Romania’s biggest crisis, already chronic and with effects of immeasurable gravity in absolutely all domains, is the least discussed and least present in the public interest – Romania’s depopulation.
According to INS data, last year, Romania recorded the highest migration in the last 30 years. And the only reason the resident population of Romania was nearly 10,000 people larger at the end of the year than at the beginning is immigration, meaning foreigners who came to work and Ukrainian refugees.
Especially young people between 15-19 years old leave for studies, from where very few return, as well as the active population up to 44 years old.
Naturally, all demographic and social imbalances have worsened, and the main question regarding the pensions of those currently in activity is not what their amount will be, but whether there will still be someone to support them through contributions.
It is noteworthy that the top counties from where people have left are led by Bucharest, with a standard of living comparable to that of major European capitals. In the top 10 are also Timiș, Brașov, Suceava, and Constanța.
It should be noted that against the backdrop of this chronic migration that has led to a labor force crisis, salaries in Romania, especially for skilled jobs, but not only, have increased substantially. Companies are competing for workers with the extremely generous public sector regime.
What are Romanians looking for?
The driving force behind migration from Romania is not just hunger. The driving force of migration, especially in recent years, has become living conditions in general. What does this mean? In short, that people don't just want to have more money in their pockets.
They seek a healthcare system where, of course, they cannot have a guarantee of recovery, there is no such thing, but a guarantee of the best possible chance of recovery, and, above all, a healthcare system in which they can trust.
They want the opportunity to choose with their own money, through their insurance, the best options, not the captivity of being insured in the public system.
They seek quality education for their children. Not one that makes them geniuses, but one that harnesses their inclinations, provides them with solid skills, a uniformly qualitative system so they don't have to rush through crowded cities with their children in cars to a school who knows how far from home where they got in with bribes or all sorts of tricks like residency permits through friends/relatives.
They want efficient and professional police, they don't want to be harassed when trying to pay their debts to the state, they don't want to spend half of their life in traffic, they don't want the air they breathe to kill them, hot water from the tap to be a banality, not a celebration.
They want to be treated with respect by the officials and dignitaries they pay with their money and who should be aware that they are obligated to be accountable for every decision and every public penny spent.
They want predictability in life, the comfort of real stability, which means they cannot wake up at any time to find that, with a stroke of a pen, the government changes the rules of the game and destroys their business, plans, life.
They want to be led by politicians with a good and timely education, who grammatically correct, utter sentences that convey an idea, have coherence.
They want a normal life, not an extreme survival sport, they want their work to bring them not only nominal sums, but also a predictable life. And because they cannot find it in Romania, they leave.