Romanians keep the money in foreign banks or in cash, estimate experts of the Soros Foundation, which conducted a recent survey on migration from Romania, in partnership with International Agency for Source Country Information, an Austrian NGO.
This is the first survey that measures the amounts saved by Romanians abroad, not just annual remittances, evaluated by the central bank at nearly EUR3.8 billion in 2010. There have, however, been years since 2000, when the massive migration to work abroad started, when Romanians sent as much as EUR8 billion a year back home.
The EUR100 billion saved by Romanians abroad over the ten years amount to around EUR35,000 per capita. On the other hand, people living in Romania keep EUR25 billion in banks.
“Between August 2009 and August 2010, Romanians abroad saved nearly EUR12 billion,” says Gabriel Petrescu, executive manager of the Soros Foundation. “Therefore, the overall savings of Romanians living abroad could amount to EUR100 billion,” he adds.
Whilst Romanians working in other countries saved EUR11.98 billion last year, the value of remittances sent to Romania was EUR2.87 billion. The money sent home by people working abroad between 2005 and 2010 (for which data is available) stood at EUR30 billion, according to central bank data.
In general, Romanians going to work abroad (45% of them) say they will not come back before achieving their savings target. On average, this means between EUR80,000 and EUR120,000.
Romanians do not go abroad to work to send money back home but to save it. Which is why they see remittances as expense and not as an investment.