On January 5, 2016, Sebastian Burduja, then 30 years old, went through passport control at Bucharest’s Otopeni Airport with his wife and children. After twelve years in the United States, he returned home. “But you’re crazy!” Are you leaving the United States for Romania? “, shouted an incredulous official. In a country where more than five million Romanians have emigrated to the West since joining the European Union (EU) in 2007, returning to Romania may seem unlikely. For many of them, the decision to return is even incomprehensible, as the country has long been synonymous with limited opportunities, low wages and endemic corruption.
However, this return phenomenon has been gaining momentum since 2022. In 2023, according to the National Institute of Statistics, the number of Romanians returning will exceed those who left the country by 82,000. Most of them are young graduates who have benefited from the economic boom that Romania has experienced since the start of the war in neighboring Ukraine, which has attracted significant European and American investments in the energy, defense and new technologies sectors.
After studying at Stanford and Harvard, Sebastián Burduja, who became an expert at the World Bank in Washington, decided to return to contribute to the development of his country. In 2018, he mobilized the diaspora to demonstrate against corruption despite severe repression. Some tens of thousands of Romanians protested against the government before being violently dispersed by police. It was the day that Sebastián Burduja decided to continue his battle in politics.
In 2022, he was appointed Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitalization before taking the reins of the Ministry of Energy, where he worked to transform Romania into an energy center of the European Union (EU) thanks to nuclear and green energy. “Many Romanians in the diaspora want to return with their networks and capital to show that we can succeed in Romania. he assures. It is true that it is not easy and requires patience and strong nerves, but it is possible. »
“Bring something to Romania”
Sebastián’s story is not isolated. Cezar Georgescu, 59, also returned to Romania after an international career building nuclear power plants in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Poland. In September he was appointed director of RoPower, which plans to build small modular reactors in Romania with technology from the American NuScale. This project aims to make Romania an energy hub for the EU by diversifying its energy supply. “I have lived in many countries but I wanted to contribute something to Romania.” he emphasizes.
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