Long-term migration from Republic of Moldova and Romania

Abstract

This article analyses the main trends and dimensions of long-term migration in the Republic of Moldova and Romania over the past three decades. The main destination for both the population of the Republic of Moldova and the population of Romania are Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, Canada and the USA. At the same time, very important migratory flows from the Republic of Moldova were directed to the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Czech Republic, while the population of Romania migrated with higher intensity to Hungary, Austria and Belgium. The comparative study shows that the largest flow of migrants in Romania was in 2007, the year of joining to the UE. The number of migrants was over 550 thousand and the emigration rate was 26‰. In the case of the Republic of Moldova, the emigration intensity was particularly high during 2007-2011, the emigration rate being of 15‰-18‰. Specifically to both countries are the negative net rate during the analyzed period. The results of the study show that the population loss for Republic of Moldova are higher than for Romania.