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Immigrant Integration Barometer, 2015 edition
Alexandra Mănăilă - Reporter
26 June 2015
The Immigrant Integration Barometer, 2015 edition, prepared within the project "Research and Information Centre on Immigrant Integration", was launched by the Romanian Association for Health Promotion in partnership with the Open Society Foundation in Bucharest on 10 June 2015. This is the third edition and the results were not a surprise for the six members of the research team, with changes since previous years being insignificant.
According to the Immigrant Integration Barometer, 2015 edition, the indicators with the lowest scores were education and strategic planning (both with 3.25, on a scale from 1 to 10). These scores demonstrate the absence of an inclusive long-term vision, where migration has an important role in the society development and does not represent a risk factor requiring a very strict control.
"We have noticed in time that the share of those who come for work has reduced. Most persons come now for studies, because it is more difficult to find a job in Romania. In addition we have entry quotas for legal work, which are kept quite low by the government. Unfortunately we have not seen an important change in strategies and strategic planning, or in Romania's vision on integration. Our vision continues to focus on border control and security aspects, although the whole Europe discusses very seriously about inclusion and integration policies for those who come", said Ovidiu Voicu, researcher at the Open Society Foundation.
As regards the concern of other European states regarding immigrants’ abuse of the social security systems, which has been debated quite a lot lately, Romania has no reasons for concern. "Although in rich countries the anti-immigration discourse is based on the abuse of social security systems and their overburdening, this argument is not valid for Romania. The analysis of the Welfare dimension in the current edition of the Barometer shows that very few immigrants apply for social security, or state aid. In addition there are few immigrants who benefited from employment services from local Employment Agencies. Therefore the number of aliens supported by the social protection system is insignificant in relation with the total number of beneficiaries, below 1%. Our colleagues from non-governmental organisations working in the field of migration complement and even substitute, with European funding, the services and support which the Romanian state should provide to immigrants. Their work is focused on immigrants' needs, but does not contribute to making state structures more responsible. Actually, the deficient institutional practices related to integration would not even have appeared in this report, without the participation of immigrants and non-governmental organisations working with aliens", said Luciana Lăzărescu, ARPS researcher involved in the three IIB editions.
How many immigrants do we actually have and which is their profile?
According to the General Inspectorate for Immigration, in Romania there are about 58,000 citizens from non-European countries and about 40,000 from European countries. According to Romanian legislation, European citizens have almost the same rights as Romanians. However some of the public institutions in Romania confuse Union citizens with third country nationals in terms of status and rights, and for this reason data supplied by these institutions, including by the National Institute for Statistics, do not differentiate the two categories of aliens and have a limited practical utility, said Rodica Novac.
In the opinion of Eleodor Pîrvu, Chief of the Integration, Support and Centre Coordination Service within the Asylum and Integration Department in IGI, "it is very difficult for local authorities to know this number."
The IGI representative mentioned that aliens coming to Romania are different, and thus their integration needs are also different. "The most problematic and most in need to integrate in the Romanian society are asylum seekers, who leave their countries of origin because of conflicts, persecution by a state or non-state agent and arrive in Romania one way or another. These persons come to Romania and they usually hold no identity documents, they have no goods with them. We also have persons with a form of protection recognised in Romania who succeeded in life and are fully integrated. Another profile of migrants in Romania are aliens with a legal stay, who come here for studies or work. In such cases we speak about lower needs of integration in the Romanian society as compared to the first category", said Eleodor Pîrvu. According to the IGI representative, last year there were a little more than 1,500 asylum seekers registered, and most of them were granted a form of protection. "We have a recognition rate of more than 60%, they have automatically remained in Romania and were registered in our integration programmes, but not all have requested this. It is voluntary. We cannot oblige the foreigners to come and get involved in the integration process. We try to attract them", he said.
As regards the shortage of services adapted to immigrants' profile and needs, in the opinion of Rodica Novac, representative of the Association for the Development of Organisation SAHROM, "although we boast that we are a welcoming country, that the population is tolerant, migrants do not actually receive any information. On the website of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour there are no data available in an international language.”
Strategic Planning and Education, the lowest scores
The 2015 edition of the Immigrant Integration Barometer highlights the weak points of public policies and institutional practices of immigration, showing that the weakest scores were registered by the strategic planning and education dimensions, areas which should represent the backbone of immigrants' integration. The recommendations made address the improvement of the status of deficient dimensions. "A general requirement would be a stronger focus on integration, towards inclusion, rather than control and security. We have a very long period, 8 years, of continuous stay on Romania's territory for obtaining citizenship, and if you are here for studies every year spent in Romania is considered as only half a year. A concrete requirement is to recognise the study period as a complete period of stay, because we have absurd situations when we have persons who graduated studies in Romania, in Romanian language, they are certified to profess in Romania and they cannot do this because they do not meet those conditions for stay so as to receive permanent residence and a work permit", Voicu also said. "Should the Junker plan be applied, which is about the proportional distribution of immigrants to member states, we would start to have problems because we do not have functional mechanisms for integration in society and then you can't permanently keep those who come under control, it is not efficient", believes Ovidiu Voicu.
As regards education, data on the number of children enrolled in the public education system in Romania were presented, namely 400 foreign children. “However there are 5,500 foreign children in Romania, aged between 1 - 17, who have no Romanian citizenship. There is also a large category, not included in statistics, of children with mixed citizenship. For instance children who came to Romania from Syria and do not speak Romanian, they are not integrated in any educational programmes in Romanian language. The vast majority of those who come from Syria have no documented evidence of their education in the home country, because the public institutions able to provide such data no longer exist in Syria. We have 400 children in the public school, what about the others, up to 5,500? There may be 10,000 children with mixed citizenship who originate from these countries and who are not enrolled in Romanian language programmes. In the public system there are no programmes addressed to Romanian and foreign children alike who do not speak Romanian and who should be integrated in the Romanian system", said Rodica Novac. In her opinion the Ministry of Education has been definitely refusing, for 10 years, to get involved in any kind of programmes related to the integration of alien children in Romania. “Just as we've made programmes for diabetics, for heart patients, we also need programmes for foreign children and programmes for Romanian children who do not speak Romanian”, concluded the ADO SAHROM representative.
Romania remains a transit country
Another aspect highlighted by the Barometer relates to the political rights of immigrants in Romania, which can only be obtained by acquiring Romanian citizenship. To obtain Romanian citizenship an immigrant has to live in Romania legally for 8 years or 5 years, if married to a Romanian citizen. During all this period immigrants have no right to participate in political life: they have no right to vote and to be elected, they cannot establish parties and cannot participate in the decision making process which affects the city or the region they live in. This is one of the reasons why MIPEX also places Romania among countries with an unfavourable climate with respect to the political participation of immigrants.
The weak points of Romania, as indicated by the 2015 edition of the Immigrant Integration Barometer, are related to the incapacity of institutions to solve the issues regarding education, strategic planning and political integration; the strong points refer to Romanians' tolerance and acceptance towards aliens. In the opinion of Ovidiu Voicu, "Romania continues to be a transit country, because we are affected by the economic crisis and in order to be able to stay here foreigners would have to find a job, which doesn't happen because the current economic policies, although they started to improve, are not strong enough to stimulate a massive creation of jobs which immigrants might take. Another problem is that we do not have, like in other European countries, that layer of jobs which are not wanted by Romanians, there are Romanian citizens who would take even the poorly paid jobs. This does not leave room for immigrants."
To see the results on the other dimensions you can consult the Immigrant Integration Barometer, 2015 edition, in full at http://www.cdcdi.ro/serviciu/lansarea-barometrului-integrarii-imigrantilor-editia-2015 .
According to the Immigrant Integration Barometer, 2015 edition, the indicators with the lowest scores were education and strategic planning (both with 3.25, on a scale from 1 to 10). These scores demonstrate the absence of an inclusive long-term vision, where migration has an important role in the society development and does not represent a risk factor requiring a very strict control.
"We have noticed in time that the share of those who come for work has reduced. Most persons come now for studies, because it is more difficult to find a job in Romania. In addition we have entry quotas for legal work, which are kept quite low by the government. Unfortunately we have not seen an important change in strategies and strategic planning, or in Romania's vision on integration. Our vision continues to focus on border control and security aspects, although the whole Europe discusses very seriously about inclusion and integration policies for those who come", said Ovidiu Voicu, researcher at the Open Society Foundation.
As regards the concern of other European states regarding immigrants’ abuse of the social security systems, which has been debated quite a lot lately, Romania has no reasons for concern. "Although in rich countries the anti-immigration discourse is based on the abuse of social security systems and their overburdening, this argument is not valid for Romania. The analysis of the Welfare dimension in the current edition of the Barometer shows that very few immigrants apply for social security, or state aid. In addition there are few immigrants who benefited from employment services from local Employment Agencies. Therefore the number of aliens supported by the social protection system is insignificant in relation with the total number of beneficiaries, below 1%. Our colleagues from non-governmental organisations working in the field of migration complement and even substitute, with European funding, the services and support which the Romanian state should provide to immigrants. Their work is focused on immigrants' needs, but does not contribute to making state structures more responsible. Actually, the deficient institutional practices related to integration would not even have appeared in this report, without the participation of immigrants and non-governmental organisations working with aliens", said Luciana Lăzărescu, ARPS researcher involved in the three IIB editions.
How many immigrants do we actually have and which is their profile?
According to the General Inspectorate for Immigration, in Romania there are about 58,000 citizens from non-European countries and about 40,000 from European countries. According to Romanian legislation, European citizens have almost the same rights as Romanians. However some of the public institutions in Romania confuse Union citizens with third country nationals in terms of status and rights, and for this reason data supplied by these institutions, including by the National Institute for Statistics, do not differentiate the two categories of aliens and have a limited practical utility, said Rodica Novac.
In the opinion of Eleodor Pîrvu, Chief of the Integration, Support and Centre Coordination Service within the Asylum and Integration Department in IGI, "it is very difficult for local authorities to know this number."
The IGI representative mentioned that aliens coming to Romania are different, and thus their integration needs are also different. "The most problematic and most in need to integrate in the Romanian society are asylum seekers, who leave their countries of origin because of conflicts, persecution by a state or non-state agent and arrive in Romania one way or another. These persons come to Romania and they usually hold no identity documents, they have no goods with them. We also have persons with a form of protection recognised in Romania who succeeded in life and are fully integrated. Another profile of migrants in Romania are aliens with a legal stay, who come here for studies or work. In such cases we speak about lower needs of integration in the Romanian society as compared to the first category", said Eleodor Pîrvu. According to the IGI representative, last year there were a little more than 1,500 asylum seekers registered, and most of them were granted a form of protection. "We have a recognition rate of more than 60%, they have automatically remained in Romania and were registered in our integration programmes, but not all have requested this. It is voluntary. We cannot oblige the foreigners to come and get involved in the integration process. We try to attract them", he said.
As regards the shortage of services adapted to immigrants' profile and needs, in the opinion of Rodica Novac, representative of the Association for the Development of Organisation SAHROM, "although we boast that we are a welcoming country, that the population is tolerant, migrants do not actually receive any information. On the website of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour there are no data available in an international language.”
Strategic Planning and Education, the lowest scores
The 2015 edition of the Immigrant Integration Barometer highlights the weak points of public policies and institutional practices of immigration, showing that the weakest scores were registered by the strategic planning and education dimensions, areas which should represent the backbone of immigrants' integration. The recommendations made address the improvement of the status of deficient dimensions. "A general requirement would be a stronger focus on integration, towards inclusion, rather than control and security. We have a very long period, 8 years, of continuous stay on Romania's territory for obtaining citizenship, and if you are here for studies every year spent in Romania is considered as only half a year. A concrete requirement is to recognise the study period as a complete period of stay, because we have absurd situations when we have persons who graduated studies in Romania, in Romanian language, they are certified to profess in Romania and they cannot do this because they do not meet those conditions for stay so as to receive permanent residence and a work permit", Voicu also said. "Should the Junker plan be applied, which is about the proportional distribution of immigrants to member states, we would start to have problems because we do not have functional mechanisms for integration in society and then you can't permanently keep those who come under control, it is not efficient", believes Ovidiu Voicu.
As regards education, data on the number of children enrolled in the public education system in Romania were presented, namely 400 foreign children. “However there are 5,500 foreign children in Romania, aged between 1 - 17, who have no Romanian citizenship. There is also a large category, not included in statistics, of children with mixed citizenship. For instance children who came to Romania from Syria and do not speak Romanian, they are not integrated in any educational programmes in Romanian language. The vast majority of those who come from Syria have no documented evidence of their education in the home country, because the public institutions able to provide such data no longer exist in Syria. We have 400 children in the public school, what about the others, up to 5,500? There may be 10,000 children with mixed citizenship who originate from these countries and who are not enrolled in Romanian language programmes. In the public system there are no programmes addressed to Romanian and foreign children alike who do not speak Romanian and who should be integrated in the Romanian system", said Rodica Novac. In her opinion the Ministry of Education has been definitely refusing, for 10 years, to get involved in any kind of programmes related to the integration of alien children in Romania. “Just as we've made programmes for diabetics, for heart patients, we also need programmes for foreign children and programmes for Romanian children who do not speak Romanian”, concluded the ADO SAHROM representative.
Romania remains a transit country
Another aspect highlighted by the Barometer relates to the political rights of immigrants in Romania, which can only be obtained by acquiring Romanian citizenship. To obtain Romanian citizenship an immigrant has to live in Romania legally for 8 years or 5 years, if married to a Romanian citizen. During all this period immigrants have no right to participate in political life: they have no right to vote and to be elected, they cannot establish parties and cannot participate in the decision making process which affects the city or the region they live in. This is one of the reasons why MIPEX also places Romania among countries with an unfavourable climate with respect to the political participation of immigrants.
The weak points of Romania, as indicated by the 2015 edition of the Immigrant Integration Barometer, are related to the incapacity of institutions to solve the issues regarding education, strategic planning and political integration; the strong points refer to Romanians' tolerance and acceptance towards aliens. In the opinion of Ovidiu Voicu, "Romania continues to be a transit country, because we are affected by the economic crisis and in order to be able to stay here foreigners would have to find a job, which doesn't happen because the current economic policies, although they started to improve, are not strong enough to stimulate a massive creation of jobs which immigrants might take. Another problem is that we do not have, like in other European countries, that layer of jobs which are not wanted by Romanians, there are Romanian citizens who would take even the poorly paid jobs. This does not leave room for immigrants."
To see the results on the other dimensions you can consult the Immigrant Integration Barometer, 2015 edition, in full at http://www.cdcdi.ro/serviciu/lansarea-barometrului-integrarii-imigrantilor-editia-2015 .
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