Bulgaria - The social impact of seasonal migration

It is interesting to note that representatives of the National Office of Border Police and
of NGOs working with refugees have detected identical transformations in the refugees'
social and educational profile in the last couple of years, meaning that the push factors
for their immigration are increasingly related to the economic conditions in the sending
countries rather than to the political situation there. In the late 1990s, those seeking
asylum in Bulgaria were predominantly richer, highly educated immigrants, most of
them Afghani, coming with their families. Now they come alone, are of lower education
- sometimes illiterate in their own language - with no qualification and from peasant
regions (interview No. 3). Before the war in Afghanistan, asylum seekers from
Afghanistan comprised chiefly adherents of the former regime of Najibullah, with pro-
Soviet views, legal businesses, and aversion to drugs. They openly declared their
political opinions, and the reason for their emigration was indeed political. After the
American attack against Afghanistan, the profile of Afghan immigrants radically
changed. The recent Afghan asylum seekers are followers of the Taliban, and migrate to
Bulgaria for economic reasons. From Afghanistan there come now illiterate people,
drivers, and shepherds. At the moment, the educational level of Iraqi immigrants is
much higher than that of the Afghani. The Iraqi refugees come alone or with their
families. Yet the peak in family migration was in 2000-1 for all nationalities, whereas now
families of refugees become rare. There is a pronounced tendency for single, male
migration: conforming to a typical Islamic strategy, the most educated and intelligent
person from a kin group is sent abroad on the money of all the relatives; when he settles
down successfully, he pulls out the rest of the relatives, too (interview No. 14).
3.3. Conclusions
The main factors for emigration are economic - the relatively high level of unemployment
in Bulgaria and the low standard of living. In the last two years, the official statistic has
registered a relative economic growth, as well as decreasing unemployment. If this trend
continues in the future, it will probably stabilise migration, too. As it has already been
shown, potential and real migrants are oriented more to seasonal migration. Signing
bilateral agreements will regulate this process and will prevent irregular migration in large
numbers. The practice has shown that after the term of employment contracts abroad
expires, the Bulgarian workers return to the territory of Bulgaria.
There is a process of strengthening the control over and the struggle against trafficking
in human beings which is another factor that will reduce in the future the illegal
channels of emigration.
Another important factor for emigration is the already created networks of relatives and
friends, the diasporas, which will provoke and maintain a relatively stable flow of
emigrants. But at the moment, most of these networks function as a means for coping
with current difficulties, i.e. they are oriented more to seasonal rather than to
permanent migration.
As for immigrants and refugees, there have been transformations in their social profile
in the last couple of years. The push factors for immigration are more related to the
economic conditions in their countries rather than to the political situation there.
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