Bulgaria - The social impact of seasonal migration

In 1994, a new category of immigrants was introduced into Bulgarian legislation -
refugees and people with humanitarian status of different duration, and the first statuses
based on the Decree for Granting and Regulating the Refugee Status were given in 1995.
From 1993 until 1 January 2003, a total of 11 253 persons (7 601 men, 1 748 women and
1 904 children) applied for refugee status. They came from 72 states, but most of all from
Afghanistan, Iraq, Armenia, Yugoslavia and Iran. Of all the applicants, 1 356 persons
(including 327 children) were granted refugee status according to the Geneva
Convention of 1951. 24% of them are aged up to 17, and 76% are of 18-59 years of age.
Humanitarian protection was granted to 2 668, people, of whom 595 children and 245
women.
III. 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 stabilize migration,
too. 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.
IV. The impact of emigration upon the Bulgarian society 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 organisation of work and life, and producing a new worldview
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