“Why has Romania got such a bad public image?” asks the BBC in a recent article of the same name. The BBC recounts some of the numerous incidents of negative reporting in the UK recently on Romania. Fears over immigration from Romania and Bulgaria after transitional controls expire in 2014 have generated plenty reports, particularly in the more right wing euro-skeptic parts of the UK press. More recently, the horse meat scandal put Romania in the headlines again, although Romania was later found to be largely blameless in the affair.

But despite the headlines and the comments from politicians, the Romanians living in the UK who spoke to the BBC provided a different perspective. Studying in the UK appears very popular and some Romanian students at least seem keen to return to live and work in Romania with professional qualifications. There also some very positive views of the UK among the Romanians living there. One student the BBC spoke to said the immigration stories have not changed his view of the country and that he still regards Britain as a “temple of democracy.” Another Romanian said that although his friends had been having fun with horse meat jokes recently, he was not worried and described the UK as a place free of prejudice due to color, creed or nationality.

Read the BBC's Why has Romania got such a bad public image?

See video of Romanian students talking about life in the UK.

editor@romania-insider.com