Instead of deriving benefits from the incoming foreign nationals seeking asylum in the country, the Bulgarian economy is incurring additional expenses for their upkeep, a deadweight to the slender national budget. In fact, instead of benefiting from the foreign workforce, Sofia is spending money on them. There are some 6,000 refugees in Bulgaria at this time, but with the coming of spring a fresh wave of migrants is expected. They come mostly from the Middle East and North Africa and most of them see Bulgaria as a transit stopover on their way to the wealthy West. But fewer and fewer of them actually manage to get there and stay there, as according to European rules, they should be returned to the first EU country of asylum. This year 3,000 refugees are expected to be returned to Bulgaria from Western Europe. So, there are plans to build two new camps for them. But as Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muižnieks put it, Bulgaria must regard refugees not as temporary but as long-term residents and adapt its integration policy accordingly. It seems Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva agrees. She too stated that there will be major changes in the state’s approach to refugees and an umbrella state body will be set up liaising among all institutions concerned to coordinate measures and policies with regard to this group of foreign nationals.

“At this stage it is a little difficult to talk about integration,” says Mohammed Ez from the Syrian Refugee Association. “If we want a person to be integrated, he or she must start learning Bulgarian the day he sets foot in the country. Refugees who sit in camps do not learn the language and know nothing about the country. If they are let out into the streets they will get lost. For them to be integrated they need a place to live, job training, they need to learn the language. But what happens is that when they are given refugee status they find themselves literally out in the street, they get told to find themselves a place to live and a job – but how can they?”

Most of the refugees are peasants driven away from their farms, low-skilled workers with a poor education, with qualifications that are not much use. According to Bulgarian experts, what they can be offered is to settle in depopulated Bulgarian villages where they can till arable land that has been abandoned. But there are people with better education and professional skills, the kind that the Bulgarian economy needs. Several big municipalities in Southeastern Bulgaria, first and foremost the prosperous Black Sea city of Bourgas, are launching a new initiative that is aimed at this kind of refugees. In January, these trailblazers for Bulgaria gave the start to an initiative aimed at attracting highly-qualified immigrants. The project has the financial support of the EU and envisages the creation of an information labour market platform for the Southeastern region. The platform will enable employers from the area to offer vacancies and attract highly-qualified immigrants with a good education:

“There are refugees with a university education who speak English,” says Mohammed Ez. “I know many who have become integrated, but this can only happen if they want to. Most do not want to learn Bulgarian because they are planning on going to Germany once they obtain asylum status. And not because they do not like Bulgaria but because there is no way they can survive here. Here they have human contacts, whereas over there their social life would be boring but they would have security.”

Whether the project will yield any practical results is yet to be seen. Let us hope that it will encourage other regions across Bulgaria to help foreign nationals in their economic integration.

English version: Milena Daynova