Young people migrating for work in the EU — interview
This story is part of a broader article on Eastern European migration workers in the EU and was not published by Vice UK | original interview notes 02.04.2019 | by Ovidiu Corobea, as told to Ioan Colbeanu
I’m 32-years-old and I spent the past ten years of my life living and working in three foreign countries — Italy, Brazil, and Denmark — since I decided to leave my home country, Romania. I moved to the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen, a year and a half ago, in order to work as a delivery driver for the country’s second largest food delivery company.
I currently work eight hours a day, five or six days a week, based on availability, and I get paid 110 Danish Crowns (13 pounds) per hour. I found the job very easily, on the fourth day I moved to Copenhagen, with the aid of a Romanian buddy who had been working with the company for a while already. Because of the job opportunity and my new girlfriend, I decided to move from Aarhus to Copenhagen.
I started as a part-time driver and, after the first month of testing, I switched to full-time, as the employer liked the fact that I was quick and delivered well. The delivery company is based on an international workforce, there are very few Danish employees, lots of Spaniards, Slovenians, and Romanians. I rank second overall, in terms of work hours at the company: 224 hours in one month, but at one point I even worked at a fast pace, with no days off, for four months on end.
Both in Romania, as well as in Brazil, in Vitória — Espírito Santo, where I worked in my field, the income was pretty low, but the work more intense and packed with more responsibilities. Delivery work is very well systematized in Denmark: I have fewer responsibilities, but the earnings are far higher — I earn around 2,200 euros per month here, in Romania I’d be making somewhere up to 1,000 euros in the management field, if I’m lucky enough to find a good job.
It’s my choice to work as much as I can and save money, because my dream is to build a hostel in Bucharest with the money I make from my wages in Denmark, in an interwar building in the center of Romania’s capital. I would like to set up the hostel, be my own boss and live a life without worrying too much about money, in my country.
With my earnings so far in Denmark, I’ve already purchased the place for the hostel, in a building on Victoriei Avenue, right in the center of the Romanian capital.
Obviously, Copenhagen is an expensive city and I couldn’t save enough money if I wasn’t using certain survival mechanisms that are available in the Danish society, for those who know how to access them.
And check out this madness: over the past year and a half, ever since I moved here, I bought very few things, mountaineering clothes especially because I like mountain climbing and I can’t find the gear I need for free or in second-hand stores. But except for three or four mountain items, all the clothes I own are from the free shops in the community of Christiania, or on Sønder Boulevard, as well as other places where people drop off clothes for free.
I get my food by dumpster diving, from the trash bins behind the supermarket, or through other food sharing initiatives in town. For me, it’s the best way to put some money aside, because the food is really expensive, so I’m saving around 500p each month. These savings are helping me to build the hostel faster and, to be honest, there is so much food waste in Denmark that everyone could save the way I do. But Danes are proud and wouldn’t do this themselves, besides very few people who have social problems or drinking issues.
Aside from beers and some tobacco, which I purchase from supermarkets more often, I know exactly on what I spent money over the past year: two toilet paper rolls, two bottles of oil, a chocolate bar I got as a gift for myself, and a bag of potatoes. Nothing more. I find everything I need in the dumpsters.
The rent I pay is about 70% lower than average, for an apartment in the area of town that I live in. I have a large room, in a small artist community, somewhere five minutes away by bike in Christiania, in a former music studio. My girlfriend found out about the place and moved there before we met each other. I moved in with her. The showers and toilets are communal. We sometimes have all sorts of small gatherings at which we have fun together over the weekends, and I enjoy living in a community. I don’t mind this lifestyle — on the contrary, I feel that here and Christiania are the only places in the city that suit me, where I can relax, and I don’t have to spend a lot of money to feel OK.
I think that, by the end of this summer, I will have raised the money I need to completely rehabilitate the hostel building in Romania, but the work per se will last three more months. So, I plan on living in Copenhagen for the while, but switch to a part-time job and, meanwhile, shuttle back and forth between Copenhagen and Bucharest, because I’m going to have to be physically present at the hostel, to explain what the workers have to do, buy construction materials, take care of planning, paperwork etc. But I hope that, come fall 2019, the hostel will be ready to receive tourists.
My life is now split between Denmark and Romania, and I feel this transition is necessary for me to reach my dreams. It sometimes gets tiring for me to take the bus or fly back and forth, but I know that without working in Denmark I wouldn’t be able to start my own business back home. So I try to enjoy the process as much as I can.
In Denmark, my daily life is quite structured: I wake up at 8, and drive my delivery car, taking orders until 10 in the evening. Then I have a bit of time with my girlfriend, to watch a film or listen to some music. In some weekends I don’t work, I like to visit places nearby or hang out with some people from the community.
I have good relations with people at work, but we don’t spend so much quality time together. Everyone is focused on doing their working hours and then go home. It’s quite distant at times.
I mostly miss my friends in Romania, I like to go out and have beers with them in the summer, telling stories and jokes. It’s a cozy feeling, and life is less planed. I have a few Romanian friends in Denmark as well, but it’s not the same atmosphere as when we’re going out back home. It somehow feels life is less spontaneous here. Anyways, I’ve been quite busy with the hostel project while being in Romania, so there hasn’t been much time for meeting old friends. But that’s how life sometimes is and we have to adapt in order to reach greater goals.
