That's what the newspapers call it, the fact that Romanians are leaving the country in droves. President Traian Basescu last year said that 8 million Romanians are currently living somewhere outside the country. Official numbers put it somewhere closer to 4 million, but that's still a huge percentage of the population (Romania's official population is about 21.4 million).
I was watching the news a couple of minutes ago and saw that 26,000 Romanians crossed the border in the last 24 hours to return to their workplaces around Europe after celebrating the holidays with family and friends. The lines at some border crossings are up to a mile long.
Where are they going? Italy, Ireland, and Spain seem to be the destinations of choice for most who are working beyond Romanian borders. Most likely, this is due to (1) the availability of jobs in those countries, (2) the already large Romanian communities in these places, making it easier to find friends, services, churches, etc. in their native language and (3) the similarity between their languages and Romanian (well, Italian and Spanish are similar to Romanian; Irish English not so much...but lots of Romanians know at least some English).
Why are they going? Generally speaking, to find better jobs or, at least, better-paying jobs than they can find here. Some settle in for life, but many others are looking only to save enough money to purchase a home, a car, and whatever else they think they need to make life here a little easier. Still others are sending money back to their families who remain in the country. Last I heard, over half of Romania's gross national product comes from money earned outside the country and sent/brought back into the country.
As you can imagine, this "diaspora" presents unique challenges for the existing church and for church-planting efforts across Romania. Churches are full of the young and the old, while the young adult generation are conspicuously missing. Some send money back to their home churches, but money doesn't make up for the vacuum left by their absence!
(The picture posted above is actually entering Romania, not leaving. It's one I took when we returned from Moldova in November.)
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