Abstract

The present research intends to approach in an explicative manner the migration phenomenon, mainly to test which are the social costs of external migration in Romania. We have tried to find some answers by relating to this specific type of migration, especially to external or international circulatory migration, of to-and-fro type which registered a constant increase in Romania in the last years. Travelling for work abroad is part of a life strategy with major effects on the person/household. In this sense, the social costs of the phenomenon become ample, with effects at the national level. The present study was based on the questions: which are the reasons that determine more and more Romanians to leave for work abroad, how do they leave legally or illegally, what is the Romanians’ perception about the situation of present Romania, their perception about the emigration area, which are the costs, which are the benefits and losses of external migration? The approaching manner is mainly a qualitative one but has in view a quantitative approach of the phenomenon at the level of a community of Romanians situated in the north of Italy, in Torino. In this paper, migration is studied from a broader perspective, tackling both the persons in the hypostasis of immigration and emigration ; both forms of migration are considered since any migratory act is at the same time a migration and an emigration.