Bulgaria - The social impact of seasonal migration

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show that we, the Bulgarians, are very decent and normal people. In order for this to
happen, it is very important that the different groups of deported people are differentiated.
Most of them are expelled because they had no address registration, and most of them are
working illegally in the hot houses, they are not criminals. The problem could be easily
solved by signing a bilateral employment agreement” (interview No. 15).
4.1.4. Impact of emigration on education and the social system
The impact of emigration on education is ambivalent. On the one side, data from the
qualitative study made by the research team show that some of the families invest
money saved from seasonal migration in insuring better education for their children.
Acquiring high quality education is usually related to movement to larger educational
centres either in Bulgaria or abroad. “Jenny, my daughter, has come here [to Spain] two
years ago, but she was working in Barcelona like a baby sitter and a cook at the house of
a young family. Our wish was that she could graduate at a western university, so we saved
money for her education. Now she is in Münster (Germany), studying Spanish philology”
(interview No. 21 - Kalofer).
Yet on the other side, a study on the access to education in Bulgaria found out that one
of the frequently cited reasons for dropping out of school is the family’s travel abroad
as seasonal short- or longer-term migrants (Iliev / Kabakchieva 2002). In all of the
surveyed population centres, the research team discovered large-scale migration to
Greece, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Norway. It was
reported that some of the children from such families remain in Bulgaria, usually in the
care of grandmothers or aunts. Since such pupils possess money (sent by their
parents), whereas their grandmothers and aunts tend to be too indulgent, the teachers
claim such students become spoiled, start smoking and drinking, or stop attending
school altogether. If the children leave with their parents, they leave school formally
and from then on drop out of sight as far as the educational system is concerned. Should
they come back and enrol at the same school their development would be monitored,
but if they happen to choose another school no one could follow up on them. The
further fate of migrants’ children is virtually unknown. It is very likely that the majority
of them will continue their education, but the problem is in the absence of information.
Nonetheless, it has turned out that at the moment, the rates of dropping out of school
among the children of migrants are the highest.
Concerning the impact of migration upon the social system, one should mention that as
a rule irregular seasonal migrants pay neither for social insurance nor for their health
insurance. This puts at danger the health of seasonal migrants and poses grave
problems for their social security. At the same time, one should also admit that
employment abroad – no matter whether regular or not – alleviates the burden of
supporting unemployed people in Bulgaria, and financially assisting people with low
incomes. To the extent that seasonal migration remains conditioned primarily by
unemployment and low wages in Bulgaria, the country will be in a position to export
poverty and displace its concomitant problems in the future.