IMMIGRANTS’ INFORMATION NEEDS IN ROMANIA

RESEARCH REPORT

Project “Welcome to Romania! Improving the knowledge of the third-

country nationals about their rights, duties and integration opportunities into the Romanian society”

Authors: Raluca Popescu, PhD Georgiana Toth, PhD trainee

Superviser: Iris Alexe

November 2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 3

IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANTS INTEGRATION POLICIES.................................................... 5

STATISTICAL MILESTONES REGARDING IMMIGRATION IN ROMANIA................................ 8

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................... 13

SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE RIGHTS, OBLIGATIONS AND INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITIES IN ROMANIA.............................................................................. 15

SOCIAL NETWORKS BASED ON KINSHIP AND FRIENDSHIP.................................................................... 15 ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS .............................................................................................. 16 EMBASSIES ......................................................................................................................................... 17 UNIVERSITY CENTERS......................................................................................................................... 18 ROMANIAN IMMIGRATION OFFICE...................................................................................................... 19 OTHER PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS ............................................................................................................. 21

TYPES OF NEEDED INFORMATION ................................................................................................... 24 RIGHT OF RESIDENCE.......................................................................................................................... 24 LEARNING ROMANIAN........................................................................................................................ 25 PARTICIPATION ON THE LABOR MARKET ............................................................................................ 25 SETTING UP A BUSINESS...................................................................................................................... 28 EDUCATIONAL SERVICES .................................................................................................................... 28 HEALTH SERVICES .............................................................................................................................. 30 FINANCIAL SERVICES.......................................................................................................................... 31 HOUSING SERVICES............................................................................................................................. 31 TRANSPORT SERVICES ........................................................................................................................ 32 ABOUT ROMANIANS AND THE ROMANIAN CULTURE .......................................................................... 33

CONTENT AND DISSEMINATION OF THE INFORMATION GUIDE ........................................... 35

INTEGRATION SOLUTIONS .................................................................................................................. 40

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................... 44

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT:............................................................................................ 48

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INTRODUCTION Romania’s report on the European Fund for Third-Country Nationals Integration 2007-20131 underlines that the newly-arrived third-country immigrants in Romania or those in pursue of a resident permit in our country have available but very little information about the relevant economic, social or cultural aspects or about the opportunities of personal development and participation to the economic, social and cultural life of the society,

The immigrants cannot become active participants to the development of the Romanian society unless they are offered real possibilities of getting involved and with their contribution acknowledged and encouraged as an important part of the joint effort aimed at creating an inclusive society, relying on mutual respect and tolerance and operating within a framework regulated by the state’s laws and common European values. Integration of immigrants from third countries is one of the biggest challenges Romania has to efficiently respond to. Integration is the focus point of a comprehensive immigration management policy.

The aliens having the right of residence in Romania represent a category of persons who, although benefit of a statute comparable to that of the Romanian citizens, are often faced with obstacles in accessing such rights, due to the lack of Romanian language knowledge, impossibility to communicate or understand the message of the written texts, absence of proper informational support regarding the rights and obligations or the services they can access. The lack of information, language and cultural barriers they are faced with prevent them from accessing the rights and render inefficient the integration programmes.

In absence of proper information about the rights and obligations arising from the statute of resident on the Romanian territory, participation of the third-country immigrations to the integration process and, implicitly, to the social, economic and cultural life of the society they live in is made much more difficult.

The research titled “Immigrants’ information needs in Romania” was undertaken between August and November 2009 as a part of the project “Welcome to Romania!”. The research was aimed at identifying the needs for information of the third-country nationals about the rights, obligations and integration possibilities in the Romanian society. The results of the research, integrated herein, shall be used to draft an information guide aimed at immigrants.

The research intends to offer answers to questions, such as: “Which are the information sources of the immigrants? What information they need and what information are they offered? How do they get informed and which are their means of accessing information?”. The needs for information were analyzed in several domains, in all the stages the immigrant has to go through during the integration process: obtaining the residence permit and the work authorization, coming to the labor market, access to medical, educational, financial, housing and other public services.

Learning about the information needs of the immigrants turns the research into a tool with a multiplication effect, useful for immigration management and immigrants’ integration. Thus, it is promoted the communication and exchange of experiences between immigrants and institutions, nongovernmental organizations, embassies, media, immigrants associations, trade unions, employers.

1 http://ori.mai.gov.ro/detalii/pagina/ro/Fondul-European-pentru-Integrare/182

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The results of the research report bring to the public agenda in Romania the debate regarding the efficient management of the immigration phenomenon and third-country immigrants’ integration by improving the knowledge and by offering information about their rights, obligations and integration opportunities in the Romanian society.

This research work represents a mean of involving the immigrants in articulating the problems they are faced with, their needs and solutions for getting informed about the relation with the state institutions, non-governmental organizations and the Romanian society at large.

The results of the research study supply relevant information for all the

stakeholders involved in immigration management and facilitating the immigrants’ integration process in Romania. The direct and indirect beneficiaries of this study are the immigrants, as well as associations of immigrants, public institutions, the Romanian Immigration Office, non-governmental organizations, mass-media and other players active in this field.

Our acknowledgments go towards the representatives of public institutions

and embassies, leaders of trade union and employers’ associations and, in particular, to the immigrants participating to this research. On behalf of the latter, we strongly believe that “the situation in Romania is going through a constant change, mostly a positive one, and for those to come from now on, it wouldn’t be as bad, they will endure less. They should try and be patient” (immigrant, South Korea).

IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANTS INTEGRATION POLICIES

Currently, regulated migration and integration of the immigrants from third countries represent important debate topics at European Union and national level in each individual Member state. For some Member states, the immigration phenomenon has emerged relatively recently compared to other countries which have been dealing with it for some time already. Both situations are featured by the challenge of integrating the immigrants, either by development and implementation of immigrants’ integration mechanisms and policies or by revisiting the answers provided by the countries faced with an enhanced immigration phenomenon, to prove immigration is not easily manageable and the consequences of an inefficient management are visible on both short and long-term.

A consistent approach would involve reaching a certain kind of synergy between the

two targeted domains using public policies: integration and immigration. The consistency of the endeavor and of the regulatory framework is built upon certain common values, such as: equal opportunities and responsibilities between immigrants and citizens of the host state, civic citizenship within an inclusive society built by participation and involvement of all the citizens – immigrants and nationals; interculturalism, as a model which accepts not only the presence of the other one, but also the meeting between the two cultures, the immigrant and national ones, which has the capacity to produce change and transformation of the both; striving for consensus by applying a process of permanent consultations and negotiations, learning about immigration and the challenges associated with the management of the migration phenomenon.

The efficient management of the immigration in Romania is a necessity, given that

Romania is turning every day more and more from a country mainly producing emigration into a destination (and transit) country for immigrants. A consistent and rational approach of the immigration phenomenon on purpose of mitigating the adverse effects and capitalizing on the beneficial ones for the states (the origin state of the immigrants, as well as the destination one: Romania) and for the individuals (the immigrants) will consider the multiple facets and complexity of the immigration phenomenon.

Therefore, Romania, in partnership with the other states, has to see the efficient management of the immigration as a substantiation of its efforts to build and develop a sustainable economy and social progress in observance of an open society’s value and paying due attention to the immigrants’ integration policies, as a component part of the national immigration policy.

Thus, the beneficial management of the immigration for Romania involves a

consistent and integrated approach of the following coordinates: immigration as a solution for solving the understaffing on the labor market; attraction of high-qualification immigrants; execution of beneficial bilateral agreements to facilitate labor immigration, agreements to enhance the foreign investments by admitting immigrants who carry out lucrative activities, admitting immigrants to study in Romania, fighting against illegal immigration, black labor market or forced labor, preventing and fighting against migrants smuggling, cross-border cooperation policies and borders security, economic and social inclusion policies for the immigrants, aliens or those benefiting of (temporary) protection from the Romanian state, repatriation policies and programs, enhancing and assuming an active role in terms of asylum.

As a result of Romania becoming EU Member state, as well as to respond to the immigrant pressure on the borders, Romania adopted legislation, developed social and economic reintegration systems for immigrants and took certain specific actions for a better

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management of the immigration, carried out administrative and institutional reforms. If, generally, so far, the trend in managing migration was rather attached to the paradigm of rendering more secure the borders and fighting against illegal migration, Romania is starting, once it has joined the Union, to manage immigration considering its development and the beneficial effects thereof, integration of third-country immigrants being an important core of the domestic immigration policy.

In this context, Romania aligns to the European trends in connection with the immigration management, offering at the same time specific answers to the instances of the immigration phenomenon in Romania, and in terms of the domestic legislative, institutional and policy implementation framework.

The Romanian Immigration Strategy 2007-2010 establishes the Government action directions in terms of the controlled migration, prevention and fighting against illegal migration, social integration of the aliens and correlation of all these aspects with the emigration of Romanian citizens.

Migration is approached as a process to be managed and not a problem to be solved, the main objective being to maximize the positive aspects and limit the adverse ones of this phenomenon. Migration can have a significant contribution to the cultural exchange, economic development and the progress of the Romanian society, and it could as well bring along benefits to the countries of origin and immigrants.

All the measures targeting supporting active participation of aliens, having established their domicile or having legal residence on the territory of the Romanian state, to the economic, social and cultural life, while respecting their cultural identity, contribute to the development of a trust-based relation, grounding on mutually assumed responsibility by both the immigrants and the Romanian society.

The responsibility for coordination of the integration programs rests with the Romanian Immigration Office whereas the practical implementation of the integration programs is handled by this unit in collaboration with the local authorities and nongovernmental organizations. The actions taken in terms of aliens’ integration are mainly aimed at employment, access to the social and health security systems, and access to housing, medical services, education, learning Romanian and facilitating cultural integration, while preserving the aliens’ cultural identity. Although no public debate has been ever organized regarding integration of third-country immigrants, it is well-known that Romania has to learn how to capitalize all the advantages of controlled migration and of an integration process designed to be "the process of active participation of aliens who acquired a certain form of protection or the right of residence in Romania and of the citizens of the European Union Member states and of the European Economic Spaces to the economic, social and cultural life of the Romanian society in view of preventing and fighting against social marginalization and adapting to the conditions of the Romanian society, respectively" (art. 2 letter b) of GO no. 44/2004, as amended by GO no.41/2006). This endeavor cannot be attained unless proper information is supplied to all stakeholders (both public and private institutions, Romanian citizens and immigrants) involved in the integration process and an excellent communication among them, in line with the European and international policies and legislation, relevant to the topic of third-country immigrants’ integration.

Integration of third-country immigrants is one of the major challenges to which Europe, and Romania implicitly, has to efficiently respond as putting in place successful immigration policies is not possible in the absence of immigrants’ integration policies. Therefore, integration has become a key point of a comprehensive immigration management policy.

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In this context, the research undertaken on the needs for information of the immigrants in Romania, together with actions targeting the provision of information about the rights, obligations and possibilities of integration in Romania of third-country immigrants, are fully aligned to the Common Basic Principles (CBP) regarding the immigrants' integration policy in the European Union, as adopted by the European Council, in particular with Principle 6 stating “Access for immigrants to institutions, as well as to public and private goods and services, on a equal basis to national citizens and in a non-discriminatory way is a critical foundation for better integration”. As shown in the Resolution of the European Parliament on a common migration policy for Europe, from 22nd of April 2009: principles, actions and tools, regulated migration represents an opportunity to be capitalized by immigrants, their countries of origin and Member states too.

Since on medium and long-term, the actions taken on integration purposes are deemed a long-lasting process, both the immigrants and the overall Romanian society have to be well informed and fully aware about all the relevant aspects of immigration and integration, either legal, economic, social or cultural, and about the responsibilities which rest with them as a part of this common effort. Only in an informed society, formed of both nationals, immigrants and specialists trained in the relevant field, informed and capable of assuming an active role in the host society, the stereotypes and prejudices leading to discriminatory attitudes and the social marginalization of the immigrants can be fought against.

Participation and involvement of the immigrants in the conception and the development of public policies could turn into an efficient mechanism whereby the coherence and policy objectives of the institutional regulatory framework can be attained. Thus, the experience of the immigrants serves as both guidelines and starting point in building public policies and the institutional framework at central and local level.

Integration does not occur in a static society. Instead, immigrants enter a fluid, dynamic, ever changing society. Integration is a long-term, non-linear, multi-sided process that demands adaptation capacity from a series of factors belonging to the host society and from the immigrants themselves: "dynamic, bidirectional process including mutual accommodation of both the immigrants and the members of the host society2,” and not at all a one-direction process in which the majority designs the integration agenda and premises. In absence of proper information on the rights and obligations deriving from the statute of a resident on the Romanian territory, participation of third-country immigrants to the integration process and implicitly to the social, economic and cultural life of the society they live in, is significantly impaired. The language and cultural barriers lead to a lack of information whose main consequence is the failure to turn to advantage the rights granted under the law to this category, and, consequently their inefficiency and that of the integration programs. The aliens holding the right of residence in Romania represent a category of people who, although benefit of a statute comparable to that of the Romanian citizens, are often faced with obstacles in accessing such rights due to the lack of Romanian knowledge or information about the rights and obligations or the services they can have access to, the impossibility to communicate or understand the message of the written texts or absence of information support.

In other words, they are not known well enough to capacitate this category towards an active participation to the social, economic and cultural life, assuming a role in the development of the community they live in. Currently, the critical information about rights, such as: the right of residence, labor law-related rights, those regarding the health insurance, social services, education, cultural rights, possibility of attending Romanian language classes and cultural accommodation sessions are spread-out throughout the relevant legislation,

2 Principle 1 of the Common Basic Principles on Immigrants Integration in the EU (COM(2005)0389FINAL)

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without being supplied to the aliens acquiring the right of residence in Romanian in a consistent and easily accessible manner and in a language they shall all understand.

STATISTICAL MILESTONES REGARDING IMMIGRATION IN ROMANIA

In the first quarter of 2009, the total number of immigrants holding the right of legal residence in Romania was 59,184 persons. In the period 2005-2009, the total number of immigrants legally in Romania grew by approximately 40% (17,383).

Data source: Romanian Immigration Office In the first quarter of 2009, almost 60% of the total number of non-EU aliens holding

the right of residence in Romania came from three countries: Moldova (28%), Turkey (17%) and China (14%). Region-wise, the countries of the Near East represent the main source of immigration to Romania. Almost one out of three aliens holding the right of legal residence in Romania comes from this region.

Evolution of the number of immigrants 2005-2009

Num

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mig

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s hav

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a re

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Data source: Romanian Immigration Office, data reported on 30.06. 2009 Half of third-country citizens having been granted the right of temporary residence in Romania in 2009 either had a family member who is Romanian citizen or who came to Romania to study. Employment in Romania was the purpose of being granted the right of residence in case of only 16% of the non-EU citizens.

Data source: the Romanian Immigration Office Immigration has a high territorial concentration in Romania. 41% of the total number of aliens holding the right of residence have declared it in Bucharest, whereas other 33% have established it in counties including the main urban settlements in Romania: Iaşi, Cluj, Constanţa, Timiş, Galaţi, Prahova. 80% of the immigrants are practically concentrated in Bucharest and in 9 other counties.

Distribution of immigrants having a legal right of residence in Romania, based on the country of origin

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Data source: Romanian Immigration Office, data reported on 30.06. 2009

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Figure 1. Work-related immigration in 2008 broken-down on counties and areas of origin of the immigrants

Definition of the categories term of the rate of immigration for work

Category Rate range (immigrants per 100,000 inhabitants)

1 >300 2 50-299 3 20-49 4 3-19 5 <3

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The national distribution of work-related immigrants in Romania follows the general trend of the overall migration, Bucharest and the highly urbanized counties concentrating most of the alien workers. Bucharest records the highest rate of work-related immigration, over 300 workers per 100 thousand inhabitants, followed by county of Constanţa with almost 200 alien workers per 100 thousand inhabitants. Most of the alien workers in Bucharest arrived from Turkey and China, while in Constanţa the majority comes from China or other countries of the Far East. Turkish workers in Romania are concentrated along Bucharest-Ploieşti-Braşov axis, whereas, in most of the other counties with relatively high rates of work-related immigration, the main sources of immigrants are China and the countries of the Far East.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research was intended to identify the needs for information of immigrants

in Romania. Other issues in connection with such need for information have also been tackled indirectly, such as the characteristics of the relation between the Romanian institutions and immigrants, assessment of the services rendered by the said institutions, in particular in terms of information provision and how satisfied are the immigrants with these services.

The research relied on a qualitative methodology, using focus groups with third-country nationals (TCN) and interviews with representatives of the embassies and relevant institutions of the immigration management systems and was undertaken in the period August-October 2009, part of the project “Welcome to Romania!”

The selection of the focus group as a method of collecting information from

immigrants was based on the advantages it provides in terms of the research topic. The focus group is the best way of accessing collective meanings, integration processes, institutional, individual or group informal norms and practices. It was preferred over the individual interview as, probably, respondents are more likely to disclose their problems and opinions in the group context. The joint debates were considered activating for the participants and could even reveal needs for information the respondents themselves might not have been aware of.

A series of obstacles was encountered in the process - low participation

availability, low confidence, language or cultural differences issues. The main criterion applied to recruit the participants was the knowledge of Romanian. The main rational for making this choice rests in the fact that an alien who doesn't speak Romanian is very unlikely to have been interacting with the Romanian authorities and be sufficiently familiar with the topic of interest. Another criterion for defining the structure of the groups was in connection with the ethnic origin and cultural resemblances. In case of Muslim communities, for example, putting together a specific group was preferred due to the cultural particularities. In absence of the language or cultural differences constrains, we aimed for the groups to be as heterogeneous as possible so that to be able to visit the very diverse opinions and needs for information of the TCN communities members from various countries of origin, term of the activities they carry-out in Romania. Meanwhile, persons of the categories best represented in the total immigrants’ population in Romania were selected with priority.

According to these criteria, two focus groups were organized, with a relatively homogeneous structure and two with a heterogeneous structure: • one focus group with students and pupils from Republic of Moldova. The option

to have this focus group relied on the cultural resemblance between Romania and Republic of Moldova and the fact that the citizens of Republic of Moldova form the largest community of aliens in Romania.

• one focus group with Muslims (Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Bangladesh), generally enterprisers/investors.

• one focus group with persons of various ethnic origins (Korea, China, Azerbaijan, Cameron), workers, students or missionaries, speaking Romanian.

• One heterogeneous focus group (Syria, Azerbaijan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Nigeria), speaking English.

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The research also implied having five semi-structured interviews with representatives of important embassies relative to the immigrants' communities, term of their availability to participate and provide answers about the needs for information of the immigrants in Romania.

The consultation of the representatives of the key institutions of the immigration management system, representatives of employers’ associations and trade unions was done in seven semi-structured interviews and aimed to identify the needs for information of the immigrants in accessing the rights and services in Romania.

The decision to interview the authorities started from the assumption that, as they interact frequently with the immigrants, they manage to draw a bigger picture of their needs for information. Meanwhile, being a component part of the immigration management system, they have a different view of the identified information issues, considering also the legislative and implementation-related constraints of the system. The research aimed to capture the need for information of the immigrants from both perspectives – of the immigrant and of the system – seen not as similar, but as complementary.

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SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE RIGHTS, OBLIGATIONS AND INTEGRATION OPPORTUNITIES IN ROMANIA

„What do I have to do to obtain legal residence in Romania?", "Which are the right conferred by the visa?", "How do I obtain the work authorization?", "Which are my opportunities of working in Romania?", "Which are my rights as employee?", "How can I study or continue studying?", "Where can I live?" are natural questions any alien coming to Romania is trying to answer. Obviously, the answers to such questions are outlined even before arriving here, as part of the life strategy of each immigrant, depending on the communication and information resources he/she can mobilize in this respect. The actual life situations, interactions in and with the country of destination, potential changes of the initial migration plan, they all demand a certain adaptation strategy, a permanent search for answers to such questions. Where should they get them from? How do they receive relevant information to solve the problems they are faced with? – these are the questions which structure the analysis under this chapter of our study. The focus is placed on the information sources the immigrants use to adapt and integrate in Romania.

The search for relevant information in a certain domain of interests triggers the mobilization of the individual, familial and community-related relational capital of the immigrant, on one hand, and the interaction with institutions in Romania, on the other hand. Thus, in order to cover for the need for information, multiple information sources are used at the same time, informal and/or rather official, whose importance depends on the area where these needs are displayed. Practically, the social ethnic, religious, kinship and friendship networks the immigrants belong to, the various forms of association of the immigrants, the diplomatic institutions in the states of origin and the Romanian public institutions, they are all overlapping to form integration platforms providing also information support. Starting from the qualitative data input by the focus groups organized with immigrants and the semi-structured interviews with representatives of the embassies and relevant institutions of the migration management system, we shall try to draw a brief picture of the role of the main bodies involved in the process of aliens’ integration in Romania. The focus of our analysis will be placed on their capacity to convey information about how the permit of residence and work authorizations are obtained and the health, educational, banking, housing and other services of the public administration are accessed. The analysis focuses on the subjective side, on the one of the individual perceptions of the barriers or difficulties in connection with obtaining such information in terms of accessibility, usefulness and costs. Social networks based on kinship and friendship

The networks based on kinship and friendships represent one of the most

important sources for information about all areas of interests for the immigrants. These types of networks provide the necessary support for settlement at destination, entering the new immigration environment and adaptation to the conditions in the country of destination.

I haven’t experienced serious information problems because I had a very good friend at home, student here in the 3rd year. She helped me, accommodated me in her place in the

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first days until I obtained a place in the university campus and I had a guide then too. She told me where to go to obtain my permit of residence, what documents I needed and I used the faculty’s secretariat too. This was about it, I had somebody I knew and she helped me with information (student, Republic of Moldova)

They operate in parallel with the networks involved in the migration act, meaning that having a friend or a relative here enhanced the likelihood for an immigrant to choose to come to Romania, benefiting of the experience these persons have already acquired.

There is no special place where immigrants can solve their problems; this is the most important weakness. What counts the most is to have someone to help you. Hadn’t I had an uncle here, I wouldn’t have come. I didn’t have the courage; there was nothing here to come for. (Arab business man)

If, during the days close to the arrival to Romania, the need for information is covered mainly by relatives or friends one knows in the country of origin, the importance of the relational capital acquired at destination enhances gradually as new social relations are established.

Whenever I needed any information, I have always gone to friends. This happened sometime after I arrived in Romania and made friends. But I was alone at first (journalist, Syria).

Ethnic and religious associations

They are less involved in the migration act, providing support to those arriving in Romania and looking for an affiliation based on their ethnic origin or religion, in particular to those who don’t have relatives or friends at destination. In case of certain religions – for example Muslim – the praying places are meeting points for persons sharing not just the experience of immigrant in Romania, but the same culture too.

An alien when coming to Romania goes to his kind. When hearing of a Syrian, he goes to the Syrian, same with the Lebanese, Yemenite, Iraqi …all the nations. Many of them go to the Islamic centers, praying places and eventually the problem is solved somehow. If an Arab has a problem or needs a piece of information, he looks for a mosque (businessman, Lebanon).

Associations are also acting as communication and support networks. In addition to facilitating communication between the members of the community of origin, they provide actual support to the immigrants by getting involved in solving the housing problems and carrying out the procedures for obtaining a legal statute.

If you are a person acting in good faith, there (in the associations) these things are very well organized. There, an alien, if he doesn’t have a place to sleep because he is jobless or for other reasons, has the opportunity to register with certain offices to be offered help and, implicitly, a place to stay (journalist, Syria) The good thing about all these organizations is that they operate as information centers. They even help the young people coming to Romania for the first time and turn to them for help. Their role is very important. Myself, I had big problems with being issued the visa and they helped me a lot. (student, Republic of Moldova)

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Embassies Beyond maintaining the diplomatic relations between the state they represent and Romania, promoting interstate relations and negotiating bilateral agreements regarding certain rights and obligations, the embassies represent an important source of information, reflected mainly in the counseling function they perform in relation with the citizens of the state they represent. Their role does not specifically target integration, but securing proper operation of the alien citizens within the Romanian society by addressing the requests coming from them. The interventions of the embassies are mainly aimed at addressing individual situations, usually in “cases on the edge”, when the immigrants are faced with problems with the Romanian authorities which they cannot solve alone in absence of such interventions.

The Consular Section reacted promptly to events and incidents, supplied timely information about the regulations applicable in the state of residence regarding the aliens’ regime, received visits of the fellow nationals and communicated with them, guided and consulted them on the problems they experienced, as well as took steps towards the authorities of the state of residence to solve the problems and address the justified requests of our fellow nationals (representative of the Embassy of Republic of Moldova)

In addition to the counseling and guidance they offer, the embassies facilitate obtaining of translated, notarized or documents bearing an apostille requested in the procedures for obtaining the permit of residence, work authorization or being recognized certain social rights (example: the right to pension of those who carried out professional activities on the territory of several states).

This supporting mechanism operates at an informational level for the procedures applied to establish the domicile or obtaining the work authorization. We supply information in case of obscure points about documents recognition or other matters relative to our citizens. In this respect, we collaborate with all the institutions in Romania, although this collaboration is rather limited, relates to supplying information and advice, because we are limited in terms of involvement in internal procedures. Any state has internal rules and procedures regarding migration, employment of labor force from abroad, obtaining and issuing of the permits of residence on its territory. Similar to Romania, in Ukraine there are also internal procedures which we cannot intervene on to a large extent… but by providing counseling and guidance to our citizens on certain issues. (representative of the Embassy of Ukraine) Officially, we don’t have special programs for them. If they turn to us for help, our door is open. We support them because is the human thing to do not because we have to help them. (representative of the Embassy of Iraq). We carry out no program in this respect, but the usual consular activity. When we are asked to offer them support, we are happy to do it. (representative of the Embassy of Azerbaijan).

In order to lend support to alien citizens, embassies sometimes exceed their role of proving advice or information or of facilitating issuance of certain documents, offering actual support in housing or health issues.

Once, an Azerbaijani student was accidentally accommodated in a hostel together with three Armenian students. Azerbaijan and Armenia used to be in a conflict, a bloody war between the two states, therefore the Azerbaijani student couldn’t have stayed in

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the same hostel with the three Armenians. He came to the embassy and told us that. The embassy stepped in, contacted the university’s Rector’s office and the problem was solved. (representative of the Embassy of Azerbaijan) My family has never had any health problems, but a friend went to the emergency hospital on Floreasca St. The Consul in the embassy called the doctor in the hospital, the big doctor, and told him to receive a Korean, examine and X-ray him. He was treated, examined and X-rayed and paid nothing. Some Korean equipment had been donated to this hospital and the relation between the Korean embassy and the hospital was good and helped us (missionary, South Korea)

Another role of the embassies is to establish and maintain the relations between the members of the same community of origin, by organizing socialization, familiarization and information meetings during which to discuss certain experiences and problems experienced in Romania.

There aren’t too many Philipinos in Romania, only about 200. We organize a party for them every month where people get together, discuss and find out how they can solve a problem they might have … these meetings have a definite goal, we help our citizens not feel alone and integrate better.. (representative of the Embassy of Philippines)

University centers For the alien students studying in Romania, the faculty’s notice board is the most important source of information about how to obtain the documents and enter legality, although sometimes the information displayed is not always updated or accurate.

It has to be displayed in the faculty because, we, the alien students, obtain the information from there, from the notice board which the secretariat posts on. If you don’t read what’s posted there, it’s your problem, your fault, but if something is not displayed there, it means I’m not interested. (student, Senegal) When I wanted to prepare my dossier for the permit of residence, I found a list with all the health insurance houses displayed in the faculty’s secretariat, but only two of them had concluded contracts with the Romanian Immigration Office. What if I had to check all of them? (student, Republic of Moldova)

Some universities, through the secretariats or the office for aliens within the university centers or various associations of alien students, promote a tutorial type of system whereby an alien student who has been in Romania for some time helps a newcomer student.

Indeed, when they want, from own experience [associations] are of real help for the young people coming to Romania for the first time. For example, the Union of Students from Bassarabia used to carry out a volunteering program whereby those from Bucharest or from other parts of the country could have left their contact data on the website and the people from Bassarabia recently arrived in Romania could have chosen the person they wanted to obtain information from. I was contacted by the persons from Republic of Moldova telling me „I will come to Bucharest this year, can you give me some details?” And I gave them. This point of information seems quite OK. (student, Republic of Moldova) The faculty needs to know when the student is leaving and arriving so that to send somebody from the social department or there are students picking up other students

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from the airport holding a name placard: “Come on, come with us, we are going to the faculty.” I am, for example, responsible for the African students. Whenever one arrives, I am advised by the social department, pick him/her up from the airport and try to help”. (student, Senegal)

Romanian Immigration Office

The Romanian Immigration Office (RIO) is the institution currently directly in charge of granting the right of residence in Romania and, relative thereto, of the right to work to non-EU persons. RIO has authority in connection with integration of the aliens who acquired the right of residence in Romania and of the citizens of the European Union Member states and of the Economic European Space. To this end, RIO carries out a set of integration programs3:

• Romanian language courses available free of charge to the immigrants subject to submitting an application to RIO or the school inspectorate;

• Cultural orientation, a program implemented as a 3-month training course. The training course is delivered based on a curricula and supplies general information about Romania (notions about the Romanian Constitution, geography, history, Romanian specific traditions, Holidays) on purpose of rendering the aliens familiar with the Romanian traditions, customs and cultural values and providing practical information about the Romanian society;

• Counseling, aimed at providing guidance to the aliens bringing up specific personal problems.

The Romanian language courses are organized by the Ministry of Education and Research in partnership with the Romanian Immigration Office, the staff of RIO’s Social Department (in Bucharest) and the staff of the accommodation centers for refugees and asylum-seekers in Bucharest, Timişoara, Rădăuţi, Galaţi and Somcuta Mare (county of Maramureş). The Romanian language courses continue to be difficult to access by aliens, in particular by alien workers, the main cause reported by RIO representative being the lack of coordination between the work hours and the time when these courses are delivered.

The partnerships concluded by RIO with associations of communities of

immigrants4 are another mean of supporting integration. Currently, RIO has concluded such partnerships with the associations of the Turkish and Chinese communities in Romania. The partnerships are mainly aimed at exchanging information whereby RIO sends to the partner associations newsletters presenting matters of interests for the communities of aliens (for example legislative and procedure amendments). Generally, the associations of the communities of aliens are directly interested to conclude partnerships with RIO as the counseling they are provided includes also a support for being granted certain rights (permits and authorizations).

Although it plays an important part in the field in aliens’ integration, this “friendly” hat of RIO is but very little known. In fact, none of the participants to our

3 According to the information offered by the representative of the Asylum and Integration Directorate of the Romanian Immigration Office 4 Idem1

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study has ever mentioned any of the activities RIO carries out, except for issuance of rights of residence and work authorizations. Immigrants rather perceive RIO as a closed, authoritarian, sanction and punishment-based institution, than one supporting its beneficiaries. The information supplied (at least on the official website) is mainly aimed at the sanctions applicable in case of breaching certain legal provisions, than at the rights, procedures and integration opportunities.

l The citizens coming to us find it quite difficult to find information about all the procedures, the necessary documents and obligations they have towards the Romanian state in order to be issued the permits of residence, find a job or other opportunities. I sincerely confess that for me it’s difficult to find information on RIO website, one cannot make do with it, there are only sanctions there or other information of concern in case of breaching the legal provisions. On the other hand, there is no information in connection with presenting the opportunities available to the aliens coming to Romania to get a job, study or for other reasons. (representative, Embassy of Ukraine)

The lack of clear and complete information about the procedures and the inefficient coordination between the various institutions in terms of sending information are the main obstacles an alien is faced with to obtain a legal statute.

Currently, there are 250 women from Ukraine married with Romanian citizens … Integration in the Romanian society is difficult due to the lack of information. Not even their husbands, vouching for their residence and means of financing, know which are all the residence or obtaining the residence permit procedures. They claim dealing with the Romanian authorities is difficult because some supply information which is not confirmed by other institutions. RIO, for example, asks for one document, the Border Police for another one… probably there are certain communication issues between institutions….The procedure is very complicated and unfortunately there is no guide or information pages writing black on white what kind of documents are needed for the student visa or work visa. The information presented is but general, but each individual situation has to be approached on a case-by-case basis. (representative, Embassy of Ukraine)

The language barriers are an important obstacle in obtaining useful information in each individual situation. Most of the clerks working with the public and interacting directly with immigrants speak only Romanian, the displays and documents on the notice board are usually in Romanian and, in the most fortunate situation, in English too.

All the information, including the one in connection with the documents I need to prepare and submit, is in Romanian. I don’t understand a word of it. When I told them that, they replied they couldn’t have helped me and that I had to deal with it myself. Once I have left the building with the list in my hand, I started to ask the passers-by, including some colleagues in school, what each of the documents meant. (student, Azerbaijan) Today I met a boy from Russia in the same situation: he held a scholarship and told me he had gone to the Romanian Immigration Office and nobody there spoke any English. (student, Azerbaijan).

In addition to the language problem, the closed and discouraging attitude of the personnel supposed to supply information was also invoked. Nevertheless, some of the immigrants believe the clerks’ attitude has changed to the better in time.

The biggest problem relates to information. Poor immigrants! We, people from Bassarabia have the advantage of speaking Romanian and can read and see what’s

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asked from us, but the other ones do not have the same possibility, meaning I haven’t seen information available in English too, and if it is, it is just in English and period. And poor Chinese or many other nationalities who come here and they can’t even speak English right and there’s no person to attend them there and they need to employ a personal translator to come with them. The persons who used to stay there do not speak an international language and on top of that, their attitude looks like saying “what are you doing here, why did you come to Romania, why did you come to study or work in Romania, Chinese?”, something like that. (researcher, Republic of Moldova) The situation has changed significantly in terms of the Romanian Immigration Office, they now treats us with respect, not like before, as sheep. (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone)

The lack of personnel able to assist the immigrants with their complex problems and approach each case and situation term of its particularities, was identified as a material shortcoming in the operation of the institution, as well as in its capacity to convey proper information and solutions. The crowds lining at the front desks and the pressure to address each situation rapidly the clerks are sometimes subject to impair communication of useful information, appropriate to the individual situation of the applicants. Suggestions of solutions to address these deficiencies could be development of online appointment booking services and online application system.

There is a problem related to the number of clerks attending the immigrants. They are understaffed for the problems they have to handle (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone) Any state institution rendering certain services operates based on procedures which cannot be disregarded and which cannot be approached otherwise than as laid down in the law. That is why the procedure should be as simple as possible in order to help the applicants. First of all with information, as any procedures should start like this: one should have information to start preparing the necessary documents for a certain dossier. Then there comes the customer service …when dealing with any institution one should benefit of the right treatment. The problems relate to the crowd, high number of applications which cannot be processed otherwise, but during booked appointments, waiting times. Still…this is probably due to the staffing of certain institutions or development of certain services by allowing online appointment booking or even submitting the applications online. (representative, Embassy of Ukraine)

Other public institutions In addition to RIO, obtaining of the documents needed for the legal residence in Romania, as well as addressing certain everyday life situation involves interaction with other Romanian public institutions. To a large extent, the weaknesses spotted out in the relation with RIO could be assigned to all the institutions whose service an immigrant use: • Language barriers, consequence of the fact that the personnel involved in customer service, in most of the cases, speaks only Romanian and the information displayed on the notice boards are not translated into international languages, represent a main obstacle in communicating with the public institutions.

If I can only speak English, nobody can help me. To solve something, I have to speak Romanian. (businessman, Turkey)

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The list of documents required from us has to be translated into other international languages, otherwise we have to pay a translator… (businessman, China) They should give us the list of documents, allow us to obtain clarifications by phone and then come to the front office for the clerk to take over our dossier. This is the normal course of action, but they don’t work like this. We don’t receive a printed document, but they write on a piece of paper what we need, we cannot read and have to ask a Romanian. (missionary, South Korea)

• Inconsistency in providing the immigrants with information about procedures, but the administrative welter the alien is caught in is probably the biggest problem, as well as the one most often mentioned. The proposed solutions support a better corroboration of the procedures and synchronization of the activities of the institutions involved.

I was sent from one office to another one, from one faculty to another one. You just sit and wait and ask questions and at one point you are told you have to go somewhere else. The same happens to the Romanians too, from Arad or Oradea, it’s the same thing. Romanian citizens complain about the same things. They too feel pretty helpless. The difference is that they speak Romanian. (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone) I arrived in Bucharest by night, around 04:00 A.M., in Gara de Nord and we were just left there to do it for ourselves. We didn’t even know were the campus or the high-school were, we took a cab and wondered around Bucharest to find that high-school. I remember arriving at the high-school, going to the secretariat where we have been asked what were we doing there when in fact we were supposed to go to the hostel… another drive … Well, I asked around people to help me get to the hostel, and then to the inspectorate… anyway there were administrative things and problems… they ate a lot of my time and it was stressful indeed… now that I recall it.. (student, Republic of Moldova) It took me 6 months to obtain the citizenship because the dossier contains so many documents. After 6 months you get a call or a letter and you are asked to show up there and there more documents are asked from you. I think this is a Romanian specific. The offices where you are supposed to go and submit or pick-up documents are pretty scattered around all Bucharest. (journalist, Syria)

• Non-synchronization of the institutions involved the collaboration and communication problems relative to the proceedings and the documents preparation and submittal deadlines have important consequences on the immigrants. The delays and drawbacks lead to situations when the necessary documents expire before others are being issued.

It’s not easy at all in Romania… When you to submit the documents, you are issued a receipt with the date when you’re supposed to come back, after a month. The month passes and you go back just to see they are not ready. Why writing a date down … for to come and wait and look. It is official business, you should be able to trust them. But this indicates just the Romanian state is not trustworthy. We find it difficult to read what a servant wrote down by hand. (pharmacist, South Korea) At one point I wasn’t able to leave Romania anymore, although I had to, and all because of some delays. Normally, this permit [permit of residence] is issued within two weeks. They are more cautions and make sure everything would be administratively fine for one whole month. I was issued the permit after two additional months, which cannot be explained whatsoever. The explanations of the Service were that these permits are not manufactured in Romania, but Germany and they probably take time and it wasn’t their fault. What else can you say? (worker, Moldova)

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The charge for visa application was EUR 120, I have to exchange money into lei and pay to the Savings Bank and when we were ready to submit the receipt to the Immigration office, they say that the amount of EUR 120 was correct, but the exchange rate of yesterday was not the same as today. They said the amount in lei of the charge is different and I was asked for 2 additional lei each, a total of 6 lei. The amount was small and it wasn’t a problem, but I had to repeat the whole process all over again. This means I had to waste all that time again… (pharmacist, South Korea) The employer has to issue a fiscal certificate supporting that the employer or the relevant company has no outstanding taxes. This certificate is valid for only one month. During this time I chased other documents and the relevant certificate expired and I had to ask for another one. (worker, Moldova)

• The information received is different according to the person who supplies it, the fact that the law is construed and applied differently from one servant to the next one reflects the lack of clear and transparent information about the procedures.

Each servant is asking for something else. It was the same for the visa. This year I wasn’t supposed to issue a birth and marriage statement, but last year they asked me to. He too has to give such declarations this year. It depends very much on the servant. (pharmacist, South Korea)

• Last, but not least, there is the problem of knowing the rights aliens legally holding the rights of residence have in Romania by the servants in the public institutions they interact with. Integration of the immigrants depends on both parties learning about such rights – the institutions in the country of destination and immigrants – and the public institutions servants’ lacking awareness thereof push these persons towards social exclusion.

If I go to an institution, my knowledge of the rights is useless if they are not known to me and I’m very likely to be treated as I didn’t know anything and have any information. And the servant will ignore me simply because I’m an alien and tell me that what I know does not apply to me. He/she will probably deceive me and patronize me making use of the institutional power. The situation gets even harder especially since aliens do not usually speak Romanian and servants do not usually speak any other language. (journalist, Syria)

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TYPES OF NEEDED INFORMATION Aliens in Romania are in desperate need of information. The general perception is that immigrants are caught in an administrative trap and generally, they have to pull it through alone.

Each institution supplies a different piece of information to each individual. (student, Republic of Moldova) In Romania, the information is hidden by those who hold it. I have to manage alone. (student, Senegal)

The lack of information generates a series of problems in all parts of life, eventually leading to isolation and exclusive.

I know some aliens who started running when they saw policemen. They thought police was there to get them. This happened because they didn’t know their rights. They didn’t know it was a patrol protecting the community. Probably they didn’t hold all the documents they were supposed to have and believed the police would arrest them. This is why aliens prefer to hide, isolate, out of fear and they don’t know whom to ask information from. (journalist, Syria)

Group discussions and interviews with the authorities highlighted communication issues and dissemination of information about multiple issues: obtaining of the permit of resident and work authorization, insertion on the labor market, access to medical, educational, financial, house or other public services. Below, there is a presentation and an analysis of these needs for information, broken down on domains. Right of residence The information about the permit of residence represents, in the opinion of all third-country nationals interviewed, the most important topic of the guide, being the fundamental right whereby the immigrant has access to and which the others rights derive from during their residence in Romania. Nevertheless, obtaining the permit of residence is a confusing and complicated experience for all the subjects interviewed. The difficulties identified during the group discussions highlight a lack of consistency in terms of procedures to be followed to obtain the documents needed to form the file and the numerous institutions which they have to be obtained from. The route of obtaining the documents is a sinuous and discouraging one.

The problem is not the people in the front office. They only accept the dossier if complete, otherwise they return it to you. The problem is that you have to go over there just to see if you miss any documents since the law was amended... I had my permit issued for one year, the preparation year, afterwards in year I had a permit, then, when I advanced to the 2nd year, they issued my permit for 3 years, because the law has changed in the meanwhile. Lucky us that they told us in university that the law was amended and now we have to apply for a single permit for all the study years as holder of scholarship. (student, Senegal,) I would tell them that the process of obtaining the visa and all the documents is very difficult. They shall be faced with various problems and should be pretty strong and patient. Things progress very slowly. (pharmacist, South Korea)

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Learning Romanian The language-related difficulties were mentioned in all group discussions and interviews. Although the Romanian institutions perform their activities almost exclusively in Romanian, the access to opportunities of learning Romanian is limited. Except for the some students who had attended the preparation year in Romania, none of the participants knew about any language learning programs organized and delivered by the institutions of the Romanian state. The information about the preparation year is equally poor. Such type of programs is delivered in several locations across the country, but this is less known by the alien students.

When I came here, I attended the preparation year in Piteşti, where it was very hard because nobody has ever seen a black man or woman before. You can also attend such courses in Bucharest, Piteşti, Iaşi… But I didn’t know that they were available here in Bucharest too, so I went to Piteşti. Later on I found out that you can study Romanian anywhere you live, it doesn't actually matters. (student, Cameron)

The main problems limiting the access to such courses as listed also by the RIO representative were: the failure to coordinate the schedule of the courses with the work hours of the immigrants or with the needs and cultural specifics of the communities - the example of the Muslim community where women's access to these courses (if attended also by men) is restricted.

The schedule of the Romanian language courses is not adapted to the work hours of the aliens. Sometimes the Romanian language courses take place during the work hours and this makes them unavailable to aliens. Additionally, there are no user-friendly handbooks, adapted to the their needs of learning Romanian (RIO representative) The Romanian language courses suffer also by not being adapted to the needs of the immigrants’ communities. For example, Muslim women cannot attend such courses because they are forbidden to do so if the class is not exclusively formed of women. (RIO representative)

Participation on the labor market

Most of the participants believe it's pretty difficult for an alien to get employed in Romania. The legislation and the rather rigid structure of the labor market make finding a “legal” job a problem after arrival to Romania. The job has to be contracted from the country of origin. The alternative is employment on the "black labor market".

I think that any person who leaves home should have a goal. If that person leaves to find a job, he/she should make sure such job is found before departure. You come here to Romania and nobody offers you a job and then your visa expires and all you can do is to extend it or something similar. You cannot apply for a permit of residence. If I leave my country to come to Romania, I have to be recommended, to make sure there would be no problems, I will find a job, make enough money and to help my family. Otherwise, you may as well remain there. (student, Senegal)

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The legislation in Romania is very strict about aliens' employment. In addition to the qualifications the immigrant needs to have for the job held, there's also the issue of the employer's costs (salaries and related taxes), significantly higher than in case of a Romanian employee. Thus, most of the participants to the focus groups expressed their discontent with the very strict conditions enforced under the legislation, which discourages the employer to conclude a labor agreement with aliens.

The employers in Romania refuse to apply for work authorizations for aliens. Only large companies can do that. Generally, they work of the black labor market. The law stipulates that if you employ an alien you have to prove that he is the only one applying for the job or that the other applicants are not good enough, that the alien was the best for the job. (student, Senegal) Nobody wants to work legally due to financial reasons. They have to pay more of an alien, higher salary and higher taxes. And nobody's willing to do so. If you want to work, you have to do it illegally. (businessman, Turkey) For an employer is very difficult to employ a person from third countries. You need a flawless dossier to support why the citizen of the third-country is better than a citizen of the European Union. (worker, Moldova)

As stated by the respondents, there are however some domains – as hotel

industry, leisure, services for aliens – in which the immigrants can drive real advantages on the labor market. Therefore, the need for information extends to this level too. Which are the work opportunities for aliens in Romania? In which of these sectors do they hold a competitive advantage on the labor market?

Why shouldn’t I work in a hotel, even if I don't speak Romanian? As alien speaking very good English or French and a little bit of Romanian, you definitely have some advantages. (student, Azerbaijan)

In the same context, the problem of student's right to work was brought-up quite often. Students have the right to part-time employment in Romania, but none of the targeted subject was aware of that. Moreover, they expressed visibly their discontent with the fact that the legislation does not allow them to work. The cost of life was assessed as high and barely coverable with the scholarships, if any, or with the money received from parents, from the country of origin.

In all the other countries, except for Romania, students work. What can we do to change this? (missionary, Nigeria) I would like to work, where else could I get the money from? Here, everything is very expensive. It's impossible to make a decent leaving with what it is provided to you. That is why many people work illegally. I would work illegally too, but they are afraid to employ me, because I am black and the others would catch on immediately. Why don't they allow me to work? (student, Cameron)

As in all the other domains under review, the documents issue was subject to extended debate. The employment procedures were heavily criticized, being considered complicated and discouraging.

I got a job, I feel good here, but I had to face a lot of problems. I don’t think I want to go through the same employment procedure again: the pile of documents you have to have, notarize, over-notarize, job interviews, an interview with RIO. (worker, Moldova)

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In terms of the social rights, there are several shortcomings and situations an immigrant could be in, the participants to the research agreeing that they are but poorly regulated or covered by legislation. For example, an alien who works in Romania, does contribute to the social insurances system, loosing his/her job would result into loosing the permit of residence shortly, being eventually forced to leave Romania, unless he/she finds another job or have other "rescuing" solutions within his/her reach. Therefore, the immigrant does no longer benefit of the forms of social protection (unemployment benefits) he/she is duly entitled to. In the opinion of the authorities and trade union leaders interviewed, such type of information is little known and should be contained in the guide.

People should know about the social benefits – when it could be granted, who is eligible - the right to pension, how is regulated term of the country of origin and the agreements concluded by Romania with other states, about the right to the annual leave … (RIO representative)

Therefore, the need for information regards also the legal framework of the

work relations, regarding the rights and obligations, the places people can turn to for information, support and representation.

They don't know what to do in case of a work accident or if they don't collect salary. They just simply wait, maddened, until dying with hunger. (trade union leader) They should keep their eyes wide open when signing the labor agreement. Even if somebody does understand a little bit of Romanian, this doesn't mean they can understand the labor agreement too. They should seek some assistance, come to the trade unions, we can help them. (trade union leader)

Similarly, the interviews pointed-out poor information about the rights of

immigrants in case of work accidents.

We need information also about what is happening if an alien suffered in a work accident and is left with disabilities which reduce his/her work capacity. Is it compulsory for the employer to pay any compensation or should the Romanian state pay it? (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone)

Almost none of the respondents participating to the discussions knew about a minimum wage for the employees or about the amount thereof. The specific need for information about the right to work is critical. The relationship with the trade unions is, therefore, very important too. Currently, membership in trade unions of the alien workers is rather a desire voiced by the leaders of the trade unions in Romania, than a right the immigrants exercise to defend their professional, economic and social interests. The surveys on the work conditions of alien workers5 concluded that, most often, alien workers try to set-up their own forms of representations where to pass through their demands and defend their interests against employers.

In the context of a poor affiliation to the trade unions in Romania, they do not

represent a source of information alien workers can benefit from, although the trade unions show some concern in this respect. The representatives of the trade unions consulted part of the study - Blocul Naţional Sindical (Eng. National Trade Union

5“Immigrant in Romania: outlooks and risks” (Soros Foundations, 2008), “Talk to us! Survey on the work conditions of alien workers ” (ARCA FRRM Foundation and Soros Foundation, 2009)

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Bloc) or Federaţia Sindicatelor Familia "Anghel Saligny” (Eng. “Anghel Saligny” Family Trade Unions Federation) - stated they had previously drafted information materials targeting the rights of alien workers in Romania and even developed information platforms over the Internet.

Setting up a business

The immigrants who have businesses in Romania and interviewed in this study listed numerous problems in connection with the relevant legislation, assessed as very complicated, the system bureaucracy and certain informal practices of the servants. The lack of proper understanding of all the laws, the incomplete information they hold and, moreover, the fear of expulsion make the alien businessman feel vulnerable, although, even according to their own declarations, the same problems are experienced by the Romanian businessmen too.

The same happens to the Romanians too, not only to us. But they know we are aliens and don't know the laws and rules. They know we are here to make money and business and we cannot close down our stores and just leave when things are no longer well, like Romanians can do. They know this is our "bread" and we cannot go back to our country and have to pay all the fines they charge us, there's nothing else we can do. (businessman, Lebanon)

The need for information of the alien businessmen is high. The inertia and the

answers provided by the institutions, the administrative difficulties and the numerous documents required lead sometimes to long-term delays in solving a problem. They mention certain instances when, in case of certain businesses, a long period of time had to pass and increased efforts deployed to set up a business or have such a business recognized in Romania.

I don’t know whether you heard that a medical practice is going to be opened in Ghencea area; he is a doctor and so is the wife. For him to be granted the right to work in Romania, although he has 20 years of experience in America - he did the same thing there, as he wants to do here, to open a medical practice and help - he submitted all the applications assisted by an attorney and it lasted for 7 years and a half, something was always wrong, he had to restart all over again and again... and eventually, after 7 years he received the approval. Now, after 7 and a half year he pulled it through. (missionary, South Korea) I want to receive some guidance on how to draft a business plan if possible, if there's someone able to help me... general stuff. To know which are my rights, without having to go to an attorney. (businessman, Yemen)

Educational services

The study programs for aliens in Romania were appreciated, although deemed expensive, unless supported by a scholarship.

Whoever comes here to study has to known that studies in Romania are very expensive. If you don’t have a scholarship and enough money, you’d better stay home. If you come here no one will help you because money is not that easy to get nor jobs to be found. (student, Senegal)

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All the immigrants participating to the group discussions admitted, at least at principle level or at the level of the general practices, that no immigrants’ discrimination cases could be mentioned.

My child goes to a school where he is the only one different and therefore he is treated differently than the other children. Children call him "the black". And I told him - you are black my son, they didn't actually tell you anything, I know these things happen in any country and should be disregarded. Children are children. Indeed, it would have been a problem had I gone to register my child to school and he hadn't been accepted. That could have made me worry, but has never happened. I am pleased with the school my child attends. (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone)

The lack of information and obstacles in accessing the relevant information are found at all levels. Administrative problems were reported, such as the problems experienced by an immigrant when trying to get a bed in the hostel

When I came here I had to talk myself with the people from the hostel to be sure I have some accommodation. Apparently they didn’t have the time to go there and I had to solve the problem alone and I had problems with the hostel for about a week, lucky me I knew someone in Bucharest. At least I spoke Romanian, but I wonder how hard it must be for an alien who doesn't speak Romanian to deal with the hostel problems and in general with faculty? (student, Republic of Moldova)

The immigrant students in pursue of a doctor’s degree, who do not longer

benefit of hostel accommodation or other facilities offered under the law, find it very difficult to pull it through. There are no counseling services available nor are they directed towards other accommodation or employment opportunities.

This is a problem in case of a doctor's degree because for the day studies accommodation is provided. I was standing with the luggage next to me and didn't know what to do. After 2 hours of sitting in Izvor Park I went to a hotel, but the hotel is very expensive and all the money my parents had given me was gone. I had to turn to acquaintances for help and they offered me a place to stay until I would find one. The only solution is to pull it through alone because the state institutions do nothing to help you. (researcher, Moldova)

Lack of synchronization between institutions, coordinated procedures and

consensus regarding the documents necessary to obtain certain rights leads to a vicious cycle for the immigrants in Romania. The example of some students from Ukraine is eloquent. In absence of a document which had to be issued in Ukraine, they cannot be issued the permit of residence. In order to obtain that document, they should go to Ukraine, but this would result into them loosing the visa (one-entry visa to Romania). Thus, the administrative welter traps the students in Romania in absence of that document and, at the same time, they are also in danger of being sent back to Ukraine.

The information supplied is not complete. For example, we, in the beginning of each university year, receive about 20-25 applications from students who had already come to Romania to study, obtained the visa and are in process of being issued the permit of residence, as the dossier had already been submitted. Documents are found missing subsequently, but they cannot go back to Ukraine as they came here on a one-entry visa. I think this is a relevant example of the way the lack of information blocks a certain process and creates problems for the students. (representative, Embassy of Ukraine)

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Health services

The health insurance was mentioned by most of the immigrants participating to the group discussions as a right they don't hold too many information about and are not informed of. Although they do have this right or pay to access the health insurance services, the immigrants find out about these benefits after a long period of staying in Romania.

I used to pay the health insurance to obtain the visa, but I didn't know I had the right to a hospital, medicines, family doctor. One time, when I went to a family doctor for my wife and child, he asked me: do you have a family doctor? I replied: I don't. He asked me further whether I paid insurance and I said that I did. He told me to bring the health insurance to have the right to a family doctor. Then I found out that if I presented the health insurance to the hospital, I had the right to hospital services too. I paid everything I was supposed to pay here, to be alright, but I didn't know what for... I am pretty sure I have more rights which I know nothing about. (businessman, Syria)

Even those holding some information about the health insurance and benefited

of it, eventually ended up having some difficulties. For example, in case of immigrant students, once they have turned 26, the health insurance does no longer operate automatically. These immigrants have to rework all the documents and submit a new dossier to continue benefiting of the health insurance.

No one has ever told me that if you are 26 and have a scholarship, you no longer have the insurance and, anyway, no one has ever told me before that I had a medical insurance. (student, Senegal) In 2008, when I came back, I had already turned 26 and this implies more bureaucracy, I entered a vicious cycle: I needed the medical insurance here in Bucharest and it was no way I could have got it, I had to register with a family doctor. But in order to register with a medical doctor I needed a CNP (eng. Personal Numeric Code). The Health Insurance House has not informed me that a CNP had been issued to me upon my first entry in Romania and is one to be maintained for a lifetime. Nor the people from the Immigration Office informed me thereof; I entered a vicious cycle… I wandered the streets of Bucharest for three months to register with a family doctor. (researcher, Moldova)

Even in case the alien is aware of the fact that he/she benefits of health insurance, he/she does not further know which the procedures to be followed are to benefit of this right. The route family doctor – examination by a specialist - hospital is unknown to most of the immigrants.

We don’t do a lot of things because we are not aware of them. But this is who I am, I’m interested in everything. First you prepare a dossier with the family doctor in the faculty you are registered, as every faculty has one. And if you go there, your nationality is not important. Alien or Romanian, you are referred to a specialist. I, for example, had some throat problems which turned into a large infection and they referred me to a specialist in infectious diseases in Colentina. I was hospitalized there for 5 days. (student, Senegal) It is important to know one has the right to go to a hospital, see a family doctor... (representative, Embassy of Iraq)

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Students could register with a family doctor in hospitals or polyclinics too. (student, Republic of Moldova) They should know the medical services they have access to free of charge, 2-3 medical centers immigrants have access to, not necessarily for free, but at least for lower prices. They should also know what the medical insurance is all about, where can you get one and what does it cover. (representative, Embassy of Azerbaijan)

Financial services The relation with the banks is less problematic and satisfaction with the financial services high. No problems or uncovered needs for information were listed.

Opening an account is easy because you are asked only for a certificate from the faculty or the student's booklet with the passport. (student, Senegal) The bank was the only place where I haven’t had any problems. Supplying information is in their best interest. Everybody there speaks English, they have documents in English and everything goes smoothly. (businessman, Lebanon)

Housing services Most of third-country immigrants coming to Romania have to solve, at least in the very beginning, the housing problem as visa issuance relies on proving a place to live. In case of those coming here with an employment agreement, the employers can facilitate access to a house. The immigrant students have the possibility to obtain accommodation in hostels, a cheaper and safer alternative which facilitates integration too.

There are plenty advantages with the hostel: you pay less, know that everybody around knows you, go to courses together and learn the language better too. If your colleagues are around you, you feel more confident. I would advise any alien student to stay in campus because it's a great opportunity for better integration with colleagues and more protection. (student, Senegal)

Renting a house/apartment is not a problem if the materials resources are available. Immigrants can go to a real estate agency or look in announcement magazines. The group discussions did not reveal any specific information problems relative to this topic. To note that the high cost of housing was underlined in all the debates.

Somebody coming from a different country should know how much it costs to get a place to stay here. He/she should know things are pretty expensive here. So they should fill in their pockets when coming here. Without money one cannot survive here. This is the truth. (missionary, Nigeria) It used to be cheaper before; some businessmen could even afford to buy the apartment. Now it is every expensive, most of us have to rent places to stay. Nevertheless, you need a place to stay to submit the visa application, rented or bought. And for this you need money; there aren't other solutions for an alien. (pharmacist, South Korea)

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He/she needs money. This should be their first concern; no money, no place to stay. You can easily rent a place to stay from the newspaper announcements. (businessman, Turkey)

In principle, the legislation offers the aliens holding a permit of permanent residence the right to a social house. But this is only little known. Even those aware of the fact that aliens are entitled to social assistance and security services, including also temporary housing solutions, consider the alternative to social houses or shelters for immigrants in Romania as practically inexistent.

In other countries, Germany, Italy, England, there are social houses and shelters where aliens can spend the night. There is no such thing in Romania, but some religious organizations offering temporary help, for 2 or 3 days. (journalist, Syria)

Transport services

The needs for information of the third-country immigrants start upon crossing the border and in the place they enter Romania. During all the interviews with aliens, the transport issues were classified as of primary importance. In the airport, there is no information displayed providing guidance to the institutions which need to be contacted, no points of information which aliens can refer their questions to. The information about the public transportation routes or their schedule is not available in English or is poor in Romanian too. The taxi services were not considered a reliable alternative by the interviewed aliens, to the contrary, in particular for an alien who has arrived in Romania. In many cases, the price charged to an alien for the taxi services is much higher than the real one. The problems of the taxis in railways stations and airports are not only in Romania, being a common problem in most Eastern-European countries. Under such circumstances, proper information of the immigrants about the public transportation becomes critical.

You arrive here as a student, on the airport, there's no place for you to go. You take a taxi and they charge you 100 EUR. We cannot be left like this, in the hands of a taxi driver to take us to any hotel, with the risk of being aggressed, robbed; we don't speak the language, there are many problems… (student, Senegal) For a new-comer alien the situation is pretty difficult because he/she doesn't know anybody, doesn't have too many information about Bucharest, for example, and about Romania, but what was available on the Internet. The information I found on the Internet was very useful, about the means of public transportation and what I should pay attention to when taking a taxi. But this information I searched and found by myself. (student, Azerbaijan)

Being a special category, students holding scholarships granted by the

Romanian state could benefit of accompanying services starting with the points where they enter the country. Certain students associations (for example of the students from Republic of Moldova or Students League) have developed such practices for aliens. A proposal regarded inclusion in the guide of websites and discussion forums of the students associations as contact points before coming into the country.

The association had somebody pick me up from the railway station and explain where I should go and what I should do. It was much easier for me because they explained to me from the very beginning what I was supposed to do. (student, Republic of Moldova)

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About Romanians and the Romanian culture The aliens’ perception of the Romanians is generally positive. They trust Romanians and no personal security issues were brought up. Romania seems to be a country where one could feel safe, free of social conflicts, according to the immigrants.

No matter what’s being said about Romania, that Romanians aggress or something, nobody has ever assaulted me in the hostel or in the campus, never. The colleagues are very agreeable. (student, Senegal)

I would tell them that what is good about Romania is that it is still peace here, social peace, meaning that people don't kill each other in the streets and you can go anywhere during any time of the day. (missionary, Nigeria)

On the other hand, direct interaction of the aliens with Romanian rather tends to infirm the stereotype of the hospitable, warm and open Romanian. It was mentioned that but very few citizens give directions in the street or offer help in specific situations. The answer to most of the questions asked by alien is "I don't know, ask someone else" and the information they provide is often inaccurate.

If you ask a question, the people from Bucharest are very nice to us because we ask in Romanian; otherwise it would be very difficult for an alien to obtain an answer. And even if some directions are given, it shouldn’t mean you can rely on them. If you are told an institution is in a certain direction, well, you’d better ask for a second opinion and even avoid going in the indicated direction. (student, Republic of Moldova)

Although, in terms of declarations, Romanians are assessed positively, the group discussions revealed latent opposite opinions: Romanian are rather restrained, not open towards aliens. In reality, the Romanians’ attitude towards aliens of a different race in particular was assessed as rather closed, stereotyped and even discriminatory.

If I have an accident in the street, I stumble and fall, people pass by me, laugh and are so happy. I don’t understand their mentality, how they think. For us this is not quite good and we, and the Chinese, came from our countries because of the Communism and fraternized with Romanians and thought they would do the same with us (missionary, Korea)

At the same time, the aliens offered some explanations for the Romanians' absent openness: the immigrants are only few and people are not used to them.

When I attended the preparation year in Piteşti, they hadn't seen a black man ever again in their lives! It was hard; it’s not quite easy to be a black man in Romania. Probably black students who would come here from now on find it simpler, as people starts to get used to us. (student, Cameron)

Not only Romanians have a reserved attitude towards aliens. Most of the immigrants, especially those originating from cultures very different of the Romanian one, tend to isolate themselves and leave in closes communities, ending-up experiencing integration problems.

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They cam here 10 to 15 years ago with their families and still cannot speak Romanian. This is not normal. Plus it is important to discuss or think about the situations of the wives who are isolated in the house due to the Muslim culture. And, thus, instead of integrating, the aliens are isolating more and more and make the wrong opinion about Romanians. They start to see only the negative aspects. (journalist, Syria)

An important explanation for this situation is the lack of information, the lack of knowledge about the social meaning of certain behaviors, practices, habits which could be turned to value differently by the nationals and immigrants' cultures. The attitude towards alcohol consumption, for example, could be completely opposite: it has a negative value in the Muslim cultures and a positive one in the Romanian culture, seen as socialization tool.

In my culture, alcohol consumption is unacceptable, whereas here is a way of partying with friends. As an alien, I had to learn all about that to respect it, but, obviously I had to know first. This is mostly because I, the alien, came to you and then I have to respect your rules. (journalist, Syria)

The need for information and adjustment to the values of each culture is experienced equally by both parties. In addition to the fact that the immigrants should learn the Romanians’ habits and beliefs, Romanians too should know and respect the culture and history of the immigrants. Thus, each party, the immigrants and the Romanians, would learn from each other and build together a more tolerant, inclusive and diverse society. Nevertheless, the cultural differences, if not known, understood and respected, could have dramatic consequences.

Once, an Azerbaijani student was accidentally accommodated in a hostel together with three Armenian students. Azerbaijan and Armenia used to be in a war, therefore the Azerbaijani student couldn’t have stayed in the same hostel with the three Armenians. We have a tragic example from another Eastern European country where Azerbaijani and Armenian students were accommodated together and one of the Azerbaijani students got killed. (representative of the Embassy of Azerbaijan)

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CONTENT AND DISSEMINATION OF THE INFORMATION GUIDE

The previous analysis of the needs for information of the immigrants in Romania about their rights, obligations and integration opportunities into the Romanian society on each of the a approached domains – residence in Romania, access to and participation on the labor market, access to educational services, access to housing, financial, medical and other services rendered by the public administration, learning Romanian and cultural orientation – highlights the general directions and lines the drafting of the guide should consider.

• The general approach should be a focused, specific one, term of the purpose of the immigrant's residence in Romania, oriented on domains and providing answers to specific issues.

I think that the guide you are developing should consider a specific approach, the problems have to be treated specifically … work, study. It would be better to offer also some general information, but with a practical orientation on their problems. (representative, Embassy of Azerbaijan) The more one writes, the less it is read. It should be synthetic and very simply worded, easily understandable and oriented on their interest. The form matters too; it should be attractive and emphasize the key ideas. (trade union leader) The guide should have a thematic structure, information should be presented on domains: work, study, health, social rights, housing. (RIO representative) You should focus on specialized information, such as: if you want to work, you should do that; if you want to set up a business, you should do that; if you want to travel, you need a need visa here, in Hungary or Bulgaria ... You have to talk to them according to their origin. (trade union leader)

• It should contain general information about the most important rights –

residence, work, business, education, health and services of the public administrations

You have to write about the right to be issued a visa, to get married, many rights and less formalities because in this country the bureaucracy is too high, in particular for aliens. (businessman, Yemen) It's important to first tell them which their rights are and how can they access them. It is equally important to make clear at least which their rights are. (journalist, Syria)

• It has to include also some administrative and procedural information: the

necessary documents, renewal terms, institutions involved The group discussions with the third-country nationals and the interviews with

the institutions revealed that the most important difficulties faced by an immigrant in Romania are of administrative and bureaucratic nature. Better information expressed both in terms of the information content and presentation of and facilitating access to

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information about documents, procedures, deadlines, could solve a large part of the problems the immigrants in Romania are faced with.

The opinions of the immigrants relative to the quantity of administrative and procedural information the guide should contain could be included in two different categories. One category relies on the position according to which the information guide should contain and supply precise details, including templates or applications or forms. The arguments offered by these immigrants relate to the difficulties of obtaining clear information in other language than Romanian, too.

First of all, the guide has, to indicate to an alien where he/she should go to, what institutions to turn to, what documents to submit, which is the work program, how long each procedure lasts. (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone) Additional information could be the one relative to the documents renewal terms and the conditions an alien should meet not to end up becoming an illegal immigrant. (journalist, Syria) I think that the guide should contain, first of all, the law, each document should contain an address and what and how should be done to obtain the relevant document and a template. Only the third notary told me: "I know the template, we have it and I’ll do it for you". It's good to have a template of application because when you go to institutions they don't have time to explain. Should the guide contain such a template of application, we should know at least how to ask. (student, Republic of Moldova)

The second category considers that the information guide should include only general information, aimed at providing some guidance within the system and the arguments for such a position relate to the obsoleteness of too specific information, given that applicable legislation keeps changing, to the risk of losing the simplicity and clarity as more details are included, to the size of the guide, which could thus become too big to be consulted.

We should not write so much about what papers to bring or where to have them done, because thus we would end up having a huge guide nobody will ever read. Looking at the system as it is today, nobody could ever clarify it in a guide. People shall have to "cruise" from one institution to another one anyway. (journalist, Syria) You should offer also specific information, but rather in the form of a route ... from institution X to institution Y, where you need …, but very simply and clearly, without going too much into details, as they shall be found-out on the spot. Otherwise the guide will turn into a complicated thing, similar to the system. (student, Republic of Moldova)

• It has to indicate details about possibilities of learning Romanian and attending cultural orientation courses

One of the obstacles most frequently invoked by the immigrants in Romania

was in connection with the difficulties of learning Romanian, provided that most of the institutions in Romania work and provide information only in Romanian. Availability of Romanian and cultural orientation courses, delivered or supported by the institutions of the Romanian state or nongovernmental organizations, should represent another important point in the content of the information guide.

It should make available also information about the opportunities for an alien to learn Romanian. If Romanian courses are available for the immigrants in Romania, the guide should specify how and where aliens could benefit from them. (representative, Embassy of Azerbaijan)

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• It should include information about useful services, such as legal advice,

translation and interpreting services, cultural mediation

First of all, it should tell the alien where to get an attorney, where a translator could be found, because, for example, for Romanians, they are all Arabs, and this is not true. It's not possible for an Arab translator to speak for a Kurd. (representative, Embassy of Iraq)

• It has to contain all the contact details of the institutions: addresses, maps,

opening hours, phone numbers, email, websites

The guide should contain the addresses of the institutions, some details about how to get there, maybe means of transport to be used and even a map; otherwise for an alien is very difficult to find them. I was heading to the Faculty once and I was stopped by a Chinese who kept telling me – „passport, passport”... He was lucky because I had been in his situation and I realized he wanted to go to the Immigration Office and I showed him there. (researcher, Moldova) It should help me find some phone numbers, maybe some directions, how to get there… (businessman, Yemen) It would be very useful for the guide to contain addresses, phone numbers. Usually, they are in very tortuous places, in small rooms, hard to access: to the left, to the right walking on small streets to get there, it's not something big and easily identifiable. (researcher, Moldova) Because coming to the Embassy for any problem they are faced with is difficult, it would be useful to contain a list of contacts: phones, email addresses of certain institutions they can turn to. (representative, Embassy of Azerbaijan)

• Information about transport: maps of public transportation, operation schedule, details about the taxi services – how the authorized taxis can be identified, how can price be checked

It would be good, in addition to the phone number and address, to have also a map or explanations about how to get there, even means of public transportation. For example, the subway map seemed to me as a good idea. (student, Republic of Moldova) They should know no nighttime transport is available here. We are the only European capital city that doesn't have nighttime public transportation. (researcher, Moldova) They should use only authorized taxis, displaying clearly the price per km, to ask for a fiscal receipt; those arriving in the airport should know there is a express bus available. (student, Senegal)

Other suggestions – information to be included in the guide

The topics presented above have been debated in all group discussions with third-country nationals and during the interviews with the authorities and representatives of the embassies. Some other aspects were brought-up, without meeting the majority of opinions. It was considered that an immigrant needs also information about other less important, but still useful rights during the integration endeavor, such as driving license, standard of living in Romania with a potential comparison between regions and cities, cultural services and leisure opportunities.

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Information, for example about the driving license, could also be necessary. I know that it should be changed within the first 3 months since coming to Romania. If you don't have a driving license and your situation is legal, you have the right to attend a driving school and obtain the license, including an international one. (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone) It should provide information about each city. An alien wants to know that in Bucharest the cost of living is higher than in Piteşti, Timişoara or Cluj, that the price of a house is higher and goods more expensive...Thus, the alien can opt to go to another, more peaceful city. (representative, Embassy of Iraq) I think information about the lease market and cost of living could be useful. (RIO representative) Most of the immigrants are young people, such as students and people coming to work here are mostly up to 40-50 years old. You should include information about leisure places, cinemas, culture and important theaters with addresses in the guide and try to stimulate this. (student, Republic of Moldova) It is important to know where free Internet is available; most of us do not have money. (student, Senegal)

The information guide should, according to some of the respondents, contain also background information about the values, customs of the Romanian society and the lifestyle of the Romanians.

It could also include some aspects related to the cultural differences, in connection with cultural adjustment, to learn about the Romanian specifics. For example, Muslims value time in a different way. If a Muslim says he/she would be there in the morning, rest assure he/she would be there at lunchtime; it is different for us, we are on time. (RIO representative)

But, which this relevant information is and how it could be communicated in the guide was another topic subject to dispute. It was thought that an information guide cannot capture the features of the Romanians, their values and habits, without reproducing them like stereotypes and eventually ending up with clichés,

What they say about Romanians.... clichés, such as they are Balkans, temperamental. Yes, they are hospitable, but so are the French and Italians, they are nice, have the most beautiful women, but Russians think the same too. An anthropologist would have a laugh about this topic if found in an information guide... (student, Republic of Moldova) I don't believe a guide could include, next to legislative regulations, forms templates, maps and address of institutions, some words about how Romanians are, what they like and dislike. I don't see the point. When you come, you know where you come. You come to a country of the European Union and, in principle, you know what to expect. (employee in hotel industry, Sierra Leone)

• Dissemination of the guide should use all the institutions, organizations and associations active in the field of immigration, as well as other public institutions the immigrant is likely to come into contact with, it should also use the Internet as important resource and do it with the support of community leaders and in the places aliens go to.

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The information guide aimed at the third-country immigrants should be available in a wide network formed of: entry points to Romania, railway stations, airports, diplomatic missions of the third-country citizens, the Romanian Immigration Office and its territorial centers, public institutions the immigrant comes into contact with at central and local level, universities and libraries. Proposals were also made to disseminate the information guide through the Romanian Embassies in the countries of origin of the immigrants, where the immigrant’s information process actually starts.

Most of those coming to Romania under employment agreements obtain all the information and, sometimes, even assistance from the employing company. The employers, on one hand, and the trade unions, on the other hand, are key players of the information guide dissemination process. It is necessary to distribute it through the employing companies working with third-country citizens too, as well as by means of the trade unions and employers’ associations.

An important dissemination partner is represented by associations of immigrants, which are, as highlighted by the analysis of the information sources, key resources for immigrants. The guide could be distributed to the immigrants also through the student associations or the NGOs active in the field of immigration or immigrants' integration and assistance.

Another dissemination channel of the information guide could include the communities of immigrants, the places aliens go to, such as hotels, bars, restaurants, cultural institutions and other leisure facilities, churches and other praying places.

In addition to the printed version, dissemination of the electronic version of the guide on the Internet, on the websites of the institutions, organizations and the associations afore-listed was also mentioned.

I think they can be informed before coming here, at home. I would make the proposals of posting this guide on a website, to make it available also in the electronic version. Posting it on the websites of the universities could be also a good idea. (student, Republic of Moldova) Maybe you could target making it available in our embassies in the relevant countries, in the consulate, where they go to be issued the visa...to make this guide available there, upon departure. (trade union leader) The guide should be distributed using the leaders of the communities of aliens, employers with many alien employees, RIO and universities. (RIO representative) The guide could also be distributed in hotels, specific restaurants, in the places aliens go to. (journalist, Syria)

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INTEGRATION SOLUTIONS

Although not the main topic of the group discussions or the interviews with authorities and representatives of the embassies of third-country citizens, the debates led to identifying solutions for a better aliens' integration in Romania. The proposals were, as we shall see, aimed again at the need for information, but no specific solution was outlined in this respect.

Therefore, we believe that presenting their solutions could be useful, as they target both the actors involved in immigration management system in Romania, as well as to the press, representatives of civil society or the public in general.

• Better accessibility to and dissemination of the courses on Romanian language and awareness of the Romanian culture.

• Adaptation of the Romanian language and cultural orientation courses to the needs and specifics of the communities of immigrants

I think that for a newly-arrived alien in Romania it is important to have the possibility of learning Romanian. To be offered Romanian language courses. (journalist, Syria) Unfortunately, my experience has shown me that the opportunities and courses on Romanian language or Romanian culture are limited. An alien has to learn about the history of the country where he/she arrives. Additionally, they need information about the nature of the people, what makes them happy, what annoys them … because these vary from country to country (businessman, Lebanon) I want to give you the example of Germany as I know how immigrants are treated there. There, you do nothing for six month, but learn the language and culture and get integrated. Here in Romania, we all know there are many aliens from Arab countries, some of them having come here long ago, 10 to 15 years, and they haven't learned Romanian yet; this is not normal. (journalist, Syria) In case of Muslim women, who are forbidden to attend mixed courses, female-only groups could be established in order to facilitate their access. (RIO representative)

• Setting-up special offices providing counseling and guidance to the immigrants, having a wide social scope and not exclusively focused on legal advice.

Counseling offices could be established in each city to foster better integration. (RIO representative) There should be an institution information can be asked from and questions asked to, a person the alien to talk, explain the situation and his/her problems to and receive help. There is RIO, but they are part of the Ministry of Interior, are perceived as controllers, put there to catch you, not help, guide and provide information to you. This role should be played by an independent and not "police" institution or organization. (journalist, Syria) Establishment of a unique information center (by the Romanian Immigration Office) could be appropriate to inform the aliens about the protection available to them, the conditions and means of issuing the permit of residence, employment, access to education and social services, means of obtaining the Romanian citizenship, but also to monitor the temporary employment programs in Romania or reinforce collaboration

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with international, governmental and nongovernmental organizations in this field (representative, Embassy of Moldova).

• Development of a network of personal advisers, staff specialized in assisting the immigrants during the integration process

Similarly, it could be important to have a person as support for integration, a person the immigrant could trust, to supply information, to contact anytime he/she needs something and help him/her overcome the difficulties. (journalist, Syria) They should have at least one counselor ... as in Scandinavia, in Sweden, to tell them: well, you came here to do business, your business is not working or is working, here is what you have to do, where to go, pay attention to that, that is not good… (businessman, Turkey)

• In case of those coming here to study – setting-up information offices and appointment of advisers for alien students, development of tutorship programs within the universities.

One of these divisions of the Universities could include a person responsible for the problems of students from Bassarabia. This could be a way of solving their problems in a simpler way, when they have a representative especially for them. For example, in SNSPA, the counseling center includes a person who handles also the students from Bassarabia and they put in place a tutorship program for freshmen, including socialization activities and support to the last details in connection with the documents. (student, Republic of Moldova) From the experience of the Romanian students abroad, there is at least one person in-charge of aliens, which unfortunately does not happen in Romania. We could use an order from the Ministry saying that each university should have somebody handling the aliens, the students from Bassarabia or from other countries, an office the aliens know they could turn to, not just the secretary barely answering the questions. (student, Republic of Moldova) I had a study experience in another country and the university there had a week free of classes during which the office introduced us to everything and which you could turn to for any problem. I think this could be a practice to be taken over also here in the universities, at national level. (student, Cameron)

• Development of health centers for immigrants

There are states which have established special medical care centers for migrants. Setting up of such centers could be useful in Romania too, offering treatment and medicines when a medical problem occurs. (representative, Embassy of Iraq)

• Media awareness of the immigrants problem and development of means of mass communication for aliens

The press represents an important source of changing the attitude towards the

immigrants, as well as a vehicle of information and even an agent facilitating the process of immigrants' integration in Romania. The programs about and with immigrants contribute to enhancing Romanians’ tolerance, learning about the cultures of the immigrants in Romania and sharing common values, thus contributing to creating an inclusive and responsible society. Additionally, availability of programs aired in the languages spoken by the immigrants or setting-up of a TV station or of

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newspapers of or for the immigrants contribute to better information thereof and their cultural adaptation and integration in the Romanian society respecting their own cultural identity.

The newly-arrived alien comes here with his/her culture, music and customs. Romanians can find out from the mass-media more information about the culture of the immigrants and can share with them many good things to feel good together. What it matters is to highlight the positive sides of living together and mitigate the negative ones. (journalist Syria) A special program dedicated to the immigrants, subtitled in Arab or another language spoken by the aliens in Romania, could be a very good idea, having as guests a representative of the police, organizations and immigrants to debate on various problems. Another possibility could be to establish a newspaper for the aliens, presenting their problems and having columns in the main languages spoken by the immigrants. (journalist Syria)

• Fast improvement of the immigration management system to prevent the social problems Romania could face when becoming an immigration country

Even without offering specific solutions, all the group discussions with the

immigrants featured the idea of "doing something" as soon as possible, as a diffuse preventive solution to the problems the immigration system would face in the future. Romania was considered to become a more attractive destination for immigrants in the near future due to its EU membership. Under such circumstances, the programs of the type aforementioned become critical conditions for an efficient management of the future immigration wave. Consideration was given to the need of reorienting the immigration management system, from a reactive and short-term strategy which characterizes the current time, towards a long-term prevention-based vision.

The problems are minor now, but they shall get bigger as more and more immigrants come. If we are warned and prepare in advance, in 5 years from now we might get slightly increasing waves. If you have the documentation, the cultural facilitators, the system of bridges with the governmental and non-governmental organizations, a well organized system, then you can manage the problem correctly. We can’t only wait for these things to happen, we can anticipate them. (trade union leader) In Germany, where immigration has been going on for some time now, the second generation of immigrants is in a very difficult situation: they are criminals, homeless people and consideration is given to putting in place programs, following the US and Italian examples about how the positive sides of immigration and immigrants could be highlighted, because if you don’t pay now, you shall definitely pay later. So it’s better to pay the price now. (journalist, Syria)

Notwithstanding the difficulties and obstacles listed in terms of the needs for

information of the immigrants for all the areas of the integration process debated during the group discussions and interviews, the general perceptions of the direction the Romanian immigration management system is following is a positive one. Immigrants who have been going through several stages of the system believe that all these problems, although acute, are obviously improving and are better managed than in the past.

The situation in Romania is an ever going process, mostly positive and for those coming here from now on, it wouldn’t be as bad, they endure less. They should try to

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be patient. On the other hand, only if they are strong, they can survive here for the time being. (pharmacist, South Korea)

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The analyses carried out during the study are focused on the subjective side, the one of the individual and group perceptions over the needs for information of the immigrants in Romania. The research was an exploratory one and relies on a qualitative methodology, using focus groups with third-country nationals (TCN) and semi-structured interviews with representatives of embassies and of relevant institutions of the immigration management and immigrants' integration system in Romania.

The main sources of information used by the immigrants are those relying on the relational capital of the immigrant - kinship and friendship networks, ethnical and religious affiliation. In terms of the information accessibility, the public institutions are the communicator experiencing most of the problems.

The third-country nationals in Romania are in critical need of information, as experienced from the very first moments of their arrival to Romania, in the points where they enter the country and where the immigrants are faced with the lack of information about public transportation. The subsequent route, although different term of the purpose of residence in Romania, is in substance very much similar: a pile of documents, dossiers, deadlines and institutions. The general perception is that the immigrants are caught in an administrative trap where they have to pull it through by themselves. The route of obtaining the documents whereby immigrants can have access to the rights due and granted under the law in Romania is sinuous and discouraging.

The group discussions and interviews with representatives of the institutions

involved in immigration management and with representatives of embassies, have revealed that the most important problems of an immigrant in Romania are of administrative, procedural and bureaucratic nature: lack of consistency and coherence in supplying information on certain topics aimed at the immigrant's integration processes or information about procedures, documents, conditions and deadlines; lack of synchronization, collaboration and communication deficiencies between the institutions involved, lack of institutional coordination or between departments of the relevant institutions, variability of the information supplied term of the way each servant understands and applies the law.

Other difficulties identified relate to the language barriers and human resources problems within such institutions (the hostile attitude sometimes displayed towards the immigrants, insufficient knowledge about the rights granted to the people holding the right of legal residence in Romania by some servants of the public institutions).

If the relation of the immigrants with Romanian institutions was characterized in all cases as having problems, living with Romanians, interactions with them during the everyday life was assessed positively, at least in terms of declarations and at general level. On the other hand, the substance debates revealed rather the contrary. In reality, the Romanians attitude towards aliens (other race in particular) is assessed as rather closed, stereotyped and even discriminatory. Complementary, most of the immigrants, in particular coming from cultures very different of the Romanian one, tend to isolate, live in closed communities, ending up having integration problems. The need for information is actually experienced by both parties. In addition to the fact that aliens should know the habits and beliefs of the Romanians, adapt to the Romanian culture, Romanians too have to know and respect the values and identity of

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the immigrant cultures. The cultural differences have to be known, understood and respected in an inclusive, open and tolerant society.

Although not the main research topic for this report, the group discussions or the interviews with authorities and embassies of third-country citizens were featured by numerous suggestions regarding how the integration policies of the immigrants in Romania could be rendered more efficient. The solutions are aimed at both the actors of the Romanian immigration management system, as well as to the press, civil society or public opinion in general. At institutions level, proposals regarded setting up special offices to provide counseling and guidance to the immigrants, with a wider social scope of work, not only focused on legal advice, as well as development of a network of personal advisers to support the immigrants during the process of their integration in the host society. More specific solutions were also suggested, such as development of special health centers and programs for immigrants or setting up offices aimed at informing and counseling the alien students in the universities, maybe even including them in mentorship programs. Deemed one of the most important barriers of the integration process, proposals also targeted enhancing access to the courses for learning Romanian and raising awareness of the Romanian culture by improving the opportunities of attending the courses and adapting the Romanian and cultural orientation courses to the needs and specifics of the communities of immigrants. In terms of the difficulties which regard the institutional infrastructure and the regulatory framework, as well as in connection with the personnel employed in institutions, several solutions emerged: corroboration of the procedures and synchronization of the activities of the institutions involved, improving the training of the personnel in the public institutions involved in the direct relation with the immigrants (both in terms of speaking alien languages and the obligations of the immigrants), rendering the communication and services offered more efficient by developing the online booking and application system. The most important source of information relies on the relational capital of the immigrant, whereas the communication could be rendered more efficient by involving the community resources in this process. Supporting formal and informal organization of the communities of immigrants by designating some leaders thereof on purpose of facilitating communication with the public institutions or training of cultural mediators, could represent the first steps of this endeavor. On the other hand, the partnerships initiatives with various communities of immigrants on information exchange purpose, already started by RIO, should be continued and extended.

A special vehicle of the aliens' integration process is represented by mass-media. The press represents an important source of changing the attitude towards the immigrants, as well as a vehicle of information and even an agent facilitating the process of immigrants' integration in Romania. Broadcasting cultural programs about the immigrants contribute to enhancing Romanians’ tolerance. On the other hand, availability of programs aired in the languages spoken by the immigrants or setting-up of a TV station or of newspapers of the immigrants contribute to better information thereof and their cultural adaptation.

Even without offering specific solutions, all the group discussions with the immigrants featured the idea of "doing something" as soon as possible, as a diffuse preventive solution to the problems the immigration system would face in the future. Romania was considered to become a more attractive destination for immigrants in

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the near future due to its EU membership. Consequently, it is mandatory to reorient the immigration management system, from a reactive and short-term strategy which characterizes the current time, towards a long-term prevention-based vision.

Notwithstanding the information problems debated, the general perception over the direction the Romanian immigration management system is heading to is a positive one. Gathering of more experienced regarding the management of the immigration phenomenon at institutional and community level has positive effects. As the Romanian society becomes overall more exposed to contacts with immigrants, the institutional system and the other stakeholders - employers, trade unions, mass-media, civil society - as well as the general population, are likely to have a more tolerant and supportive attitude towards them.

In terms of drafting the information guide aimed at the third-country nationals,

the general approach should be a punctual and specific one, terms of the purpose of aliens' residence in Romania, oriented on domains targeting the integration process in the host society and provide answers to specific problems. Information has to cover for the most important rights - residence, work, business, education, health, housing, social assistance and protection, other legal rights. It is important to have information about the programs for learning the Romanian language and cultural orientation supported or delivered by the institutions of the Romanian state, translation services or legal advice. It should not be plentiful of procedural and administrative information, it should have rather the role to provide guidance throughout the system, maybe in the form of a route, scheme. The demand for simplicity and clarity was also voiced. The guide should be very well structured and consistent, otherwise it will turn into a thing as complicated as the system itself.

The guide has to contain also a series of factual data, contact data of the

institutions, addresses, maps, opening hours, phone numbers, email, websites, as well as information about transport: maps of public transportation, hours of operation, how authorized taxis can be identified and price checked.

Dissemination of the guide should mobilize all the actors involved in immigration management: public institutions, embassies, nongovernmental organizations, trade unions, employers’ organizations, universities, ethnic and religious associations and leaders of the communities of immigrants. The guide should be available in a wide network, including the Romanian embassies in the countries of origin, the points of entering Romania, such as railway stations, airports, as well as the embassies of the immigrants' country of origin in Romania, the Romanian Immigration Office and other public institutions the immigrants comes into contact with at central and local level. The student associations or nongovernmental organizations active in the field of immigration are themselves important agents for dissemination of the information guide to the immigrants. In addition to the printed version, the need to disseminate the electronic version on the Internet, on the websites or the institutions, organizations and associations listed above was also brought-up.

Although not specifically mentioned or supported by immigrants, for alien

workers in Romania the most important sources of information, in particular in terms of labor and specific legislation, are the trade unions, to the extent trade union identity transfers or affiliation to trade unions existing in Romania occur, as well as the employers, in case of aspects in connection with employment and health and safety norms.

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The information guide for immigrants should be distributed within the community too, in places aliens go to, such as libraries, churches or worship places, by involving the informal leaders in this process.

Drafting of the guide will only solve part of the problems approached in this

report. We cannot estimate that this guide will answer to all the questions immigrants have and ask during their integration process. Some needs shall continue to remain uncovered, even some needs for information. Nevertheless, in the absence of guide, the needs for information of the immigrants in Romania shall only get worse and the difficulties they face, actually reflecting the problems in the immigration management system, shall multiply. The usefulness of this guide can be best understood, as a paradox, when the guide is missing. We cannot estimate the specific contribution to improvement of the aliens’ situation in Romania, but we know its absence renders more critical the need for information and perpetuates the confusion in accessing the rights and services granted to the immigrants under the Romanian law.

It is important to look at the drafting of the information guide about the rights,

obligations and integration opportunities of third-country nationals in Romania from a different perspective too. The guide conveys to the immigrants, at the same time with the necessary information, also the fact that the Romanian society (with the assistance of the partners involved in this project – nongovernmental organizations and the Romanian Immigration Office) acknowledges and assumes the problems the immigrants in Romania are faced with, and that it is concerned with the difficulties they experience in the integration process and is willing to find solutions, meeting the needs for information of the immigrants being just a first step in this respect.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT: The project “Welcome to Romania! Improving the knowledge of the third-country nationals about their rights, duties and integration opportunities into the Romanian society” was launched in 2009 by the organizations ARCA-FRRM, as beneficiary of the project, and ADO SAH ROM and Soros Romania Foundation as partners of the project. The project aims to improve access of third-country nationals (TCN) to the information about the rights, duties and opportunities of integration in Romania, in order to enhance their potential to fully participate to the social, cultural and economic life of the host society. The project is performed part of 2008 annual Program relative to the European Fund for Integration of Third-Country Nationals (ref: IF/08.02-01), being financed 75% by the European Commission. The balance is covered from the funds of the Romanian Immigration Office (20%) and of the organizations ARCA-FRRM, ADO SAH ROM and Soros Romania Foundation (5%). The activities of the project consist in:

- Drafting a research report on the needs for information of the TCNs regarding the rights, obligations and integration opportunities to integrate into the Romanian society, by means of three focus group sessions with TCNs, interviews with representative of embassies and key institutions in TCNs integration;

- Drafting, translation into four languages (English, French, Turkish and Cantonese) and distribution of the guide on the rights, obligations and integration opportunities of TCNs in Romania;

- Organization of a guide launching event and of a public debate regarding TCNs integration in Romania;

- Organization of a media campaign and of three guide promotion events within the TCN communities in Bucharest, Constanţa and Cluj.

The target group is formed of the approximately 49,000 third-country nationals holding the right to temporary residence in Romania and of the aliens pursuing or to be granted the right of residence on the Romanian territory. Similarly, the project targets all the actors involved in the field of immigration - public institutions, employers, trade unions - as well as mass-media and the Romanian community in general. Information about and contact data of the partners: Simina Guga, Project Coordinator, ARCA, phone 021 252 73 57, simina@arca.org.ro Răzvan Samoilă, Managing Director, ARCA, phone 021 252 73 57, office@arca.org.ro Rodica Novac, Project Coordinator, ADO SAH ROM, phone 021 210 71 60, adosahrom@starnets.ro Iris Alexe, Project Officer of Soros Romania Foundation, phone 021 212 11 01, ialexe@soros.ro PhD Raluca Popescu – Sociologist, Consultant for Soros Romania Foundation PhD trainee Georgiana Toth – Sociologist, Consultant for Soros Romania Foundation ARCA – Romanian Forum for Refugees and Migrants – is a nongovernmental, apolitical and non-confessional humanitarian and ecumenical organization whose goal is to defend and promote the fundamental human rights, in particular of the refugees, repatriated and other categories of migrants. The purposes of our organization are to support social and professional integration of those forced to live away from their country of origin, facilitate cultural exchanges between migrants and adoption society, develop partnerships with institutions and organizations in order to meet properly the needs of the refugees and other migrants and support social and economic reintegration of the repatriates. Soros Romania Foundation promotes development of a society based on freedom, responsibility and respect for diversity. The program “Migration and Development”, initiated by Soros Romania Foundation back in 2006, proposes identification of the migration integration models and of the effects associated thereto in the public policies of the central and local authorities and promotion of those models that allow mitigation of the adverse effects and capitalization of the positive effects of the

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migration phenomenon. The program includes analyses and research studies of the current situation, targeted studies, lobbying and advocacy for the identified recommendations and solutions be integrated in migration public policies. The migration phenomenon is approached from the development perspective, migration having a beneficial impact on the country of origin and destination, as well as on the migrant, his/her family and local community. ADO SAH ROM is a nongovernmental organization established in 2000, promoting development of the organization, policies and services in the social field and making an active contribution to consolidation of the civil society and to collaboration with other organizations from the country and abroad. The organization has over 7 years of experience in implementing projects on the labor market and development of social dialogue and collaborates with national and European organizations and networks in projects supporting access to decent work and active participation of the aliens to the economic, social and cultural life in Romania.

The project “Welcome to Romania! Improving the knowledge of the third-country nationals

about their rights, duties and integration opportunities into the Romanian society” was

launched in 2009 by the organizations ARCA-FRRM, as beneficiary of the project, and ADO

SAH ROM and Soros Romania Foundation as partners of the project.

TheThe project aims to improve access of third-country nationals (TCN) to the information

about the rights, duties and opportunities of integration in Romania, in order to enhance

their potential to fully participate to the social, cultural and economic life of the host

society.

TheThe project is performed part of 2008 annual Program relative to the European Fund for

Integration of Third-Country Nationals (ref: IF/08.02-01), being financed 75% by the

European Commission. The balance is covered from the funds of the Romanian

Immigration Office (20%) and of the organizations ARCA-FRRM, ADO SAH ROM and Soros

Romania Foundation (5%).

The content of this survey does not necessarily express the official position of the European Union