MPRA

Covarrubias 2007, Portes 2009). 28 In order to assess some of these effects and
allegedly their development, one may first discuss the labor market incorporation
of Romanian migrants.
2.1 Labor market integration of the Romanian migrants abroad
The labor market incorporation of immigrants not only influence their adaptation
to countries of reception, but also their remitting behavior, use of remittances and
return, as well as the gain or loss of human capital. One should first consider that
the Romanian migration was widely diversified. At the beginning of 2000’s about
34% of Romanian migrants had higher education significantly above the
country’s average, which was 10% at that time (Alexe et al. 2012). At the same
time, many had little or no working experience and qualification in Romania
(Alexe et al. 2012) as in 2008 29% respectively 24% of migrants living in Italy
and Spain were inactive before migration. However, over the years this tendency
may have changed as many of the large pool of unoccupied people (i.e.,
unemployed) effectively migrated. Thus, analyzing the occupational distribution
of Romanian migrants, Andren and Roman (2016) mentioned that a relatively
high proportion (52%) of all Romanian working migrants have an occupation that
requires specialized skills (which might be gained through vocation training),
while only 39% have occupations that require very little or no education at all.
On the other hand, Romanians who migrated to a non-EU country (mostly
US and Canada) have occupations that require a higher level of education than
of other migrants; these findings lead the authors to the conclusion that these
emigrants are better educated compared to those who migrated both to south
and north EU countries. Similarly, Ambrosini et al. (2012) reported that Romanian
migrants and returnees are strongly affected by skill-related wage incentives.
Countries that premium more high skills thus attract the better educated
immigrants and induce the greatest benefits to their income and productivity. One
28 For instance, one such effect is easily noticeable in the Romanian case, where the large wave
of remittances in 2000s was a temporary phenomenon only, later on remittances decreasing to
less than half. Furthermore, depopulation of entire regions of the country will continue on the
longer run.
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