At the Faculty of Dentistry in Bucharest, this year, they turned up in droves: ten times more than the places available. More than a clue, almost a certainty of the change of course of emigration within Europe. The new America of Romanians is still in the west, but this time the key to getting in – and doing it in the best way – is a dentist's drill. Also because, working on other people's mouths, you earn little in those parts, barely 400 euros a month. A few hundred kilometers away, however, the music changes radically.
The news stands out on the front page of one of the main Romanian newspapers, Romania Libera, which offers a new interpretation of the emigration of young professionals from the new members of the European Union to the wealthiest countries of the Old Continent. In the beginning it was the Polish plumber, symbol and at the same time bogeyman in the advertising-political campaigns against the Bolkestein directive, which liberalized services on the Community territory. Today, however, it is up to a figure much more upper class and, as if that weren't enough, as clean as sterile gauze: the dentist, in fact.
“There's no room for dentists on the local market,” he points out Romania Libera, which quotes the words of Marton Pantel, president of the Romanian Dentists Association: “the Faculty of Medicine today prepares graduates for the European Union market. I believe that the interest of young people derives from this. Le Great Britain, France and the Nordic countries are the preferred destinations. Of course, they won't reach the most coveted positions, but they will certainly earn more than in Romania".
Pantel also points out that this is a real uncontrolled brain drain: "it is inexplicable how the Romanian state can afford to train doctors for the European Union, it is as if we were sponsoring the health systems of western states".
Romania is the first nation in the world for the number of medical graduates. Yet the Romanian health system is collapsing. "Ten years ago there were 5000 dentists, today there are over 15000, too many", confirms Dan Peretianu, former president of the Federal Chamber of Doctors in Romania.
The exodus of Romanian doctors – not just dentists – to Western European countries is a reality. Last year the president of the Romanian Medical College, Vasile Astarastoaie, provided some numbers on the phenomenon: 14000 specialists who emigrated to other EU countries, doctors trained by the Romanian state with a total expenditure of 3,5 billion euros.
But it's not just the cold figures that tell this principle of escape. Just go to the College of Physicians website. Out of five articles published, the first two speak of "documents for those who want to practice their profession abroad".
