Migration As Life Strategy

CIRCULATORY MIGRATION AS LIFE STRATEGY Dumitru Sandu University of Bucharest The study aims at listing the significant characteristics
of the Romanians' provisional migration abroad within 2000. The theoretical environment of the herein approach has been set up by means of a reference to the life strategy concepts, to the human capital, to the social capital, to the material capital, to the community related capital and innovation spreading means. The strategies with respect to the international circulatory migration are more and more relied upon, within the framework of the pauperization, globalization and of the structuring of the international circulatory networks. The provisional external migration is strongly marked by a positive selectivity, by the differentiation between rural-urban concepts and by the alteration of the characteristics in compliance with the 'waves' of the social innovation spreading process which consists of the fulfillment of the life objectives by means of the international circulatory migration. The community oriented social capital, with ethnic and religious origins, plays a significant role within the first stages of the emigration from the community abroad. For the purpose of the analysis, it was a good idea to use the national survey data, community focused studies, multilevel approaches.
Why should we call it 'LIFE STRATEGY'? (LS) After 1989, the field of the migration related phenomena on the Romanian territory or originated in Romania has been the subject of significant changes, such as:
The internal migration dominated by the village-town flow changed into a prevailing reverse migration, from town to village; Commuting from the rural domicile to the urban work place has drastically decreased, almost three times, during the time period 1989/2000; Although the definite external migration keeps on having low ratings, the circulatory migration, of the 'come and go' type, from Romania to other countries, for different reasons such as tourism, work or business purposes enjoys a permanent social extent.
Sociologie Romneasc / Romanian Sociology Annual English Electronic Edition Issue 2 (2000), pp. 65-92
Original (Romanian) version: Dumitru Sandu: Migraia circulatorie ca strategie de via Sociologie Romneasc, 2000, 2, 5-29. English translation by DELCOM Group & Sociologie Romneasc, with the financial support of the Open Society Institute - the Open Access Journals Program. Sociologie Romneasc is published by the Romanian Association of Sociology. The issues from the new series (starting 1999) are available on the journal website: www.sociologieromaneasca.ro, as well as the English translations from the Annual English Electronic Edition.
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Such structural changes within the Romanian migration can be relatively easy to explain by development delays, the cities/ regions/ countries development dynamics. Unfortunately, the phenomenon related to the massive return from town to village cannot be interpreted as the village's coming closer to the town's development level. It is more of a social-economic crisis in which the country fumbles. 'The fall' of the rural commuting clearly points at the increase of the industrialurban decline. The explanations that rely on development differences or on communication facilities/obstacles focus on rather mechanistic hypothesis: the migrants seem to be more the particles of a magnetic field whose force lines are laid out by the development discrepancies and by the communication channels. that is why explicitly or implicitly promotes approaches of the 'pushpull' or neo-economic type. The mechanistic trend in explaining the migration has though more subtle shapes than the ones that have been associated to the gravitational patterns. It is the trend that sees the migrant as being the same in his origin and at his final destination, with stable reasons and objectives before and after his departure. The mechanistic simplifications are frequently doubled by the distortions due to the migrant's relative isolation, to his separation from the context of his departure site or to the approaches' over-focusing on the aspects related to the migration issues on the arrival or departure sites. Of course, the constraints and the economic and communication opportunities are significantly important in the migration phenomena structuring processes. The issues with respect to the poverty within the departure site and to the integration difficulties within the arrival site enjoy a high relevance and visibility. The understanding of the social reasons that ground the migration process and the refusal to interpret in a mechanistic way the herein phenomenon may be reached by means of approaches that focus on the intentionality of these migrating actions, on the joining of the tendencies and behaviors towards the spatial mobility's understanding. Within the range of concepts that favour comprehensive migration approaches, an important position is held by the 'life strategy'. The strictly demographic oriented researches, or the ones based on social morphological patterns such as the Durkheim pattern mainly interpret the 'migration' as an event, as a simple transit between two places. By summing up some other similar events, one comes to the definition of a migration phenomenon with specific structures and dynamics. Besides, as a reaction to the mechanistic-morphological approaches, the question 'could migration be understood as a life strategy?' seems to be perfectly legitimate. If the answer is 'yes', then by means of which concepts or which hypothesis? The herein study mainly aims at testing the effectiveness of the migration being treated as a life strategy. I will hereinafter try to provide a
Sociologie Romneasc / Romanian Sociology - Annual English Electronic Edition - Issue 2 (2000)
Circulatory migration as life strategy
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starting point of an answer, by referring to a specific migration type - the Romanians' international circulatory migration within 2000-2001. The concepts of human, material and social capital, that are frequently used within the different approaches on migration are to be subjected to the life strategy concept. Before starting to see the migration through the conceptual lens of the life strategy, we ought to re-define the contours of this lens, as well as the way in which it may be polished so that it allow a clearer overview on the designed phenomena.
Migration within the framework of life strategies A life strategy is not only an action, but also a kind of perspective on the action itself. It is the perspective of the long term relationship between the assumed ends and the required means. As for sociology, it is about 'ordered pairs' of purposes-means sets that can be identified at the level of social segments or groups. Otherwise, for disparate cases, one may talk about individual strategies, that are interesting from the psychological, historical or event oriented point of view. The LS represent rational action structure, relatively solid from the point of view of the agent who adopts them. Their reasonable aspect is provided by the means adjustment to the ends, by the choices made and by coherence. We could talk about a choice related to the means according to the ends, or the other way round or both1. The strategies outstand the wide family of the human actions by the presence of such elements as: A major choice2 within the area outlined by purposes and means (with multiple/long term consequences); an algorithm like and coherent ordering of the operations that lead to the objective's fulfillment;
1
'Action is rationally oriented to a system of discrete individual ends (zweckrational) when the end, the means, and the secondary results are all rationally taken into account and weighed. This involves rational consideration of alternative means to the end, of the relations of the end to other prospective results of employment of any given means, and finally of the relative importance of different possible ends. Determination of action, either in affection or in traditional terms, is thus incompatible with this type. Choice between alternative and conflicting ends and results may well be determined by considerations of absolute value. In that case, action is rationally oriented to a system of discrete individual ends only in respect to the choice of means. On the other hand, the actor may, instead of deciding between alternative and conflicting ends in terms of a rational orientation to a system of values, simply take them as given subjective wants and arrange them in a scale of consciously assessed relative urgency.' (Weber, 1964: 117) 2 ' Classiquement oppose au terme tactique, celui de stratgie suppose une situation plus vaste, une anticipation, une globalit et un niveau de dcision majeur, en principe absents d'une action qualifie de tactique. Le terme stratgie fait son entre dans la thorie conomique travers l'ouvrage de J. Von Neumann et O. Morgenstein, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Depuis, les travaux d'conomtrie, ceux de J.M. Keynes ont uvre la promotion et la banalisation de la notion. Ce sont les exigences d'un monde en industrialisation rapide qui ont favorise l'panouissement de modles a multiples choix, et multiples moyens d'optimisation, le fait que l'action politique, pour tre efficace, demande plus qu'aux poques prcdentes une rationalisation des choix. La stratgie ainsi entendue, au niveau des socits entires, est alors la conduite et la ralisation d'une politique par les moyens les meilleurs. L'ide de stratgie sous-entend que les socits humaines peuvent conduire et matriser leur histoire.' (Anne Gotman, 1990:24).
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the effort to accumulate and distribute the resources in order to get to the objective's fulfillment; a conflict or competition oriented situation that imposes the choice as a way of solving an issue3. Thus, the LS are fundamental choices, under competition like pressure, that are dealt with in a sequence-/ algorithm-like manner by resource mobilization and by capital conversion. The LS may be approached in different ways; one can focus on the objectives, the means or the functions associated to the concept of strategic actions (Table 1). From the instruments point of view, the LS can be classified as mobility oriented strategies or stability centered strategies, diversity/ qualitative reduction focused strategies or accumulation/ quantitative reduction centered strategies. Actually, and fundamentally, people can choose among:
MOBILITY RELATED STRATEGIES DIVERSITY RELATED STRATEGIES ACCUMULATION RELATED STRATEGIES Mobility/stability Diversity/qualitative reduction Diversity/quantitative reduction 'here' vs 'somewhere else' 'more' vs 'less' 'more' vs 'less'
The phenomenological perspective focuses on the field where the strategic action prevails. The aspect of maximum visibility that is specific to the field of the strategic actions is represented by the status dimension that supports the change. Thus, we can identify strategies connected to occupation, residence, family, health care, network communication/integration etc, but, since for almost all the cases the status indicators are significant for some capital types, the phenomenology of the life strategies may be interpreted in terms of human, economic, social or vital capital. From the functional point of view, one can differentiate among development/survival strategies, strategies with respect to the different capital types conversion/keeping and challenge/answer oriented strategies. The so-called defense strategies or coping strategies, for example, aim at diminishing the internal or external conflicts4. Within the same range of the functional classifications of the life strategies one can identify the approaches in respect of capital
'Le terme stratgie s'emploie en rgle gnrale dans les contextes et les situations comptitives' (Anne Gotman, 1990:23) 4 'Coping consists of efforts, both action oriented and intra psychic, to manage (i.e. master, tolerate, reduce, minimize) environmental and internal demands and conflicts.' (Lazarus and Launier, 1978:311)
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conversion or re-conversion5. The perspective of the capitals' re-conversion is actually centered on identifying the routing followed by the agents who carry out the strategic actions. The highly diverse LS are due to the diversity of the life conditions and of the 'habitus' type tendencies (Bourdieu, 1996). From the point of view of the migration phenomena within the herein context, the three-dimensional classification that we suggest might lead to a better localization of the migration inside the area of the Ls attributes. The strategic migration centered actions are ranged within the large category of the mobility phenomena engendered by the residence changes. From the functional point of view, they can refer to any of the six types above mentioned within the classification in table 1: development or survival, conflict or challenge, capital stock conversion or preservation. As for the Romanian migration, i.e., there is hypothesis stating that the international circulatory migration from the 90's is characterized more by a development perspective, as compared to the migration from town to village, where the survival tendencies prevail (Sandu, 2001). Most of the LS may be located and interpreted from the sociological point of view within this space of the 4x3x3 = 36 type attributes (four capital types, three instrument related perspective types and three functional perspective types). The residence-related strategies are frequently the specific way in which the tendencies to change the status coordinates - occupation, family, marital status, health - become obvious. The characteristic of this aspect consists of the spatial conditioning of the status related change. The circulatory migration, as compared to the definite migration, supposes a both-sided evaluation of the process, both positive and negative, for the same departure or arrival location, regardless of its being a permanent or provisional residence. With respect to the prevailing circulatory migration from Romania, the permanent domicile is valued in a positive way, from the social-cultural point of view and in a negative way from the economic point of view and that is the case for the commuting between rural and urban areas and for a good part of the international migration.
Bourdieu focuses on the group strategies regarding the capitals' re-conversion, which are, a great deal of them, a summing up of the individual strategies engendered by situation or habitus related tendencies. 'Re-conversion strategies are nothing other than an aspect of the permanent actions and reactions whereby each group strives to maintain or change its position in the social structure, or, more precisely - at a stage in the evolution of class societies in which one can conserve only by hanging to change so as to conserve. Frequently the actions whereby each class (or class function) works to win new advantages, i.e., to gain an advantage over the other classes and so, objectively, to reshape the structure of objective relations between the classes (the relations revealed by the statistic distributions of properties), are compensated for (and so cancelled out) by the reactions of the other classes, directed toward the same objective. In this particular (though very common) case, the outcome of these opposing actions, which cancel each other out by the very counter movements which they generate, is an overall displacement of the structure of the distribution, between the classes or class fractions, of the assets at stake in the competition.' (Bourdieu, 1984:157).
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Table 1. The LS from the instruments, phenomenological and functional point of view A. the phenomenological B. instrument related perspective (means) perspective (the field for the B2. B3. Diversity/ strategic actions, the nature of B1. Mobility/stabilit Diversity/qualitati quantitative the pursued objectives) y (mobility ve reduction reduction centered (diversity focused (accumulation Capital types Status strategies strategies) centered coordinates strategies) A1. economic Occupation Work place Professional promotion change Maintaining the Economy Multiple income same work place sources Entrepreneurial activities Residence Internal House fittings migration External migration Mobility, tourism Family Marriage Divorce A2. human cultural Professional Child oriented training investments Professional improvement A3. social relationships 'migration' to Extension of the Relationship new networks communication preservation area A4. vital Health status Recovery Sports C. The functional perspective C1. Development vs survival (extension vs. preservation of (consequences of the strategic the opportunity providing area) actions) or the description of the C2. Challenge vs answer/defense/coping. routing engendered by the C3. Conversion vs preservation of the different capital strategic changes types.
The extent of the provisional international migration and the macro-social context thereof More than 20% of the adult population in Romania has traveled abroad within the last 10 years (by referring to may 2001 as a starting point)6. The social and cultural parameters pendant to
6
The data source for the national statistics regarding the circulatory migration is represented by ' The public opinion barometer of the Foundation for an Open Society', may 2001. The total sample, that is representative for the noninstitutionalized adult population has included 1817 subjects. In order to test the experience related to international migration, the survey consisted of 6 questions: STRANGER 1: ' have you traveled abroad within the last 10 years?', STRANGER 2: ' Has anyone else from your household traveled abroad during the last 10 years?', STRANGER 3: 'Do you have friends or children who have settled abroad?', STRANGER 4: ' Do you have friends or children who work
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the herein phenomenon may be even more obviously set forth by taking into account the households: in almost 35% of the households that have not been institutionalized there is at least one member that has traveled abroad during the above mentioned period. Under the circumstances where the country
Does not have a tradition concerning the external migration during the communist era Has a high current poverty level (almost 40%) Has serious legal barriers Shows a drastic decline of the internal circulatory migration
the extent of the herein phenomenon might sound astonishing. The above mentioned factors themselves have a double connotation. On one hand they led to a conditioning of the migration's decrease in intensity, but on the other hand they facilitated or even engendered the circulatory migration. The communist isolation, the transition's poverty, as well as the western hesitation to encourage emigration (regardless of its reasons) have acted as factors that stimulated the international circulatory migration. When for years on the row one has been forbidden to leave the country as it was the will of the totalitarian-communist regime and since the work places and well-fare level become more and more an issue of the hesitant transition to the market economy and the visa for the west are, no one knows why, harder and harder to get, the tendency to emigration and to circulatory transition normally increased. In the same way, the diminishing of the commuting between the rural and urban areas by almost three times during the time period 1989-2001 strongly and negatively influenced the circulatory migration of the countryside young people (Sandu, 2001). The causes thereof are not only the negative above mentioned conditioning but also the positive factors that have been associated to the changes of the post-communist transitions. While from the economic point of view the Romanian transition has to cope with a really winding road, full of failures and re-trials, the media industry was rapidly organized so that it engendered a media shock as compared to the previous isolation from the 90s. The effects of the globalization became obvious at the level of the phenomena related to the international migration: the multi-national
abroad on a limited term?', AB 1: 'What country did you visit last?', AB2: 'When did you last travel abroad?'. The question STRANGER 1 on which one can interpret the individual experience related to the international migration has been formulated in order to set the coordinates of the provisional international migration. The usage of the verb 'to travel', associated more to the idea of tourism or visits and less interpreted as related to work and education led to a subregistering of the number of those who went abroad out of work or education purposes. It is true that one speaks about traveling not only when referring to tourism, but also when talking business. Besides, short term stays, regardless of their reasons, may be better rendered linguistically by 'traveling' rather than long term stays. If the question was focused on the verb 'to be', such as 'During the last 10 years, you have been.' One may have come to a larger number of emigrants listed by means of the respective survey. From the methodological point of view as well, the answers to the questions STRANGER1, STRANGER2, STRANGER3 and STRANGER4 refer to the provisional migration, as an undetermined stay abroad. We do not know how much circulatory that migration may be; such an evaluation could have been carried out if it could also have listed the number of trips abroad.
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companies, the NGO's, influenced or originated in the West , the new western educational opportunities, the economic partnerships, the numerous evaluation and negotiation activities developed by the international financial institutions as well as the internet implementation were as many factors that favoured the human relationships. Although the available data are really poor and they do not provide the means for an accurate comparison, they significantly back up the hypothesis that the tendency of the circulatory migration seems to be more powerful at the social level than it used to be during the previous years: almost 30% of the subjects from may 2001 declared that they would like to go abroad for work, tourism or education purposes within the following year. Of course, the mere intention cannot equal a structured plan for going abroad. 30% of the total number of potential migrants declare that they have already carried out some actions in order to succeed in their project. The circulatory migration tendency at the moment of the survey doubled in terms of its extent the intention of definitely leaving the country. This type of project was though assumed by only 14% of the subject of the survey. Table 2. The tendencies related to the circulatory migration according to residential environments People intend (+) or they don't () intend to leave the country, The current residential The type of reason for the within the next year, for the environment Total circulatory migration following reasons
Work + + + + Total tourism + + + + education + + + + % N rural urban 5 9 8 14 14 30 20 100 377 4 8 9 14 14 25 26 100 529
Only education Tourism and education Work and education Work and tourism Work, tourism, education Only tourism Only work
2 4 12 13 14 14 41 100 152
The data source: The public opinion barometer of the Foundation for an Open Society, may 2001. The total sample consists of 1817 subjects, the ones who intend to take up a type of circulatory migration represent 29% of the total amount of subjects.
Although the migration oriented tendencies are not accurately measured or identified, they prove to be helpful as far as the social factors and the migration strategies are concerned. The intension of working abroad and of travelling for tourism represents the main reasons of the projects concerning the circulatory migration (Table 2). In a decreasing order with respect to intensity, the hierarchy presents the reasons work+toursim, work+tourism+education. The last
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places within this hierarchy are held by the educational reasons, combined with working and tourism reasons. The differences between village and town, in terms of circulatory migration, are obvious even at this first level of separation and empirical analysis of the phenomenon. The tendency related to the provisional international migration is by almost three times stronger within the urban environment than in villages (Table 2), if we take into account the connection between the existing population and the one who wants to go abroad, according to the two residential environment. As for the amount, the potential urban migrants represent almost 70% of the total amount of persons who want to go abroad within the near future. It is not only the amount and the intensity of the potential migration differs significantly for the two residential environments, but also the structure of this phenomenon. The village strongly encourages the migration's economic motivation, as well as the wish to go and work abroad (almost 40% of the total number of potential rural migrants). Within towns, tourism is a more stimulating reason for migration: 30% of the town inhabitants who would like to go abroad justify their intention by tourism reasons, while 20% of them justify their wish by working reasons. The intension to live abroad for a while in order to benefit from educational opportunities is again stronger within the urban environment than in the rural one. In order to understand the social meaning of the provisional/circulatory international migration, it is necessary to give up the simple registering of its intensity and take up to the details of the selection processes. Otherwise said, we should seize the way in which the probability of the provisional international migration takes different aspects according to the resources of the various social classes, to their position within the social hierarchy.
The selectivity of the actual international emigration The migrant of the 'come-and-go' type who commutes from his village or town in Romania and a foreign country, has reached within the last 10 years a well determined social-demographic profile. From the basic status characteristic's point of view, he is identified by being, generally, a young, relatively well educated man, raised in a religion that differs from the Christian-orthodox one (Table 3, Table A 2). That social capital he may make use of abroad is significantly structured by having parents or children who have already settled there. The probabilities pendant to the provisional migration is differentiated according to the territorial characteristics, to the residential site. The circulatory migration is encouraged by the people's rural status within well developed counties. The ethnic profile of the community seems to be as well important: in those areas where the Hungarian population is significantly represented, the tendencies towards provisional
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international migration were a lot stronger than in the areas that are homogenous from the ethnic point of view (Table 3). We should emphasize on the fact that the ethnic coordinate seems to be less important than the community's ethnic profile. For the regression sample we have worked on, being Hungarian does not increase the migration ratio. On the contrary, as we have already mentioned, living inside a community where the Hungarian minority is well represented, significantly increases the probability of provisional migrations. This conclusion favors the hypothesis that there is a social capital that acts at the community's level in combination with the ethnic structure. The hypothesis of an enhanced relationship centered capital within the multiethnic communities (current or recent situation) is supported by the results of the research that has been carried out within the rural Saxon communities from Transilvania (Berevoescu, Stanculescu, 1999; Sandu, Mihailescu, 1999; Sandu 2001). Table 3. Parameters that predict the actual provisional migration*
Prediction parameters Exponential coefficients Rural Urban 2,121 0,987 1,358 0,582 3,585 1,379 1,017 0,941 1,013 0,101 0,21 998 Total 2,243 0,981 1,356 0,484 3,826 1,453 1,15 1,038 1,012 2,560 0,056 0,29 1801 Significantly positive (+) or negative (-) relationships or nonsignificant relationships (0) ** Rural Urban Total + + + 0 0 + 0 + + + 0 + 0 + + + + 0 + 0 + +
Male (1 yes, 0 no) Age Education Christian orthodox (1 yes, 0 no) Has parents or children who have settled abroad (1 yes, 0 no) Is Hungarian (1 yes, 0 no) The Hungarian population percentage within the area in 1992 The Romany population percentage within the area in 1992 The county's development level in 1998 Lives within the urban area (1 yes, 0 no) Constant Nagelkerke R2 N
2,677 0,961 1,238 0,290 4,841 2,425 1,007 1,059 0,999 0,232 0,30 803
Data source: The Public Opinion Barometer of the Foundation for an Open Society, May 2001. For each residential environment and for the total value one has set up specific logistic regress patterns. * Dependant variable: ' within the last 10 years have you traveled abroad?' (1 yes, 0 no) ** It is not significant from the Statistics point of view for p = 0.05.\
The differences within the selectivity of the provisional international migration are set according to the residential environment. The characteristics pendant to the community/ region and concerning the migration are more significantly pointed out when the analysis are carried out separately fro the rural and urban areas. The rural communities show a greater tendency than the
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urban ones in respect of the selectivity according to the ratio of the Romany population out of the total amount of the commune's population. The probability of the provisional international migration was certainly higher within the areas where the Romany community was significantly represented (Table 3). The high percentage of Hungarians within the communes seems to encourage only the provisional migration to urban areas.
The selectivity of potential migration The inferences on the migrants' LS are to be hereinafter drawn up by comparing the profiles of different categories of potential migrants - on internal or external routes- ; within the large range of those who have an external tendency, the comparison will focus on the motivations in respect of working, tourism, education and living factors. (Table 4). Migrating abroad out of working purposes represents almost a quarter of the total intentions of the external circulatory migration. From the residential point of view, we have already mentioned that the migration out of working purposes is more intense within the rural areas than in the urban ones, from the point of view of total of the potential external migration. The phenomenon' s intensity, interpreted in terms of the probability to express a certain tendency, is higher within the urban areas than within the rural ones: 20% of the urban adults would like to go abroad and work there as compared to only 14% of the corresponding rural population. It is not only the phenomenon's intensity that it is being differentiated from the residential point of view, but also is its selectivity. There are a few common characteristics to both types of communities: the tendency to emigrate abroad for working purposes is higher among the single young people, who are already experienced as far as the international migration is concerned. Besides this aspect, the profile oriented differences are though significant. The relational capital of a person within his country favors the migration out of working reasons more within the towns than in the villages. Relationships seem to be a compensation capital for the young people in the urban areas, who have a relatively poor educational level, when they plan their migration. If those who actually make it abroad are usually people whose educational level is rather high, the tendency to go abroad for working purposes among the people in the urban areas seems to have motivated as well the categories of people with an average educational level. The structure of the empirical evaluations (Table 4) suggests this possible phenomenon concerning the compensation of the average level educational capital by a high social capital for the young people in the urban areas who want to go abroad and work.
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The strategy of the migration out of working purposes is taken up out of reasons that differ within the countryside from the equivalent tendencies within the urban areas. The unemployment rate seems to encourage the international migration for working purposes within the rural areas, while the town's inhabitants favor more the occupational mobility projects. It is not the income that a person disposes of that determines her migration abroad out of working purposes, but mainly the experience related to the working place and occupation. Within the rural areas, the project concerning the external mobility for working purposes is associated not only to the trauma due to unemployment but also to the experience of looking for a secondary/ additional income source.From the community-region oriented conditioning point of view, as well as from the actual migration point of view, one may identify the positive conditioning that the development level of the county imposes to the emigration tendencies, especially when the urban population is concerned. It is the same urban population who favors the tendency to go abroad for working purposes when there is a higher social-economic level within the area. As for the rural population, the region centered conditioning for the potential migration is poorly structured. One has registered only a stronger tendency concerning the definite external emigration within the poor rural places.
Migration as a strategy rated from the community's point of view The data within the national surveys we have been using up to now, have already indicated that there is strong evolution of the migrational behaviour in terms of community and region factors. The native local community plays a more complex role in the process of determining the migration than the analysis based on the national surveys could foresee. The native community is extremely important when providing the relational capital and the mobility patterns that the possible migrants can interpret in a positive or in a negative way, by complying with then or by innovating them. It is a fact that there are community centered patters in respect of the international migration. These patterns seem to be a type of strategic 'ready-made' patterns the local population can refer to. Questions such as ' What country should you go to? , How can one get there?, Where can one live and work once one gets there?, How much can one earn?, What resources does one need in order to carry out the project already adopted by the community? most of the times they find an answer within the community oriented migrating patterns.
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Table 4: Parameters that predict the migrational tendency, by to motivation and residence
Lives at the moment in the Lives at the moment in the urban countryside and intends to leave area and intends to leave to another country for To another country for
Living there Has lived in some other place, in the country Has lived in some other place in the country
Regression models predictors

education Tourism work
education
Tourism
Male (1 yes, 0 no) Age Not married (1 yes, 0 no) + Educational level Relational capital Media Christian orthodox(1 yes, 0 no) Hungarian (1 yes, 0 no) He has at least 3 persons under his command (1 yes, 0 + no) Have you lived abroad within the last 10 years (1 yes, + 0 no) Has anyone else from your family been abroad within + the last 10 years (1yes, 0 no) Do you have parents or children who have + permanently settled abroad? (1 yes, 0 no) Income level on the latest month (logarithm) Entrepreneurial orientation Has changed profession at least once after 1989 (1 yes, 0 no) Has taken up a secondary job or activity (1 yes, 0 no) Has lost his job at least once after 1989 (1 yes, 0 no) Thinks that ' it is better to have a poorly paid but sure work place than a well paid but insecure job' (1 yes, 0 no) How satisfied are you of your life style? ( on a four points scale) Do you think that things have turned a good way or a bad way in our country? (1 yes, 0 no) How satisfied are you with the money you own? (4 very satisfied, 1- at all) The development level of the county he resides in The development level of the place he resides in Number of inhabitants of the place he resides in Hungarian population percentage in 1992 + Rroma population percentage in 1992 R2 0,18
+ +
+ + +
+ + + +
Living there
work
+ + +
+ + + + + + + + + + +
+ + +
+ -
+ -
+ +
0,15
+ + +
0,13
0,25 0,17
0,22 0,20
0,16
0,13
0,06
Data source: BOP- FOS, May 2001. Each column of the table shows, in a simplified manner, the results of a multiple regress pattern. The dependant variable is given by the type of motivation corresponding to the reference residential environment. The signs (+), (-) indicate the existence of a relationship statistically significant (p= 0.05) positive or negative- between the prediction parameter on the line and the dependant variable in the column. Each dependant variable has values rated as 2 for declared migrating intentions, doubled by preparing actions, 1 for migrating intentions that are not supported by preparing actions and 0 for stability tendencies. Reading instructions: being unmarried favors the probability of expressing this tendency of international migration with respect to all kinds of intentions, except for the permanent migration pendant to the urban population. The positive effect of the respective factor becomes obvious when there is, on a constant level, a prevalence of that factor over all the other factors within the pattern. Attitude toward risks and the demographic dimensions of the residential environment does not significantly influence the migrating tendencies, from the point of view of the other predictive factors within the patterns.
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The international circulatory migration in Romania has, at present, the status of a social innovation. A series of relatively new behavior patterns within community based and region oriented pre-defined contexts, end by being communicated as any other social innovation. As in any other communication process regarding social innovations, there are innovators or pioneers, the ones who adopt the reality rather early, with an average delay, or even late. The networks that encourage migration are in the same time information networks. Within the series of information networks that facilitate migration for working purposes the nucleus of the entire phenomenon regarding the external provisional migration, what prevails appears to be the ethnic, religious, relative centered networks, or the neighborhood/ inter-community communication, friendship, homophileness (value centered identity) or just interest oriented networks. Initially, at least as far as the rural migration is concerned, the ethnic, religious and relative oriented networks were the more powerful ones. Subsequently, as the migrating community patterns became structured, there were new types of networks that came up, so that from the ethnic, religious or relative oriented networks one gets to the new networks based on neighborhood, inter-community communication, friendship, interests and so on . The characteristics of a social innovation that are subject to the standard rules of a communication process, as well as the different ways of living and evaluating the migration could be highlighted by means of the data that render the community based context of the phenomenon. That is the idea of what we are going to present hereinafter by referring ourselves to the partial results of a research study that has been carried out in the village of Crangeni, commune Crangeni, Teleorman county. The context is represented by the environment of a poor plain village, counting approximately 1800 inhabitants, from the western area of the Teleorman county and located at 35 km far from the city of Rosiori. Elements of the Migrants and non-migrants opinions towards the migrating strategy strategic action in Spain Pioneering7 When did you leave? Tell me the story of an inhabitant from Crangeni The communitys who left for Spain. migrating pioneers EA: In 1994. I was the first one to leave. There was also some other are, as any other boy, but he left for Canada, not for Spain. pioneers, focused on And how did you do that? looking for I was decided to go away from the very beginning. You could hear
EA: an Adventist young man, the first local representative who has emigrated in Spain and who has come to visit his parents in Crngeni. He lives on a temporary basis in Coslada, Madris. July, 2001. Interview by D. Sandu (DS).
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opportunities, by coping with the risk and by benefiting from a human and social capital that may make them successful. The first destination of the pioneer-migrant from Crangeni wasnt actually a randomly chosen destination, especially after having failed in his attempt to Canada. In Madrid, where he finally settles, the pioneer meets an uncle, a religious community Adventist and a tolerant society. The Spanish migrant community is spontaneously defined in terms of regional Romanian identity and arrival waves. At present, the migration phenomenon seems to be fully consolidated, since almost 10% of the interviewed subjects
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all the time people saying that: you should go abroadit is better that way. I wanted to do something, to change the situation, to see whether that was better or it was just a rumor.
Did you already know the boy over there?
Yes, he came from Crangeni as well. He had left not very long ago, maybe half an year ago. He has first left for Belgium on the occasion of a football match, then for Canada, inside a container, like everybody else at that timeI have been through that as well. We have arrived in Portugal, but we couldnt go that far; we only got to the Azore Islands, because the ship that was supposed to take us to Canada din not stop in all the places. The containers, or whatever they are called, were left in Azore, from were another ship was to overtake them. That is why I did not have the chance to get to Canada. This happened after five month of my being in Spain. I had in mind Canada, but it did not come out this way.
How did you manage to leave the country?
First, I left on a trip to France, where I stayed for two or three days, then I went to the Spanish border where someone was waiting for me, a friend, and he drove me from there to Madrid.
The friend was from Crangeni
No, he was from Pitesti.

So, when you arrived in Spain, there was this friend and the Adventist community that helped you. What did you in the first year after you got there?
I also had an uncle, my mothers brother, who was already there. I started to work with him he helped me.but it was really rough at the beginning ..I was working for the black market at the beginning. It is still the same now for the other people.
You said that there are 3000 Romanians in Madrid. How many of them are from the Teleorman county?
There are a lot of people from Teleorman and also from Moldova, Prahova, Slatina. The first ones who left were from Slatina. When I got there, almost everybody was from Slatina.
They had left immediately after 1990?
No. they had left one or two years before I got there.
So, the first wave was from Slatina. What about the second wave?
There was also a survey that was carried out in Crangeni in order to get more information, based on a probability sample of 51 households. The research that has been carried out in the area of Crangeni, Dobrotesti and Rosiori, from July, 2001 can join the projects within the research contract C/CNCSIS called The importance of the social and human capital to the regional development in Romania (Project coordinator: D. Sandu). The corresponding percentage for the richer village, Dobrotesti, was 12%. The number of those who have permanently or temporarily left abroad is as follows: 16% in Crangeni, 42 % in Dobrotesti (a 51 subject sample) and 21 % in Rosiori (on a 197 subject sample). The tendency for provisional emigration within the following year is a lot lower in the poor village of Crangeni (4%) as compared to the rich village of Dobrotesti (41%). The explanation is simple: the inhabitants form Crangeni are poorer, while the inhabitants from Dobrotesti have a larger social-relational capital that could facilitate their access to different destinations abroad. What could justify the difference between the material level of the households from the two villages is the fact that 16% of the inhabitants from Crangeni own a car, as compared to 30% in Dobrotesti. The corresponding percentage for the households in the survey from Rosiori de Vede was 25%.
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have either parents or children who work on a temporary basis in Spain8. Plans, efforts, accumulation of starting capital Adventists are generally great constructors, manufacturers, specialized in handmade marchidizes (readymades etc). Many of them still work as constructors after they arrived in Spain. The people from the village already know that if we want to leave for Spain, you need almost 40 million lei, a sum which is extremely large under the circumstances of the poor conditions in Crangeni, but you also need a visa and some relationships in Spain. Some people, but only a new, prepare their project by starting to learn Spanish before leaving. Most of them though, do not give a second thought to that and say that it is more
They were from Teleorman. (Interview with EA, from Crangeni).
When you left the country, what was the level of your education?
PA9: I had graduated 10 forms. EA: I had graduated 8.

Did you know any trade?
PA: I had learn to become a tailor, I knew that work very well. EA: I had taken courses in ready-mades.
What about your parents? Did they have any qualification?
PA: Under communism they used to manufacture ready-mades, or to tailor different clothes.
Where did they sell that merchandise?
EA: At the marketplace, in Rosiori de Vede, anywhere.

Did you get any advantage there in Spain from what you knew the tailoring, the craftsmanship?
EA: No, it was not an useful.

Did you start learning Spanish before leaving the country?
EA: No, I didnt know anything; I thought that I will learn the language anyway, once I got there. I tried to listen to some tapes that my cousin gave me..
Lets pretend that I am not a teacher at the University form Bucharest, that I am one of your acquaintances from Crangeni and that I want to come to Spain. What should I do? How much will it actually cost me to come to Spain?
EA: The visa is the most important thing to get.

How can I obtain it?
EA: By going on a trip or by buying it from the black market (12001300$).

Lets suppose I have already got the visa. How do I get to Spain?
EA: By plane or by bus.

How much is a plane ticket from Bucharest to Madrid?
EA: 400$.
So, I have the visa, I also have the plane ticket...what else do I need?
EA: You need a connection in Spain.

So I need almost 1700-2000$ to get to Spain.
EA: Yes. Its better to come by busbut it is very difficult. ..

What did you teach the boy?
DP10: He learned a little bit in this construction field. I built a house for him, two years ago, I finished the house which was located in a
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PA: EAs brother; they both came to Crangeni, from Spain, to visit their parents. Interview realized by DS. DP is one of the leaders of the Adventist community from the village of Crangeni (Presbiterian). As most Adventists, he is a constructor and specialist in ready-mades. He owns a firm and he is entitle to perform these
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important to get there, and then they will manage, and learn the language on the spot.
special area, so he got a lot to learn from there.. We also fitted the house with floors and stoves we hope he will stay.
The topic of the Is he married, your son? DP: No, he is 21 years old. international To many more! How did he decide to go to Spain? migration is a DP: It was very easy. He had been insisting on leaving for Spain for three controversial one, years and we had found all kinds of reasons to prevent him from doing that. The car that we have today is a new one, actually we bought it three years that brings conflict ago. We bought the car on his name and I told him Look, i bought this car in the relationship for you (we already had one), I will build a house for you, but stay here, do between children not leave the country he could find his way with our help, he could succeed. But that is the tendency of all young people today. And we never and their parents. tried to interfere with his plans. We showed him how things were going, what The economic our position was, but he was the one to take the final decision, always. Since advantages are very he insisted on this leaving abroad, we didnt want to help him with money until the last moment. He decided to borrow some money, with interest, from persuasive only for some Gypsies from Draganestii de Olt, but on the very last day, the Gypsies the young people; phoned him and told him that they cannot lend him the money as we expected, because we have our faith, and we have been through some the old generation is experiences when we saw Gods work. He was supposed to take from those still reluctant.
Gypsies 15 million lei, with a 5 million lei per month interest. I saw him laying in bed and tossing, because he already had the papers and he was supposed to go to the embassy. He left by means of our family association, and that cost him some 16 million lei, which is not much as compared to what other people had to pay some 30 million lei. That was the price at the time, now it a way over 40 million lei. What do you get for these 40 million lei? DP: There are some people who deal with this transaction. They have their connections there. So only the visa costs 40 million lei. I have a nephew who left after my son, who had to pay 35 million lei last autumn. You just find somebody who has some connections there.. They say Look, you give this money and in one week I get you the visa. But he went there in person; he obtained all the necessary documents from Alexandria, then he went to the embassy himself, he paid for the legal documents only and he got the visa. He didnt have to pay any other I told him: You get dressed and we go to Rosiori and I will give you the money you need and then he said Where do you have that money from ?. I went to the bank in Rosiori, I took the money out of my account, I give it to him, and in one week he left. .. The declaration of an unmarried young woman from Stejaru a village that belongs to the commune of Crangeni, who helps the post man in
activities. Many of the concrete fences in the village have been executed by him ,before 1989. the ready-mades that he manufactures are sold at the fairs. The entire family when the children were at home as well - takes part in the process of manufacturing and selling of the products. His boy has left for Spain for an year. The other two daughters are married and live at their house . The interview was realized by DS, in July 2001.
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distributing the mail. She is unmarried and plans to leave for Spain, together with her boyfriend, who is a taxi driver11. Another alternative could be Italy, where there are already six girls from the village, working as babysitters. She also has a good friend there, from her village. She is though more tempted by Spain. She knows that she needs 30 million lei for the trip. She doesnt know Spanish, but she understands Italian. There are people in the village who started to learn Spanish before leaving the country. They will leave after she graduates high school. First, her friend will leave for Spain, and she will follow him. With the money they earn in Spain they want to built a house in Rosiori and one in Bucuresti. Her dream is to have her own business when she comes back. Her friend dreams at an agricultural machine, the Gloria Type. He would like to take up agriculture there in Crangeni, and live in Rosiori and Bucharest. Their parents do not know about this plan and she will never tell them about it, because they have already tried to prevent her from living to Italy.
The Adventist network has been in action especially at the beginning of the process, and it helped mainly the ones who didnt have relatives or friends at their destination. Although both types of networks Adventist and religious- play an important part within the process, this part is different for each of them. Initially, both of them seem to be support and communication oriented networks; within the next
How can you explain the fact that the inhabitants of the Teleorman county, although they are poor people and, you know,.. EA: Everything goes on due to the Adventist relationships. You know an Adventist and he will take you to a friend. Everything goes like this, by means of Adventist friendships. This means that there have been Adventist communities from Slatina and Teleorman that had connections with similar communities from Spain. EA: Yes, the friends mean everything. It is difficult to leave without having a connection, just like that. Lets suppose you get there. What does the Adventist community for new comer? EA: Now, it doesnt do anything, because there are too many people. You go to somebody.. if he cannot help you go to somebody else. If I cannot help him, for example, I will send him to somebody else. In 1994, when you got there, what did the Adventist community for helping you? EP: At the beginning, they helped us with food, clothes. How many of the 3000 Romanians from Coslada are Orthodox and how many are Adventists? EA: The Orthodox people who came to Coslada were helped by the Adventist. I helped Orthodox people to come here, and so did the others. The Orthodox brought their friends and so on.
Where is the head office of the Adventist community in Oltenia? DP: It is in Craiova. The connection to Spain is made by means of the Oltenia community. DP: Yes, that is true. There is an Adventist of the Oltenia community, TG, and we send recommendation letters for the members who go to Spain.
Taxi driver is a job that is paradoxically running in Crangeni, a poor and isolated village. The ones who perform this activity are the former taxi drivers or just drivers from Rosiori. After they lost their job in the town, they earn their living by working an the same time as farmers, in the village and as taxi drivers on the route village-town. They are solicited, because the buses are rare and the roads are a wreck.
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For example, my son is no longer a member of the church form Crangeni, stages of the process, but he became a member of the church from Coslada. Once he got there, he the Adventist asked for a recommendation letter, and once they received him there, they network seems to sent us a letter of consent and we erased him from our registers. have kept only the So, the Oltenia community is strongly related to the community led by TG. Is there any other way in which the Community from Madrid helps the people? communication DP: They help each other. But there are no conditions for intersupport. communication at the churchs level The support of the network is not strictly religious, or Adventist; it consists of Adventist friendship. Your son finally got there. Where did he stay? The kinship DP: I have a cousin who is on his way home. He has been there for three oriented network years, and he let my son stay at his place for one month. He even provided The kinship oriented him with a work place, until he was able to manage on his own. Then he networks seem to stayed at another cousin from Rosiori for another one month. He also worked with PA and EA for a month, and he started to speak the language. have been more Now he speaks Spanish not perfectly, but much better than other people who important than the have been in Spain for three years. We works for state institutions, and he has applied for residence for a month and a half. religious ones, at Who was the first one to leave the village? least at the beginning DP: EA was the first one in our village, eight years ago. He had an uncle of the migrating from Radoiesti who was there, so he followed him. Then his brother left the process. village, then another two boys. After one year there were some other people who left, and so on.
Efforts, choices at the provisional destination, accumulation of capital for the success of the migration focused project. Once you got to Spain, you have to learn the language or some of it in order to succeed in finding a house and a work place.
What is your Spanish speaking level at present? EA: very good indeed. I had a girl friend there and that helped me a lot. It happened the same with PA.. Is it easier for a man or for a woman when getting there and starting to work? EA: Three or four years ago, it was easier for women to find a job, but now it is the same. Where do the women and where do the men work? EA: The women work as maids, or baby-sitters, while the men work in the construction field. Who earns more: the men working in the construction field or the women working as baby-sitters? EA: Men earn more. If he works as a peon unqualified worker then, a woman could earn more. A peon gains 5000 pesetas, while a baby-sitter gains 1000 pesetas per hour.. Is it easier or more difficult now to leave for Spain than it was in 1994, when you left? EA: It is easier, a lot easier and there are other conditions now. Why is it easier?
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EA: It is easier to find a work place. Now there are more people there, more connections, you have more chances to find someone to help you. Before, when we used to hire apartments, there were many of us who lived in them together. Now, the average is six persons in one apartment.
Choosing a destination that is friendly to immigrants
How much does the semi-legalization process cost, since full legalization is a long way to go.. EA: Initially it was more difficult to have your papers put right. Now, they have passed some really advantageous laws for foreigners. Since January the 1st 1999, they gave work permits to everybody, no matter whether they rd had contracts.. It didnt matter. Since January 23 2001, a foreigner
needs a Spanish identity card and a pre-contract.

Where do the inhabitants of Teleorman preferably go: to Madrid or to
the south?
EA: There are a lot of people in Andaluzia, but only a few in Barcelona. There are more racists, there are inhabitants from Catalonia, it's another region, they speak a different language. It is even more difficult with the official papers. As for Barcelona, they even had troubles in the government. They issued only a few papers, even if the law was the same. 'Connections home' How do the people in the village feel this connection with Spain? Do they receive money or parcels? DP: We received three times 7 million lei. We told him that he shouldn't have done that because we can manage. Then he sent us parcels with sweets, chocolate. How do these parcels arrive here? By the post office? DP: There are a lot of trafficants, like the taxi drivers on the route Rosiori -Crangeni. They do the same things on the route Madrid- Crangeni. They load their car with parcels from all over the country. They came a month and a half ago, and they have a list of the numbers on the parcels. Mister DP your parcel number.. And how comes that they do not have any troubles at the customs? They have the status of a company or something DP: I don't know how they manage to get away, but the parcels are sealed when they arrive here, and the money and the things are safe. The money arrive by Moneygram Is this system , Moneygram, working here in Rosiori? DP: It is working in Alexandria. He called me and he said: 'I sent you the money, make sure you go to Alexandria and pick it up. Two and a half months ago he sent wo parcels with electronic devices: a sports color TV set, a video player. ...
Consequences home
back Let's go back to Crangeni. In your opinion, what are the effects of that community in Spain, made out of Romanians originated in Crangeni on the people over here? EA: My parents didn't actually need the parcels that I sent, they could manage, on their own. I helped them to carry out the agricultural work, two springs in a row. It is more difficult during spring. You have a nice house. Did you help them build it?
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EA: NO, I didn't. What about the other Romanians from Crangeni. Do they send more home from Spain than you did? EA: Yes. There is a boy, Viorel, who sent his father money to buy a Gloria - a tractor. So, there are tractors and houses that were bought and built by means of money from Spain? EA: Yes. That's true. What about the other people that do not have a houselhold like yours with everything you need.do their children send more? Do they send money to help them build their houses or to buy tractors? DP: They help them. For example, there are two families who have the boys there, and they sent them money. Thus, the family could buy a car, to fix their households. It is obvious that what somebody can achieve with the money from Spain, one could never get here in years. Within the first three months he insisted on my coming there, but he knew where I stood in this respect. I told him that ' It's no use spending your money on these phone calls, trying to persuade me'. Maybe, if he succeeds in obtaining the residence rights, I will visit him next year (!).
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What about the Adventists? Are they working more as carpenters or joiners? TR12: yes, they do both works. They bought their own cars, if they could. One of them spent two years in Spain. I also have a nephew in Spain. He has been there for one year, together with his wife. They want to achieve something, to earn money, to work, not to suffer from anything. What was your nephew's qualification? TR: He was a house painter. His father in law has been living there for ten years. His entire family is there, together with all the children. When he comes here, he comes as if he visits his relatives. His fortune is there, though, his work as well. He got really far with the money they pay you there. This nephew sent money home, so that we managed with the field works: the seeding and the ploughing. How much money does your nephew send back home? TR: he sent 10 million lei, even 20 million lei, for furniture, so that they could furnish the house. He also helped another brother, who is a preacher with the Adventists. He has another brother who is an engineer in Brasov, who has a nice life over there. The future seen from What about your future plans? How do you see life for the future? EA: It is really hard here. When we arrived home - it has been eight years 'there' and from since we last came- we were in a car I don't remember the townsbut until 'here'. we got to Sibiuall the children run after you if they see you own a foreign When somebody car. They show you their stomach, implying that they are dying of hungerIt leaves the country, makes you cryyou don't cry because you missed your country, but because he thinks: 'I go there, of what you see. The blocks of flats are not paintedit feels as if there was a I make some money, war. DP: It is all in ruins. Everything is black, nothing is painted or clean, to and then I come
TR: an old man, a widower, from the village of Crangeni. He lives at the borders of the village, together with one of his children, who is handicapped. The other two children live in Bucharest (his daughter) and in Rosiori, respectively (his son). The interview was realized by DS, in July 2001.
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please your eyes. home soon'. But EA: I was in Bucharest a few days ago. Everybody there is stressed, they things change on the drive like crazy on the streets. There it is different, the driving is different, way, depending on more calm...it is different. We want to stay there for the moment. how they get to What about old people? manage there, to EA: They want us to stay home. integrate themselves at the destination. What does the village look like, after eight years? EA: The same. No changeit looks even worse. The parents claim . that the ones who That means that your son thinks about coming back. left 'must come DP: Actually, he has to come back. When he left, his plan was to come back', while the back to Romania after one year (he laughs). He changed his plan, he said children answer that it is too soon now. Now, since this opportunity with the residence came 'we'll see'. up, he said: 'I obtain the residence rights, I come home, I stay one or two months and then I can go back'. We kind of fought against this idea.
The migration How many of the young people you have talked to want to come to Spain, regardless of their being Adventist or Orthodox? centered ideology EA: There are people who want to come and who say that straight in your Leaving the village, face: take me with you. especially for Spain, . is seen by the young Are there young people who still want to leave? DP: Many of them want to leave, but they have to face the issue with the people as a 'solution'.
visa. They lack those 30-40 million lei that they need, they do not have a family association or connections over there. .
Almost 40% of the inhabitants of Crangeni think that in order to succeed in life it is a good idea to work abroad for some time. Although this percentage is high, it is considerably low as compared to the one from a rich community, with a tradition in migration, such as the Dobrotesti village. Honesty and hard working are the basic values of the success oriented ideology in both rural communities
'In order to succeed in life here in Romania, how important are each of the following Hard working Being honest Having connections High education level Having rich relatives Starting a business Working abroad for a while Being ambitious
Percents of the people considering that it is important or very important from total sample in Rosiori de Dobrotesti Crangeni Vede 94 88 82 90 86 77 78 80 92 82 76 76 60 75 68 58 47 60 60 41 61 62 35 81
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that have been investigated. On the contrary, the inhabitants of Rosiori consider that the key of success consists of connections and ambition. Crangeni is though a strongly traditional community, where making business and working abroad is low rated. It is true that he have spoken to those who still lived in the village. The ones with a more modern mentality, with more mobility seem to have already left Crangeni. The village of Dobrotesti, due to its modernism and rich community, provides an increased mobility and favors more the ideology of external migration. A favorable circumstance concerning the migration to Spain: the Adventist religion, the decline of the construction filed in Romania, the demand of constructors in Spain and the Spanish tolerance.
What of the following is the most important for being successful in Romania? Being honest Hard working Having rich relatives Having connections Being ambitious High education level Working abroad for a while Opening a business No answer/ I don't know Total % N
Dobrotesti 24 22 8 8 2 12 8 2 14 100 50
Crangeni 45 20 8 4 4 4 2 0 14 100 51
Rosiori de Vede 15 17 5 26 21 6 5 3 2 100 197
'Within the next year, do you intend to leave Romania for a foreign country? For tourism For provisional working abroad To improve your education or qualification I would emigrate and live there
The number of persons who would like to emigrate, out of a total community sample from Rosiori de Dobrotesti Crangeni Vede 8 2 8 12 4 6 4 0 0 11 6 7
ID13: The phenomenon has a different connotation than people usually think. During communism, the Adventist persons had a really hard life to live. But why? Because they rested on Saturdays, while all the other people rested on Sundays. ID: And especially because Saturdays were working days at that time, so they had to adjust their work.. they needed jobs that could allow them not to actually work on Saturdays...how can I put thisFor example, the intellectuals. There were a few engineers, it was more difficult...but the doctors could manage to schedule their duty, their shifts as they wanted. So they could manage this way. I am talking on behalf of the community now, the community's life turned around this rest day and they had to find those jobs that could allow them a proper living. So they became tailors, furriers, brick layers, they went on the site, they worked on Sundays, but they didn't work on Saturdays. You see, they never joined CFR - The Romanian rail
ID: He is an engineer, a counselor at the mayor's office in the city of Rosiori and he is also an Adventist. The interview was realized by Manuela Stanculescu, in July 2001
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ways, they didn't become sailors or soldiers That's how it was at the beginning for a group in Buzescu, who were Adventists. What is it that attracted them to Spain and made them stay there. What did they do for a living? ID: They were constructors. So they worked in the constructions field. ID: Yes, that's what I meant. After the Revolution, the construction field failed in Romania. Yes, that is true. ID: They had to find a job, and they first tried their luck in France, but they couldn' t stay there. Why? ID: They were not allowed to work. They tried once, twice, until they got to Spainhow can I put this...they were a little bit thrown away. In Spain they found special human conditions, special quality people.. who allowed them to live there in normal conditions, to practice their religion. They adjusted to that , they were integrated. Did they find a Spanish Adventist community there? ID: There are Spanish Adventist communities. Imagine yourself, an Orthodox, going to an Orthodox community from the States where you represent a minority. You will asked who you are, where you are form, how did you get there and the people over there try to find you something to work, to integrate you. So that was the community's support. So there was a support!! ID: Of course there was. But it could have been the same in France, since the situation was the same. Yes, but in France nobody understood them. ID: no, they were not. They helped them to find a job, they started to work and to make money. Since they were Adventists and they had large families, they started to bring their brothers, sisters, nephews, brothers - in -law and so on. The rumor went on, and the Adventists came one after another and they helped each other. It had nothing to do with the church, the church was not implied in that story. The only implication of the church within the last two years is that it sent to the communities over there some pastors from Romania. The freedom from Spain allowed them to have Adventist communities there, and that is what attracted many of the people who went there. You could speak Romanian; nobody would bother you, there was no license needed, then tey had a school in Romanian, and so on.
Conclusions The provisional migration abroad is obviously a mobility centered phenomenon, based on mainly positive selectivity. Those who have traveled beyond this country's boundaries - out of unspecified reasons- own an increased human and social-relational capital. It is not only the personal- family focused capital that encourages them, but also the different forms of community regional based capital: the counties with a high level of social-economical development favor the
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provisional migration, more than the poor counties do. A special form of social- community based capital associated to the ethnic structure also favors the external provisional migration. The social-community based capital that influences the circulatory international migration is also based on an ethnic structure. The regularity of the phenomenon varies from rural areas to urban ones. In the former case, the Rroma population seems to be more influent as a migration encouraging factor, while in the latter case, the Hungarian minority seems to be the reason. The differences in regional development levels, at the county's level, represent selectivity factors that stimulate more the migration within the urban areas than in the rural ones. The material capital may be significantly important on the way of success within the migration process. , but the project in itself does not depend too much on the material capital. The hypothesis is supported by adequate data only for the case of the potential external migration. As for the potential internal migration, things are different. It is the poverty, the low income level that favor the structuring of the migrating tendencies. The migration process itself depends not only on the material resources, willingness and strategies but also on a series of unpredictable constraints (De Jong, Fawcett, 1981). If we refer directly to the migrating tendencies, we can avoid the 'noise' due to the accidental constraints. It is thus easier to make the connection with the action centered strategies of the migrants. The migration oriented projects are significantly associated to the occupation focused projects, contracting projects as well as to the projects based on the coping with unemployment and lack of incomes. The nature of the migration focused project, be it internal, external, based on tourism, work, education or permanent domicile change, is due to the relationship between the available capitals, the life cycle (Individual - family centered), to the migrating experience as well as to the opportunities offered by the community - regional oriented context. Since all the other terms are equal, the more structured the entrepreneurial tendency is, the stronger the migration tendency is for the rural population, as far as working abroad is implied. Within the urban areas, the entrepreneurial tendencies are significantly associated to the migration out of tourism and educational reasons. Regardless of the residential environment, the internal migration focused projects, within the country, are positively associated to the entrepreneurial projects. The main immediate objective of the provisional migrant abroad is represented by the work place and the money. The main instrumental values that lead to the achievement of the respective objective are as follows: finding a dwelling place, learning the language and getting the stay permit.
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Dumitru Sandu
The pioneers of the community focus, as any other pioneers, on looking for opportunities, by coping with the risk and by benefiting from a human and social capital that should allow them to succeed. The conversion between the different migration types occurs due to the changing of the utility based values, that the migrant assigns to the places on his route. As far as the provisional destination is seen in a positive light from the economic, social and cultural point of view, there may be a conversion of the provisional migration into a permanent one, under the circumstances of the absence of a family based constraint at the origin. In the same way, the migration from urban back to rural areas, after one has lived in town for a significant number of years, tends to signify, within the actual context from Romania, a re-evaluation of the original location, when the town - in its capacity of so-called permanent emigration destination- can no longer provide a work place or an acceptable life status. By considering the provisional international migration as a life strategy that spreads as a social innovation, one may seize the micro - and macro-social conditioning of the phenomenon.
Annexes Table A1. The structure of the internal migration according to residential flows
1989 Urban-rural Urban-urban Rural-rural Rural-urban Total migration related events 100 N 6.4 19.2 18.9 55.4 100
192900
1990 3.5 18.2 8.5 69.8 100

786461
1991 10.1 20.2 19.4 50.3 100

262903
1992 13.7 24.3 22.8 39.2 100

293182
1993 14.6 25.4 25.0 35.0 100

240231
1994 18.4 25.6 25.5 30.5 100

266745
1995 20.8 26.1 28.0 25.1 100

289491
1996 23.4 27.4 24.5 24.7 100

292879
1997 26.8 25.0 25.6 22.6 100

302579
1998 28.5 26.0 23.6 22.0 100

276154
1999 30.7 26.5 21.7 21.0 100

275699
2000 33.8 23.7 23.0 19.5 100

244507
Data source: The National Statistics Institute
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Table A 2: The number of persons who traveled abroad within the last 10 years, according to different social levels (%) Rural subUrban subTotal sample sample sample Gender Male 6 21 14 Female 13 35 25 Age Under 25 years 15 24 21 25-29 years 14 31 24 60 years and more 2 19 9 Educational level Primary school 4 5 4 Secondary school 8 18 12 Professional 14 17 16 High school 18 31 28 Post high school 16 35 31 University degree 26 50 47 Modern fittings within the household Low level 5 8 6 Average 12 19 17 High level 20 46 40 Do you have parents or children who have No 9 26 18 permanently settled abroad? Yes 27 56 47 Ethnic origin other ethnic group 33 49 40 Romanian 6 25 17 Religion Not Orthodox 30 44 37 Orthodox 6 25 16 Goods consumption per capita Below the average level 8 16 11 Above the average level 13 27 23 Media consumption level Low 6 12 8 MEDIA Average 10 25 19 High 17 35 30 The development level of the Low 10 10 10 native location QLIFLEUR Average 11 25 20 High 6 30 29 Historical region Moldova 7 22 14 Muntenia Dobrogea Or Oltenia 6 18 11 Bucharest 26 28 27 Transilvania 16 37 29 Satisfaction due to incomes level Low 9 19 13 Average 7 17 12 High 16 38 33 "it is better to have a poorly paid but Yes sure job than a well paid but unsecure 8 22 15
job"
Total
No 10
17 27
42 19
34
Data source: The Public Opinion Barometer of the Foundation for an Open Society, BOP - FSD, May 2001. Data reading guide: 6% of the total number of adult women originated in the rural areas have traveled abroad within the last 10 years. The corresponding percentage for the adult urban male population is 35%.
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Dumitru Sandu
References Berevoescu, Ionica, Stanculescu, Manuela (1999). Mosna, un sat care se inventeaza, in Sociologie Romaneasca, 1. Bourdieu, Pierre. (1979) (1996). Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Pierre Bourdieu. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. De Jong, Gordon and J.fawcett. (1981). Motivations for migration: an assessment and a value expectancy research model, in G. de Jong and R. Gardner (eds), Migration decision making. New York: Pergamon Press. Gotman, Anne. (1990). Strategies residentielles, strategies de la recherche, in Catherine Bonvalet et Anne Marie Fribourg (1990), in Strategie residentielle..1990. Lazarus, Richard and R. Launier. (1978). Stress related transactions between person and environment in Pervin, A., and M. Lewis (Eds). Perspectives in International Psychology. New York: Plenum. Sandu, Dumitru, Mihailescu, Vintila (coord.), (1999). Reconstructia spatiului comunitar. Mosna si Viscri- doua foste sate sasesti din Romania. Bucuresti: Banca Mondiala (research). Sandu, Dumitru. (2001). Les enjeux des reseaux migratoires dans l'espace social de la transition - le cas roumain. Communication soutenue a la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. Paris, le 4 avril. Schutz, Alfred. (1975). On Phenomenology and Social Relations. Edited with an introduction by Helmut R. Wagner. Chicago: The University Chicago Press. Strategie residentielles. Actes du seminaire organise par Catherine Bonvalet et Anne Marie Fribourg (Paris, 1988). 1990. Paris: INED. Weber, Max. (1964). The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Edited with an introduction by Talcott Parsons. Translated by A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons. New York: The Free Press.

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CIRCULATORY MIGRATION AS LIFE STRATEGY Dumitru Sandu University of Bucharest The study aims at listing the significant characteristics

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Regression models predictors

Circulatory migration as life strategy

No, he was from Pitesti.

They were from Teleorman. (Interview with EA, from Crangeni).

PA9: I had graduated 10 forms. EA: I had graduated 8.

EA: At the marketplace, in Rosiori de Vede, anywhere.

EA: No, it was not an useful.

EA: The visa is the most important thing to get.

EA: By going on a trip or by buying it from the black market (12001300$).

EA: By plane or by bus.

EA: You need a connection in Spain.

EA: Yes. Its better to come by busbut it is very difficult. ..

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Choosing a destination that is friendly to immigrants

needs a Spanish identity card and a pre-contract.

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Circulatory migration as life strategy

Rosiori de Vede 15 17 5 26 21 6 5 3 2 100 197

Circulatory migration as life strategy

1990 3.5 18.2 8.5 69.8 100

1991 10.1 20.2 19.4 50.3 100

1992 13.7 24.3 22.8 39.2 100

1993 14.6 25.4 25.0 35.0 100

1994 18.4 25.6 25.5 30.5 100

1995 20.8 26.1 28.0 25.1 100

1996 23.4 27.4 24.5 24.7 100

1997 26.8 25.0 25.6 22.6 100

1998 28.5 26.0 23.6 22.0 100

1999 30.7 26.5 21.7 21.0 100

2000 33.8 23.7 23.0 19.5 100

Data source: The National Statistics Institute

Circulatory migration as life strategy

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