The number of Romanians with higher education who go to work abroad has increased by almost 70,000, according to data from the 2021 census, which HotNews has seen.

Compared to the previous census, the number of people with higher education who preferred to go abroad increased by about 70,000.

The distribution by gender is approximately equal, with slightly more men. Most left Bucharest, followed by Constanta and Bihor.

At first glance, the majority of Romanians who go to work abroad are those who have completed secondary education and vocational school. Apparently, the state also spent money on them to provide them with the education they received. (click image to enlarge)

We looked in more detail at those who leave and who have a higher education. On the date of the census, the situation by poviat looked like this: (click on the image to enlarge)

According to Eurostat, compared to 2008, the number of Romanians who have at least a higher education and live in another country has increased by 144%. In addition, the number of high school or vocational school graduates from Romania living in another EU country increased from 806,000 in 2008 to 1,437,000.

Financially, for every migrant who graduates from university, Romania loses approximately $50,000 per person. This amount represents the cost of 16-20 years of education, money that cannot be returned by Romanian society. Paradoxically, this topic is not given any importance at the government level, as it is usually discussed as part of the labor shortage problem, the cited study also shows.

The number of Romanian emigrants in the last 8 years

Among the Romanians who went abroad, a quarter have higher education, confirms one World Bank report. Brain drain can have serious consequences for the future development of Romania, and cities such as Bucharest, Cluj, Iași and Timisoara are feeling this pressure from the labor market.

In the field of health care, the brain drain has become a real emergency, when qualified specialists are becoming increasingly difficult to find. For example, the level of unemployment in the health care sector was more than twice the average level of the economy.

• Almost every fourth doctor went to work abroad. From 2000 to 2013, the number of Romanian doctors who left the country increased by more than 650 percent, reaching over 14,000 in 2013 (more than 25 percent of all Romanian doctors). As a result, many rural areas are left without medical care, which worsens the situation of the poorest Romanians.

The term “brain drain” was first mentioned by the British Royal Society to refer to the emigration of scientists and technologists from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada. Now this phrase is used to refer to the emigration of highly qualified people – engineers, doctors, scientists and other highly qualified specialists.

The reasons for the brain drain are diverse: lack of jobs, economic underdevelopment, low wages, insufficient use of specialists, lack of research funding, discrimination at work, lack of scientific tradition or reasons related to bureaucracy or the desire for professional recognition, as another study shows.

Until 2006, Romanian migration was more temporary, represented by people with secondary education who went to earn money outside the country. With the accession of Romania to the EU on January 1, 2007, the profile of migrants changed again, the migration of highly skilled people becoming more and more consistent.

In Romania, the highest level of external migration was recorded in 2008, when approximately 2% of the total population left Romania. The data show that the tendency to emigrate is growing.

Read here the study “Impact of brain drain in Romania. Possible solutions.