Bulgaria - The social impact of seasonal migration

30
Data from a survey done in May 2002 by the Bulgarian sociological agency Alpha
Research:
Table 15. Some people are emigrating from Bulgaria, others have decided to live in it.
Which of the following versions expresses more your personal view?
I have decided to emigrate permanently from the country
3%
and I have undertaken concrete steps for this
In principle I do want to emigrate permanently from the country
20 %
but I did not do anything concrete in that direction
I do want to live here 74%
No answer 3%
We will not dare to make definite conclusions on the possible scope of emigration waves from
Bulgaria. This notwithstanding, what is clearly seen in all the tables is that the desire for
temporary migration dominates over that for permanent one. Out qualitative study tends to
support this assumption, and we can say that the most typical type of migration in Bulgaria
will be the temporary one.
2.2. Immigrants
2.2.1. Immigration Scales
The number and profile of immigrants to Bulgaria are better known to the official
authorities than the communities of Bulgarian emigrants abroad. Concerning immigration
Bulgaria remains primarily a transit country, despite the visible signs of its greater
attractiveness as a final destination country manifested in the last years, and especially
after the start of the EU accession negotiations in 1999. The National Police provides the
following unpublished data on the number and profile of foreigners in the country:
In 1994, 44 953 foreign citizens resided legally in Bulgaria with permanent and long-term
residence permits. In 2002, their number rose to 60 028. (See Appendix 4, Graph 1 -
Number of foreigners with permanent and long-term residence permits, 1994-2002).
Structurally, there are no major changes in the countries of origin of the permanent and
long-term residents in Bulgaria. One of the most significant tendencies is the decreasing
number of citizens from CIS countries and the increasing number of Russian citizens,
although the total number of CIS and Russian citizens remains stable. This is due to a
change in the Citizenship Act of the Russian Federation, after which a lot of ethnic Russians
citizens of CIS countries are substituting their previous citizenship with a Russian one.
Another trend is the increasing number of citizens of the countries from the so-called
“second circle of neighbourhood”, i.e. other neighbouring states such as Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Moldova, Cyprus and Ukraine, as well as from Turkey.
In 2002, Bulgaria has been visited by 5 562 917 foreigners, of which 53.8% were tourists,
3.24% on professional trips, 0.43% on guest visits, and 4.25% for other reasons. 38.28% of
the foreigners were transit travellers. This means that for 61.72% of the foreigners
Bulgaria has been the final destination.