EU Integration Policies and Real Experiences of Romanian Migrants

This paper proposes a double comparative approach to integration policies within the context of the present-day phenomenon of labour migration from Central and Eastern Europe towards the West of the European Eunion. It attempts to address the need of enriching research on the social problems faced by the new diasporic communities.  These communities originated in the relatively recent search for jobs that has pushed migrant workers to leave their Central and Eastern Europe countries, since the beginning of the ‘90s.

Through discourse analysis, we first compare the European Union migration policy, in terms of “migrant integration” (Hugo Brady, 2008), as it appears in a survey of European integration policies funded by the European Commission, to the opinions on integration of Romanian immigrants who are active communicators online and thus make confessions about their life experience abroad. The integration legislation, such as laws on family reunion, residence rights, labour market access, political participation, access to nationality and antidiscrimination (Hugo Brady, 2008: 18), is confronted to the public opinion voiced by the Romanian users of online platforms.

The second comparison refers to the perspectives on integration into the host societies of the Romanians who are living and working in the United Kingdom and in Spain.

The research corpus is made up of the verbal comunication / texts posted by the Romanians on ”Spania Romaneasca” [Romanian Spain], http://forum.spaniaromaneasca.com/, under the

category ”Viata in Spania: Spania între mit si realitate...” [Life in Spain: Spain between myth and reality…] and ”Romani in UK” [Romanians in the UK], http://romani.co.uk/, under the category: ”Forum: Romani in UK” [Forum: Romanians in the UK], about the topic: ”Greselile tipice ale noului venit. Evita-le!” [Typical mistakes of the newcomer. Avoid them!]