Half of Moldovans Want to Emigrate, Survey Says

A new survey conducted by the Institute for Public Policy in Moldova, IPP, shows that half of all Moldovan citizens would leave the country if they had the chance to do so, mostly due to poverty, corruption and lack of a perspective.

About 25 per cent of the respondents say they wish to migrate definitively, while another 28 per cent would leave the country for a period of time at least, according to the results made public on Sunday.

Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe with a very high rate of migration, especially to Western Europe and Russia.

About 1 million out of 3.5 million Moldovans have a Romanian passport, which allows them to access all the rights reserved to EU citizens.

About 1 million Moldovan citizens are working abroad already, according to government estimates.

The number is almost equally split between Europe, North America and Israel, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation on the other. 

The most recent statistics released at the end of 2016 by the Border Police said the number of Moldovan citizens who had left Moldova for different periods of time by then was 764,000.

The country is now facing its fourth migration wave since its independence in 1991 from the former Soviet Union, according to a study released by the Centre for Demographic Research, based in Chisinau.

Mostly, young people are leaving Moldova for a better life abroad.

The percentage of people who say they don't want to leave the country has also fallen, from 48 per cent in 2017 to 40 per cent now.

Moldovans appear most worried about the future of their children [24.1 per cent], about prices [19.1 per cent] or about poverty [12.8 per cent].

The justice sector is another sensitive topic in Moldova....