Scholarly record

THE IMAGE OF HOME ALONE PHENOMENON IN ROMANIAN MASS MEDIA

T. E. D. Ene

Abstract

Once Romania became a European Union member state, the dream for going abroad in order to get a better life, without a constant worrying about tomorrow got into reaching distance for people willing to leave the country. As a result, a part of the country`s population decided to take the necessary steps in order to seize the opportunities available to those interested in starting a new career, a new life outside the country or to leave just temporarily in order to save enough money to improve family life in home country. Currently, over 2 million Romanians are recorded within European statistics as living and working abroad and every year their number increases while they are awaited at home to return by their elderly parents, by their spouses and/or children. Along the years, professionals within the fields of social work, education, health pointed out the consequences of parents leaving for work abroad on the children emotional and psychological development. The home alone phenomenon became subject of different scientific articles and studies that requested the needs for adopting legislative changes to ensure the special protection of such children and for developing specialized services at local and county level. Based on a qualitative analysis of mass media articles and news published/broadcasted within 2011-2018, it is sketched the image of the children with parents working abroad as it was presented to the general public.

Publication details

Back to publication list