A tale of two European villages
By Oana Lungescu BBC News, Aguaviva and Peretu
When Romanians become citizens of the European Union on 1 January, they will find they are barred from working in most European countries.
But more than two million Romanians, a tenth of the country's population, are already there, mainly in Spain and Italy.
Overall, they send home more than 3bn euros (£2bn) per year.
This exodus is changing the face of local communities both in Romania, and in the countries where the settlers make their new home.
The Spanish village of Aguaviva is in the middle of nowhere, more than 100km from the nearest city. An imposing baroque church towers over tightly-knit rows of houses built in the local pale stone.
But the food shop sells Romanian salami and cheese, and if you go into the local cafe you are as likely to hear Romanian as Spanish.
The young woman behind the bar, Elena Hetea, comes from a Romanian village. She's among some 100 Romanians who now call Aguaviva home.
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full: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6217889.stm
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Colin Brace
Amsterdam