Emigration/Romanian Ancestry

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• Romanian-American Network has a good summary of emmigration from Romania and neighboring territories inhabited by Romanians.
• According to Ethnologue, Romanian diaspora comprises of more than 3 millions (compared to 20.5 million in Romania and 2.5 million in Moldova [xls]):
  • 250,000 to 750,000 in Bukovina oblast of Ukraine (1995). Ukraine's official numbers are 258,600 Moldavians and 151,000 Romanians (2001 Ukraine Census).
  • 200,000 to 300,000 in Vojvodina(Banat), Yugoslavia. According to the 2002 Serbian census, there are only 34,576 Romanians in Serbia.
  • 250,000 in Israel (1993)
  • 173,700 in 1989, and 101,500 in 2002 in Russia
  • ? (2000 since P35 1990 census category was dropped), 160,000 (1990), ? (1980), 56,590 (1971) in USA
  • 100,000 in Hungary. According to the Hungarian Census of 1970 there were only about 12,000 Romanians living in Hungary.
  • 33,000 in Kazakhstan
• Adoption: Due to media exposure of misery in Romanian orphanages (and elsewhere), lately many Westerners adopted Romanian orphans. For example:
  • 1998: according to US VISA News, Americans adopted 406 Romanian children, Canadians adopted 91, the French adopted 178, Germans adopted 130, and the British adopted 17 Romanian children!
  • 2001: 781 Romanian and 47 Moldovan kids were adopted by US citizens (according to the 2001 Statistical Yearbook, table 15)
  • 2003: 197 Romanian and 12 Moldovan kids were adopted by US citizens (according to the 2003 Statistical Yearbook)
  • 2004: 58 Romanian and 30 Moldovan kids were adopted by US citizens (according to the 2004 Statistical Yearbook, table 10)
• USA:
  • Links: US Census ( online records) | USCIS/INS | FEEFHS | FAIR | CIS | CIR | PRB | NARA | Genealogy Resources | I Dream of | FamilySearch (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) | Ancestry.com | 23andMe

    Immigration Statistical Yearbooks contain this data about Romanians and Moldovans naturalized as US citizens per following fiscal years:	According to the US Census' 2000 Demographic Profiles (RO,MD) and the Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990 Population Division Working Paper No. 29 these are the numbers of Romanian-born (tab3, tab4) & Romanian speaking population (tab6) residing in the US across time:
    Year RO Naturalized MD Naturalized 2011(3) 4314 1398 2010(2) 4385 1235 2009(1) 4388 1239 2008($) 4515 1328 2007(?) 3986 1068 2006(&) 5484 988 2005(&) 4602 927 2004(&) 4388 711 2003(&) 3267 713 2002(&) 4014 919 2001(&) 3512 955 1999(&) 3577 1573 1999(&) 3268 1154 1998(&) 2238 574 1997() 3026 620 1996(^) 5242 390 1995(^) 3408 135 1994(^) 3503 42 1993(*) 2750 5 1992(*) 2489 - 1991(**) 3471 1990(**) 2914 1989(***) 2190 1988(***) 2060 1987(***) 1909 3-from 2011 Profiles 2-from 2010 Profiles 1-from 2009 Profiles $-from 2008 Profiles ?-from 2007 Profiles &-from 2006 yearbook (table 210) ^-from 2003 yearbook (table 32) *-from 2001 yearbook ** - from 1999 yearbook (table 46) *** - from 1996 yearbook (table 47)	Year RO Born RO Spoken MD Born 2000 135905 19505 1990 91106 1980 66994 1970 70687 26055 1960 84575 38019 1950 1940 43120 1930 146393 56964 1920 102823 62336 1910 65923 42277 1900 15032
    #-2003 Supplemental table 1 shows top states of Romanian naturalized citizens as: CA (709), IL (409), NY (349), MI (171), OR (168), WA (164), GA (159), AZ (148), FL (131), TX (108), PA (103), etc. For Moldova, the numbers are: NY (228), CA (148), WA (76), PA (48), etc. Table 2 shows distribution by MSA and granted permanent residence status in 2003. Top MSAs for the 3655 Romanians were: Chicago (373), New York (319), Detroit (264), LA (125), Seattle (124), Ft Lauderdale (113), Ft Lauderdale (113), Cleveland (112), Atlanta (101), etc. For the 1151 Moldovans: Sacramento (171), New York (100), Portland (82), Seattle (66), Minneapolis (58), Philadelphia (48), etc. The 2001 Statistical Yearbook mentions that 13039 Moldovans and 75832 Romanians received asylum green cards between 1946-2001, that 218 Moldovans and 2818 Romanians entered the US in 2001 on study visas, that 105 Moldovans and 1457 Romanians resided in the US in 2001 on H-1B visas. It and the 2002 Statistical Yearbook also contains the following data about Romanian immigrants to the US:
    [Table 2] Years Immigrants from RO 1820-1880 N/A 1881-1890 6348 1891-1900 12750 1901-1910 53008 1911-1920 13311 1921-1930 67646 1931-1940 3871 1941-1950 1076 1951-1960 1039 1961-1970 2531 1971-1980 12393 1981-1990 30857 1991-2000 51203 1998 4833 1999 5417 2000 6521 2001 6224 2002 4525 1820-2002 266793 Year RO(nonimmigrants) MD(nonimmigrants) 2003^ 48325 2839 2002$ 48478 2647 ^ - 2003 Statistical Yearbook (table 26)	[Table 3] which includes adjustments Year RO-born immigrants MD-born immigrants 1989** 4573 N/A 1990** 4647 N/A 1991 8096 N/A 1992 6500 1705 1993 5601 2646 1994 3444 2260 1995 4871 1856 1996 5801 1849 1997 5545 1347 1998 5112 562 1999 5686 754 2000 6879 1273 2001 6649 2077 2002 4903 2109 2003** 3663 1151 2004** 4557 1488 Year RO-green cards MD-green cards 2002 2351 1846 Year RO(H/J/L visas) MD(H/J/L visas) 2003* 7092 627 * - 2003 Statistical Yearbook (table 25) ** - 2004 Statistical Yearbook (table 3)
    $ - 2002 Statistical Yearbook (supplemental table 615A). Top states for Romanians: NY (7155), FL (5474), CA (5146), IL (2906), MI (2355), NJ (1648), TX (1631), PA (1337), MA (1336), OH (1312), WA (1233), DC (1096), GA (1076), etc. For Moldavians, the top states are: NY (329), DC (238), CA (212), FL (157), VA (122), TX (112), MA (106), PA (102), etc.

  • 1990 Census Language Use Table 5 data places Romanian as the 36th most common foreign language in the USA with 65,265 persons speaking it at home.
  • Many Romanians took advantage of the Diversity Visa (Section 203(c) of The Immigration & Naturalization Act created under the Public Law 101-649 Immigration Acy of 1990, Sect.131 (see also 1995-2011 State Dept counts shown in parens below; also 2007-2013 applicant stats by country; Romania is one of the top 10 countries for fiscal years 1995-2006) ):
    • FY 1995: (2727); Moldova: (153)
    • FY 1996: 2971 (1933); Moldova: 310 (192)
    • FY 1997: 3769 (2667); Moldova: 216 (102)
    • FY 1998: 4307 (3026); Moldova: 282 (166)
    • FY 1999: 3693 (3268); Moldova: 334 (185)
    • FY 2000: 3494 (2460); Moldova: 418 (198)
    • FY 2001: 2370 (1899); Moldova: 269 (151)
    • FY 2002: 1357 (953); Moldova: 461 (173)
    • FY 2003: 1636 (1425); Moldova: 418 (244)
    • FY 2004: 1845 (1147); Moldova: 574 (325)
    • FY 2005: 2521 (1515); Moldova: 383 (193)
    • FY 2006: 1716 (1258); Moldova: 285 (152)
    • FY 2007: 1255 (893); Moldova: 273 (163)
    • FY 2008: 1526 (876); Moldova: 474 (279)
    • FY 2009: 757 (343); Moldova: 542 (273)
    • FY 2010: 674 (366); Moldova: 724 (399)
    • FY 2011: 821 (482); Moldova: 894 (582)
    • FY 2012: 1327; Moldova: 1238
    • FY 2013: 711; Moldova: 1330
  • The Immigration Fact Sheet lists Romania on two of the top ten lists:
    • 8th on the list of highest percentage naturalized of 1977 cohort through 1995 (INS Statistical Yearbook '96, Chapter 5, Table 57, page 33) ): 67.7%
    • 6th on the list of most refugees approved for 1981-1996: 38,567
  • Romanian/Moldavian legal emigration to California according to the "Legal Immigration To California" reports (FFY84-94 Summary report, FFY96, FFY97/98, FFY99, FFY00, FFY01, FFY02):

    Year 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
    RO   1222 1553 1558  966  980 1123 1010 1477 1645 1206  669       989  828  824  754  911  986  774
    MD                                                                261  308  107  107  254  572  575
    

  • FFY1972-98 detailed ethnic US immigration data is available from NTIS for $305 for any one year in the range or $454 for three contiguous years or $891 for {FY72-79 or FY90-98} or $1029 for FY80-891.
  • According to the 1990 US Census STF3C P33-35 data files, out of 248.7M USians (15.5% sample rate) there were
    • at least 160,000 Americans of full Romanian decent (P35),
    • another 230,000 of primarily Romanian decent (P33) and
    • another 129,000 of some Romanian decent (P34) in the US!
  • US Census' CPH-L-149 Selected Characteristics for Persons of Romanian Ancestry: 1990 has many interesting stats about Romanian Americans. For example, there were 235,774 Romanian Americans in 1990. Of the 108,075 households, the size of the household breaks down as following: 27.8% were alone, 36.6% of 2 persons, 15.1% of 3 persons, 12.5% of 4 persons, and 8% of 5 or more persons. Out of 48,154 Romanian Americans enrolled in school, 55.7% were enrolled in 1-12 grade levels, and 38.5% in college. Out of 179,715 were over the age of 25, 82.7% completed at least high school, 35.6% had bachelor's degree or higher and 18.1% had graduate degree or higher. Of the 119,750 employed persons 16 years and over, 41.4% occupied managerial and professional positions, 30.8% technical, sales and administrative, and 10.4% were self-employed.
  • As of 2000 Census SF3 P16-P19 data, out of 281.4M Americans (15.4% sample rate) there were 267,388 (P16) who claimed Romanian as their first ancestry, 99,922 (P17) as their second ancestry and 367,310 (P18) in total with Romanian ancestry. As of 2000, about 135,966 (P19) people in US were born in Romania.
    P3A=sample size in %
    A few maps (USA:1+2, Chicago, NY, Boston, Seattle, DC) of US 1990 Census ancestry distributions are available in California State University's Dept of Geography Electronic Map Library.
    Here is a partial list of American top cities, all states and the data about Romanian ancestry from the 1990 and 2000 US Censi:
  • The book Family Names, by J.N.Hook, ISBN0-02-552100-4, has a whole chapter on Romanians in USA, Chapter 22: Romanian Rhapsodies (pp.202-206). The Romanian Classroom at U of Pittsburgh is mentioned. One of the sources used by this book is Vladimir Wertsman's The Romanians in America (Amazon.com lists about 9 books on this topic). People mentioned:
    • Samuel Damian, a Transylvanian priest, who met with Benjamin Franklin in 1748.
    • George Pomutz, who became brigadier general for the Union in the Civil War and consul general to Russia after the war.
    • Petru Glafirescu opened in 1901 "the first Romanian restaurant in New York"
    • Ştefan Serghiescu was "professor of mathematics at Columbia University" in 1945, according to priest Vasile Hatigan.
    • Iosif Ivanovici(1845-1902), composer of the "Anniversary Waltz" or "Waves of the Danube".
    • Mircea Vasiliu, humorist, who wrote Which Way to the Melting Pot? in 1963 about his attempt to integrate in the US.
  • Leuca, Mary. "Development in Ethnic Heritage Curriculum: A Case Study of Rumanian Americans in Lake County, Indiana.", Ph.D. dissertation, Purdue University, 1979.
• Canada :
  • See metro-level detailed data from 1996 Census and 2001 Census (also language data).
  • 2006 Census states that 79,655 Canadians selected Romanian as their single ethnic origin and 112,515 Canadians selected Romanian as one of multiple ethnic origins. Also, of those that selected Romanian as their single ethnic origin, 57,115 Canadians stated that they are 1st generation Romanians, 5,490 stated 2nd generation and 4,605 stated 3rd generation or more. Of those that selected multiple ethnic origins, 18,345 stated that they are 1st generation Romanians, 20,835 stated 2nd generation, and 47,515 stated 3rd generation or more.
  • CIC stats
  • Canada Heirloom Series (vol. VII) claims that more than 70,000 Romanians lived in Canada as of 1989 of which less than half were born in Romania.
  • US Census Bureau counts 28,655 Romanians in Canada as of 1991
  • According to Susan Donison (at Romania Genealogy Forum) a large settlement of Romanians existed in Saskatchewan as early as the late 1800's into the early 1900's (71,196).
  • Canada's 1996 Census lists 2280 Canadian-Romanians and 8270 Canadians with some Romanian ancestors in Saskatchewan. Another 3290 Canadian-Romanians and 14115 Canadians with some Romanian ancestors lived in Alberta.
  • CIC's 1998, 1999 Annual Immigration Plans and Facts and Figures 1999 claim that Romania's skilled workers (and their dependents) of 3,044 in 1995, 2728 in 1996, 2933 in 1997, 2132 in 1998, 2526 in 1999 placed it near rank 10 amongst countries with most skilled worker immigrants to Canada for each of those years. The numbered of principal Romanian skilled worker principal applicants (98,01): 1157 in 1996, 1270 in 1997, 957 in 1998, 1133 in 1999, 1465 in 2000 and 1871 in 2001.
  • CIC's 1996 Citizenhip and Immigration Statistics states that 2294 Romanians received Canadian citizenship in 1996, and it has this list of total Romanians landing in Canada:

    Year	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
    Romanians landing in Canada	2784	2443	2992	3365	2969	3843	3664

  • CIC 2003 Facts and Figures show that in 2003 (and in 2004 and 2006), amongst all foreigners that received permanent resident status, Romanians were in top 10. Here are the number of Romanian permanent residents accepted in Canada from 1994-2006:

    1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
    2977	3851	3670	3916	2976	3468	4431	5589	5689	5466	5658	4964	4393

  • Older statistics (1966-1995) shows these landed immigrants/permanent residency stats:

     Year 1966 67 68 69 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
     RO     18 42 70 86  144  139   89  119  147  274  173  236  246  423  632  747 1337 1102  933  938 1002 1692 1611 2213 2968 2589 2992 3781
     MD                                                                                                                                 18   65
     * - landed immigrants starting 1980, permanent residents before 1980
     

  • In 2001 the number of Romania emigrants to Canada totaled 5586 (8th place in a list of countries of origin with most immigrants to Canada). In the two previous years 4425 Romanians in 2000 and 3461 Romanians in 1999 emigrated to Canada (11th and 14th place respectively).
  • CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) states (96,97,98,99, 01) that 907 Romanians came to the Montreal area in 1994, 766 in 1995, 889 in 1996, 855 in 1997, 650 in 1998, 985 in 1999, 1142 in 2000 and 1563 in 2001.
  • CIC Facts and Figures 2001 states that 1384 Romanians came to the Toronto area in 1999, 1911 in 2000, 2445 in 2001.
  • Based on the 1991 Census, Canada had about 17800 recent immigrants of Romanian origin (landed in Canada after 1975), of which 31% in Toronto area, 21% in Montreal area, 5% in Vancouver area, 4% in Calgary area, 3% in Winnipeg area, 3% in Edmonton area, 3% in Ottawa area, 2% in Hamilton area, 1.3% in Quebec City area, 0.5% in Regina area, 0.3% in Saskatoon area, 0.3% in Victoria area. As of 1996 Canada had 29860 recent immigrants (since 1980) of Romanian origin of which 3% in Hamilton area.
  • Montréal spread of Romanians as of 1996:

    Area	Population totale	Personnes ayant déclaré une seule langue maternelle	Lieux de naissance des immigrants	Lieux de naissance des immigrants récents (1991-1996)
    Montréal-Ouest	67646	790	854	500
    René-Cassin	46953	1168	1814	393
    Côte-des-Neiges	126479	1580	2175	836
    Saint-Laurent	69193	457	500	?

• UK: Home Office refused to grant asylum in most cases in past years (less than 5 Romanian cases per year out of hundreds succeeded in gaining asylum in the late 1990s).
• New Zealand : 1996 and 2001 Census Language Details mention about 1200 people in 1996 and 1850 in 2001, who spoke a Romance language that was not French, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese. Of course some of these people probably speak Catalan or Occitan, but I'm guessing that a good portion speak Romanian. According to their 2001 Census, 750 people spoke Romanian.
• Australia : ABS/Census | Birth/Marriage/Death historical records (not free; pay by credit card) | Immigration Museum | According to DIMA, 323 Romanians received their citizenship in 1996-97, and 362 received theirs in 1997-98. 306 Romanians migrated legally to Australia in FY 1999-2000.
• Europe
  • Links: ERCOMER | MPG
  • EU: Work permit restrictions
  • Former Yugoslavia: According to Zeljko Heimer, 24 September 1995, "Veliki geografski atlas Jugoslavije", SNL, 1987, stated that Romanians made up 0.25% of the total population in 1981.
    • Serbia/Voivodina: Convieţuirea cites data from the book "Comunitatea Românilor din Iugoslavia", de Pavel Gătăianţu (Editura Libertatea, Novi Sad, 1996): 1961- 57.259 Romanians in Voivodina, 3.08%; 1971-52.987, 2.71 %; 1981-47.289, 2.32 %; 1991-38.832, 1,92 %.
    • FYROM: According to their most recent Census there are about "8 467 Vlachs [that] live in Macedonia. Associations of this ethnicity however claim that there are around 100 000".
  • Hungary: Jozsef Kovacsics wrote a statistics book on minorities in Hungary which covers 1910-1990 (ISBN 963-215-029-5 can be found as call# DB919 .M225 1994 in the Princeton library).
  • Israel: According to "Meridianul Romanesc" (21 Aug 98), between 1948 and 1998, 273825 Romanians emigrated to Israel. Alya claims that 118,940 Romanians emmigrated between 1948-1951, and between 1958-1967 more than 100,000 Romanians emmigrated to Israel (mostly of Jewish origins).
  • Italy: Many Romanians worked in Italy as illegal immigrants before Italy relaxed their rules in 2012. Supposedly over one million Romanians were working in Italy late 2011 according to Romania's Minitry of Interior.
  • Spain: Over 10000 (or 27000?) Romanians attempted to register for Social Security benefits (March 2002)
  • Germany: In 1992, 23,401 Romanians were arrested for illegally crossing into Germany from Poland, and an estimated 30,000 Romanians were in Poland in 1993 waiting for the right moment to cross into Germany according to MPG (Migration Policy Group) May 1993 newsletter. By November, 23,000 were sent back to Romania. According to a study, more than 265,000 Romanians attempted to obtain asylum in Germany between 1990-1998.
  • Between 1990-1999, more than 30000 Romanians applied for asylum in France, more than 250000 applied in Germany, more than 5000 applied in Italy, more than 10000 in Spain.

România: Recensământ 2002 (Census)
According to 2002 data (table 4) here is the ethnic breakdown of Romania:

4. POPULATIA DUPA ETNIE

	ROMANIA	IN PROCENTE
TOTAL POPULATIE STABILA	21698181	100
ROMANI	19409400	89,5
MAGHIARI	1434377	6,6
RROMI (TIGANI)	535250	2,5
GERMANI	60088	0,3
UCRAINIENI	61091	0,3
SARBI	22518	0,1
TURCI	32596	0,2
TATARI	24137	0,1
SLOVACI	17199	0,1
EVREI	5870	*
RUSI-LIPOVENI	36397	0,2
BULGARI	8092	*
CEHI	3938	*
CROATI	6786	*
GRECI	6513	*
POLONEZI	3671	*
ARMENI	1780	*
SLOVENI	175	*
RUTENI	262	*
CARAOVENI	207	*
ITALIENI	3331	*
CHINEZI	2249	*
ALBANEZI	520	*
GAGAUZI	45	*
MACEDONENI SLAVI	731	*
CEANGAI	1370	*
ALTA ETNIE	13653	0,1
NEDECLARATA	5935	*

* - sub 0,1%

Here is the 2002 breakdown (table 5) by first language:

POPULATIA DUPA LIMBA MATERNA

	ROMANIA	IN PROCENTE
TOTAL POPULATIE STABILA	21698181	100
Romana	19741356	91
Maghiara	1447544	6,7
Romanes (tiganeasca)	241617	1,1
Germana	45129	0,2
Ucraineana	57593	0,3
Sarba	20377	0,1
Turca	28714	0,1
Tatara	21482	0,1
Slovaca	16108	0,1
Evreiasca	1100	*
Rusa-lipoveana	29890	0,1
Bulgara	6747	*
Ceha	3339	*
Croata	6355	*
Greaca	4146	*
Poloneza	2755	*
Armeana	762	*
Slovena	71	*
Ruteana	169	*
Carasoveana	269	*
Italiana	2563	*
Chineza	2300	*
Albaneza	484	*
Gagauza	30	*
Macedoneana	588	*
Alta Limba Materna	11348	0,1
Nedeclarata	5345	*

* - sub 0,1%

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