Emigration Decision and the Migration Profile of the Unemployed: A Case Study on Romania

This paper examines the fundamentals of the emigration decision and depicts a detailed comprehensive profile of the unemployed people in Romania who decide to emigrate. The research is based on a newly compiled dataset that encloses individual features as microdata, during January 2017 – June 2019. Methodological credentials are anchored on Kaplan-Meier product limit estimator and Cox regression in a competing-risks approach. Main results entail that age, gender, education, region, area of living and unemployment indemnity status are the uttermost credentials that shape the profile of Romanian unemployed emigrants. Young unemployed are the most vulnerable group; therefore, a special attention from the Romanian policymakers and coordinated efforts should be given to leverage the labor market performance of both natives and migrants.