Romania's ambassador to the UK, Dr Ion Jinga, has published an article in the British press highlighting the potential damage emigration from Romania could do to the country's economy. “Growth in Romania cannot be achieved without our most valuable asset, the labor force, and therefore we certainly do not want our people leaving the country,” wrote Dr Jinga in an article published by The Daily Mail.

The ambassador quotes a number of figures, which together suggest that the UK has a lot more to gain than to lose by Romanian immigration. Meanwhile, Romania appears already to be nearing a crisis in loss of workforce. According to Dr Jinga, some at least of the 4,000 Romanian doctors and nurses working in the British health system, the NHS, are needed in Romanian hospitals. He also indicated that Romania's construction industry suffers from labor shortages, while “tens of thousands of Romanian highly-skilled construction workers found jobs in the UK.” The Romanian ambassador pointed to other sectors and to students involved in research, which show that vital skills are being lost to the UK and elsewhere. “With three million Romanians already working abroad since 2007, the country has reached the limits of exporting its labor force,” wrote the Romanian ambassador.

Romania has already held recruitment fairs in Spain and Italy in attempts to bring Romanians home and the ambassador said that this process would probably have to be repeated in the future. “We can no longer afford to lose our best brains and talents, and we cannot afford to lose our skilled workers.”

Official UK statistics quoted by Dr Jinga show some of the recent rhetoric in the UK on Romanians scrounging off the country's welfare system to be xenophobic nonsense, as well as being grossly insulting. Of around 40,000 child benefit claims last year in the UK by people from elsewhere in Europe, only 324 were from Romanians. Some 70 percent of Romanians living in the UK are reportedly aged between 18 – 35, adding to a picture of a young, highly skilled population that contributes to rather than takes from the UK.

Read Dr Ion Jinga's article.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com