The enforcing of new rules for Romanians travelling abroad has brought to attention again something that everybody knows: large numbers of Romanians leave to work abroad and, without the money they earn and send back home, Romania would be in big trouble, economically speaking. However, the government continues to ignore the facts.
Only 24 hours after the new border regulations came into force, more than 2,300 of the over 20,000 Romanians that returned home had their passports confiscated because they had exceeded the legal amount of time they are allowed to stay abroad.
The General Passport Department spokesperson, Mariana Alexandreanu, says the public community service for issuing and keeping track of standard passports is able to suspend the right to use such documents for between one to five years.
There are no official statistics as to those who go to work abroad, but their number is estimated at close to 2 million.
This number could now fall, as could the amounts of money Romanians working abroad send home following the new provisions.
Transfers of money by Romanians from abroad conducted through banks amounted to nearly 1.1bn euros in 2001, rising to 2.3bn euros in 2004, according to data from the National Bank of Romania. However, the real figure is much higher because not all the money is sent via the banking system (a lot is brought home in people''s pockets). Compared with the GDP, this money accounted for 2.45% of GDP in 2001 and nearly 4% of GDP in 2004. This year the amount may have reached 3bn euros. Under the new regulations this will no longer possible. With 2,300 people that will now no longer leave the country in near future, the yearly losses could amount to up to 3 million euros. But this is not the whole story. "The decline in the number of Romanians returning will not prevent them form sending money back. The volume of money will clearly go down. For instance, if a Romanian used to come back with 10,000 euros, I don''t think they will send home the same amount any more, but only what they feel is strictly necessary for the daily needs of their family," explains Gyorgy Baba, general manager of Primex, an importer and distributor of electronics and home appliances.
"There are cities like Focsani, Vaslui, Bacau and Suceava, or areas close to Baia Mare, where sales of electronics and home appliances normally skyrocket in July and August when the Romanians that had worked abroad return home," added Baba. According to his analysis for July and early August, this year has not witnessed such a big boom as last year.
Construction supplies retailers, however, saw their sales grow in July and August, particularly in towns in Moldova. This was true for the Dedeman Group, a business that focuses on Moldova and for which August is the best month in terms of sales, its representatives say.
The situation was confirmed by the statement of one returning Romanian, who said: "I came back to build a house for my sister."
This can serve to summarise the story of those who chose to leave Romania and work abroad. In the absence of measures to stimulate economic growth and, implicitly, the creation of jobs, Romanians have spread all over Europe in an attempt to make more money.
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