Paper short abstract:

Romanian migration to Spain and Italy is, especially after 2007, a very debated topic, present, (due to its cultural, social relevance and challenge) on many agendas, being approached in various ways. My presentation is actually the result of an intensive fieldwork carried out in two villages, Nimaiesti and Fizis, placed in the western part of Transylvania, in Beius ethnographic region.

Paper long abstract:

Romanian migration to Spain and Italy is, especially after 2007, a very debated topic, present, (due to its cultural, social relevance and challenge) on many agendas, being approached in various ways.

My presentation is actually the result of an intensive fieldwork carried out in two villages, Nimaiesti and Fizis, placed in the western part of Transylvania, in Beius ethnographic region. It is well known the fact that a big part of these communities is in a process of circular migration to Spain.

I am going to analyze the group of temporary migrants from these two places (at least once a year they come back home) and the impact of the phenomenon of migration for the part of the community left home: I focus on the most important reasons considered in the decision to migrate, kinship (in some cases, kinship is an important issue in this whole process), the feelings and thoughts the community of migrants has regarding the inclusion/exclusion in the host country etc.

Having previous fieldwork experiences in both these communities, I have also tried to integrate the current research topic into a larger one, that one of the forms of identity construction, the main investigation question being: Is circular migration of a big part of the village population a coagulation factor for these communities or not, is it an issue that has a certain role in the process of identity construction? Methodologically, I'll use mainly participant observation, life histories, in depth interviews for my research.