Those who leave and those who stay (part 1)

Before talking about other types of Romanians, let's talk about Romanians who stay and Romanians who leave their country. According to official numbers, Romania registered between 2007 and 2015 the 2nd highest emigration growth rate after Syria ! Of course, Syria is at war, but Romania ? With a GDP growth of almost 7% last year – unthinkable in many of the more “stabilized” countries, people still leave, and in mass. I’ll try to get to that later on but let's see who are the Romanians leaving their country and how they relate to their country once they've left.

I’ve tried a classification below according to their typical reaction:
  1. The Romanian who hates everything Romanian, admitting (reluctantly) they are Romanian (when forced to it), who don't even want to speak the language anymore. This is more of a historical type, like Cioran after WWII. The modern type still speak Romanian (when they have the occasion to do so). I call this category The Romanian "I want to forget everything about Romania but oh it is so nice to be with family and friends during holidays.”
  2. The Romanian who does everything Romanian (I.e. eating only Romanian food, drinking, going out in Romanian places) but does not return home - is it only for material reasons or is it because they are too afraid to admit, deep down that their new life is not that bad as they would have expected it to be ?
  3. The half-Romanian, usually their mother being Romanian, speaking Romanian with a sweet accent.  My kids will be this type of Romanian, I'm curious as to their language skills and future accents…
  4. The "assimilated" Romanian: they are so very much integrated in their home country that it's difficult to tell they're Romanian by simply looking at them. They have a French boss, French friends and/or spouses, francized names. They might or might not teach Romanian to their kids. I call this type the "I don't want to forget about Romania but I still somehow do and feel guilty about it". These Romanians will not easily admit it, but they are very much transformed, and despite their Romanian ID card that they avoid updating.
  5. The Romanian who left the country as a kid, integrated very well in their home country, but who miraculously speaks great Romanian, goes to church, dresses in Romanian blouses, is proud of his/her origins.  These Romanians have usually grown up in a non-European country.
  6. The Romanian who left, saw what they had to see, got some experience abroad and then went back to Romania. They're the ones I admire the most, as they are - or at least trying - to put into practice the good things they've seen abroad, while trying to preserve Romania' good parts.

Next time I'll focus on Romanians who stay…

Yes - despite the exodus referred to above, there are many!

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