Moldova and the EU: Liberalizing or Securitising Migration?

The policy brief offers an overview of Moldova’s migration trends, mapping (legal) immigration and emigration flows, including remittances, smuggling and human trafficking, and detailing societal impacts and migrants’ profiles. It also gives a comprehensive summary of the country’s current political and socio-economic situation. It outlines Moldova’s relations with the European Union and places it within in larger picture of EU migration policies. Summary Moldova is one of the smallest countries in Europe but nevertheless a significant migrants sending country. Up to 800,000 or one third of the working age population is assumed to reside outside the country, one third irregularly. The country is very poor and heavily relies on migrants’ remittances, which constitute 30 percent of its GDP. It is characterised by high levels of often irregular emigration. Politically it is sandwiched between the EU and Russia, characterised by a frozen conflict with the break-away region Transnistria, an unstable government and significant levels of corruption. It is sometimes perceived as ‘one of the [...] most problematic neighbours’ of the EU (Soros Foundation, Interview, 2011), though advances have already been made on various levels. Since 2005, European Integration is the declared foreign policy goal. 1. Geography and Population In 1991, following the break-up of the Soviet Union Moldova declared its independence,. It is a comparably small country with about 34.000 sq km in size hosting a population of 4.3 million people on its territory (Munteanu 2005: 51; CIA Factbook 2011). In 2000, 64.5 percent of the population were Romanian speaking ethnic Moldovans, 13.8 percent Ukrainians, 13 percent Russians while the remaining 8.7 percent were of diverse ethnic origins. The official language of the country is Moldovan, a Romanian dialect, with Russian being commonly spoken (IOM 2007). (Source: Maps of World 2011 2. Political Situation and EU Relations Many commentators consider the current political situation of Moldova as unstable and unpredictable. It is dominated by conflicts within the governing coalition and with the opposition. The society is perceived as divided into two camps, a conservative, Russia-oriented side, mainly comprising elderly people, and a younger, pro-Western side with a (social) democratic orientation. In the 2009 partially flawed parliamentary elections the communist party lost power for the first time since 2001. Violent student-led protests followed repressed by police forces and involving human rights violations. No party won a clear majority in the parliament and the country has since been without a President (Vitu 2010: 362-364). Officially considered a parliamentary democracy, Freedom House ranks Moldova as only 'partly free' (Vitu 2010: 361; CIA Factbook 2011). Researchers qualify the country as not complying with Western standards (Moldova Academy of Economic Studies, Interview 2011). Additionally, deficiencies in the judiciary sector persist; there is “a lack of capacity to apply the existent law” (Munteanu 2005: 80). Nevertheless, commentators consider the current government as rather progressive, open, democratic, committed to its announced objectives and reforms, and thus a rather reliable partner. Moldovan government and civil society representatives suggest that the current government is more actively engaged in its EU rapprochement than its predecessor. It not only symbolically called its ruling coalition the Alliance for European Integration. For instance, it created a specialised department for EU Integration within the Foreign Ministry and launched the pro-European initiative “Rethinking Moldova” (Soros Foundation & Foreign Ministry, Interviews 2011). Thus, there is now more EU support for the current than the previous communist government, with additional financial resources allocated to the country. A Moldovan civil servant felt that the EU demonstrates an unprecedented degree of openness towards Moldova offering them an active part in the policy formulation process. Table 1: Development of the EU-Moldovan relations 1994