Saturday, March 15, 2014
Embassy (Omni Shoreham)
The demise of the communist regime in 1989 meant the ‘resurrection’ of the freedom of international mobility for all Eastern European countries. After more than four decades Romanians were able to acquire passports and travel across the borders. France, which used to be a ‘traditional destination’ for Romanians since the 19th century and even after the World War II for those who managed to escape the communist regime, became one of the targeted destinations for Romanians seeking labor opportunities. In my paper, I will address Romanian migration to Southwestern France, in the Bordeaux region, after 1989 when Romanian external migration started to turn into a social practice. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in this region, in the summer of 2013, and considering the post-1989 context, my paper will address diachronically the Romanian migration to France. The aim is to trace different patterns of migration and mobility to Bordeaux that were triggered by three important events: the fall of communism (1989), the free access of Romania to the Schengen area (2002), and the acceptance of Romania in the European Union (2007). Each migration pattern will be illustrated through sketches of migrant lives in order to see what is the relation between the communist past, the contemporary European Union events, and the migration experiences of Romanians in France. I argue that the migration process although influenced from below, by relatives and household members, is highly impacted from above, by national and supranational legislative changes.
