Half of Moldovans Want to Emigrate, Survey Says

A new survey says that half the citizens of the poverty-stricken country would leave, if they had the chance to do so.

Moldovan citizens protest against some governmental measures in Great National Assembly Square, in front of the Arch of Triumph in Chisinau, Moldova, 26 August 2018. Photo: EPA/Doru Dumitru

A new survey conducted by the Institute for Public Policy in Moldova, IPP, shows that half of all Moldovan citizens would leave the country if they had the chance to do so, mostly due to poverty, corruption and lack of a perspective.

About 25 per cent of the respondents say they wish to migrate definitively, while another 28 per cent would leave the country for a period of time at least, according to the results made public on Sunday.

Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe with a very high rate of migration, especially to Western Europe and Russia.

About 1 million out of 3.5 million Moldovans have a Romanian passport, which allows them to access all the rights reserved to EU citizens.

About 1 million Moldovan citizens are working abroad already, according to government estimates.

The number is almost equally split between Europe, North America and Israel, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation on the other.

The most recent statistics released at the end of 2016 by the Border Police said the number of Moldovan citizens who had left Moldova for different periods of time by then was 764,000.

The country is now facing its fourth migration wave since its independence in 1991 from the former Soviet Union, according to a study released by the Centre for Demographic Research, based in Chisinau.

Mostly, young people are leaving Moldova for a better life abroad.

The percentage of people who say they don’t want to leave the country has also fallen, from 48 per cent in 2017 to 40 per cent now.

Moldovans appear most worried about the future of their children [24.1 per cent], about prices [19.1 per cent] or about poverty [12.8 per cent].

The justice sector is another sensitive topic in Moldova. More than 60 per cent of Moldovan citizens are not convinced that if they or their relatives go to court, the magistrates will take a fair decision. Only 3 per cent of respondents were absolutely certain that the court would issue a fair decision.

On the economy, 61.2 per cent of respondents said they were unhappy and only 6.4 per cent saw the present situation is good.

When it comes to joining the European Union, or the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union, Moldovans favour the EU by a wide margin, with 37.5 per cent for the EU against 29.5 per cent for the Russia-led bloc.

Paradoxically, half of the respondents also said they regretted the fall of the Soviet Union, of which Moldova was a part from 1945 to 1991.

The survey was based on the answers of 1,115 people from 13 regions of Moldova, both urban and rural areas, and was conducted over November 2018.

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