The spouses Ioan and Luminița are among the thousands of Romanians who leave every spring in Germany, to work as seasonal in agriculture, many of them for harvesting asparagus, writes Diaspora news.
Harvest asparagus photo shutterstock
Ioan and Luminița work every year two months in Germany, harvesting asparagus, then return home. They do not think to stay there, but only to maintain their children, who are in Romania.
I’m doing this for 16 years. I go 24 hours by bus to Germany, as they did and recently, along with a few friends, and work there, to return home with 10,000 euros, as much as the Germans offer for the approximately 10 weeks of agricultural season.
For four years, the two have been working together on the fields of Osdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, on Augustenhof estate.
Luminița works in a barn, on sorting and checking the quality of the asparagus, and loan works in the field. The cutting of asparagus stems, carefully at height and shape, is an art that Loan owns like a master. The years of work accumulated places him among the most experienced and good workers.
The seasonal work in Germany is not easy, but compared to the one in Romania, it is better paid. The harvesting season lasts until June 24 – about two and a half months – during which everything must be perfectly organized: working hours, accommodation, transport, but especially, the effort, notes Diaspora news.
Minimum gross salary of 2,161 euros
The German state guarantees seasonal workers a minimum gross salary of 2,161 euros per month, more than twice as much as they get in the country
Romanians continue to look for better paid jobs abroad.
We recall that almost 5,000 Romanians work as doctors in Germany, a country in which only the doctors from Syria are more numerous, among the foreigners who work in hospitals. The situation of foreign doctors in Germany has sparked broad debates.
