This article analyses the internal migration of the Romanians based on their direction, within the extent of 1990-2008. The tendencies are being examined depending on the region of origin and of destination of the migrants and also depending on their res

Bondoc Maria Daniela

Popescu Ramona Florina

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508  THE TEMPORAL EVOLUTION OF INTERNAL MIGRATORY FLOWS, UPON MIGRATORY DIRECTIONS  Popescu Ramona Florina  University  of  Pitesti,  Faculty  of  Economics,  424E,  Giulesti  Street,  Bucharest rf.popescu@yahoo.com 0721460607 Bondoc Maria Daniela  University  of  Pitesti,  Faculty  of  Economics,  1  Targu  din  Vale  Street,  Pitesti,  Romania daniela.bondoc@upit.ro 0745770758  This article analyses the internal migration of the Romanians based on their direction, within the extent of 1990-2008. The tendencies are being examined depending on the region of origin and of destination of the migrants and also depending on their residential environment. The authors try to conduct a literature review on the subject, emphasizing the conclusions of different studies conducted during the considered period.   Key words: Internal migration, migration direction, rural migration, urban migration  JEL Codes: J01, J61   1. Introduction The migration can be analyzed from different points of view – depending on the demographic structure of the migration (by age, gender, education), on the direction of the migration flows (internal or external destination, the nature of the destination, the occupation of the migrant at its destination), on the consequences of the phenomenon (positive or negative, economical, social or psychological effects). Among all these aspects, the article approaches only the internal migration from the standpoint of the migration destination, in Romania’s case.  The proposed analysis reports on the period after 1989 and until the present and it is necessary to make  a  first  explanation,  as  it  results  from  the  consulted  studies:  the  Romanian  internal migration, from the point of view of the migration’s destinations, witnessed three different stages, namely: 1990 – 1996, 1997 – 2001, 2002 – 2008. [Petre, I., 2005: 1]. The stages of the Romanian internal migration could be divided further more [Sandu, D. et all., 2004: 6] from the standpoint of the migration intensity.  It is important to mark from the beginning the fact that in some studies, the authors mention that the emigration of Romanian population rises great problems regarding the valid estimation of the phenomenon dimensions because of the temporary character of the reshuffle and its associated clandestine nature. In these cases, the hypotheses were formulated based on empirical data.    2. The internal migration – amplitude and directions  Some  studies  [Bran,  F.  et  all.,  2001:  4]  consider  that  between  1990  and  2001  the  internal migration  reached  an  average  of  272  432  individuals  each  year,  but  with  major  differences between the migration flows from urban zones towards rural ones and the flows coming from rural zones towards urban ones.  Other studies [Petre, I., 2005: 1] put the average figure of the internal Romanian migrants around 300 000 persons, both for the first period taken into account (1990 – 1996) and for the second (1997 – 2001), the differences consisting only in the direction of the flows.  Thus, for the first period it was noticed the dominance of the “rural towards urban” flows, while for the second, the situation is reverse, the departures from rural zones are outstripped by the arrivals (mainly due to the retro-migration). The author [Petre, I., 2005: 1] considers that until the present, meaning for the 2002 – 2008 period, the last tendency is still valid, so that the internal migratory flows are being dominated by the “urban towards rural” and “rural towards rural” type.  509  The same author states that an increase of the internal migratory flow till values of approx. 375 000 persons yearly. The year 2004 is considered the year of maximum intensity of the internal migration during the analyzed period [Petre, I., 2005: 1]. The above presented tendencies are being backed up by other authors too [Ghe ău, V., 2005: 74], mentioning that the urban towards rural flows remain bigger than the rural towards urban flows, despite a revival of the latest after 2000.   3. The internal regional migration The internal migration seen from the standpoint of the migration directions among development regions [Ghe ău, V., 2005: 72] was conditioned by various factors, such as:   -the economic development stage of the considered regions;   -the annual natural growth rate of the population in those regions; Thus, analyzing the data collected during the two National Censuses (1992 and 2002) it was established  [Ghe ău,  V.,  2005:  72]  that  internal  migration  took  place  mostly  towards  the developed regions (West, Bucharest and Centre) and from the less developed ones (North-West, North-East).  The same study indicates the fact that a weaker natural growth and a lower development level lead to a strengthened migration of the North-Eastern population who went especially in West and Bucharest regions.  Evaluating the data regarding the components of the “urban towards rural” migration by the departure region, proves the fact that the migration from the urban zones towards the rural ones of the same region is much more superior to the migration from the urban zones of other regions, reality explained by the inversion of the tendency manifested during the period before 1990 when the “rural towards urban” migration was made especially towards nearby urban zones. At its turn, this tendency was motivated by the fact that it was easier to find a job, the transportation costs were lower, it was easier to find a place to stay by using personal connections  – friends or relatives and it was easier to keep contact with the relatives that stayed home.  The same study [Ghe ău, V., 2005: 76] analyses in detail the “urban towards rural” migration, comparing all the developing regions and draws the conclusion that among the more-developed regions (North-West, Centre and Bucharest) the intra-region migration is higher compared to the one in the case of the less-developed regions. The explanation given by the authors is that the regions with a higher level of industrialization allowed a higher absorption of the flows coming from rural regions in the period before 1990 and the reversion of the flows after the 1990s led to a greater share of internal migrants from urban regions towards rural ones. Among the migrants from other regions, it seems that most of them came from the neighboring regions.  Considering the inter-regional migration from the point of view of the region of destination, it can be noticed [Ghe ău, V., 2005: 77] that for the less-developed regions (North-East and the three regions from the south) the departures from urban zones had as main destination the rural localities of the same region, due to the fact that the cities of the same regions did not allow their absorption and because in the past the urban zones of those regions had attracted migrants from the same region. For the other regions this tendency is much smaller, the explanations depending on the characteristics of Bucharest region which imposed an “inversed” migration mostly towards the  South  and  North-East  regions  (the  last  one  being  more  remote  but  also  poorer),  on  the attraction manifested in the past by the regions West and Centre for the inhabitants of North-East and South-West regions, whose inhabitants are now returning home.  As a tendency, the departures from rural zones (towards urban or rural zones) are constantly decreasing during the analyzed period [Petre, I., 2005: 2]. Regarding the urban towards rural flows among historical regions, the less attractive regions are Oltenia and Moldavia [Petre, I., 2005: 3], [Sandu, D., 1999: 177], and the most attractive are the departments from Banat and the 510  Romanian Plain [Sandu, D., 1999: 178], this last case proving to be an exception from the rule that the destination is always more developed than the origin.   4. Internal migration between residence environments The internal migration between the residence environment (rural / urban) after the 1990s knew a “balancing”  evolution,  meaning  that  the  tendencies  observed  before  that  moment,  are  now reversed.  As  a  consequence,  until  1997  when  the  urban  towards  rural  migration  became dominant, there could be defined another three significant moments [Rotariu, T., Mezei, E., 1999: 15], such as:  - year 1994, when the rural towards urban flows recorded a peak; - year 1995, when rural towards rural migration became dominant; - year 1996, with a peak for the urban towards urban migration. leading to the conclusion that the migration flows tend to rebalance each other. The explanation for internal migration tendencies between different residence environments is that: - the economic restructuring shock experienced after the year 1989, materialized in the loss of jobs from urban sites  [Sandu, D., 1999: 179] [Ghe ău, V., 2005 : 73]. Therefore, the great majority of those who are returning to the villages are the ones who couldn’t survive in towns in the new conditions imposed by the transition, while only a small part of the retro-migrants have enough  financial  resources  to  begin  rural  economic  projects  or  to  live  in  closer-to-nature conditions.  Rural  places  attracting  the  latter  ones  are  situated  nearby  big  cities,  with  strong economies or nearby places with touristic potential. [Petre, I., 2005: 3] - the tendency to suppress the plying [Sandu, D., 1999: 180], [Rotariu, T., Mezei, E., 1999: 14] and - the lack of urban tenements as a consequence of the fact that the construction of new apartment blocks was ceased [Rotariu, T., Mezei, E., 1999: 16]. -  the tendency to return to the initial residence (retro-migration), mostly around the pension age [Sandu, D., 1999: 178], [Petre, I., 2005: 3]. - the new land law regarding the land retrocession made after the co-operative farms and other similar structures were suppressed  [Ghe ău, V., 2005: 75] - the civil status and the age of the subjects, the analysis indicating that the married with children adults hardly beard the shock of changes [Ghe ău, V., 2005: 75]. Excepting  the  internal  migration  between  different  residence  environments,  there  also  are migration flows between environments of the same type, rural towards rural and urban towards urban. In this case, studies [Bran, F. et all., 2001: 8] reflect that: - the migration movement from rural towards rural recorded a peak in 1995 (7.8‰), than it decreased (to 4.7‰) reaching in 2000 a value of 5.5‰; in 2002 the value increased to 6.8‰.  - the urban towards urban flows has an increasing evolution until 1996 (6.5‰) than they recorded a minor decrease (to 4.7‰ in 2000); the biggest value was recorded in 2002 (6.8‰).  5. Conclusions  Other studies prove that: - migration towards rural sites is realized mostly inside the same department [Rotariu, T., Mezei, E., 1999: 21]; -  more  than  one  half  of  Bucharest  inhabitants  prefer  the  rural  destinations  in  other  towns detriment [Rotariu, T., Mezei, E., 1999: 30]; -  there  are  major  differences  between  the  departments  both  from  the  point  of  view  of  the preferred destination (urban or rural) and those o the departing environment (urban or rural) [Rotariu, T., Mezei, E., 1999: 31]; 511  - less than one third of Romania’s population changed its domicile at least once in their life, but the number is decreasing, and the migration distance as a consequence of the domicile changing is relatively reduced (approximately 48% of the migrants did not pass the department’s borders)  [Constantin, D.-L. et all., 2004: 35]; - approximately 6.7 billion persons migrated at least once in their lifetime, inside the country [Constantin, D.-L. et all., 2004: 35]; - the positive rural migration balances are due to adults (over 35 years) and aged persons, whose input flows are significantly bigger and exceed the negative balances recorded for young people [Petre, I., 2005: 3]. It is obvious that all those remarks are not entirely relevant unless they are set in the larger context of the general migration of Romanians, in other words only if it is considered the external migration, too. The remarks can be astonishing, meaning that the ancient urban towards rural migrants might have become the nowadays external migrants, as well as it can be noted that different regions „export” their inhabitants towards different areas, depending on a variety of factors (from social to religious ones).  Taking  into  account the  above,  our  study  is  followed  by  another  one regarding  the  external migration  Acknowledgements: This article is the result of the research conducted during the project "Model func ional de estimare a dimensiunii for ei de muncă real disponibile în mediul rural” (DALFI) (Functional model for the estimation of the really available manpower in rural areas), PNCDI, CAPACITATI - II, Contract No. 200 / September 2008  BIBLIOGRAFIE 1. Bran, F., Lilea, E., Ti an, E., Vă ui, M., Rădulescu, C.V., Ioan, I., Raport de cercetare - grant – Sistem metodologic de evaluare a impactului globalizării asupra migra iei, 2001  2. Ghe ău, V., Migrations et incidence sur la repartition spatiale de la population en Roumanie au niveau  national  et  regional,  The  Romanian  Journal  of  European  Studies,  No.4,  The  West University Publishing House, 2005 3. Petre, I., Internal migration and the Romanian village, 2005, http://strategia.ncsd.ro/ 4.  Rotaru,  T.,  Mezei,  E.,  Asupra  unor  aspecte  ale  migratiei  interne  recente  din  Romania, Romanian Sociology, nr. III, 1999 5. Sandu, D., Dezvoltare comunitară. Cercetare, practică, ideologie, Polirom Publishing House, Iaşi, 2005 6.  Sandu,  D.,  Radu,  C.,  Constantinescu,  M.,  Ciobanu,  O.,  A  Country  Report  on  Romanian Migration  Abroad:  Stocks  and  Flows  afer  1989,  Multicultural  Center  Prague,  2004, www.migrationonline.cz 7. Sandu, D., The social space of transition, Polirom Publishing House, 1999 

THE TEMPORAL EVOLUTION OF INTERNAL MIGRATORY FLOWS, UPON MIGRATORY DIRECTIONS

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