Children of Romanian Migrants between “Here” and “There”: Stories of Home Attachment Roxana Bratu¹ ¹ University of Bucharest, Department of Sociology, 9 Schitu Măgureanu Blvd., Sector 5, 010181 – Bucharest, Romania K EYWORDS A BSTRACT By analysing interviews from a larger qualitative study conducted in a Romanian village (Vulturu, Vrancea County) from the South-East region of the country, this paper explores the ways Romanian migrants’ children who were born in the country of origin but migrated to Italy or the so-called 1.5 Generation (Rumbaut 2002; 2012) talk about their ties with the home country. In other words, is Romania presented as more – or something else – than the original homeland? 1.5 Generation The study analyses the concept of home attachment in Home attachment terms of transnationalism understood as affective ties Romanian migration (Huynh and Yiu 2012; Paraschivescu 2011). Based on Transnationalism evidence from interview data a typology of attachment to the home country is outlined and further discussed. The results point to the conclusion that the issue of attachment to the home country is discursively constructed by respondents both explicitly and implicitly by multiple references to the family migration project and their immigrant status at destination. Moreover, I argue that the different types of attachment identified in the interviewees’ discourses are mediated by the subjective assessment of the integration experience into the host country. Introduction A major issue in the broader debate concerning the integration of migrants at destination refers to the extent to which the ‘transnational’ attachments of Contact address: [email protected] (R. Bratu) Social Change Review ▪ Summer 2015 ▪ Vol. 13(1): 3-27 DOI: 10.1515/scr-2015-0007 R. Bratu – Children of Romanian Migrants between “Here” and “There”: Stories of Home Attachment the first generation are transferred to their children or, in other words, to what extent do they develop or maintain any links with the country of origin. On the one hand, a widely vehiculated hypothesis in the second- generation studies is that the children of migrants will break all ties with the home country as they will be assimilated into the host society (Kivisto 2001). The main assumption behind this statement is that the descendants of migrants will adopt the culture of the host society as it is promoted by the educational system and more valued in the society (Levitt and Waters 2001). On the other hand, other scholars argue that migrants’ attachment to the homeland can be transferred to their children. The contacts with the country of origin, no matter how limited they may be, and the exposure to transnational practices in the household or community plays an important role in the transmission of attachment to the country of origin (Levitt and Waters 2001; Levitt 2004; Fouron and Glick-Schiller 2002; Somerville 2008). Living in a household or community impregnated with the influences of the country of origin, migrant children are exposed to the homeland culture (Levitt 2004). Although their participation in transnational practices may be less intense and frequent than that of their parents, their connection with the home country can be experienced through affective and symbolic ties in the form of affiliation to a common ethnic identity (Vertovec 2003; Ehrkamp 2005). Following this theoretical debate, the paper aims at exploring the ways Romanian migrants’ children who were born in the country of origin but migrated to Italy with their families or the so-called ‘1.5 Generation’ (Rumbaut 2002; 2012) relate to the country of origin. In other words, is Romania presented as more – or something else – than the original homeland? What are the forms of attachment to home country invoked in their discourses? In an attempt to explore these issues, I will begin by introducing some background information about the migration from the community of origin to Italy and the process of family reunification at destination. I further 4 Social Change Review ▪ Summer 2015 ▪ Vol. 13(1): 3-27 R. Bratu – Children of Romanian Migrants between “Here” and “There”: Stories of Home Attachment discuss the relationship between transnationalism and home attachment. In the methodology section, information about the sample, the interview guide and the analytical approach is provided. Based on extensive evidence from interviews, a typology of discourses of attachment to the home country divided into strong, ambivalent and low attachment is outlined and further discussed in relation to subjective assessment of the integration experience into the receiving country1. Background: Romanian migration to Italy and family reunification Although Romania has a short history of emigration, the Romanian migration to Western countries has expanded significantly in the last two decades, some estimates going as high as 3 million Romanian citizens living and working abroad, of whom more than one million reside in Italy (OECD 2014). The migration from the village where I conducted my research can be placed in the larger socio-economic national context. The emergence of Romanian migration is closely linked to the major socio-economic changes that took place after the fall of the communist regime such as the restructuring of the national industry (Anghel 2008). In the context of the economic decline following the transition from centrally planned to market economy, that led to high unemployment rates and low living standards, many Romanians chose the path of migration to Italy as a ‘life strategy’ (Sandu 2000; 2010) in order to financially support the household. The gradually increasing flow of migrants to Italy was due not only to the consolidation of migrant networks, but also to the political and mobility 1 In this article, integration is understood as a subjective rather than a functional process measurable by ‘tangible indicators’ such as educational achievements and access to employment (Erdal and Oeppen 2013). From this point of view, the integration process encompasses the migrants’ views and aspirations concerning the incorporation into the receiving society, the feeling of belonging and self-identification as a member of the broader society and the assessment of their life prospects in the host country (Ager and Strang 2008; 2004). 5 Social Change Review ▪ Summer 2015 ▪ Vol. 13(1): 3-27 R. Bratu – Children of Romanian Migrants between “Here” and “There”: Stories of Home Attachment regulations changes within the EU. In this sense, two key moments are to be noted: January 2002, the removal of visa requirements for Schengen area for Romanian citizens and January 2007, Romania’s adherence to the EU. Before 2002, due to their irregular status, Romanian migrants spent long periods of time apart from their families. Visits to the country of origin were rare and the channels of communication were limited. Following the process of regularisation carried out by the Italian state in 2002, when over 145,000 Romanians have benefited from this measure (Rossi and Botti 2010), migrants were able to legalize their status more easily and reunite their family at destination if they wished so. From now on, for some of the migrants the project of working abroad gradually changed from a temporary individual migration to family settlement at destination and the children left behind became a significant part of the movement between Romania and Italy. In 2009, according to the ISTAT research ‘Households with foreign members: indicators of economic distress, 2009’ concerned with the living conditions of families with foreign members in Italy, 70% of the Romanian families residing in Italy (including single member families) comprised no minors, 27 % comprised one (18.5%) or two (8.5%) minors, while only 2.6% comprised three or more minors (ISTAT 2011). Thus, almost one third of the Romanian families residing in Italy had at least one minor in their composition. Although, the number of Romanian children who migrated to Italy in the last two decades is not precisely known, there are some data available that can help us make some estimates on the number of Romanian minors residing in Italy. One source of data is the data recorded by the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction (MIUR) on the number of children with foreign citizenship by country of origin enrolled in an educational institution, ranging from nursery to secondary education2. According to the Italian 2 Although this data provides precious information, it must be noted that: (1) it does not include children less than 3 years old or children between 3 and 5 years old who are not 6 Social Change Review ▪ Summer 2015 ▪ Vol. 13(1): 3-27 R. Bratu – Children of Romanian Migrants between “Here” and “There”: Stories of Home Attachment Ministry of Public Instruction the number of Romanian students increased continuously from only 1,408 in 1997/98 school year to 15,509 in 2002/03, 92,734 in 2007/08, and finally reached 154,605 in 2013/14 representing 19.26% of the total students with foreign citizenship (802,785) (source: MIUR data). Another source of data is the data recorded by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) concerning the births among foreign women by country of citizenship. The number of registered births among women with Romanian citizenship allows us to estimate the number of children who qualify as members of the second generation. According to ISTAT, between 2000 and 2013 were registered a total of approximately 132,000 births among women with Romanian citizenship, of which almost 58,000 in the last three years of the period of reference (2010 - 2013). In 2013, it was registered the highest number of births among women with Romanian citizenship, 19,492, representing almost 19 % of the total births with at least one foreign parent (104,100) (source: ISTAT data). Nonetheless, trying to make estimates about the children who migrated with their families we face two main challenges.