a satisfactory income can be overcome by relocating to a neighboring state, a member also of the European Union, which could satisfy these conditions. It is equally beneficial for workers who want to relocate their home to their native country and last but not least, is beneficial emigrated workers' families. In 2011, the European Parliament approved the petition founded by socialists groups in the European Parliament regarding the freedom of workforce movement in Romania and Bulgaria. This petition claims the suppression of the oppression measures regarding the labor rights for these citizens, but also a set of principles to be respected.

b) Labor force demand

At the moment, a look that incorporates the current labor statistics in Europe shows no satisfaction. Thus, there is a significant decrease of the European population, which interferes bad with active segment of the labor sector, which according to expert forecasts will decrease by 10% by 2050. Another international trend is registered in the U.S. territory which attracts 55% of skilled workforce, while the European Union attracts only 5%. This translates into a decrease of competitiveness of the European economy. Due to lack of legal framework, immigrants from outside the European boundaries are forced to work outside the law, thereby avoiding the payment of taxes and not exercising their right of access to health, education and essential public services. At the end of 2009, occupancy of the workforce was 65.9 in EU and 58.6 in Romania.
The results are that workforce occupancy in our country is more than 10% lower than the EU. The situation viewed as a static does not worry, but that trend gives more for thought. In the last decade, our country marked a steady decline. If in 1998, the occupancy rate of the workforce in Romania was 64.2%, it decreased to 58.6% in 2009, while the in the EU increased in the same period, from 61.2% to 64 6%.
For a European citizen, other countries’ borders are wide open and access is made only on the basis of the identity card or a valid national passport. Such accessibility related to the possibility of travel, generated, as expected, an active workforce movement in more developed countries with a better standard of living and bidding in terms of remuneration.

c) Unemployment rate and migration rate

Last year, as Eurostart data shows, for the first time in ten years, the unemployment rate for men went over unemployment among women. The reason for this change was the crisis which struck particularly in construction and industry, where employees were mostly men. The EU average for unemployment is 9.7% among men and 9.3% among women. The exception is Greece, where unemployment is double among women. In Romania, the figures are 8.2% (men) and 6.1% (women).
Recent studies showed that in the last few years the growth rate of migration had decreased. Factors that have improved the increase of global migration flows are: increasing aversion towards immigrants, development of migration policy, more stringent measures against illegal migration, the worsening of the economic climate in developed countries, maintaince of labor market restrictions on some countriesof the EU.
Higher wages and more acceptable living conditions in countries like Austria and Germany attract labor force mostly from Eastern Europe. The information and telecommunications industry has 30,000 available jobs for qualified people, as well as health and services sector which faces labor shortage.
A study made by Manpower Group in 2011 revealed that in Europe, unskilled workers (17%) are part of the staff sought to cover vacant positions, and the attention is drawn to Eastern Europe. Poland and Romania are the main sources of personnel in Europe, followed by Germany and Italy.

d) The impact of migration on the European labor market

On the labor market there are 2 major facts that stay as basics causes to migrate and find a job outside the country and these two are: many people can't find in their own country a satisfactory job or one that brings enough income to feed a family and the other is that lack of working places in some areas of activity. Other factors that influence the labour market, but have a lower impact, refears to the demographic changes, economic and political crisis and the low standard of living.
Migration has a strong influence on the european labor market. Not only does it affect the demographic level because of the people leaving, but also the aging rate has met a big increase, because most of the people migrating are youngsters.
From an economic point of view, the direct impact of international migration can be measured with the help of the unemployment rate, by means of analyzing the investitions with the money won outside the country, the salaries changes, the lost of qualified people and the labor force segmentation, the rate of imigrants that are employed for jobs that are unconvenient for the locals and the increase in "black labour market". All of these lead to a decrease in the country's productivity and technological and economical development.

3. Realities and perspectives of the romanian labor market development

The statistics of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development show an increase in the number of foreign workers in most of the devloped european countries. The imigrants, which seem to be younger than the rest of the labour force, are spread mostly in the field of agriculture, construction, turism, hotel industry and catering.
In the communism period, the migration was controlled, but in the same time with the extinguishment of this political ideology, roads and markets had opened, increasing the phenomenon of migration. The central and eastern european countries became attractive for the people in the Extrem Orient, while the people from central and eastern europe were interested in leaving for the West Europe.
Also, there was a remarcable growth in the number of female migrants, in countries like France, Greece, Great Britain, Italy and Sweden.
Some people are willing to make compromises concerning the field of working, their studies, qualifications and abilities acquired in their native country. In this case, the interruption of their specialised activity has a negative impact on their profesional continuity, but also, on their capability to retake their job, at their return.
Regardless of the negative influence of migration, there are also benefits for both issuer and receiver country and migrants. Remittances represent a major positive consequencesand they are defined as cash transfers to the country of origin or cash sent by migrant to their families.Their effect is the increase in the national income, the standards of living of the receiver and the development of the local economy. Some studies inidicate that almost 80% of the remittances are used for basic household consumption, education and health. The negative effects of remittances are related to the inequality in the community (very poor families that don't migrate), remittances dependance, lower intention to engage in activities on the national market.
At a microeconomic level, the main beneficiaries are families remaining in the country and at a macroeconomic level, the benefit is brought to domestic consumption, but the exchange rate, imports and exports and inflation are also affected, as excess demand for land and houses leads to an artificially increase in their prices.
Due to austerity measures taken by countries to overcome the crisis, the number of jobs in both the private sector and the public sector, the social benefits and public services has considerably reduced thus getting worse cases of poverty across the EU. Young people that are often forced to accept precarious employment contracts and unpaid internships, people approaching retirement age, long-term unemployed workers, workers from third countries and low-skilled workers are also among the categories of persons severely affected by the crisis.

4. Romania- Analysis of migration flows in the years 2000-2012

Issues regarding external migration from Romania are currently characterized by two dimensions related to the recent history: first, the years before 1989 (defined at political and social level by the communist regime), and secondly, the current period (the years after the events of December 1989, with multiple political and legislative changes), this long period of time being perceived as a “transition” never crossed by the nation. High expectances of a better life after the ’89 Revolution were not confirmed and disappointment contributed to the structuring of migration decisions. To cope with an unstable social and economic environment, individuals chose different strategies. Migration was an innovative life strategy at the beginning of the ‘90s, when migration policies were still restrictive, favoring the emergence of informal mobility networks.
In a first stage, in the early ‘90s, the ethnic motivation was the main factor to support a high level of external mobility associated with the change of residence. The largest departure flows started in areas with high ethnic concentration, especially in Transylvania, mainly to Germany and Hungary. Moreover, there were significant movements in this period of repatriation of Jews.
In a second stage, after 1994, permanent migration was strongly reduced, there becoming predominant temporary migration, often motivated by the career opportunities and chances of higher earnings; the out-migration was benefiting from the liberalization of the movement of Romanians within the Schengen area in the recent years, after Romania’s EU accession.
Permanent legal immigration follows a path opposite to the emigration: after 1991 the emigration falls and immigration steadily increased, except for a temporary decline between the years 2004-2005. The two migration flows tend to equalize in 2007, permanent loss of native population being offset by permanent immigration associated with the change of residence.
Spain, although it is not among the first destinations of permanent migration flows is, together with Italy, the largest recipient of temporary emigration, the estimated number of Romanians who are in Spain amounting to over half a million people according to official Spanish statistics and beyond one million people according to some unofficial estimates, and nearly 350,000 people in Italy. Massive departures of populations towards Spain and Italy have come predominantly from 2003 and continuing into the next period.
A representative indicator for the extent of migration flows is the total migration rate, which represents the combined number of emigrants and returning immigrants per 1000 inhabitants. In Romania, the total migration rate decreased from about 2 emigrants per thousand inhabitants in 1991 to 0.84 in 2007, registering many variations in this time. The lowest levels of the indicator were recorded between the years 2002-2005. After 2005, the final immigration flows recorded a growth becomimg an increasingly important component of the indicator, and reached to offset emigration flows in 2007. The emigration increase during the period 1991-2006, but he number of newly registered permanent emigrants in 2010 was about 7 900, down 23% from 2009.
A better approximation of actuale migration is provided by the statistics of the main destination countries. For example, the Romanian population residing in Italy increased by around 80 000(to a total of 969 000) in 2010, and the corresponding increase in Spain was 33 000 (to a total of almost 864 300).
Compared with developed countries, Romania has not yet faced a massive influx of immigrants, yet their number is increasing since 2005. According to the Romanian Office for Immigration,the immigrant population in Romania increased by 10% from 2009 to 2010, to a total of 97 400, representing less than 5% of the total population. Around 60% of those immigrants were non-EU citizens, mainly from Moldova(18%), Turkey (9%) and China (7%), the permanent legal immigration currently equaling the permanent legal emigration. While the permanent legal immigration has been dominated by returns, temporary immigration was mainly motivated by the higher chances of finding employment in an economy that has been in recent years on an upward trend and begin to experience native labor shortages. Another component, more difficult to quantify, is the illegal immigration, the immigrants being in transit on Romania’s territory, usually the final destination being the Western Europe.

Structural characteristics of migration

Sex structure of emigrants has been dominated by women throughout the period 2000-2010. Predominance of women has become more pronounced in the recent years, in 2007, for instance, they representing over 65% of the total number of immigrants, compared with men who had a share of almost 35% (Table 1).
Table 1: The gender of the emigrants

The structure of emigrants by age showed significant changes during 2000 - 2010, especially for the group of people between 26 and 40 years (Table 1), which increased its share from 38.75% in 2000 to over 57% in 2006, and then decreased untill 2010. Smaller increases are found in groups 41-50 and 51-60 years age until 2006, followed by a decrease, all other age groups having a decreasing share in the analyzed period (group under 18 years fell from almost 30% in 2000 to 13 88% in 2007 after which stays constant, and share of the emigrants between 18 and 25 years decreased from 10.26% to only 6.92%in 2010).

Table 2: Romanian citizens who settled their permanent residence abroad by age group
The ethnic structure of emigrants - after the predominantly ethnic emigration from the early 90s, this structure was highly dominated by Romanians, which in 2000 accounted for between 90% and 95% of the total, followed by Hungarians and Germans (Table 3).
Table 3: Romanian citizens who settled their permanent residence abroad by nationality

Regarding the main destinations of permanent legal emigration in 2000, they were directed to Italy, Germany, Canada and the U.S. 2010 statistics reveals as the preferences of Romanian emigrants two EU countries (Germany - approx. 1400 thousand people - and Italy - with 844 hundred of Romanians), while for the North American continent, Romanian emigrants chose Canada (858 hundred) and U.S. (1086 thousand) – Table 4
Regarding the territorial distribution of emigration flows, it appears that the main sources of emigration in the period 2000-2010 were the Center, North - East and Bucharest - Ilfov regions. A less significant emigration flow was recorded in the same period in the South (Muntenia) and South - West (Oltenia) of Romania.

Table4: Romanian citizens who settled their permanent residence abroad by country of destination

5. Psycho-sociological factors of migration (questionaires and interviews)

Students` migration
The beginning of the 21st century marked a spectacular ascent in the number of international students at worldwide level. In 2004, at least 2,5 million students of tertiary level studied outside their country of origin, compared with 1,75 million that did it in 1999, which represents an increase of 41%. In 2004, 132 million students were registered anywhere in the world in superior education; value that is very over 68 million that did it in 1991.
The same situation can be distinguished in Romania. More and more students decide to begin their studies abroad, the main destinations being the UK, France, Germany or the USA. After graduating, some of them decide to find a job and settle down in the destination country and some decide to return to Romania.
The answers to our survey show us that 72% of the Romanian students questionnierd would leave the country during the next 5 years. 43% would leave for study, 46% for work and 12% would leave for family and other reasons. 70% of them would return to Romania, while 30% would remain abroad.

Most of them would leave for the EU or U.S.A. and would like to work in the field of economics or IT.

The foreign students who learn in Romania are mostly here with Erasmus scolarships and come frome Western Europe. Other students are from Middle East or Asia. Most of them are here for study, but also for work or experience.

Those who come from Western Europe wouldn’t establish their permanent residence in Romania, while those from Middle East and Asia are seeing movind here permanently a opportunity.
Foreign student’s income is usually bigger than romanian’s.

Most foreign students believe that the educational system in Romania is satisfactory but could be improved.

6. Conclusions, solutions and recomandations

Migration became a topic that it's more and more debated since the crisis, requiring it to be study from the beginning to observe its evolution and determinants. Not only does it have negative effects for the states "abandoned" that cause the demographic aging because of a lower labor force, but it also produces large economic, social and political disequilibriums between states. During the crisis, the phenomenon of migration is more difficult to control because people capable of work, young people in particular, seek after better conditions and future safety in other countries.Therefor EU's enlargement offers them the possibility fulfilling their desires.
Among the positive aspects of migration there is the better standard of living of citizens and the migrant remittances to the country of origin, helping family and local economic growth. Thus, each state must provide its citizens with at least minimum conditions of living, so that they don't longer leave the country and to be somehow a balance between migrants and immigrants nationwide. An important role comes to the government which will have to carefully manage migration flows during the crisis. As concerning the history and different involvement of the states will also cause a different result in the migration level.