He has just finished the last iron frame, all that remains is to turn the concrete. Aganad (who did not give his name) takes a last look, then scans the view of Bucharest from his construction site, located on the eighth floor of the future office building, west of the Romanian capital. “I’ve been working on this site for six months and I’ve gotten used to it, he explains. The hardest part is the cold. Today the weather is −3 TheC, at home we must be at 30 TheC and some. » He will have covered more than 9,000 kilometers from Marawi, capital of the province of Lanao del Sur, in the Philippines, to Romania. A trip motivated by a job on this construction site where he receives 600 euros, five times more than the salary he would have obtained in his country.
His name, Aganad, “he who protects”, seems to have sealed his fate. This 29-year-old young man helps his parents, his grandparents, his two sisters and his brother back home. And, since he lives in Romania, the life of his family has improved thanks to the 200 euros he manages to send them each month. “Maybe one day I’ll go to work in Western Europe, where the salaries are higher, but for now I’m doing well in Romania, where the cost of living is lower and where we are provided with accommodation, he explains. I have a two-year contract in Bucharest and I got used to this city. »
Strong shortage
Romanians have also become accustomed to the growing number of Asians arriving in their country in search of well-paid jobs. “At the beginning, we looked at them a little sideways, admits Alin Chiriac, Aganad’s team colleague. They didn’t speak Romanian and had other habits than ours. But now it’s fine, they have adapted and learned to speak a little Romanian. And I must admit that they work harder than us. They are there to earn money, they don’t know what leisure is. »
According to the Romanian Ministry of Labour, 480,000 jobs are vacant for 200,000 job seekers. The labor shortage has been getting worse every year since 2007, when Romania joined the European Union (EU). About four million Romanians left to work in the West in search of a better salary. Their Latin origin pushed them above all towards Italy and Spain, two countries which each have one million Romanian workers, the others having joined mainly Germany, France and Belgium.
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