Children return from abroad "have rehabilitation problems"

According to one study, 30 percent of children with their parents returning from Italy or Spain, after a failed migration experience, have problems of rehabilitation and social integration.
30% of children with their parents returning from Italy and Spain have problems of rehabilitation and social integration.

Europe is the result of the first study examining the problems of juveniles who return after having gone through a failed migration experience.

The research was conducted from 2008 - 2012 by Alternative Social Association.

According to the study, most of the children wanted to go abroad to be with their parents and not to have more money, new clothes, modern house or a more beautiful car.

They were afraid of the unknown, that they will not make friends abroad and that will lose those from their country, but, as almost half of them lived abroad for more than three years, there was the so-called "cultural and social rift ", which now hinder the rehabilitation of living conditions in Romania. 41 percent of those returning really regret the life there.

Clear and transparent procedures for reintegration into the education system

Rehabilitation efforts are hampered by the fact that, in about three-quarters of cases of re-migration, the decision to return home was taken by parents, ignoring the will of the child to remain abroad.

The results of the research show that are over 21 000 children who are back, only from Italy and Spain. Of these, 30 percent of those reenrolled in the Romanian educational system have problems of rehabilitation and social integration, emotional difficulties, behavioral, or attention to networking.

The children repeat at least one grade graduated abroad, without understanding why this occurs, without self-confidence, anxious and negative affective states, shame, sadness, fear or sense of abandonment.

The common desire of most of them is to return abroad.

Under these conditions, the study recommends the development of a clear and transparent procedures for re-registration of the child in the education system in Romania.


Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University