Strange reversal of internal migration flows between urban and rural areas in Romania in the context of post-communist economic and social transition

Vasile N. Ghetau, University of Bucharest

Economic and social transition has overturned the demographic landscape of Romania. Fall in birth rate, upsurge in mortality and negative international migration have deeply deteriorated the demographic panorama of the country. Population decline and increasing population ageing can be viewed as the most noticeable immediate objectification of this deterioration. Within this context of a veritable breaking, a strange restructuring of internal migration flows between urban and rural areas has born. Under the pressure of economic and social factors defining the transition-crisis, including the painful economic reforms Romania experienced, the traditional rural-urban migration flows started a continuous downward trend and, by 1997, for the first time in Romania’s social history, the two streams reversed as magnitude. During the following years the movement continued and reinforced. These dramatic changes, their origin, their characteristics and their consequences on population number, age and sex structure are examined. The analysis at regional level is privileged.