Bulgaria - The social impact of seasonal migration

different fields, 9% were entrepreneurs, 7% were freelancers, and 2% held executive
positions.
4.3. Conclusions
The impact of emigration is ambivalent, having both positive and negative consequences.
The first positive impact is related to the growing size of remittances. For the period
January-November 2002, current transfers from Bulgarians living abroad amounted to
449.6 million USD, surpassing the amount of direct foreign investments by 20.9 million
USD and making 2.9% of GDP. Thus for the 11 months of last year, the remittances were
56.67 USD per person. According to the data of the Bulgarian National Bank, remittances
surpassed by far the financial help coming from the EC pre-accession funds, which for
January-November 2002 amounted to 100.8 million USD.
The second positive impact concerns the cultural lessons learned from seasonal work abroad
related to a new organization of work and life, and producing a new worldview
(Weltanschauung) that leads to the development of entrepreneurial behaviour. Yet in
some municipalities the transfer of Western skills to Bulgarian soil seems to fail. What is
undisputable, however, is the strong western influence upon consumer practices in the
regions experiencing substantial migration.
Another impact of increased seasonal migration is the attempt of local authorities to
participate more actively in mediating work abroad.
There are negative impacts of emigration, too, related to brain drain, depopulation, and the
creation of a negative image of the Bulgarians working abroad.
But the research done is not systematic, so there is an urgent need of more research on the
impact of emigration upon the local societies and the large society as a whole, especially in
the sphere of cultural impact.
The impact of immigrants in Bulgaria has not been sufficiently studied yet, so more
research is needed in that direction as well. The experts have established that asylum
seekers self-finance the refugee status granting process with 68% of the total costs (1999
data). Further, their labour might contribute to lower prices on unskilled labour in the
climate of liberalisation of the labour market.
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