Migration of Romanian doctors in France: migration trajectories integration and identity construction

Abstract

The permeability of borders and the migration of specialists from the Romanian health system after Romania’s integration into the EU changed the relationship between emigrants and space, imprinting new meanings on the integration and identity of immigrants. In the context of free movement, individual identity, once belonging to a single country or society, has been replaced by a dual or transnational, multiple model. The objective of our research aims at the process of building a new identity, composite and dynamic, by relating both to the culture of the country of origin and to the destination society that requires compliance with a code of values and behaviours. The analysis is based on a survey based on a questionnaire conducted in 2020, on a sample of 87 Romanian doctors practicing in France. Statistical and cartographic analysis of the survey data was performed using statistical and cartographic programs Sphinx lexica and GIS. The results of the research undertaken reveal that professional activity and the relational network are factors that contribute decisively to a good integration in the French society. The exercise of the profession represents the factor that legitimizes the presence of Romanian doctors in the destination society and contributes, equally, to the development of social practices, representations and feelings of identity in close correlation with the complexity of migratory trajectories.