Romania will issue only 5,500 work permits for foreigners next year, 2,500 fewer than this year, and will issue fewer work authorizations to temporary employees, for whom social security contributions are not paid.  For 2010, the Government approved a number of 8,000 work permits, issuing 2,102 work authorizations.  The 5,500 potential foreign employees would account for 0.12% of the total number of employees in Romania's economy.

The Government argues this decision is necessary to ensure the workforce for certain activities or professions that cannot be filled by Romanian workers because of their "massive migration" abroad, to prevent illegal employment and due to the need to cap the number of temporary workers, because of the risk of "social dumping."

Should requests for work authorizations exceed the set cap, more can be added by the Government, according to a draft decision.

There were 59,358 foreigners living legally in Romania as of September 2010, of whom 49,000 residing temporarily and 10,000 permanently. Out of the foreigners residing temporarily, 20,800 are relatives of Romanian citizens, 8,790 are students and almost 7,000 are employees.

17,000 of temporary residents come from the Republic of Moldova, while 7,000 from Turkey and 4,700 from China . Most permanent residents also come from China (2,360), Turkey (1,864) and Syria (993).

Mediafax