National Minorities in Moldova: Institutional Arrangements, Rights and Policies

Moldova's ethnic composition has become what it is today following a series of key historical events. At the moment, according to the 2014 general census, the population of the Republic of Moldova is about 2.9 million. Moldovans represent 75.1% of the total population; 7.0% self-identified as Romanians; Ukrainians represent 6.6%, Gagauz - 4.6%, Russians - 4.1%, Bulgarians - 1.9%, Jews - 0.11%, Roma - 0.3% and other nationalities - 0.5%, including Belarusians, Poles, Armenians, Germans, Tartars. The Republic of Moldova remains a multi-ethnic state, which since independence has faced gaps in the management of this diversity. Despite the existence of a legal mechanism and institutional arrangements in the field of ethnic policy, the real concerns regarding the integration policies of persons belonging to the minorities started very late. The article will analyse the evolution of policies in the field of harmonization of ethnic relations, focusing in particular on the evaluation of the implementation of governmental political principles in the field of integration of minorities, as the “Strategy for the integration of national minorities of the Republic of Moldova 2015-2020†and “Strategy for consolidating interethnic relations in the Republic of Moldova for the years 2017-2027†.