Publisher's Synopsis
AFTER I PUBLISHED THIS BOOK IN ROMANIAN, I WAS asked what is the 'first face' of Romanian immigrants in England, whether my book addresses the 'other face'?
Well, the first face of Romanian immigrants in England is seen in their country, in Romania: when these Romanians return to their country, the image of some of them is very well described by the expressions: OPULENCE, LUXURY, PROSPERITY. When you see them, you get the impression that in front of you there are a lot of businessmen with luxury cars crowding the parking lots of shopping centres and city streets. In the summers of the past years, I had the impression that the Davos Economic Forum had moved from Switzerland to Romania, to Radau?i, the town in Bucovina where I was born, where the image described above can be seen in all its splendour!
Once out of their luxury bolis, the Romanian immigrants from England show off their clothes, shoes and expensive phones. If you were to look at this picture, you might be tempted to say that England is probably man's lost paradise...
Don't get me wrong! I do not judge Romanians working in England for the opulence, luxury and wealth they display in Romania! I wrote about opulence and luxury to contrast the other side of the coin, the other half of reality, that of Romanian immigrants in England, experienced in England, that side of reality that is not visible in or from Romania:
1. The real price paid by some Romanian immigrants for the opulence and luxury flaunted in their country of origin. This price is a different kind of price which is not expressed in pounds sterling but in the life they live through direct contact with the unfriendly housing and atmosphere in some British share-houses. The price paid for the (sometimes enormous) work done in the jobs they do and the towns they live in. The price paid by the "conflict" these Romanians enter into with the different cultural and social aspects to which they cannot adapt or adapt with great difficulty, or the price paid by these Romanians when they cannot stand the weather in England...
2. The behaviour of some immigrants in dealing with other Romanian immigrants - the fact that some Romanian immigrants do not respect other Romanian immigrants, for example, or that some of them are not fair in their small "dealings" with other Romanian immigrants in England when they sublet their rooms in share houses, is another example.
This book is a unique book in its subject matter (no one has written one like it before), a book that wants to show the other side of the coin: The reality experienced by immigrants in England, the reality that Romanians have to experience in order to get the pounds they need for a better life for themselves and their children, because in Romania - the country where the economy was murdered, in Romania, the country where more than 1200 medium and large companies were destroyed, Romanians had nowhere else to work and had to look for another country where they could find the jobs they needed to survive! This reality of the destruction of Romanian state capital in Romania explains why we Romanians are in your country, the country of the English: so that we can earn the money we need to live!
The phrase "self-deception" in the title of the book is perhaps the key phrase that best describes in my view the experiences of many Romanians who emigrated to England.
Through this book English people have the opportunity to get to know their own country in a different way: through the eyes, perspectives, vision and experiences of Romanian immigrants here.
Do you have the courage to see England through the eyes of Romanian immigrants? You might be surprised or even shocked and wonder if England is the country you knew ...
Enjoy your reading!
