Some 200,000 Bulgarians want to emigrate

“About 200,000 people do not want to live in Bulgaria,” Associate Professor Dr. Vesselin Minchev, Deputy Director of the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, stated yesterday. He presented the study “The Bulgarian Diaspora in Western Europe - Cross-Border Mobility, National Identity and Development".

Dr. Minchev explained that the previous survey, carried out in April 2007, read that the majority of those wishing to emigrate pointed out as their motive the desire to earn more money and have a higher living standard. According to him, the main arguments then were short-term economic reasons.

“In 2011, there is a very important change. The willingness of people to emigrate from Bulgaria has increased from 18% in 2007 to 22%. This is not necessarily bad news since we are already an EU member-state and it is only natural for Bulgarians to strive for a higher living standard,” said Dr. Minchev. He added that Bulgarians’ desire to emigrate for a short period sharply increased in 2011.

“Professional careers and family reasons as a motive for emigration decreased in 2011, which means that people have probably lost their illusions,” commented the expert. Half of the respondents answered that they simply did not want to live in Bulgaria anymore.
While Spain and Greece were the most desired countries for living in 2007, preferences have now shifted to the UK and Germany despite their high living standards. Spain and Greece remain third and fourth and the US has retained its fifth position.

Dr. Minchev specified that a total of 380,000 Bulgarian immigrants returned to our country in 2007 and, in April 2011, this number increased to 450,000 people. However, he was adamant that many of them intended to go abroad again and were just waiting for the economic situation to improve.

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