THE CULTURE OF SHORTAGE DURING STATE-SOCIALISM: CONSUMPTION PRACTICES IN A ROMANIAN VILLAGE IN THE 1980s

This article argues that the situation of shortage that characterized state socialist societies for long periods of their existence could inform in meaningful ways the theory on consumption produced about non-socialist settings. Unlike the political economy studies of consumption during statesocialism that focus on social relations, this article assumes a more limited definition of consumption that focuses on objects and practices. Using data from a village in Romania whose inhabitants were engaged, in large numbers, in shopping across the Hungarian–Romanian border, the tribulations of obtaining consumer goods are described. The scarcity of such goods led to practices such as hoarding, rationing, intensive recycling and extensive repairs. This ethnographic case suggests that the dimension of transportation – extremely complicated by border surveillance – should be taken into account in broad definitions of consumption.     

The paradox of inter-country adoption: analysing Romania's experience as a sending country

This article explores the effects of inter-country adoption on the development of in-country services to protect children and support families in Romania. The country's child care legislation gives formal priority to domestic alternatives to institutional care – preventive services, family reunification, foster care and in-country adoption. Despite this, inter-country adoption continues to play a central role in Romania's child welfare system. The article analyses the multiple and complex factors at policy and practice levels that lie behind this situation. It is concluded that whilst inter-country adoption may be used to secure some resources for the development of in-country services, it paradoxically undermines the effectiveness of those services for the children who are left behind.     

Welfare brokers and European Union migrants' access to social protection

In spite of the existence of an extensive national and supranational legal framework, European Union (EU) citizens who exercise their right to freedom of movement to work in another Member State face numerous hurdles in accessing social protection. While recent scholarship on street-level bureaucracy and on migration and welfare has shed light on the role of discretion and stereotypes in access to rights, little is known about the processes through which such hurdles are overcome. In this article, we focus on a specific strategy which is the recourse to what we call “welfare brokers”. These actors offer assistance to EU migrants to overcome specific cross-border administrative challenges in the area of social protection that derive from their use of the right to freedom of movement. Relying on qualitative data collected with brokers and Romanian migrants working in Germany, the article also demonstrates that welfare brokers attempt to transform the norms, bureaucratic practices and representations that condition access to these entitlements. The article concludes by underlining how the existence of a brokerage industry is a sign of existing inequalities in the exercise of freedom of movement within the EU.