Les migrants transnationaux : une nouvelle figure sociale en Roumanie

Abstract

Cet article traite des migrations transnationales temporaires pratiquées par les classes moyennes roumaines. Le texte décrit comment, dans le contexte de la « transition » post-socialiste qui semble ne pas aboutir, les migrations momentanées de travail vers des pays riches apparaissent, à côté d'autres tendances migratoires, notamment pendulaires ou liées au « commerce de ma valise », comme une stratégie particulière d'adaptation à la crise. S'appuyant sur différentes études statistiques, l'auteur constate que ce recours est de plus en plus usité par les jeunes citadins diplômés. En se basant sur une enquête menée auprès de ce public dans une ville moyenne proche de Bucarest, l'analyse se focalise ensuite sur la constitution des réseaux nécessaires à la mise en oeuvre de ces mouvements informels à travers l'Europe. Elle montre alors qu'au-delà d'un projet initial ponctuel et exceptionnel, la migration tend à devenir, pour des individus possédant un capital social transnational de plus en plus vaste, une occupation à plein temps. La dernière partie de l'article examine la position sociale de ces migrants en Roumanie. Partageant leur existence entre une installation confortable sur place et une succession de « stages » de labeur à l'étranger, ils adoptent dans leur ville d'origine, un comportement et des pratiques spécifiques à leur condition ascendante, dessinant ainsi les contours d'une nouvelle catégorie sociale.

‘Settled in Mobility’: Engendering Post-Wall Migration in Europe

“…They use previous official employment to open up the possibility of further trips, relying on well-established networks to do so. Different kinds of shuttle migration for purposes of trade and work have indeed become the major 'occupation,' 'profession' (Iglicka, 1999;Irek, 1998), or a 'career' as Potot (2002) suggests, for millions of people in post-communist Europe. Thus, in my survey of Polish commuters, some of my informants joked about themselves 'English is a nationality, so is the French.…”

“…The joke could apply not only to the Polish 'pioneers', the short-term commuter labourers and suitcase traders operating since the 1980s (Okolski, 2001;Irek, 1998;Jazwinska and Okolski, 1996), but also to those commuting to work in Greece (Romaniszyn, 1996), or in Belgium, to Rumanians commuting between their country and France (Potot, 2002;Diminescu and Lagrave, 2000), or to Rumanians, Poles, Ukrainians, Moldavians circulating between their country and Italy (Weber, 1998); to Russian tchelnoki, coming and going at the Istanbul bazaar (Karamustafa, 2001;Peraldi, 2001;Blascher, 1996), to Byelorussians or Ukrainians in Poland (Okolski, 2001;Iglicka, 1999), to Mrówki (Ants) (Irek, 1998) and other migrants from Eastern Europe in the Polish or Czech informal labour markets (Morawska, 2000;Sword, 1999). Such mobility patterns are historically rooted in patterns of mobility in the COMECON space even before 1989.…”

“…Mobility and the capacity to be mobile play an important part in the strategies of these migrants. Rather than trying to immigrate and settle in the target country, migrants tend to 'settle within mobility,' staying mobile 'as long as they can' in order to improve or maintain the quality of life at home (Potot, 2002;Diminescu and Lagrave, 2000;Morokvasic, 1992Morokvasic, , 1999. Migration thus becomes their lifestyle, their leaving home and going away, paradoxically, a strategy of staying at home, and, thus, an alternative to emigration.…”

“…They were followed by others who took advantage of already established travel routes and migrant niches. Rumanians tend to utilize the routes and strategies traced by Rumanian gypsies across Europe (Potot, 2002). Likewise, the immigration of Turkish speakers from the former URSS and the Balkans to Istanbul opened the commercial route and adapted the local commerce to the taste of Eastern Europe, facilitating the arrival of a much broader spectrum of future traders from the area (Peraldi, 2001).…”

Mobility in Transition : Migration Patterns after EU Enlargement

“…Social network theory has been extensively used in explaining Romanian international migration flows (Elrick & Ciobanu 2009;Potot 2002;Sandu 2000Sandu , 2004Şerban & Grigoraş 2000). Migration networks, as a particular form of social network, play a powerful role in mitigating migration costs and risks, and their accumulation over time tends to reduce the selectivity of migration (Massey et al 1998).…”