Romania to Austria: how one quarry worker moved country for a new job

Adrian Sinescu moved from Romania to Austria with his family in search of work. They now live in the municipality of Kindberg, where they are already settling down and making friends.

Adrian, aged 38, is married and has a three-year-old daughter. Until last year, the family lived in Aleşd, Romania, where he worked as a quarry operator for a cement company. But when he lost his job, he found it hard to find another in Romania. “While I was looking for another job, I came across an ad that described the activities that I had also carried out at my old job – except that it was in Austria,” says Adrian. “I had heard that Austria was a good, safe place to live with beautiful mountain landscapes. I talked with my wife and we wrote a list of advantages and disadvantages.”

Taking action

The next step was to find a job and Adrian searched through the EURES network, as well as through online job sites. Before long, he had found a role and visited Austria for an interview, which was successful.

His new employer and local friends helped the family to find an apartment at a suitable rent, which he moved into at the end of February 2024. Once he had furnished their new home, his family joined him about three weeks later. Life in Austria, says Adrian, is “in some aspects more complicated and more expensive than in Romania and in others much more practical.” He particularly welcomes the traffic speed limits and bicycle licences for children aged 10 to 12.

Adrian is making progress learning German with the help of colleagues and friends. “This is one of the biggest challenges, but also one of the reasons why we wanted to come, so that we could learn the language more easily,” he says. “I like learning languages and to be able to communicate with people of different nationalities.”

How EURES helped

George Bumbeneci, EURES Adviser at the National Agency of Employment (ANOFM) in Bucharest since 2017, is now the national contact for the Targeted Mobility Scheme (TMS) scheme in Romania, working with Sweden, the lead partner, to have applications approved. He advised Adrian about EURES and the help that was available to him through TMS. “When you help someone with an application through an interview, relocation, maybe with their family members and through a language course afterwards, it’s a whole process and you get very involved in it,” he says. “You begin to establish a connection and in the end, when you receive that positive answer from your partners saying that the application has been approved, it feels good.”

Adrian says he was “very satisfied” with the advice he received from EURES Advisers in three countries – Romania, Germany and Austria. Through the EURES TMS, he received guidance on the move, financial support, and practical help to prepare a German-language CV.

He concludes: “We are very happy that although we left a lot of friends at home, we have made new ones since we have been here. For those who are thinking of moving to Austria – or anywhere else – my advice is to calculate the costs well, multiply them by about four, and adopt a positive attitude to make it easier. Don’t forget that if you can’t change a situation, you can change your perspective on that situation and it will be better.”

Find out more about living and working in Austria and Romania.

Related links:

EURES Targeted Mobility Scheme

Living and working in Austria

Living and working in Romania

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