Peste
Hotare. This means “going abroad to
work”.
One of Moldova’s conundrums is
that up to 25% of its working adult population is out of the country trying to
earn a living. This of course, is driven
by the fact that there is little private enterprise in Moldova to generate
employment. The economy had been an
agricultural one and that still remains its highest asset. While the Soviets were in charge (1940-1990)
they made Moldova a super agrarian culture with collective farms, intense
chemical fertilization and pesticide use to maximize output for the entire
Soviet Union. Moldova wine production
was supplying a huge annual export to Russia.
Then that stopped when Moldova became independent. Russia was no longer a strong market for
Moldovan wine and agriculture.
The
transition to privatization left many of the former collective work employments
as “closed businesses”. People began
going outside of the country to work. Italy,
Greece, Turkey, Ireland, and Germany are some highly visited countries. And let’s not forget Russia (Moscow) as one
of the biggest job markets.
I have met
many people who have worked in Ireland in the construction trade. There are many Moldovans who go to Canada,
especially to Montreal area where the bi-lingual nature of the culture
(French-English) helps them get started in the hospitality or financial
sectors. Romanian is somewhat like
French and many Moldovan schools teach French as a second language now. Many Moldovans are also in Italy for the
similarity in language. But perhaps the
greatest number of Moldovans are in Russia working (500,000) because they are
bi-lingual Russian-Romanian or only Russian.
In my village in rural Moldova, many have relatives who are away in
Moscow working. Current Russian visa
restrictions cause Moldovans to return home every three months. Perhaps they don’t, and continue as illegal
workers exposing themselves to all the types of discrimination and manipulation
that we see with all migrant workers.
The desire
to work abroad has continually motivated Moldovans to seek a Romanian passport
if possible. Since Moldova was
historically part of the Romanian territory in the time before the 1800’s there
are many family connections on which a current Moldovan citizen can request a
Romanian passport. It can take up to two
years to get the passport finalized.
Once they have this key to the European Union in hand, they make their
way to other countries within the EU as the EU is boarderless in regards to
passports.
Just this year, the new
regulations in regard to EU and Moldova allow those Moldovans who have a
current biometric passport to travel in the EU without visa. This freedom of movement is seen as one of
the big perks for joining the EU.
Other
countries where Moldovans work as emigrants currently are Turkey and Israel.
Here is a link to some more interesting information on this topic.
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