The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the labor market of Moldova will be felt more drastically towards the end of this year. It is forecast that the employment rate will decrease by 10%, while the inactivity rate will grow by at least 11% owing to the Moldovans who returned home and to the persons who lost their jobs in Moldova. The impact of the pandemic crisis on the wellbeing of Moldovan migrants was discussed in public debates staged by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms and the International Organization for Migration in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Moldova, IPN reports.
According to Anna Gherganova, head of the Employment Policy and Migration Regulation Division of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, the number of available jobs already decreased and the unemployment rate goes up. The jobless rate at the end of this year is expected to rise twice. The migrants working abroad without a work contract are affected the most. Some of them return home.
National Employment Agency director Raisa Dogaru said over 900 migrants used the Agency’s services in the first six months of this year. More than 100 of them found a job in the period. 62% of the persons were men and 43% of all the migrants are aged between 35 and 49. Many are yet older than 50 and have health or social problems. Most of the migrants came from Russia, Germany or Italy. The Agency supports employment by training at the workplaces, by different information activities or internships at enterprisers. It applies subsidization measures on the employment of particular vulnerable groups, including persons older than 50.
IOM Chief of Mission to Moldova Head Lars Johan Lonnback presented the data of a poll carried out among Moldovan migrants in ten countries between April 17 and May 17. Over 80% of the migrants said they had been affected by COVID-19. Almost 50% lost their jobs and many lost the incomes and also the places to stay as they didn’t have money for rental. 80% said the remittances sent home declined, while over 40% said they stopped to send money home. 30% of the migrants said they would return to Moldova when the travel restrictions are lifted. The good side is that about 40% of those who returned home will bring skills and even investments to Moldova. Migration dynamics will remain high in such countries as Moldova. Human mobility will take place in different conditions now and protocols related to health and mobility should be now implemented.
Dorina Roșca, president of the European Institute for Development Studies of Paris, noted that the public policies should be rethought so that they refer to particular categories of migrants of the whole diaspora. The pandemic enables to draw conclusions and offers the opportunity to create new institutions that would provide responses to emerging problems. The present crisis revealed that the circular migrants are the most affected ones. They are also the most fragile category of migrants, who are the most important carriers of financial and social resources.
