Job Discussion Forums

[ghost]

When ghost travelled to Romania in 2003 it went there with the aim to live and teach there (in Romania), but quickly realized that it would be very difficult - wages were really low for ESL/EFL teachers.....at the same level as Romanian teachers at the time (equivalent of 70-10 euros per month), and housing and food was quite expensive....in short an impossible situation....and to make things worse, the reception foreign teachers receive in Romania is not exactly one which exudes interest, warmth and enthusiasm from the Romanian school directors.....

Fast forward to 2007, January 1. And now that Romania is "officially" in the EU zone, it means that those of us who hold an EU zone passport (and ghost is one of those) - can officially work and apply for jobs alongside the Romanian nationals.

For those who are in Romania at the moment, have you heard or seen any changes in anticipation of this change in the membership to the Euro.zone?

Ghost thinks it will take time, and feels, that Turkey is much more ready and ready to operate in the Euro zone, compared with Romania which still has a lot of things to work on.....

ghost

[naturegirl321]

I sure hope things get better, consistency is one of them:

My mother was born in Romania and according to their laws no one born there can ever give their citizenship or nationality up.

HOwever, according to the Romanian consulate in Chicago, she-s not Romanian and the only way she can prove having Romanian citizenship is by having her father swear that he never gave it up, having being dead for 11 years makes it a bit difficult, so they claim that she-s no Romanian.

Yet, the Lima consulate says that she is and therefore I am. So i-m doing the paperwork right now.

[Mike_2003]

Things have changed. Salaries are up a lot on previous years and a graduate working for a decent company in Bucharest is earning around 600-1000 Euro a month after taxes. State salaries are still poor of course.

To be honest, a typical professional 30 year old Romanian has a much better lifestyle than many of his/her counterparts in the west - none have student loans, many have cars and quite a few own houses if their parents were wise enough to invest after the revolution when prices were peanuts. They go out much more than people in the UK do due to cheap drink, food, theatre, cinema prices. They take cheap foreign package holidays, visit the sea and the mountains at weekends and go skiing in the winter. To be honest it's pretty lush for the new young middle class.

Of course, being Romanians they are still convinced that they are horrifically poor and complain about it endlessly and believe the rest of us Europeans all live in castles and drive Bentleys. I've met quite a few Romanians recently who have dashed to other countries in the last year only to come back because they actually have a better standard of life here. A nurse friend of mine went to Italy awed by the offer of a 1300 Euro a month salary, which seemed huge compared to her 300 Euros here. After six months she realised that it barely paid the rent and the couple of euro remaining was worthless in terms of nightlife and holidays. She's back here now earning around 600 Euro a month in a modern clinic. She bought her own flat years ago so has no rent or mortgage repairments. I'd say she's much better off than a typical nurse in the west.

They are getting the idea slowly and I expect that the exodus will soon come to an end as they realise it's not the salary that counts, but what you can do with it.

Mike

[Mike_2003]

Oh, and I should mention that the practical upshot of all this is that a lot of this now well-paid professionals want, and more importantly, can afford private English lessons