The Social and Demographic Trends of Romanians before and after Transition to Integration

Abstract

Today’s socio-demographic changes are based on parameters such as natural population growth rates, such as births and deaths, and migration abroad by emigration and immigration. Migration phenomena record the permanent evolution of inflows and outflows of people affected by a variety of factors. The factors that caused migration are very diverse, and depending on the era, they were influenced by social (war, invasion, and disease), natural (natural phenomena, earthquakes, floods), political (exportation), and economic (low wages, high costs, high prices, etc.) factors. Among these, economic factors, especially economic power and purchasing power, and the gap in wage levels between countries of origin and destination have the greatest influence. Migration flows from countries with low economic and purchasing power to developed countries are significant. After World War II, Romania's demographic history experienced three inflection points. The first is the temporary population increase caused by Ceausescu’s fertility policy in the 1960s and the continued decline thereafter. The second is the decline in the birth rate due to the economic situation immediately after the fall of socialism and the gradual decline in mortality due to the development of universal welfare and medical technology. The third is the ongoing change of population in the freedom of migration due to the integrated transition. Romanian international migration before 1989 is based on two mechanisms. One was permanent migration due to political and ethnic issues, and the other was temporary migration for study or employment based on an agreement between the governments of the other countries. However, since 1989, the main reasons for international migration have changed from political and racial issues to unified economic reasons. Thus, the trend of temporary migration has increased both in the number and percentage of total migrants. The world economy and Romania's integration into the EU have brought important changes in terms of economic development, purchasing power and population mobility within the EU. Migration refers to the change of residence of a person under the influence of various economic, political and social factors in relation to the country of origin or destination. During the transition to integration since 2007, international migration in Romania is characterized by two parallel trends: ‘emigration’ and ‘immigration’. The former is the emigration of Romanian citizens abroad, the latter is mainly the Republic of Moldova and foreign nationals from third countries to Romania. One of the most striking phenomena today is that the purpose of international migration is no longer driven by money or economic motives, but by various issues such as culture, education, society and health.