Socio- cultural aspects of the Romanian community

Socio- cultural aspects of the Romanian community

1 Characterization of the Romanian community

The immigration from Eastern Europe, including Romania, in Italy and especially in Milan seems not to be studied very much.

In the Communist period, few Romanians succeeded to cross the borders, and those usually were not an issue for the Italian society. After 1998 more immigrants tended to immigrate as clandestine in Italy. After 2002, the years of visa waiving, the number of Romanians increased very much. Unfortunately, when a foreign community increases, different types of people with different education levels can be noticed, therefore nowadays there are many social issues due to the aspect of low education.

One of the aspects of integration of a community of Romanians in the Italian society was the language. Even for those with a low level of education, Italian language is not an impediment to manage. Italian and Romanian languages are very close, having the same root: the Latin language. This is a strong aspect of social and economical integration: the capability of fast language understanding and the capacity to make yourself understood.

A weak aspect of the community is the fact that Romanians seem not to be united. This fact is emphasized by the different Romanian provinces from where they arrive. Sometimes the level of education represents a very important issue of integration inside the community and an impediment against the collaboration between Romanians. In the same time this aspect of level of education brings a lot of mistrust between the members of the community. Another reason why the Romanian community is not so cohesive is perhaps the gap between the "Italian experiences". Those that have been here for more then ten years have another status, they are integrated in a different circle, and they have more Italian friends then Romanians. Those that arrived in Milan a few years ago have another circle of acquaintances, more Romanians than Italians. About all these aspects we will discuss later.

The community of Romanians is described by a dominance of insecurity and mistrust. In an environment like this, the family links are rich sources for the integration of immigrants. Those links have offered trust, support and new opportunities to the newly arrived. Those family links have supported the integration of many Romanian immigrants. Unfortunately, these aspects of "family network" sometimes work only between family links as son - father (mother -daughter) or husband and wife or to brothers and sisters and not nephew - uncle, and this fact underlines another aspect of the fragmentation of the Romanian community (of course there are also exceptions).

Unfortunately, the lack of some strong Romanian institutions that could help the immigrants in the process of integration is another weak aspect of the Romanian community. Those Romanian institutions should be capable to unify the Romanians and help them collaborate in the interest of the community itself. The fact that the Romanian community is "young" , thinking in respect to other communities of immigrants from Milan, is perhaps the main reason for which there are only a few such Institutions which are not well organized, and do not succeed to help the community. The Romanian Government should aid more effort to the creation of those institutions.

A positive aspect of the community is that its members are usually hardworking people and they are appreciated by Italians. And this was a very important point of the social and, most importantly, economic integration.

The Romanian community is a young Community. It was affected by the two waves of major migration. Referring to the interviews taken to a number of 54 people, 70% of them had the age between 26 and 40 years old. Therefore, the community is not only young, but also formed mostly by young members.

Migration network of the Romanian community

1 General aspects

It is know that the migrations are facilitated by the creation of the social network. The immigration flux develops a social structure relatively independent that has the result of perpetuating the migration itself. An international migration flux, once started, tends to develop a social infrastructure, which permits a mass movement of the immigrants. [9 page 22] During this time, the number of social links has increased between the departure areas and the arrival ones, until a social network has been created, which slowly reduced the costs of international mobility. [9 pg 23]

Migration networks are defined in the extant literature as recurrent sets of interpersonal ties that bind migrants and non-migrants together within a web of reciprocal obligations that can be drawn upon to facilitate entry, adjustment, and employment at points of destination.[]

A social connection to someone with migrant experience at a particular destination represents an important resource that can be used to facilitate movement. Movement of one person within a network transforms the relationship into a valuable connection that can be used by anybody within the network to facilitate migration.

The contacts created within the network increase the probability of arrival of more immigrants, since the costs and the risks of mobility are reduced. [9 pg 23]

The connections created due to the migration network encourage the departure of other persons who benefit from this social capital in order to gather instruments and useful information in order to immigrate, since the process of migration itself involves costs and risks that are better understood by the pioneers of the community. With the passing of the years, immigration became part of a life strategy that defined the community as a whole. If, at the beginning of the immigration, in general, the immigrants were people with high education (at least medium), with the passing of the years and due to the growth of the migration network this process was less selective (with low level of education) and also tended to involve more and more families. It gets to a situation where the immigrants prevail from poor families, in many cases with a low education.

Once the immigration process started, the process itself increases based on the new knowledge, experiences, social contacts and other forms of social capital which tend to influence each other. According to the researchers, all these processes transform the departure and arrival areas.

In the Romanian case, in the Communist period, the immigration was perquisite by the government and Romanians did not have the opportunity to build international migration networks, but after this period, the state did not practice any control on the emigration of its citizens.

One implication of this is that the process of being socially connected to someone who has migrated necessarily creates a migratory information feedback mechanism, where contacts act as conduits of information to potential migrants.

"Migration is defined as a network-creating process because it develops an increasingly dense web of contacts between places of origin and destination. Once established, such networks allow the migration process to become self-sustaining and impervious to short-term changes in economic incentives" [portes?]

2 Social networks theory aspects

There are several conceptual models that can be employed to explain how social networks operate.

The first is the social capital model, which assumes that actors migrate to maximize returns on their investments in human capital and, in doing so, draw upon the social capital embedded in their interpersonal networks. Social capital is defined as: " . the capacity of individuals to command scarce resources by virtue of their membership in networks or broader social structures. Such resources may include economic tangibles like price discounts and interest-free loans, or intangibles like information about business conditions, employment tips, and generalized 'goodwill' in market transactions. The resources themselves are not social capital; the concept refers instead to the individuals' ability to mobilize them on demand." [?]

The key conceptual characteristic of such resources is that, from a market standpoint, they are free to recipients. They have the character of 'gifts' since they are not expected to be repaid by a certain amount of money or other valuables in a given period of time" (Portes, 1995, pg. 12).

With the use of social capital the costs and risks associated with the act of migrating are reduced, i.e., access to safe transportation, housing, employment, and social interaction, and thus the probability of migrating is increased.

Similar to some economic models of migration, the social capital theorists assume that individuals will instrumentally use their networks as a means of gaining the highest returns on their investments in human capital.

Additionally, social capital theory assumes that access to social connections, in the form of migrant networks, reduces the cost of movement and favors the act of migration to places where there exists a social tie [?].

An important aspect in the decision of migration represents the households as decision- making units. From this argument results that decision to migrate may take place in order to maximize the expected income of household. Households utilize their networks in order to diversify their household income, by sending a member of the household abroad.

Subsequently, the first member who is sent abroad can be a contact, so if the condition arises, such as a market failure, the household can send other members to that same location by taking advantage of the bridge made by the first mover [?].

Empirical tests have confirmed that coming from a community which has a high rate of migration, or knowing someone who has migrated, is associated with migrating across international lines. It has been shown that individuals related to someone with migrant experience are far more likely to migrate than individuals without that relationship

In addition, households that have relatives living in destination areas, or that have members with experience in those areas, are more likely to send migrants than those who do not [?]

The network effect works through reducing the cost of moving, either monetarily, psychologically, or socially. Additionally, it could act as an information feedback mechanism for the community. Therefore once migration has started, the character of the point of origin is changed with the association of people at the point of destination, and this increases the probability for everyone in the household to migrate in comparison to households that lack that link [?]

3 The evolution of Romanian social network

The network theory strengthens the importance of networks in the establishment and maintenance of the migration chains. Accordingly, migrations are enabled by 'innovators' of migration, actors who form networks and act as entrepreneurs of migration, maintaining and developing the chains of migration. Due to the innovative character of these networks and of their high adaptability, the migration chains can adapt and develop despite the often restrictive policies of the states [?].

Networks connect migrants across time and space. Once begun, migration flows often become self-sustaining, reflecting the establishment of networks' information, assistance and obligations that develop between migrants in the host society and friends and relatives in the departure area. Those networks link populations from the origin and receiving countries and ensure that movements are not necessarily limited in time, unidirectional or permanent.

For migrants, social networks are crucial for finding jobs and accommodation, circulating goods and services, as well as psychological support and continuous social and economic information. Social networks often guide migrants into or through specific places and occupations. Local labour markets can become linked through specific networks of interpersonal and organizational ties surrounding migrants.

Migration itself can be conceptualized as a process of network building, which depends on and, in turn, reinforces social relationships across space. Migration is a process that both depends on, and creates, social networks.

An international migration flux "once started, tends to develop a social network (infrastructure) which drives to mass settlements. Through time, the number of the social connections between the areas of departure and the area of destination increases, until a social network that slows the costs of international mobility is created. The migration network is composed from the interpersonal connections that link immigrants between them through relative and friend relationships. The new connections created through the immigration network encourage the migration of other people, who can enjoy this social capital, in order to obtain useful information regarding the risks and benefits or costs. " [9 pg ?]

The researchers agree that the migration is facilitated by the development of social network. In order to understand this process it is very important to see the main reason and factors which determine the migration from a country to another country (like economic crises and labour force shortage).

Another aspect is that already started, the migration process manifests itself as the increase of social capital (new experiences, new knowledge, and new social contacts) on both sides, immigrants and hosts. From this perspective, the immigration process changes both the "departure country" and "destination country".

A very interesting aspect of the increasing circulation between Italy and Romania was the developing of transnational links between the two countries, because of the continuous flux of capital, products, persons and values, which we will discuss later on future chapters.

I helped many Romanian people come to Milan, not only my nephews but also friends and acquaintances from my village. Perhaps in this period of staying in Milan, more than twelve years, I helped more than one hundred people, with money and with information, by telling them when I knew about a job. Now if a Romanian person tries to find a job, and I know something I give them the number of the Italian that can offer the work and I tell that Romanian to say that "Nona M" gave me the number. So, Italians will know that those Romanians can be trusted . . I, myself, was helped by a friend of mine, she invited me here .

Nona M"

The affiliation to a network could represent an advantage in the process of integration in the Italian context by finding a better job. Unfortunately, the networks can sometimes also limit the opportunities of an individual.

First Wave of Romanian migration in Italy/ Milan

The researchers that have studied the phenomenon of Romanian immigration have distinguished between two waves of migration (Irene Ponzo noticed this phenomenon for the Romanians who immigrated in Turin, but a parallel with the Milanese migration case can be made) . The first wave started after the 90's, immediately after the fall of the communist regime. Even though the Romanian Government did not restrict the migration anymore, to immigrate was very difficult. The costs were very high, not only for the mobility but also for the visa. Usually the visas were obtained in an illegal manner and were very expensive.

The first significant wave of Romanian migration was characterized by huge costs and huge risks, like being caught and sent back home by the police, because almost all of the immigrants that succeeded to arrive in Milan at that time were clandestine. Another possibility to arrive in Italy, before 1998, when the Schengen Agreement was applied in Italy, was to obtain a tourist visa from Germany or other western country. Those countries could offer this type of visas easier than Italy. So; those pioneers had the opportunity to come from Germany in an easier way. Of course, the fact that they could arrive in Italy/ Milan with a German tourist visa did not mean that they were out of risk of being caught and sent back to Romania by the local Italian authorities.

Another way to arrive in Italy was to cross illegally the frontiers by hiding under the seats and inside the cavity of trains or crossing it by foot. The main problem that those pioneers faced was the "organization of the travel". Usually a small group of friends from the same town or village organized the "trip".

For the first wave, the immigration in a small group was essential. By comparison the second wave is characterized by an individual migration.

In many cases the family did not agree with the voyage because of the risks at which they were exposed.

I decided by myself, my family did not agree . they did not want to let me go . .I arrived with two friends of mine from the some town and we decided together to try to go .

SM

We left in a group of four. We did not know each other, but the priest from my village said to trust one of them because he knew Italian. We had to climb up a web of two meters because the documents that we had where not valid . .

G M

I decided one night to go with a group of friends . .My family did not agree, only my sister knew because I left my daughter with her . I did not borrow any money. When I arrived I had no money with me.

AF

One of the main issues for the first arrived in Milan was housing. The lack of finding a proper shelter made them sleep under the bridges, in the parks, in cars (in the happiest situation), or in the abandoned buildings where they were exposed to major risks (the issue of keeping the savings safe, health conditions, the risks of been arrested by the police) all the time. In many cases, they had to carry the money earned with them all day because of the possibility of being robbed by other immigrants.

The pioneers arrived in Italy without having a certain idea of what they may find. The only way to find information were the acquaintances who were already in Italy, but not family or relatives. Sometimes there were rumors about Romanians in some cities of Italy. So, in that period when Romanians were few in numbers, those cities became attraction points for them. Many Romanians did not have in mind Milan as the first arrival location, but after understanding from the local context that in Northern Italy and of course in Milan the possibilities of finding a better job were bigger, they decided to come here.

Due to the fact that the Romanians in that period of first wave of migration were scarce, it was an opportunity to have a direct interaction with Italians in order to create new and strong relationships.

For the pioneers the interaction with Italians compensated the first immigration disadvantages with later advantages (better job, welfare, better position in society - things obtained mostly because of the scarce numbers of Romanians). Of course, even during the immigration of the second wave, the links with the Italians were important, but in a lesser way than in the case of the pioneers, because of the high interaction with the same members of community (sometimes is not even necessary to know an Italian in order to find a job).

I arrived in Milan 16 years ago. Speaking about the relationships that I have with Romanians, the fact is that I am friend with Romanians who immigrated in the same period with me because in that period we were just few Romanians and I have many Italian friends. During Christmas, if I don't go to Romania, I spend the holidays with Italians, not with Romanians . .

M.O

Regarding the pioneers, they created new connections directly with the Italians, especially at the work place. If you ask them, they would tell you that "I was the only foreign person there", instead of the Romanians from the second wave of migration in Milan, for whom the work places became an opportunity to build strong relationships between conationals. Nowadays, at the question regarding the nationality on the work field, is easy to hear "We are all Romanians".

The pioneers of the Romanian immigration have opened new ways for other co nationals who were tempted to immigrate. The Romanian immigrants, who arrived during the first wave, later after their settlement, offered help on their turn to those who wanted to come, friends, relatives and of course to the family. The help consisted in information, sometimes capital, a job and, most important, temporary shelter.

3.2 Second wave of Romanian migration in Milan

After the abolishment of the visa needed in 2002 by the Romanian citizens to enter any member country of the European Union, a new wave of migration started.

The departure toward Milan wasn't so difficult anymore as during the "pervious wave" and the costs of mobility decreased very much. If the immigrants needed before a lot of money and a small group of people with whom to immigrate together, after 2002 the immigration could be individual and less expensive.

My mother was already in Milan. She earned a lot of money. From her I found out all the information needed in order to obtain a legal permit of stay. She lent me money to pay the lawyer in order to obtain the permit. In a few weeks, I was already legal and I stared to find a job.

G. S

The Romanians who arrived in Italy in the last few years were much easier integrated in the local Italian context with the help of the family, or with the help of those who already were settled in Milan. In many situations, people from the same town or village had a big importance in the process of integration of the new arrivals. The help provided by those already settled consisted in information, loans, temporary shelter, or even a temporary job until the new arrived was capable to find a better one.

I was working in Germany. The language was very difficult for me. Then my sister, who was already in Italy, told me to try to come tovcz c Milan. She helped me to find an old lady to take care of her. Because Romanian and Italian languages are similar, it was much easier to integrate and to understand people around me.

O.

The main support of the second wave of immigration is the family, because in many situations one of the members was already in Milan.

In the first wave the Romanians usually migrated from south to north and later they decided to settle in Milan, in the second wave, many of Romanian arrived directly to Milan where a relative or a member of the family was already there.

Picture n - Romanian immigrants of the second wave

My brother arrived first in Milan; he told me how the things were working here. After many discussions with him on telephone I decided to come in Milan in order to earn some money and then to go back. But since five years I am still here in Milan and I go in Romania only for holidays.

M.A

The creation of the networks has two aspects, the first which is positive, because it helps the immigrants to integrate themselves better and faster in the local Italian context (by providing information, better jobs, sometimes a certain level of security) and a second negative one, because sometimes this process creates unofficial mutual obligations and responsibilities .

3.3 Advantages and disadvantages for each of the two waves of migration

In the research made by Irene Ponzo on the Romanians in Turin, she identified two waves of immigration. As in Turin, in Milan is a different "relational" situation between the two waves of Romanian immigration because the first contacts influence the character of the future network built in the place of arrival. For example, how strong it is the relation between A and B, so big will be the proportion of the relationship between the individuals to whom both will be linked. So, the newly arrived will inherit a part of the network from the predecessor with the strength proportional to the connections that person has. Usually, those from the second wave, who benefited from the help of a relative or a member of the family, took "the lion's share". Afterwards, the increase of the social networks leads to a social homogeneity of the immigrant community.

The advantage of the existing network for the new arrivals was the possibility to integrate (from a social and an economic point of view) easier and faster due to access to information. It is known that people chose to immigrate in places where a member of a certain community existed already. As stated before, it is easier to decide to immigrate in a place when you have access to information about the local context or sometimes when you also know someone that you can count on.

The first Romanian immigrants did not have the opportunity to integrate in the community as fast as those from the second wave, but instead they had direct contact with persons from different nationalities, and especially Italians. Those contacts helped them to integrate better in the Italian context, being always surrounded by Italians.

According to Irene Ponzo, the increase of a community leads to a decreasing interaction with other groups from other communities. The contact between the Italians and the pioneers of the first wave was more intense in the 90's, because the presence of Romanians was scarce, and it has been slowly diminishing with the increase of the Romanian presence. [10 Ponzo

Of course, this is more valid in the labour context, because a high percentage of members of the community have found their jobs with the aid of Romanian personal contacts.

Because of the decreasing risks of migration for the second wave, due to the creation of the migration network, the number of Romanian immigrants is higher than in the case of the first wave. To all of this it must be added that the costs of the journey are lower now than they were when the first wave arrived.

As a conclusion, we could say that the type of link each Romanian has is very important in order to obtain a better and more stable job. The networks with weak links keep the individual in a marginal society, providing scarce informational resources.

The pioneers, represented by a few numbers, built instead their own network developing relationships with Italians and other nationalities.

Another aspect of the theory of "building network" is that with the increase of an immigration group (from the same country), the probability of interacting with other groups is decreasing, encouraging the homogeneity of the network. In the case of Romanians, the opportunity of building contacts with Italians was favored by the scarce number of Romanians, while during the second wave the direct contacts with Italians slowly decreased due to the increasing number of Romanians in Italy and in Milan. There are cases where Romanians from the second wave are not capable to speak fluently Italian because they speak every day only with Romanians and the direct links with Italians are very scarce. This is a fact for the case of Romanian housewives who arrived in the same time with their husbands, but being unemployed, or working few hours per week in the domestic sector, did not have enough opportunities to develop a rich Italian vocabulary.

This situation is more relevant in the labour context, where in many cases the Romanian immigrants were able to find jobs through Romanian personal contacts. These situations lead to a concentration of conationals in certain job sectors where there are many contacts with the Romanian community. For example, in the construction work field, there are many situations when the whole team is formed by Romanians and there is, therefore, a good opportunity to speak the native language. This is, however, a disadvantage when it comes to learning Italian and creating new links with Italians. The pioneers could not deal with a homogeneous "professional network" from the nationality point of view because they were few. For that reason it was possible to hear from those Romanians "I was the only Romanian or the only foreigner". This was a good opportunity for the pioneers to create connections with Italians, while instead, for the second wave, the workplace was an opportunity to encounter more and more conationals. Regarding the question about the nationality of the colleagues from the workplace is easy to hear "we are all Romanians".

The workplace is very important in building new relationships between Romanians and Italians and since a few years ago, also between conationals. In many cases when the pioneers were few at the workplace (sometimes the only foreigner), a relation of friendship often developed between the Romanian workers and the Italian patron. In the case of second migration wave, the relation between the Romanians and the Italian patron is strictly professional.

There is a situation where the same pioneers who did not build a strong relationship with Italians, being in a situation where they worked only with conationals, tended to lose for good the previous contacts. From the working context point of view, the pioneers created a heterogeneous network and those from second wave created a more homogeneous one.

There is another way to compare the two migration waves, for example, after "number of contacts" with autochthons, offering the possibility to reach a higher position in the society, a possibility to access valuable resources. For the pioneers, the previous disadvantages (no available information, scarce number of conationals, homelessness, access to less valuable recourses) have been compensated by advantages like increased contacts with Italians or welfare due to a better job and a better position in the society. The scarce presence of Romanians in the first wave helped the pioneers to have a larger access to the Italian resources. Instead, those from the second wave could often benefit from the help of a relative (information, money, job, temporary shelter), but they were at a great disadvantage because they depended on those relatives, and sometimes those connections constrained them. [ponzo]

3.4 Precarious circle / vicious circle circular

Another type of social network is formed by those members of a community who are unemployed and have a lot of free time. Irene Ponzo speaks about them as "circolo dei precari". It seems that the members of this vicious circle are usually excluded by the other members of the Romanian community (they are dropped out). To be part of this circle, those must have a very precarious social and economic situation with short periods of employment. They usually do not have access to a proper network (as a family network), to other members of the community who could provide access to a better job, or could offer the support that a new immigrant would need at least temporary (temporary shelter, money). Usually they do not have access to the "family links or relative links" that others have. Usually, in the Romanian community, one can rely upon the help of a first-degree relative (like parent-child or brothers), but not further. Therefore, in order to find a better job, and to have access to better resources, it is better to be integrated in a "family chain", fact that it is not happening with those from the "precarious circle".

Picture n - Women in the area of Centrale waiting for a job opportunity

As a comparison, they are in a similar situation with the pioneer, only that the number of conationals is so high that is very hard for them to build new contacts and new relationships with Italians. The only thing that they are able to do is build "weak relationships with other Romanians". That is why they have access only to poor resources.

In general, the social networks are developed between immigrants from the same family or the same region of Romania. This situation increases the trust in one another. Unfortunately, those from the "vicious circle" do not benefit from such acquaintances and they feel excluded by the entire community.

This type of network usually has its own place of meeting, which is the open spaces like the squares, the stations, parks, where they have the opportunity to build new connections, even though they have access to poor information.

The disadvantage of such a network is that the immigrants inside the circle do not have access to new contacts who could provide them with better jobs but only to persons from other precarious circles.

The status of the network in which the individual is introduced is very important. Usually that individual will have the same status and will receive the same resources as the others. For example, if a network of Romanians has poor resources, meaning that they have access only to low paid jobs, the new arrival will have access to the same poor resources.

For the pioneers, the public spaces were the only opportunity to have access to information, so this was for them a rich source that they took advantage of.

3.5 Public spaces as a way of developing the social network

Public spaces have a great importance in the development of the migrant networks. The open spaces are the areas where immigrants who do not know anyone in Milan have the opportunity to find out valuable information about the local reality. These are the places where it is possible to create new connections and to find out new opportunities.

In Milan the areas that are used as a open spaces are Cascina Gobba, Centrale, Sempione Park.

Picture n Romanian young people near Centrale

Unfortunately, sometimes such spaces are frequented by Romanians with poor resources. This is specific more to the second wave of migration because for the first wave those areas represented valuable resources in order to make new acquaintances and new connections.

3 The role of family in the immigration

Within social theory, the concept of family generally denotes a domestic group made up of individuals related to one another by bonds of blood, sexual mating or legal ties. The family is generally defined either in terms of the kinds of relations and connections encompassed by the institution (e.g. the domestic group or household, close kin who are not necessarily co-resident, and the wider network or deeper genealogy of kinship) or in terms of its functions (e.g. regulation of socialization, sexuality, labour and consumption).

Within feminist theory the family has moreover been conceptualized as a gendered unit of reproduction and cultural transmission or a space for gendered social relations (Anthias 2000).

Researchers have arrived at the conclusion that family has a central role in the choices, strategies and migration projects of individuals or in the choice of the country of arrival.

The researches had demonstrated that the family is the most important resource for facing the difficulties of a tough migration process and for absorbing the negative effects of this kind of process.

I can not live without my family. For me the family is everything. When I got the opportunity to work in Milan, I accepted only because my family agreed to come with me. Unfortunately, the Italian bureaucracy is so complex and chaotic . It was very hard for me to legalize the status of my family .

ICD

The study of the family in the process of immigration allows the comprehension of the evolution of this process from the individual point of view or from the group's, in order to understand the decisions and eventually the choices.

The decision to immigrate can be taken inside the family circle, who can sustain the migrant wishing to enlarge his own economic and cultural opportunities.

The family has an important role on the research of the evolution of the process of immigration, helping in redefining the role of the individual person inside the familial nucleus, who can leave/ migrate in order to create better economic conditions, or in establishing the base of the future arrival of the whole family. Another decision that is made inside the nucleus is the choosing the person who must stay and take care of the children and household in the home country.

In the process of migration, the family is changing due to the local laws, cultural habits, and social systems in the arrival country.

The family must be aware of the reality of the country chosen in the process of migration and has to know very well what is best for its members, defining its priorities. Because in this process of migration, the family is affected by changes that are wanted or chosen on purpose, but in the same time is constrained by changes induced by economic and social commitments, new rules and values. All these could lead to a way of preservation of the traditional values from the departure country.

Picture n - Romanian family in Milan

During the immigration process the family links have a very high importance. The immigrants use with higher intensity the connections that they hold with their families or friends rather than with other co nationals.

In the last years, the Romanians that have arrived In Italy are helped mostly by their families, through a parental linkage. We deal with the second wave of Romanian immigration, and so in many cases the Romanians from the first wave help their family members that intend to come. This is a guarantee for the new arrivals that they will have a certain protection against the unknown situations.

In some cases, the wives are the ones who arrived first and after a certain period, they brought their husbands and their children. In other cases were the brothers or other members of the family, that gave some guarantees to the newly arrived that they would be helped to find a job quickly, or they would have a shelter.

Of course, there are same situations when those already settled in Milan guarantee that they will help some relatives (if they decide to immigrate) and when those relatives arrive they live them alone to handle the unknown situations and turn their back on them.

In Milan, in many situations the Romanians succeeded to bring their families after a certain period of time (after they succeeded to earn some money, found a proper house and a stable job). The status of the family is linked very much with the stability and with the level of welfare. It is true that many Romanian families that settled in Milan can afford to have more then two children. In many cases they bring other relatives from Romania (grandmothers, nieces) to help them with the babies, if both parents want to work (and in many cases they have to work).

In other unfortunate cases the family doesn't succeed to pass the test of immigration process and there are many cases of divorces, separation, men living in Milan alone without their wives and children or women who live alone without their families.

Comentariu eu la paragraful de mai sus: Most of the time the precarious Italian burocratic system was responsible for such separations, before Romania entered the European Union. Also, the Italian legislation regarding the family rights of immigrants was outdated in comparison with the US, for example. Many improvements have been made recently, but there are still loopholes in the system.

Fortunately, in comparison with earlier years, the immigration of couples has become more frequent. If most of the immigrants used to come alone and bring their families after a number of years, now the majority come in couples or with the whole family (In the province of Milan, the percentage of Romanian immigrants that arrive alone is roughly 7%).

Transnational families

Newer, cheaper, and more efficient modes of communication and transportation allow migrants to maintain transnationally their home-based relationships and interests.

In this context, due to the growing role of the transnational networks and transnational connections in the globalizing world, the relationship between states and transnational actors is particularly interesting. According to Castells (Castells, 1997, 1999), we witness at the moment the growing importance of the global networks and the lowering control of the national states. States are no more seen as the 'territorial containers of societies, and they are being challenged by the growing multiplicity and complexity of the transnational ties. At the 'top', global networks manage the world's finance and challenge the role of the national states. In his view this happens especially because of the developments of the IT, communication and transport systems, enabling the capital to operate globally in real time and to become autonomous from states' authority.

Today, globally 'stretched' patterns of activity affect a variety of migrants' social relations (including friendship, kinship and status hierarchies), modes of economic exchange, processes of political mobilization, practices of cultural reproduction (including religious practices, institutions like marriage, images and symbols affecting group identity) forms of information transfer, and nature of professional association. Many observers see remittances as the exemplary forms of migrant transnationalism. (Vertovec 2000)?????

Within migration research, identification of the family with the domestic group has given rise to various analytical problems. First, many have seen family separation due to migration as potentially if not inevitably leading to family disintegration. Together with news stories and policy reports, scholarly work has repeatedly pointed to rising incidents of e.g. spousal abandonment, separation and divorce, male alcoholism, teenage pregnancies, children's poor school performance, delinquency and even child suicide as a consequence of family separation due to migration. Second, the prediction of negative outcomes has been conspicuously prominent in work dealing with migrant female mothers who leave husbands and children behind. However, as Pribilsky argues, the focus on disorganized households or family life totally misses the nuances surrounding men's (and women's) mobility; women's (and men's) reaction to it; the multiple ways migration transforms, reorients and reprioritizes conjugal relationships; as well as parent-child relationships in transnational social space (Pribilsky 2004:315). [trans pdf]

In their rethinking of conventional wisdom of migration Levitt and Glick Schiller (2004) approach transnational family life as social reproduction taking place across borders.

Some researchers define transnational families as families that live some or most of the time separated from each other, but yet hold together and create a feeling of collective welfare and unity; a process they term 'familyhood across national borders'. Transnational families have to cope with multiple national residences, identities and loyalties. Like other families, transnational families are not biological units per se, but social constructions or 'imagined communities'. And, like other families, transnational families must mediate inequality amongst their members, including differences in access to mobility, resources, various types of capital and lifestyles (Bryceson and Vuerela 2002:3-7).

The forces that hold transnational families together may be stronger than the forces, both legal and physical, that separate individual family members.

Transnational families are buffered by extensive social networks, allowing transnational experiences to form a fluid continuum, rather than a radical divide compartmentalizing life into two separate worlds (Herrera Lima op sit:91). Dispersed family members are brought together in one social space by emotional and financial ties. They stay in contact by modern means of communication and by occasional physical movement between sending and receiving societies.

The transnational family is a symptom of our increasingly globalized lives, which take place across borders and boundaries, thereby eroding the possibilities that places of birth, life and dying will coincide. The idea of transnational family implies dynamics, flux and change, yet it is also embedded in unyielding and stable structures that impact upon the experiences of family members. These structures are represented by the institutions of the host society, the restrictions imposed by geography, international politics and law, technologies that enable communication and travel and the strength of ties with family members back home or in other places.

However, in transnational households one parent, both parents or adult children may be producing income abroad while other family members carry out the functions of reproduction, socialization, and consumption in the country of origin (Parreñas, 2001). Thus, transnationalism forces us to reconsider our understanding of households and families based on the idea of co-residency and physical unity, and to take into account the possibility of spatial separation.

In the case of Romanian community, a role in maintaining the evolution of the transnational family is the improvement of travel conditions (they can visit each other more often - 2 hours of flight), the reduction of costs of journey and the access to new technologies (telecommunications). This allows a better maintenance of contacts with and between different members of the family.

If before the abolishment of the visa was very difficult to travel back in the home country, after that period, in 2002, the situation became different. It was easier to travel, to get out of the country. Now, when the Romanian community is a member of the EU, is more convenient then ever. So the connection with the family back home is much easier to maintain.

The transnational family creates new forms of connections strongly linked with the idea of identity, culture and the idea of being "close to home".

The individuals and the families put into action multiple social relationships which links the departure society with the arrival society establishing social, economic, cultural dimensions which afflict the politic, cultural and geographic borders . The immigrants define their own interests, assume their own decisions, create relations and connections, and accomplish activities in this inter-spatial dimension.

The migration and the transnational connections can be seen as strategies of migrants to protect the households against the risks (Massey, 1993), such as natural cataclysms or uncertainty on the market and in the economy of the households. In this case, migrations are not necessarily seen as definitive and transnational activities are practiced mainly to secure the household from the risks. For the Romanian case, the risks are generally linked with economic insecurity and with the economic transformations within the Romanian society. Applying this theoretical perspective to the Romanian case, migration may be seen rather as a temporary strategy of lowering risks, hence the transnational connections are limited to a certain time 'horizon'.

The members of the transnational family are distinguished by their strong emotional connections with their families. The large distances and lack of physical contact tend to bond the family members at an emotional level and to create new types of emotional relationships.

In this condition, the mothers are the ones who find ways to take care of the sons who are far away. They try to be present in the life of their children by sending gifts (money, clothes, equipment) and entrusting theirs sons to others persons /members of family. This is a process in which the immigrant women try not to abandon their role as mothers even if this entire process takes place on huge geographic distances.

In this way the family has new functions and reciprocal responsibilities which are not tied to the physical proximity. In these families the physical relations are reduced in the detriment of long distance relationships, where the only true contact is through remittance and gifts. In this situation new family links are created, in a way that give shape to a "distance maternity". For the sons the absence of their mothers seems not to be felt in a very harsh way and they recognize their mother's effort to offer them what is best.

5 Family and children

Within migration research, identification of the family with the domestic group has given rise to various analytical problems. Many have seen family separation due to migration as potentially if not inevitably leading to family disintegration. Together with news stories and policy reports, scholarly work has repeatedly pointed to rising incidents of e.g. spousal abandonment, separation and divorce, male alcoholism, teenage pregnancies, children's poor school performance, delinquency and even child suicide as a consequence of family separation due to migration.

Exista deja

Picture n ..Children location - Cinesello Balsamo

The Romanians dealt with many tragic cases because of children who were left back home with their relatives. The absence of one parent or, worse, both of them, left tragic scars in the development of one of the more sensitive children. This determined the Romanian Government to take measures and initiate a mass-media campaign that warns parents about the emotional distress that their children are experiencing when one of the parents takes decision to leave the family for a long time .

After 2002, when the visa necessity was abolished for Romanians and after 2007, when Romania became a member country of the European Union, it became easier for the parents to bring their children with them. Many children succeeded to integrate in the Italian society very fast. For many of them it wasn't difficult to interact with the other Italian children.

As in all immigrant communities from Milan, the first who arrived was one of the parents, sometimes both. In order to earn more money as fast as possible, usually the children are left in Romania because there is no free time for them. After a certain period (few months or one year, sometimes even more then one year) the parents bring their children. The presence of their children brings a form of stability, because it is very difficult to change locations when the children are with their parents.

The arrival of children after a certain period of absence brought some issues for the parents because the children did not recognized the authority of their parents anymore. From this point of view, there are many problems with which the Romanian "mediatrice" has to deal (regarding the communication between the parents and their children). The parents cannot communicate anymore with their children and the children try to revenge themselves because they felt abandoned when they remained in Romania without their parents.

There is a drama among some of them, because after a period spent in Milan, they did not feel as belonging in either the Italian or the Romanian society. There is therefore a problem of national identity, which affected the children harder.

Of course, many Romanian children integrated themselves very well in the Milanese society and some of them "feel more at home than in Romania".

Children at the Christmas Holiday - Romanian Church in Milan

As a proof of the Romanian integration in Milan, there is the fact that each year the number of baptizes of Romanian babies in the Orthodox Church of Milan, Monza and Rho increases. At the beginning of the 90's, in the Romanian Orthodox Church from Milan only 1 to 6 babies were baptized every year (the children/families were from the entire area of the Province of Milan).

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Around 2002, the number of baptizes increased around one hundred and after 2002, 300 babies were being baptized every year. The increasing numbers of children reveals the integration and the rising level of Romanian immigrants. Here in Milan many Romanian families with children have around two or three kids. This is as I said a sign of integration and welfare.

6 Cultural aspects - religion, traditions

The migration process can be an opportunity to rediscover the cultural identity and in many cases the religious one. The distance and loneliness brings the individuals together in order to avoid all those feelings. The Church, which is the most important institution in the life of Immigrants, brings support and encourages people to stay together and cooperate.

Most Romanians are Eastern Orthodox Christians. In the city of Milan they have a Romanian Orthodox Church and other two are present in the province of Milan, in Monza and Rho. The last one is also used by the Moldavians.

The Church has the role of preserving the links between the Romanian immigrants and the Romanian traditions and culture. The Romanian churches from the Province of Milan are always taking part in the organization of traditional festivities.

Picture n - Library from the Romanian Church

The Church has an important role in the spiritual life of immigrants. They can find there the strength needed in order to go on. The religious institution has a determinant role in the integration process of the Romanian community, because is the first point of reference used by the immigrants, even if they were not religious people in the home country. This is because the Church gives to the immigrants the opportunity to find and keep their own spiritual identity far from home. The Romanian Church from Milan offers to its members and to the members of the Romanian Association the possibility to borrow books in order to stay in touch with the Romanian language and cultural heritage.

Picture n Traditional wedding - Romanian church Via de Amicis

Picture n Romanian girl in traditional Romanian costume and a traditional dance in the contest of traditions in Monza

Even if they are far away from their homeland, the Romanians do not forget their own traditions and usually practice them when they have an opportunity. The best ones are on Christmas and Easter celebrations.

Picture n - Baskets with food on Easter Night in the churchyard - Monza

Picture n - Romanians celebrating Christmas dinner

The Romanian specific traditional festivities, including the National Day, especially when celebrated in public spaces, together with the religious holidays celebrations, like Christmas and Orthodox Easter, are means by which the Romanian community becomes visible.

Each year, the "Romania - European traditions and values" festival takes place in the public space of Milan near the San Lorenzo Church, in September. This is an opportunity for the Romanian institutions like "Romanian Association in Milan", the Orthodox Church or the Romanian Consulate to show the Italians in Milan the Romanian traditional values. This is also a great opportunity for Romanians to meet and experience together wonderful moments by thinking at Romania and at the families or friends left back in the country.

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Fig n - The Invitation to the Festival Romania - European values and traditions

Picture n - Moments of the Festival Romania - European values and traditions

Festivals like this one are a great opportunity of collaboration between Romanian Institutions and Italian Institutions. The church and the "Romanian association of Milan" have the power to keep the people linked to the traditions and to the cultural values.