Recent trends in immigration into Romania: the case of Asian migrants

Romania has always been a country of emigration. This thesis tries to shift this perspective and analyze Romania through the lens of immigration. In this sense, a general view of immigration in the communist period up until Romania's ascension to the EU will be given. The focus will fall on its legislation surrounding immigrants, and a broad perspective will be given in relation to the shift that we saw once Romania became an EU member state. The period between 2007 and 2022 will be the main focus of this thesis. A detailed perspective in relation to Asian immigrants in-flow into Romania will be given. Moreover, a brief overview of the reception of said Asian immigrants by the Romanian population will be presented through the analysis of several media outlets. An analysis of questionnaire answers by the Asian immigrant community in Romania will be given in order to determine the reasoning behind their mobility. A media analysis split in two important parts will represent an important chapter of this thesis. The purposes of this thesis are to understand why and how Romania started to become a country of immigration, to search for the main reasons for Asian migrants to choose Romania as a country of destination, to understand the way in which the media paints the immigration phenomenon, and more importantly, how it chooses to present Asian migrants.