Cristina Dobre (FLAME): There are approximately 3.5 million Romanians abroad

The number of Romanians abroad stand at approximately 3.5 million, and the main destinations are Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, Cristina Dobre, Chair of the Lufkin Foundation for Entrepreneurship and Migration (FLAME) told the conference titled "Migration and Entrepreneurship - a significant value". 

"This year, on January 1st, Romanian citizens have reached the 11th year of free circulation within the European Union and the 6th year of unrestricted incorporation on the EU labour market. We all know these things because migration is already part of our day to day lives, being an extremely debated social phenomenon. Paradoxically, both in the public space, as well as in the academic one, the questions that we ask ourselves concerning Romanian migration seem to remain the same. Thus, we are interested in who, how many, where, how, why, in variants that are more or less sophisticated ... So, how many Romanians are there outside the country's borders? The estimate concerning the number of Romanians abroad is placed around the number of 3.5 million Romanians. Europe, without any doubt, gathers most of them. Countries like Italy, Spain, Germany or the United Kingdom, are the main destinations for Romanian immigrants," said Cristina Dobre. 

She said that three years ago she presented a hypothesis that was later on confirmed, namely that a high percentage of Romanians that left for Spain and Italy made their way towards the Nordic countries. Sociological research carried out in 2017 by the Foundation within the Romanian community in Spain shows that 21.8 percent of them declared that they wish to immigrate, in the future, towards the United Kingdom.