Labour Migrations of Bulgarians from Ukraine to the European Union Today and Tomorrow: Factors and Forecasts

Abstract

Labour migrations from Ukraine to the European Union are closely connected with the issues of interrelations between EU metropolitan countries and their Diasporas in Ukraine. Labour migration developments in independent Ukraine after 1991 have been moving towards their intensification. Migration trends among the Bulgarian Diaspora of South-Western Ukraine gained specific characteristics in the period of the world economic crisis. The enlargement of the EU in 2004 and 2007 led to the transformations in the preferences and choice factors of labour migrants, representatives of the Bulgarian Diaspora, while choosing the destination country in the EU. As a metropolitan country, Bulgaria has focused its policy on attracting its Diaspora groups, seeing them as labour and demographic potential for further development. This point of view is justified in many respects, though metropolitan country efforts must also be directed to the support of the Diaspora and its social, psychological, cultural and linguistic features.

Keywords

• migration
• emigration
• immigration trends
• metropolitan countries
• Diaspora
• economic crisis