Noi culturi, noi antropologii - Humanitas

the Romanian citizenship. In the first wave, for the refugees
married to a Romanian citizenship, the residency requirement
was reduced to three years in the first wave and to
five years in the second wave. But even if the legislation in
the first wave seemed to be more beneficial for refugees,
the automatic expiration of the refugee status was a serious
obstacle in the refugees’ integration. The records show that
Romania granted the two year extension to all refugees who
asked for it, but only after a thorough analysis of their case,
similar to their first asylum request.
To UNHCR’s knowledge, since December 1989 to October
1999 only two recognized refugees had been granted
Romanian citizenship though several applications have been
pending for several years.
According to Migrant Integration Policy Index (2011), a
recent analysis on the integration policies in Europe and the
USA, after years of residing in Romania, migrants and their
descendants do not have clear paths to citizenship, a gap in
the integration policies which is found in most Central European
countries. More exactly, the migrants’ children born
legally on Romanian territory are not automatically Romanian
at birth. Besides, in order to acquire citizenship the first
generation immigrants face State committees testing their
language and knowledge of Romanian citizenship, history,
geography, culture, etc, all without specific support to help
them pass (no structured and specific manual for citizenship
was created for them). They must also prove vague income
and good character requirements. Moreover, dual nationality
is only possible for first generation migrants who naturalize.
When it comes to the political participation of the foreigners
in Romania, the MIPEX study concluded that Romania
scored lowest on political participation of all 31 MIPEX countries.
This means that apart from the right to create media,
non-EU residents cannot become a part of democratic life.
This is an impediment found in the Law 194/2002, which
confirms that they cannot set up their own political association
or join political parties, and that the new communities
cannot obtain State funds to organize politically – except
through occasional European Integration Fund projects, and
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