By Tatiana [ard an and Blaec Kalweit, 10M Moldova "I would

he economic crisis has spread
throughout
the
wo rld
and
Moldova has not been exempt.
According to a recent 10 M study in the
Eastern European country, two out of
every ten rural households previously
receivi ng remittances from abroad w ere
no longer getting them.
T
That is a signifi cant amou nt w hen one
co nsiders that a third of M oldovan
household s receive remitta nces from
family members wo rki ng overseas.
These are used mainly to pay for basic
household co nsumptio n, co nsumer
dur ables, educatio n, housing and debt
repayment. For half of these hou sehold s,
the money accounts for more than 50
per cent of their family budget whil e for
a quarter, remitt ances are virtually the
o nly income.
For a co untry w ith high levels of
emigratio n and a high dependency
o n remi ttances, the global economic
crisis affecting many of the destin ation
countries of M old ovan migrants is bad
news.
Bravicea is a small village situated in
a picturesqu e loca tio n surrounded
by lush green vegetatio n and hidden
behind gentle ro ll ing hill s 60 kms away
from the M ol dovan capital, Chisinau.
At first sight, life here seems to be calm
and happy.
Yet every other famil y livin g in Bravicea
has a migration story to tell. Chi ldren
are runnin g aim lessly in the streets
and to the question: "W here are your
parents?", most of them casually answer:
"Abroad." Left behind as a consequence
of emigratio n, many of these chi ldren
are brought up by grandparents, some
are left wi th neighbours or, in the worst
case scenario, are sent to residential
instituti ons.
M arin, an unemployed 21-year-old man,
without higher educatio n qualifications,
has already travelled several times
to work in the constructio n sector in
Russia, the main destination country
for Mo ldovan mi grants. Working and
li ving in Russia alongside a group of 15
of his compatriots, Marin was satisfied
as they we re treated we ll and paid on
time. A few month s ago he was told by
his emp loyer not to com e back as the
economic crisis had literall y stopped
the co nstructio n sector in its tracks.
Acco rd ing to the 10M study, the number
of Moldovans work ing abro ad fell from
430,000 in July 2008 to 353,000 in
M arch 2009. As yet, how ever, there
By Tatiana [ard an and
Blaec Kalweit, 10M Moldova
is no evidence of the eco nomic crisis
forci ng a mass return of M old ovan
migrants home. Ma ny M old ovan
migrants are seasonal wo rkers and the
flow of migrants going in and out of the
country can partiall y explain the drop
in numbers. Figures of those leaving are
lik ely to increase again as more than
half of the M old ovans interviewed for
the study said they had only returned
temporarily and were plannin g to leave
again in the coming month s.
Yet the number of those w ho have
returned for good has grow n although
many of them said it had been for
famil y reasons. The number of " new"
mi grants, i.e. peopl e intendin g to leave
the coun try for the first tim e, is also
stabi lizing in a co untry where migration
has taken its toll .
Evid entl y, the return of M oldo va's
migrants isn't the tell-ta le sign one wou ld
think of a country being touched by the
economic crisis abroad. Remittances
are. M arin's eldest sister Liliana left
home three years ago as an irregula r
migrant to Italy. Worki ng as a carer for
elderly peop le, Liliana had consistently
sent home money from her earni ngs.
Now, w ith a fami ly of her ow n, Lili ana
is sendi ng less and less mon ey to her
family, explaini ng that the worseni ng
economic situation has constrained her
abili ty to send back remitt ances.
It's an anecdote that bears out the
findin gs of the 10M report. Twenty per
cent of M oldovan household s that had
previou sly benefited from remittances,
no longer receive any mon ey from a
relative wo rking in . another
country.
,
Fo rty-five per cent of the household s
now receive less or even much less
co mpared to last year: The National
Bank of M old ova confirms this trend,
stating that remi ttances to M o ldova
dropped by 42 per cent in the first four
month s of 2009 in comparison to th e
same period in 2008 .
" I would glad ly go back to work in
Moscow to help out my parents if I were
offered a job," saysMarin.
Instead, M arin, along w ith other
returnees, now has to comp ete for a
job at hom e. In rural areas, w here
oppo rtunit ies are scarce, the chances
are that the returneesw iII fare better than
tho se w ho never left home given their
greater wo rk eXf?,erience. Unemployed
M old ovan yo uth w ith littl e to no wo rk
experience could sink even deeper into
poverty as a result.
"The top priori ty is to identify the most
vulnerable and protect them," states
M artin Wyss, 10 M 's Chief of M ission in
Mol dova. Less money in the state coffers
cou ld see cuts in socia l services and
human developm ent programmes but a
short-term poli cy response could be to
avoid cutting targeted social assistance
programmes, thus making sure that the
most vulnerable and margin ali zed do
not fall further into rural poverty and
soci al exc lusio n.
How ever, irregul ar and seaso nal
mi grants are also vuln erable while
abroad as they are often not in a
position to argue against poor workin g
co nditions, long hour s and low salaries.
.A. Like many houses to be round in tufJI ~\oldova, this
one has been abandoned b) ,1 i". II.. v, hich has now
migrated abroad . © 10 M 1009 - .\ \.\ \D GO!l 8 (Photo:
Tatiana jarda n)
"A low salary in Moscow is still higher
than w hat I can earn in M oldova," Mari n
nevertheless explai ns. And of course,
avoid ing unempl oyment in Iv\oldova is
paramoun t.
The story of 61-year-o ld Nico lae's
famil y is a perfect illu stration of the
above. Nicolae has been left to take
care of his three grandchi ldren by his
two daughters, both abroad. His eldest
daughter, work ing in Greece, is now
thin king of cal ling her daughter over to
join her. Mea nw hile, Nicolae's youngest
daughter, w ho has been working in
Moscow for the past few months, has yet
to be paid. Her employers say the delay
is due to financia l difficulties because
of the economic crisis. But it has left
his daughter in a very difficult state, left
hanging between the prom ises of money,
or returni ng hom e to see her chi ldren.
Bravicea is ju st one of hundreds of
villages in Moldova w ith such stories.
O nly time w ill tell how the situatio n
w ill evo lve for bot h M ol dovan migrants
and their families back hom e but now
is a good tim e to act to lessen the wo rst
effects of the crisis.
"We felt that it was import ant not to
wait until thin gs were too late. 10 M is
worki ng with the government and partner
organizatio ns to continue assessi ng the
impact of the crisis and to do w hat is
possible to lessen the pain of the cr isis
on both the fami lies at home and on the
Mo ldova n migrants abroad," saysWyss.
One actio n, together wi th the Moldovan
M inistry of Economy and Trade, and the
International Labor O rganizatio n (I LO)
has been to initiate a programme mak ing
the most of the rem ittances com ing in.
Instead of using remitt ances for co nsumer
durables and othe r househol d expenses,
the aim is to get migrants to invest in
developin g businesses and liv elih oods.
"Such an approach is one of the best
ways to brin g those made vulnerable
by the crisis out of economic and social
exclusio n," co ncl udes Wyss.
~ M any Mol dovan
villages are popu lated
w ith elderly peopl e
takin g care of their
grandc hi ldren. © 10 M
2009 - MMD0086
(PIli 10: Tatiana Jardan)