Romanian diaspora

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The Romanian diaspora is the ethnically Romanian population outside Romania and Moldova. The concept does not usually include the ethnic Romanians who live as natives in nearby states, chiefly those Romanians who live in Ukraine and Serbia. Therefore, the number of all Romanians abroad is estimated at about 4-12 million people, depending on one's definition of the term "Romanian" as well as the inclusion/exclusion of ethnic Romanians living in nearby countries where they are indigenous. The definition of "who is a Romanian?" may range from rigorous conservative estimates based on self-identification and official statistics to estimates that include people of Romanian ancestry born in their respective countries as well as people born to ethnic-minorities from Romania.

In 2006, the Romanian diaspora was estimated at about 8 million people by the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu, most of them living in the former USSR, Western Europe (esp. Italy, Spain and France, see Romanian-French), North America, South America and Australia.^[1] It is unclear if Băsescu included the indigenous Romanians living in the immediate surroundings of the Romanian state such as those in Moldova, Ukraine or Serbia. It is also unclear if Băsescu counted ethnic minorities such as Jews, Romanis, Hungarians, Germans (Transylvanian and Banat Swabians and Transylvanian Saxons) as Romanians when he made his estimate, as well as third-generation individuals in the United States and Canada.

In December 2013, Cristian David, the government minister for The Department of Romanians Everywhere, declared that a new reality illustrates that between 6-8 million Romanians live outside Romania's borders. This includes 2-3 million indigenous Romanians living in neighbouring states such as Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, the Balkans and especially the Republic of Moldova. The number also includes circa 2.7 - 3.5 million Romanians in Western Europe.^[2]

Below is a list of self-declared ethnic Romanians in the countries where they live, excluding those who live in Romania and Moldova but including those who live in Ukraine, Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria. The numbers are based on official statistical data in the respective states where such Romanians reside or - wherever such data is unavailable - based on official estimates made by the Romanian department for Romanians abroad. (Figures for Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Portugal and Turkey are for Romanian citizens, and may include individuals of any ethnicity.) Ethnic-Romanians are primarily present in Europe and North America. However, there are ethnic Romanians in Turkey, both in the Asian and European parts of the country, descendants of Walachian settlers invited by the Ottoman Empire from the early 14th to the late 19th centuries. Over 100,000 ethnic Romanians are living throughout far eastern Russia, thousands of Romanians in villages of the Amur River valley on the Chinese Manchurian side of that river, and about 2,000 Romanian immigrants in Japan since the late 20th century.^[3]

The Romanian diaspora has emerged as a powerful political force in elections since 2009.^[4][5] For the 2014 presidential elections, voting in the diaspora has been poorly organized and resulted in protests in several major European cities.^[5] The diaspora vote played a key role in the 2014 presidential result.^[5]

Distribution by country

Country	Population	Year	Origin, notes
Italy	823,100	2013[6][7][8]	Immigrants (additional 150,021 Moldovans)
Spain	721,445	2014[9]	Immigrants (additional 20,000 Moldovans)
Germany	700 000	2013[10]	Immigrants
United States	518,653	2009[11]	Immigrants
Israel	205,600	2014[12]	Immigrants
France	200,000	2013[13]	Immigrants
Ukraine	150,989	2001[14]	Indigenous to Zakarpattia Oblast, Odessa Oblast and Chernivtsi Oblast. (additional 258,619 Moldovans)
United Kingdom	101,000	2012[15]	Immigrants
Canada	82,995	2011[16]	Immigrants (additional 121,635 of mixed origin and additional 8,050 Moldovans).
Austria	74,639	2012[17]
Greece	46,523	2011[18]	Romanian citizen immigrants. (additional 10,391 Moldovans). There are also Aromanian and Megleno speaking people in Greece, however they are not considered an ethnic but a linguistic/cultural minority - the majority of them express an ethnic Greek identity.[19][20][21][22] In addition to that no Greek census has recorded mother tongue statistics since 1951, so the number of those two Romanian-speaking groups can not be exact. Therefore this number includes Romanian citizens only.
Belgium	45,877	2012[23]	Immigrants
Portugal	39,312	2011[24]	Immigrants (additional 13,586 Moldovans)
Serbia	29,332	2011[25]	Indigenous to Vojvodina (Banat), Timočka Krajina and parts of Central Serbia. (additional 35,330 Vlachs).
Hungary	26,345	2011[26]	Indigenous to Eastern Hungary
Cyprus	24,376	2011[27]	(excluding Moldovans) Immigrants
Sweden	21,016	2011[28]	Immigrants
Australia	20,998	2011[29]	Immigrants
Ireland	17,995	2011[30]	Immigrants
Netherlands	16,987	2012[31]	Immigrants
Kazakhstan	14,666	2009[32][33]	(including Moldovans) Immigrants / Displaced during World War II
Denmark	10,732	[34]	Immigrants
Argentina	10,000	[35]	Immigrants
Venezuela	10,000	[36]	Immigrants
Switzerland	8,578	2012[37]	Immigrants
Norway	6,869	2012[38]	Immigrants
Czech Republic	5,069	[39]	Immigrants
UAE	5,000	[40]	Immigrants
Brazil	4,000	[41]	Immigrants
Russia	3,201	2010[42]	Immigrants / Displaced during World War II (additional 156,400 Moldovans)
New Zealand	3,100	[43]	Immigrants
South Africa	3,000	[44]	Immigrants
Japan	3,000	[45]	Immigrants
Lithuania	1,350	[46]	Immigrants
Turkey	1,304	[47]	Immigrants
Qatar	1,000	[48]	Immigrants
Bulgaria	891	2011[49]	Indigenous to Vidin Province and parts of Northern Bulgaria (additional 3,684 Vlachs)
Luxembourg	500	[50]	Immigrants
Finland	500	[51]	Immigrants
African Union	485	[44]	Immigrants
Mexico	400	[52]	Immigrants
Chile	389	2002 Census	Immigrants
South Korea	300	[45]	Immigrants
Colombia	270	[52]	Immigrants
TOTAL	4 189 558		The estimate is the sum of the countrywide estimates listed.

References

Romanian diaspora Europe Bulgaria France Hungary Italy Russia Serbia Spain Ukraine United Kingdom Americas Argentina Canada United States Oceania Australia Related Demographics Foreign relations Hungarian diaspora Immigration to Romania

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