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| FREE MOVEMENT FOR ROMANIANS IN THE EU 13/05/2008 |
| (2008-05-13) |
| Last updated: 2008-05-14 15:37 EET |
The press in Bucharest, meanwhile, is pointing the finger at ethnic Roma as being the main perpetrators of violent crime. Franco Frattini, the new Italian foreign minister, and former European Commissioner for Justice, said that law abiding Romanians will continue to be welcome in Italian homes and companies, but that criminals will be thrown out. His placating attitude is probably meant to balance that of his colleague, Roberto Maroni, who is supposed to have designed a plan limiting access for ethnic Roma, mostly of Romanian origin, to Italy. Romania is not yet a part of the Schengen space, and therefore its citizens are still subject to all restrictions and rules applying to non-European citizens as far as immigrants’ income and residence are concerned.
Frattini said, quote: “One has the legal obligation to register when entering a country, even another European country, stating clearly where one is to stay and how one will support oneself”, unquote. On the other hand, the Italian right is only keeping its election promises. Its entire election campaign was run on commitments towards security and towards solving the issue of criminality perpetrated by mostly Romanians. The election results showed that this was what Italians wanted to hear. From the Vatican, cardinal Martino, the equivalent of minister of justice for the Holy See, warned that “the Romanian people should not be demonized”. He even said that illegal immigration should not be considered illegal.
One Romanian citizen admits that “Italians are not against immigrants, but are fed up with murders and theft”. They are not fed up with the thousands of construction workers, mechanics, babysitters or house cleaners, who are working hard to support their families at home. They are fed up with the robberies, rapes, and murders committed by a handful of criminals that, for months, have held the headlines in Italy. Alarmed, Romanian prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu instructed minister of the Interior Cristian David to go to Rome urgently and discuss with the Italian authorities their intentions regarding Romanian immigrants. He said:
“It should be emphasized that, unfortunately, that there has a wave of statements which have given the impression, and this perception has taken root, that there is a critical situation regarding Romanians in Italy. At this point, we believe that feeding certain xenophobic attitudes could affect the bilateral relationship between Romania and Italy, and this, obviously, is not in anyone’s interest”.
Romanian workers account for 1% of Italy’s GDP, and 23 thousand Italian companies have made investments in Romania, said the Romanian prime minister about the scale of economic relations between the two countries. Romanian employers are even starting to complain that they have trouble finding qualified employees because of migration. Labor minister Paul Pacuraru, who said that the labor market could develop a real deficit only in about five years, echoed the idea. Sociologists, however, believe that, thanks to the country’s economic growth, the flow of labor could reverse, which could alleviate the frustration of Romanian employers and the fears of Italian citizens.
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