Foreign investors have been attracted to Romania, a poor Balkan country, because of its low wages and, since Jan. 1, its membership in the European Union. At the same time, those low wages and freedom of movement through Europe, which is now easier, have been fueling a wave of emigration that threatens to slow an economic boom in recent years in Romania. With monthly wages averaging around $375 after taxes, roughly two million people, or more than 8 percent of the population, have left since the Stalinist government of President Nicolae V. Ceausescu fell in 1989, according to analysts? estimates. So Romanian businesses are looking to other countries, such as China, to replace their emigrating workers.
See "Romania, a Poor Land, Imports Poorer Workers", Matthew Brunwasser, The New York Times, April 10, 2007