Bucharest has quadrupled the number of work visas in one year, while four million Romanians went to Western Europe seeking better salaries.
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He has just finished the last iron reinforcement, it only remains to turn the concrete. Aganad (who did not give his name) throws a last glance, then sweeps the view of Bucharest from his construction site, located on the eighth floor of the future office building, west of the Romanian capital. “I have been working on this site for six months and I get used to it,” he explains. The hardest, it’s the cold. Today it does – 3 o c, At home we must be at 30 o c and some. “He has traveled more than 9,000 kilometers from Marawi, capital of the province of Lanao del sur, in the Philippines, until Romania. A journey motivated by a job on this project where he touches 600 euros, or five times more than the salary he would have obtained in his country.
His name, Aganad, “the one who protects”, seems to have sealed his destiny. This 29-year-old man helps his parents, his grandparents, his two sisters and brother remained in the country. And since he lives in Romania, the lives of his has improved thanks to the 200 euros that he manages to send them each month. “Maybe one day I will leave working in Western Europe, where wages are higher, but, for now, I’m doing well in Romania, where the cost of living is lower and where We are assured housing, explains. I have a two-year contract in Bucharest and I got used to this city. “
Strong shortage
Romanians also used to the growing number of Asians arrived in their country in search of a well-paid job. “At first, they were looking at them a little bit, admits Aganad’s team colleague. They did not speak the Romanian and had other habits than ours. But now it’s okay, they adapted And have learned to speak a little Romanian. And I have to recognize that they work more than us. They are there to make money, they do not know what it is, leisure. “
According to the Romanian Ministry of Labor, 480,000 jobs are vacant for 200,000 jobseekers. The labor shortage is worsening from one year to another since 2007, when Romania has integrated the European Union (EU). About four million Romanians went to work west in search of a better salary. Their Latin origin has mostly pushed them up to Italy and Spain, two countries that each have a million Romanian workers, the others who have mainly joined Germany, France and Belgium.
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