Romania is becoming a destination country for economic migration

The figures show that the number of work permits for non-EU citizens has increased massively in recent years in Eastern European countries, led by Croatia and Romania, but in most cases this increase does not lead to the settlement of new arrivals in the countries where they are granted the right to work. On average, the annual number of work permits for non-EU citizens tripled between 2013 and 2022. In Western European countries, this growth rate was lower because these countries were also able to draw on migration from Eastern European EU member states. In Eastern European countries, the growth rate of work permits was much higher. For example, in Croatia, the number of new work permits increased by 8000% between 2013 and 2022, while in Romania the increase was 2200%, reaching 31,000 work permits in 2022.

The number of work permits has increased rapidly in most Eastern European countries, sometimes for citizens from certain non-EU countries. For example, in 2022, Romania granted nearly 5,200 work permits to citizens of Sri Lanka, representing more than 50% of the work permits granted to that country in the entire European Union. Similarly, Romania granted 6,700 work permits to citizens of Nepal, representing approximately 22% of all work permits granted to Nepalese citizens in the EU, and 2,600 work permits to citizens of Bangladesh, approximately 12% of the work permits granted by the EU27 to this country. In contrast, only 10% of all EU work permits granted to citizens of countries such as Turkey or Moldova were granted by Romania in 2022.

These figures refer to the first work permits granted in an EU27 country, which can subsequently be extended by employers without the need for the Member State to issue another similar permit. Instead, the host country can extend the previously granted work permit, which leads to possible uncertainties regarding the total number of non-EU workers active in the labor market of a Member State. However, Eurostat data show that most non-EU workers do not remain in Romania. While in 2022, over 31,000 work permits were granted, the total non-EU population with residence permits in Romania in 2022 was only 115,000, less than 1% of Romania's population. In fact, Romania has one of the lowest non-EU populations in the EU27.