Noi culturi, noi antropologii - Humanitas

The year 2004 has brought along important institutional
and legislative changes in the field of asylum and refugees.
The most important change was the adoption of the community
Acquis regarding the asylum and refugees: the field
of asylum and refugees (recorded the biggest legislative
progresses because there was no previous legislation), the
enactment of the first law for immigrant integration, a progress
in the alien legislation (no visas for the EU citizens),
and an increased interest to the study of migration. The
integration program is known to enter the Romanian legislation
under the name of Ordinance No. 44/2004 regarding
the social integration of foreigners who have acquired
a form of protection or a right to stay in Romania, and the
citizens of the Member States of the European Union and
European Economic Area.
Today, integration is a duty of the Romanian Immigration
Office and the designated Ministries. According to the Romanian
Immigration Office, each institutional actor (The Ministry
of Administration and Interior, The Ministry of Education,
Research, Youth and Sport, The Ministry of Labor, Family
and Social Protection, The Ministry of Health) is responsible
for the integration of foreigners in the field of activity they
are specialized.
The general objective of the integration program is to
provide the refugees with opportunities in order for them
to become able to maintain themselves, to become independent
of the social assistance offered by the state or the
NGOs and to actively participate in the economic, social and
cultural life. Thus any foreigner who was granted a form of
protection is entitled to the same rights as any other Romanian
citizen, such as access on the labor market, access to
unemployment benefices; access to any form of education,
but still the recognition of the studies is a problem; access
to housing, but the financial help from the Romanian state
is offered to those who enter the integration program and
have found housing and signed a lease with the owner of
that house (in most cases refugees encounter the owners’
reluctance to sign a lease due to the taxes they must pay,
which is doubled by the owners’ unwillingness to rent out a
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