We are losing doctors, nurses, drivers, traders, qualified people. The flight of Romanians is a leitmotif we have been hearing for years, and even if solutions are found here and there, we continue to import labor. We increasingly see foreign workers on construction sites in Bucharest or on the streets with sacks of food on their backs. They are also found in warehouses or restaurant kitchens. But most come to work in construction.

Nepalese, Vietnamese or Indian, they all came from the other side of the world to Romania with the desire to lift their families out of poverty. Just as our people did, who came to build Europe for years.

Higher salaries in the West are a motivation for Asians arriving in Romania, as they are for Romanians leaving. This is evidenced by the figures: more than 5.7 million Romanians are in the diaspora. Asians with a minimum income of around $100 a month at home are ideal candidates for a better life in Europe.

On the one hand, these are the consequences of the lack of a consistent policy on keeping workers in the country, as well as the lack of incentives to bring them back. On the other hand, it is also the right of every person to try to earn better. Romania is far from the only country that did not know how to solve this socio-economic equation.

Read the full article on Panorama.