Revealing the Main Drivers of Romanians’ Migration in the European Context. An Empirical Approach Based on Gravity Models

The removal of barriers to the international circulation of persons within the European Union has influenced the Romanian migration to other European countries. The paper aims to identify the most important pull factors (factors that bring Romanian migrants into other European countries) that influence the international migration of Romanians toward the following ten European economies: Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, UK and the Netherlands, for the period 2007–2015 using complex statistical methods based on gravity models and to classify the countries based on the main drivers obtained by cluster technique. Our empirical findings, which are in line with the literature, support the hypothesis that Romanian’s decision to emigrate is largely influenced by the economic conditions of the destination countries, the latter, which are proxied by GDP per capita being associated with increased migration flows. Also confirming other results obtained by researchers, notable pull factors influencing the Romanian migration are life expectancy, unemployment rate, tax rate, and population density. Within the paper, social networks in the destination countries have an important impact on migration, being highlighted by lagged migration flows.