This book analyses the issues of labour market and social policy in Romania through an economic perspective, while providing diverse international comparisons.

Romania, one of the poorest nations in Europe, faces critical challenges in its efforts to implement labour market and social programmes similar to those found in more developed countries.

In order to improve the quality and efficiency of youth employment, this book examines the cases of the Romanian labour market and of youth employment performance. Recent developments in the labour market participation of young people indicate an accentuation of labour market segmentation and a decrease in job security for young people, with the risk of exclusion and marginalization, fuelled by longer transition processes towards decent employment. This transition may seem clear when one looks at two aspects: education and employment. The challenge the transition towards employment presents is faced by all, regardless of one’s level of education, as employment security is uncertain. The situation young people find themselves in when they finish school and have no job opportunities is a rather delicate one as society offers no “safety nets”. This book, as well as others in the ADAPT Labour Studies Book-Series, explains the challenges young people deal with while playing a vital role within the community they live in. As Kafka has been quoted as saying, “Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old”. Therefore, young people, and those young at heart, perform an integral role in society, and they must be well integrated to enable their successful engagement within their communities.

This book critically examines the making and persistence of impoverished areas at the margins of Romanian cities since the late 1980s. Through their historical outlook on political economy and social policy, combined with media and discourse analysis, the eight essays of Racialized Labour in Romania forge new and cutting-edge perspectives on how social class formation, spatial marginalization and racialization intersect. The empirical focus on cities and the labour and the plight of the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe provides a vantage point for establishing connections between urban and global peripheries, and for reimagining the global order from its margins. The book will appeal to scholars, students, journalists and policy makers interested in Labour; Race and Ethnicity; Cities; Poverty; Social Policy; Political Economy and European Studies.

Social Issues presents some of the social problems with which Romanian society has been confronted after the fall of Communism. National and international forms of migration are analysed in five essays dealing with the unseen face of migration, urban depopulation in Romania, the socio-economic aspects of migration, demographic trends in Romania, and with human trafficking. The construction of identity in both physical and virtual spaces is analysed in eight essays with a focus on social integration, on the redefinition of identity, on the reintegration on the labour market, on the right to self-determination, on identity in the network society, and on stereotype, prejudice, and discrimination. The health state of vulnerable populations is illustrated by four essays on the institutionalised elderly, on residents of lignite quarry areas, and on patients with liver disease. The book will appeal to professionals in the field of social sciences and to decision-makers at all economic, political, and social levels. It will also appeal to all those interested in interdisciplinary approaches.