„One-way ticket” Romanian Migration at the beginning of the 20th century

Unlike the new age of migration that we are experiencing now, the social mobility specific to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century may be defined by the expression “one way ticket”; the immigrant, usually a man, used to leave his country of origin and settle for good in his host-country (he did not look for his happiness from state to state, as it happens now). The Romanian migration of that time was directed mainly towards the New World (particularly to the USA, and less to Canada). This paper is an attempt to sketch the image of Romanian emigration by taking into account the peculiarities determined by: emigration causes, geographical predominance, social composition, occupational options in the host-country, and the structure of Romanian immigrant communities.