International circulatory migration as a local developing factor: The Romanian example

Abstract

Border-crossing offers numerous possibilities for hard-pressed populations to earn money through both legal and illegal means. The paper tries to assess the socio-economic changes brought by international labour migration at personal, family and sending community levels and identify the main economic strategies which have implemented an extended family between the sending and the receiving communities. The research findings will suggest how the practices of remittances investment in the sending region affect the degree of organization of the migration networks, the success of adaptation in the receiving countries (at the network level), the norms, gender roles and structure of migrants’ families, as well as the (re)construction of borders, identities and life-styles.