Romania remains a country halfway favourable to immigrant integration

Immigrants face both obstacles and opportunities for social integration in Romania, reflected by a score of 52 on the 100-point MIPEX scale – Migrant Integration Policy Index. MIPEX 2025 reveals overall stagnation of integration policies across the European Union and persistence of a significant gap between older Member States and those that joined the bloc after 2004. The main findings of the survey can be found HERE.

Migration Policy Group (Brussels) together with partners from EU Member States have released the 2025 edition of MIPEX (Migrant Integration Policy Index), an international research that evaluates 58 indicators from 8 public policy areas (labor market, family reunification, education, political participation, permanent residence, nationality, antidiscrimination, health). For each category, the analysis assigns a score between 0 and 100. Data for Romania were collected at the end of 2023.

MIPEX 2025 places Romania into the category of countries with a “halfway favourable” approach to migrant integration policies. The overall score obtained by Romania is 52 points, slightly below the overall average of 54 points in the European Union.

The evolution over time (2019-2023) compared to the previous Index shows a slight improvement for Romania, with a 3-point increase in the overall score (from 49 to 52). The positive evolution is supported by several public policy elements:

– teacher training and professional development programs to reflect diversity;

– legal coverage of positive action measures in fighting discrimination;

– reduction of administrative requirements in accessing healthcare for legal migrants.

Romania records best performances in terms of anti-discrimination legislation, with a score of 96/100 and family reunification, with a score of 67/100, falling into the “Slightly favorable” category. This is indicative of relatively open and favorable policies in facilitating the reunification of migrant families. The lowest score is recorded in terms of Political Participation. Romania has got a score of only 5/100, classified as “Unfavourable”, reflecting the almost general exclusion of immigrants from political processes. Romania’s profile can be found HERE.

Scores obtained by Romania, by public policy area:

Labour market mobility: 46/100 – Halfway favourable.

Family reunification: 67/100 – Slightly favourable

Education: 50/100 – Halfway favourable

Political participation: 5/100 – Unfavourable

Permanent residence: 56/100 – Halfway favourable

Access to nationality: 38/100 – Slightly unfavourable

Anti-discrimination: 96/100 – Favourable

Health: 54/100 – Halfway favourable