Immigration

published on 10/19/09 2:44 PM

People leave their homelands for different reasons. The processes of globalization and economic factors however are among the most frequent ones. Big parts of the people migrate from poorer countries to richer ones. The migration wave is one of the main reasons the population of the EU to have increased in the past several decades. At present it numbers half a billion people. An increase of 80 per cent of the population is due to the immigrants. Having in mind that the population of the EU member countries is aging the Union would have to open its doors for some 20 million workers in the coming 20 years, said in 2007 Franco Frattini – the then Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security.

“Usually the population of countries that have passed through a heavy catharsis period in its economic development is the most mobile”, says associate professor Natalia Bekriakova, tutor at the “National and international security” department at the Military Academy “Georgi Stoikov Rakovski”. This is mainly the population of North Africa and South Asia. A big migrant wave towards the European countries, the USA and Canada was also evident in the past 20 years from the post-communist countries to which Bulgaria belongs. In the words of associate professor Bekriakova “favourites” are quickly developing countries like Ireland and the richer European ones. At present because of the heavy economic transition Bulgaria is more of a migration source rather than a country accepting migrants. According to associate professor Bekriakova with the furthering of the democratic processes in the country and stabilizing the economy Bulgaria will soon turn into a place, preferred by foreign citizens.

“According to data of the International organization of migration the foreigners, who permanently live in Bulgaria, are around 55000 people. They are mainly from neighbouring countries like Turkey, Macedonia and Greece but there are also Russians, Ukrainians and Moldavians. There are also people from China, India, Pakistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Most of them live in the big cities, because it is hard to find work in the villages. The last years also show that there is a marked interest towards the business conditions in Bulgaria. There was also a big wave of pensioners’ immigration till recently, when the economic crisis was not so strongly felt. We are envisioning the British pensioners who were interested in buying real estate and settling in Bulgaria. At present however things are different because of the economic and financial crisis. Expectations are that when this hard period passes and we improve our image a bit our country would begin to attract more migrants. Because of the demographic crisis Bulgaria drastically needs this”, says Natalia Bekriakova.

Immigration has a serious impact on the processes of security and stableness in every society, but all depends on the size of the migration wave, considers Natalia Bekriakova and adds: “The fears are that big streams of migrants would complicate the social situation, would destabilize the labour market, would complicate the housing problem and would affect the social and transport infrastructure. It is possible – and we witness it in a number of West European countries – all this to lead to higher levels of crime. It is also well known that migration streams are a means to infiltrate terrorist cells. Another important aspect it the fact that immigrants rarely pay taxes and everything they earn they prefer to return to their fatherlands.”

The bad demographic situation in all the Balkan countries with the exception of quickly developing Turkey shows that in the nearest future there will be a need of immigrants. They will be necessary for the labour market. In neighbouring Greece, which is better off than Bulgaria, the migration wave is noticeable. There are about 1 million immigrants and over 60 per cent of them are Albanians. This process will be even bigger in Bulgaria, where about one fourth of the territory is de-populated because of the migration towards the bigger towns in order to earn a living. It is not logical to think that pleasant and fertile places would remain without population in the future. At present the problems in front of the security of the country are created by the illegal migration, which should not be overlooked. In the last years Bulgaria has registered around 1000 illegal immigrants.

English version: Ivaila Bozhanova

По публикацията работи: Milka Dimitrova

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