Local and global contexts, individual experiences in labour: Poor Roma at home and abroad. A case from Transylvania, Romania

This paper analyses Roma migration at both the macro- and meso-levels, taking into consideration global contexts, ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors, and structural conditions in both host and the home countries as well as in individuals’ communities. The first part of the paper analyses the push factors behind emigration, drawing mainly on quantitative findings from research conducted in a rural community in Transylvania, Romania. The second part of the article, however, goes beyond the statistical data and presents the impact of these push factors on individual lives by using the data collected through ethnographic methods and life histories recorded with local Roma people who take part in labour force migration – mostly circular migration – to western countries. The details provided within such life histories can offer a deeper understanding of the processes which the specific Roma community (and especially poorer community members) experienced both during socialism and after 1990; and in so do, shed new light on how the migration cycle is integrated into local social and economic practices