The Romanian partners of the SEEMIG project were meeting on 11th of February at the marble hall of Harghita County Council. On behalf of Harghita County Council, Ms. Erika Dobos, project manager took part, as well as Ms. Juliánna Bodó, from the Sapientia EMTE University, Mr. Tamás Kiss on behalf of the National Minority Research Institution based in Cluj-Napoca, Mr. Gergő Barna, from TransObjective Consulting in Cluj Napoca, as well as Mr. Sándor Oláh, the expert of the Anthropologic Communication Workgroup from Miercurea Ciuc were participating.
The main reason lying behind the project resides in the fact that nowadays migration has a fast increasing tendency, a lot of people decide to search for living possibilities far away from their home. In our region we barely find people who are not being concerned in migration (in family circles, relatives, friends and acquaintances), the majority of them having thus gained experiences or opinion within this field.
The main objective of the SEEMIG project is to collect data concerning migration processes, to analyse these and to formulate recommendations regarding the methods of data collection. At the same time, an important objective is set up to offer the possibility for different level of decision makers (starting from local governments to European platforms) to use these data and analyses, and accordingly elaborate the migration related strategies.
The purpose of the workshop was to introduce on local and regional level the most important objectives and results of the SEEMIG project and on the other hand to assist local stakeholders and governments in the access and use of the existing data bases and analyses, as well as, on this basis they could elaborate and establish strategies for the migration flows on regional level.
At the opening lines of the presentation series, Ms. Erika Dobos and Mr. Tamás Kiss provided a general overview on the project, where in all 8 South-European countries are participating. Its interesting part lies in the fact that during the elaboration of studies research institutions and local governments were collaborating. The Romanian partners are Harghita County Council, The Mayor’s Office of Sfântu Gheorghe, as well as the National Minority Research Institution.
Owning to Mr. Sándor Oláh’s, the expert of ACM, presentation entitled as The alive history of migration in Seklerland, the participants were offered a possibility to have an insight into the history of migration in the region starting from the second half of 19th century up to the change of regime. The main reasons of this were mainly of economic considerations since the level of poverty characterizing the agriculture was a major influencing factor, respectively the increasing taxes as well. After the First World War 197 Hungarian nationality inhabitants, mainly from big cities, moved to Hungary. During the socialist period the characteristic tendency was the labour migration within the borders of the country: a lot of Hungarian local people moved to and settled down in the area of Banatului, as well as in the vicinity of Satu Mare. At the end of the presentation, Mr. Sándor Oláh brought into discussion the migration processes during the change of regime: between 1987 and 1993 the great part of Hungarian nationality people moved to Hungary.
Mr. Tamás Kiss’ presentation entitled Migration, demographic and labour market processes in Romania, tackled the issue of migration processes, mostly based on the census data from 2011, and accordingly having the aim of researching more realistic factors. As the presenter told, today’s migration processes are unique in the national history, since at the moment approximately 3 million Romanian citizen lives abroad. Nevertheless, on national level migration is not quite characteristic for the Transylvanian inhabitants; this mainly concerns the southern and eastern regions of Romania. However, most people in Transylvania are emigrating from South-Transylvania, Banat and Sălaj. During this presentation it was also revealed that in the last ten years the Hungarian minority in Romania was under-represented regarding the level of migration, despite the fact that from an economic point of view the Hungarian minority lives in periphery.
Ms. Bodó Juliánna, as expert in the project, but also a professor at the Sapientia University offered a presentation on the topic of migration and development. First of all, she emphasized the importance of placing the phenomenon of local migration into paradigms based on concrete results of international theories and research results, and second of all, the results of the regional migration researches used to analyze the present situation.
The presentation outlined the most important theoretical implications of transnational migration and of the New Economics of Labour Migration, as well as the connection between migration and development. During the presentation it was pointed out how these paradigms fit into the local-regional migration. As a conclusion, it was summed up that labor migration on itself can’t resolve the stiffness, underdevelopment of national and local structures, but on the household level it can become a development trend.
The second part of the workshop consisted of open discussions. The representants of the invited institutions presented the types of data they are working with and the data they need. Besides, they also presented the relation of the given institution related to migration processes. As a response to these needs came the presentation of Mr. Barna Gergő – Available data sources and basic analysis techniques for public administration employees. The lecturer presented how statistical data can be interpreted, and detailed the most important national and international databases available. The most important part of the training was when the participants had familiarized themselves with the basic techniques of sociological surveys and data collection.
Among the participants of the event, the Statistical Office of Harghita County, the Labor Agency of Harghita County, Sapientia University, Child Protection Agency of Harghita County, Chamber of Commerce of Harghita County, School Inspectorate of Harghita County, WAC – Center for Regional and Anthropolological Research and several local governments were also taking part.
Miercurea Ciuc, 11th of February 2014
Leave a Reply