Bulgaria - The social impact of seasonal migration

12
a) The emigration of Bulgarian Turks was by far the most significant phenomenon in the
early post-war Bulgarian migration history (and in Bulgarian migration history in
principle). Bulgarian Turks constituted the bulk of emigrants in the peak years of 1946-
50, and especially in 1966-80. With the ascent of Communism in post-war Bulgaria, the
Bulgarian government sealed the borders and introduced a ban on free movement.
However, in 1947 Turkey declared that it was ready to accept new Turkish immigrants
from Bulgaria. The Bulgarian authorities had already started to regard the presence of
a significant Turkish population with sympathies toward an adjacent ethnic homeland
and a Cold War enemy as potentially harmful for Bulgaria. In addition, the European
experience of the immediate post-war years seemed to speak in favour of permitting
Turkish emigration, as millions of ethnic Germans, Hungarians, Poles and Ukrainians
had by that point already been "transferred" to their respective states. The number of
Bulgarian Turks to migrate to Turkey had been set during protracted negotiations
between the two states and Turkey opened its border on December 2, 1950. During the
eleven months that it remained open, more than 150 000 Turks left Bulgaria, although
another 111 000 who applied for exit visas were not permitted to leave (Ilchev 2000, 245;
Baev / Kotev 1994). A number of agreements were concluded in subsequent years in
order to reunite divided Turkish families, and another 110 000 Bulgarian Turks left
between 1968 and 1978 (Kalchev 2001, 133).
b) Jews represented the second biggest post-war emigration wave from Bulgaria. With
the help of eminent Bulgarians, MPs and the Bulgarian king, the 50 000 Bulgarian Jews
were saved during WWII and did not perish in the Nazi concentration camps2 . Yet 25 000
of them were resettled from Sofia to the province as a step preparing their would-be
deportation to Poland, a fact that facilitated their decision to emigrate to Israel in 1948.
The end of WWII radically changed the status of Jews in Bulgaria. From the most
persecuted minority, they became one of the most privileged ones, owing to their active
presence in the anti-fascist struggle and their involvement in the new leftist government.
Although the 25 000 resettled Jews were allowed to return to Sofia, their community was
hit by post-war economic destruction, mass unemployment and the state’s inability to
recuperate quickly their lost properties, goods, houses and status.
Two alternative visions of the fate of the Jewish minority emerged - the Jews
Communists insisted on the integration of Jews into the Bulgarian society and the
effacement of all traces of the fascist anti-Semitic legislation, while the Jews Zionists
campaigned for emigration and settlement to Palestine, to a new Jewish state. Between
1944 and 1948, Zionism gained considerable influence among Bulgarian Jews, striving
on post-war destruction and the remnants of anti-Semitic feelings. By 1946, from around
50 000 Jews in Bulgaria, only 3 000 were not supporting Zionism. In 1947, the Bulgarian
government also changed its anti-emigration stance, prompted by the firm position of
the USSR in support of Israel. In September 1948, an Emigration Commission started
work, guiding the organised emigration of 32 106 Jews to Israel between October 1948
and May 1949. Before that, around 4 000 Jews - primarily children and youth - had
migrated to Israel to join the anti-Arab fight. By 10 May 1949, the number of Jews in
Bulgaria was 9 926, which by 1956 dropped to 6 431 persons.
c) Representatives of other ethnic groups also left Bulgaria after the end of WWII.
Czechoslovakia, which had suffered big demographic losses during and after WWII,
including the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans, was eager to populate its deserted
2 except for 11 300 Jews from the newly acquired territories in Macedonia and Aegean Thrace