Over 350,000 Romanian Children Have Parents Working Abroad – Italian NGO

Either one or both parents of approximately 7% of all Romanian minors are currently working abroad, Italian organization L’Albero della Vita said during a seminar in Milan. The seminar, titled „Left Behind. The Transnational Family and White Orphans in Romanian Moldavia”, was co-organized by the European Commission and the Italian foundation „Patrizio Paoletti”.

Organization representatives added that another 400,000 Romanian minors have had to deal with the absence of parents at least once in their life.

UNICEF data revealed that the fathers of 157,000 Romanian children are currently working abroad, the mothers of 67,000 children have emigrated, and 126,000 minors have two parents in foreign countries. More than half of these children are aged below ten.

At present, four million Romanian citizens live abroad and 796,477 of them are located in Italy. Overall, 15% of Romanian families have at least one emigrant member.

In 21% of cases, Romanian fathers living abroad do not see their children for two to four years, while 28% are absent for longer extents of time.

The report says that, according to 31% of Romanians working abroad, the money they earned and sent back home did not improve their family life.