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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E ABSTRACT Left Behind but Doing Good? Civic Engagement in Two Post-Socialist Countries *The fall of socialism in Central and Eastern Europe restored ordinary citizens' rights and freedoms and ended their political and social isolation. While the freedom of movement was quickly embraced, civil society revival lagged due to the eroded civic norms, declining social capital, and worsening economic conditions. In this paper, we examine the link between the out-migration of relatives and friends and the pro-social behavior of the left behinds in two post-socialist countries -Bulgaria and Romania -the EU's poorest, unhappiest, and among the most corrupt members. We show that having close contacts abroad is consistently positively associated with civic engagement and that the cultural transmission of norms from abroad could be driving the results. Specifically, the strength of the civic engagement culture of the family or friend's destination matters for the pro-social behavior of respondents in the home countries. Our results imply that the emigration of family and friends may have positive but previously undocumented consequences for the individuals and communities left behind in Bulgaria and Romania. Given civil society's role for development in post-socialist Europe and the socio-economic and institutional challenges that Bulgaria and Romania face compared with the rest of the EU, understanding the channels fostering civil society and wellbeing are important for national and EU policymakers. JEL Classification:I30, I31, F22, P30, Z10

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The change in Romanian political regime in 1989 has lifted the barriers for population circulation and mobility that were further more amplified in 2002 by the liberalization of Romanians' circulation in the Schengen space. In such context, the aim of this paper is to analyze to what extent Romania's accession to the EU in 2007 has added new features to the Romanian migration phenomenon. Therefore, the paper describes characteristics of Romanian labor migration and its labor market outcomes in the context of the EU second enlargement, covering the recent trends and characteristics, as well as the effects on the receiving and origin countries. The restructuring process that accompanied a painful economic transition created severe disequilibria on the labor market, generating a crisis that remains ongoing. From this perspective, migration was and still is the population's response to this crisis and at the same time reduces the unemployment pressure on the Romanian government. Furthermore, in the new context of financial European crisis, the migration outflows didn't reverse and most migrants prefer to develop adjustment strategies in their destination countries. Romania's accession to the EU in 2007 did not generally change the previous characteristics of Romanian migration. However, one of the key features of Romanian migration would be the new wave of the labor mobility of professionals with impacts upon Romanian economy and society. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S JEL Classification:F22, F24, J15

European youth mobility seems to be fostering Europe's unequal pace of integration, which sees certain countries benefit at the expense of others (Ohmacht et al., 2009;van Mol & Timmerman, 2014). Using a comparative approach, the paper aims to relate a macro-level country-typology focussing on human capital with individual mobility-motivations on the micro-level. Our methodological approach is based on a secondary macro-data analysis and analyses of mobility-motivations of young people (micro-data) deriving from qualitative (N=152) and quantitative data (N=5,499) collected in six European countries. In order to examine correspondence between macro-conditions and micro-aspects, we relate information on mobilitymotivations to the country-typology by allocating mobile youth to the respective types of their home country. The results show that the country-types compose different opportunity structures, which are reflected in individual motivations. Accordingly, different country-types can be seen as an example of the heterogeneity and inequality of European social and territorial mobility frames.

A country's mobility pattern is largely influenced by its previous historical development and current socio-economic situation. Hungary and Romania, due partly to the legacy of their socialist past, share many of their social and economic characteristics, which differ from countries in Western Europe. Such differences are also present when looking at the issue of international youth mobility, which contrast not only by rate but also by type in post-socialist countries when compared to Western Europe. The main objective of the present paper is to analyse the differences and similarities between Eastern and Western European countries with regard to one mobility programme – Erasmus+. The article presents the differences looking at macro data and quantitative questionnaire data.

This paper analyzes the behavior of Central and Eastern European migrants regarding money remitting to their country of origin and is based on data provided by the National Immigrant Survey of Spain. In order to analyze the impacts of migrants’ demographic and economic characteristics on remitting behavior, the variables employed in the econometric model referred to individual factors, factors that evaluate the migrant’s links with the native country and those that account for the degree of migrant’s integration in Spain. The factors showing a stronger attachment to relatives and the country of origin have a positive impact on the decision to remit and on the remitted amounts, while the factors that point to the integration of the migrant into Spanish society have a negative and smaller impact on the remitting decision

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