Economic crisis drives Bulgarians to change their attitude to refugees

published on 3/24/10 1:18 PM

Photo: Rumyana Tsvetkova

Bulgarian society gets in contact with the refugees to the country very rarely, which results in poor knowledge of their problems, thus forming certain negative stereotypes. This was one of the major conclusions emerging from the official sociological survey the AFIS agencyconducted in the end of January. It was part of the information campaign of the State Agency for Refugees /SAR/ and the WEEKPRESS agency that aimed at increasing the knowledge of the Bulgarian society about people seeking asylum in this country. The campaign was co-financed by the European Refugee Fund /ERF/. The results of the research also show that the Bulgarians do make a difference between refugees and the rest of immigrants. According to 44% of the Bulgarians the main difference is that the refugees have been forced to leave their native countries because of a threat for their lives and social security or the ones of their families. At the same time however every 3rd Bulgarian oilled has assessed the motivation for migration as an attempt for moving to a state with a higher standard of living. The Bulgarians also consider the number of refugees in this country to be greater than it is in real.

“The refugees are a small and closed community with relatively limited contacts with Bulgarians, which makes our fellow countrymen create a somehow mythological and imaginary idea of a refugee – sociologist Stefan Georgiev from the AFIS agency explains. This idea is created on the basis of rumors heard, media stories, feature movies and documentaries. The greatest part of the Bulgarians think that most of the refugees come from the Arabic countries and the Middle East, which is not true at all. Secondly, the research accentuates on many indicators that show the attitude towards refugees as far as everyday life is concerned – their religiosity, appetite for success, worship of tradition etc. 62% of the Bulgarians think that the refugees are a lot more religious than us. According to 72% of the participants in the survey the refugees have huge families in most of the cases. As far as the “appetite for success” indicator is concerned, the research cannot show a clear tendency. The ratio here is almost equal – 30% of the surveyed think that the refugees try to achieve success more often than their hosts, while 29% claim the opposite. According to nearly half of the participants the refugees worship traditions more often than the Bulgarians.”

Finding a job, getting a status and papers and finding accommodation – these are the three major problems that refugees face in Bulgaria, according to Bulgarians themselves.
“Over 2/3 of people think that a man in trouble needs help, also if he or she is a refugee – the sociologist went on to say. Only 7% of the surveyed think the opposite. These are mainly men, workers and people with incomes a bit under the average. The main reason for their position is that all refugees are economic emigrants that represent themselves as hunted so that they can obtain the protection of the state. We think that the fears in this sphere have something to do with job competition and also with the usage of the social funds. The surveyed people showed moderate positive reactions towards measures that could ease the settlement of the refugees in the state and their cooperation with the social environment. 46% agree that the communication barrier should be broken in order such people to be integrated more successfully. The participants in the survey also approve a hypothetical measure – Bulgarian volunteers to help the refugees get out of the isolation. The main conclusion is that the economic crisis creates more fears, as far the social security of the Bulgarians is concerned, which makes their negative attitude towards refugees stronger.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev

По публикацията работи: Roumyana Tsvetkova

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