Romanians won't return

In a televised interview Romanian head of state Traian Băsescu recently thanked Romanians living abroad for not returning to their home country and placing an additional burden on the state budget. The daily România Liberă comments: "Before the crisis, when there were too few workers in Bucharest and other cities, we complained that people wouldn't come home to work. Back then plans were devised to entice them back to the country and Mircea Geoană [Băsescu's opponent in the presidential elections] famously came up with the idea of backing those who founded a new company with EU funding. Once the economic growth stopped and it turned out that not a cent had been set aside, we immediately panicked that [Romanians abroad] would return and inflate the numbers of unemployed. The truth is that they didn't return before the crisis and they don't plan to return after it. The migrants come above all from poor and rural areas."

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