OECD Reviews of Labour Market and Social Policies: Bulgaria 2025

4. Making migration and integration work in Bulgaria

4.1. Aligning labour migration policies with the national strategy on migration

4.1.1. Bulgaria has simplified hirings from abroad

Until the mid‑2010s, the main goal of labour migration policy in Bulgaria was to protect the local labour market. The adoption in 2016 of the Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Law (LMLML) reflected a policy shift towards a “balanced acceptance of third countries’ workers in compliance with the labour market needs”1 (Bobeva, 2018[1]). The LMLML, and its several amendments since, have facilitated recruitment from abroad, as well as transposed EU directives into national legislation.

Labour migration to Bulgaria is fully demand driven, like in most European OECD countries. Third‑country individuals need a job offer from a Bulgarian employer in order to migrate to the country. If the position is for short-term employment (under 90 days) in seasonal work or as a posting to Bulgaria, the employer must only notify the Employment Agency (EA) of the hire. If it is for a longer-term position, up to one year, the EA must approve the hire and issue a work permit or deliver a positive opinion for the delivery of a single (work and residence) permit.

There are few restrictions to labour migration. There are no quotas in place for third-country labour migrants nor a labour market test. The EA nevertheless checks each request for a work permit (or single permit) and issues a positive or negative decision. It checks whether the firm is active and has no debt to the state. This step also ensures that firms that have been imposed a penalty in the previous year – for example failure to pay the agreed labour remuneration, hiring employees without the necessary employment permission or registration, or hiring irregular migrants – are barred from hiring from abroad. The main restriction on firms with respect to foreign hires is a cap at the firm level. Currently, the number of third-country migrants admitted under the single work and residence permit may not exceed 20% of the firm’s employment, 35% in the case of small and medium-sized firms.

Permit processing times have decreased in the past years. Obtaining a single permit takes approximately two months in total, including visa issuance, once all documents are submitted. The abolishment, or significant simplification, of the labour market test in 2018 reduced processing times by several months and there is recent progress on the digitalisation of processes. The government is currently working on the design of a common platform for all residence permit applications, which should streamline the processes. Bulgaria does not monitor processing times for the different residence permits. Given the increase in the number of applications for residence permits, in all categories of migration, it will become more important to monitor processing times and adjust staffing.

Bulgaria has also concluded bilateral labour agreements (BLAs) to further help firms address labour shortages. BLAs have been concluded and entered into force with Armenia, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova.2 The basis of these BLAs is to provide simplified access to the Bulgarian labour market for citizens of these countries. Firms hiring under the BLAs need only register the employment with the EA but do not need to apply for a work permit. Currently, only the agreement with Moldova is active. In the past few years, the number of participants remained low, and advertised vacancies by Bulgarian employers outnumbered the number of Moldovan candidates. In 2022, there were 69 job offers filled for 486 advertised vacancies.

Following the increase in labour migration to Bulgaria in the last years, retention of labour migrants may become a concern. The number of resident permits revoked has increased sharply in the past few years. It increased over six‑fold since 2019 and more than doubled from 2022 to 2023. A total of 1 700 permits were revoked in 2023, according to data from the Migration Directorate. Most of these permits were revoked due to employers reporting that hired third-country nationals had absconded. The top nationalities of holders of revoked permits are Uzbekistan, Türkiye, and Kyrgyzstan. Once Bulgaria fully joins the Schengen Area, labour migration is likely to increase, making it more pressing for Bulgaria to closely monitor its labour migration programmes.

4.1.2. Bulgaria lacks a comprehensive plan to implement its National Strategy on Migration

In the past decade, most of migration policy in Bulgaria has focused on transposing the EU directives into national legislation. Little policy development has happened in addition to the EU acquis. Furthermore, Bulgaria has faced increased irregular border crossings and much of the efforts have been geared towards the need to secure an external border of the EU (Box 4.1).

The National Strategy on Migration of the Republic of Bulgaria (2021‑25) sets as one of its goals to “establish a facilitated regime for entry and residence under the conditions of mobility in order to attract highly qualified workers from third countries”. Interestingly, the Strategy also mentions the need for Bulgaria to attract talent at different skill levels. However, it currently lacks a comprehensive plan with a set of measures to achieve these goals.

Bulgaria’s migration policy has traditionally encouraged individuals of Bulgarian ethnicity living abroad to settle in the country. Ethnic Bulgarians have a specific pathway to citizenship and permanent residence. The pathway to citizenship has however shown not to lead to settlement, as only a small share of new citizens settled in Bulgaria. Ethnic Bulgarians also have simplified access to the Bulgarian labour market. Employers need only to register their employment with the EA, without the need to apply for a work permit. The number of ethnic Bulgarians accessing the labour market remains small. For example, in 2022, the EA issued only 202 authorisations for employment of ethnic Bulgarians, a similar number to the previous years. The measures to attract and retain international students in Bulgaria are limited. Attraction measures are targeted exclusively at international students of Bulgarian ethnicity and citizens of the Republic of North Macedonia. These include quotas in public higher education institutions, exemption from tuition fees, as well as advertising and information campaign targeting this group of students abroad. Bulgaria allows international students who graduate in Bulgaria to remain in the country for nine months to search for employment. This is in line with the EU directive on international students. There are no additional pathways or measures in place to retain international students.

The main channel for high-skilled migration to Bulgaria is the EU Blue Card. When initially introduced, it was very difficult to qualify for the EU Blue Card (OECD/European Union, 2016[2]); fewer than 20% of tertiary-educated in Bulgaria earned above the threshold. Bulgaria has implemented several changes in the last few years to increase the take up of the Blue Card. The process has been successively simplified, the processing times reduced, the validity of the permit extended, and employer mobility eased. In 2022, Bulgaria issued almost 900 new Blue Cards, which is the 6th largest number among EU countries. The most recent amendment to the LMLM in 2023 also broadened the set of eligible applicants, in line with the recast Directive. They will be able to substitute the requirement of a higher education degree for relevant work experience. The transposition of the recast Blue Card directive introduced some of the most favourable conditions in EU countries. The salary threshold in 2023 was less than 20% above the average national salary.

Additional measures to attract high skilled workers have been put in place in the past few years by the Employment Agency. These have been mainly recruitment fairs abroad and a new promising programme to be implemented in the next years, Destination Bulgaria. These initiatives target both Bulgarian emigrants and potential immigrants (see Section 4.3).

Current labour migration channels – labour migration permits, BLAs, facilitations for ethnic Bulgarians – allow employers to hire from abroad in any occupation and sector. They do not target the short- nor long-term needs of the labour market and are not aligned with the country’s migration policy objectives. Although the Blue Card is the main instrument for talent attraction, it also remains fairly untargeted.

Box 4.1. Attempted irregular border crossings are at record levels in Bulgaria

In 2023, a total of about 380 000 illegal border-crossings on entry were reported by EU Member States. This was the highest number of detected illegal border-crossings since 2016 and represents a 17% increase relative to 2022 (Frontex, 2024). The Central Mediterranean, Western Balkan, and Eastern Mediterranean routes were the top three migratory routes on entry. Bulgaria, which lies on both the Western Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean routes, is a main transit country and has reported record numbers of attempted irregular crossings.

Given the increased migratory pressure, Bulgaria has successively increased the means aimed at controlling the migrant flow along the Bulgarian-Turkish border, as well as limiting secondary movement across the Serbian-Bulgarian border. The measures have included strengthening road infrastructure at the border; improving the equipment for border surveillance; increasing border police staff (including by sending army units to support the police forces); improving the existing 324 km fence at the border with Türkiye; and participating in joint operations with Frontex.

Source: Frontex (2024), “Significant rise in irregular border crossings in 2023, highest since 2016”, www.frontex.europa.eu/media-centre/news/news-release/significant-rise-in-irregular-border-crossings-in-2023-highest-since-2016-C0gGpm (accessed on 4 February 2024).

4.2. Designing a comprehensive integration policy

4.2.1. Integration policy has largely been absent from the policy agenda in Bulgaria

Bulgaria has a small immigrant population and has been in the past more of a sending and transit, than a destination country. However, the number of migrants arriving in Bulgaria has increased sharply in the last years (see Chapter 2). While the retention rate of humanitarian migrants remains low, their increased number implies a non-negligible increase in the population expected to remain in Bulgaria for the longer term. Moreover, the number of labour and family immigrants has also increased in the past years, leading to a larger stock of migrants potentially in need of integration support.

The National Strategy on Migration of the Republic of Bulgaria (2021‑25) includes only a short section on integration policy. The term integration has been dropped from the document title in this most recent Strategy reflecting the low priority of the topic in the overall document. The document highlights that Bulgaria has well-developed and effective legislation in the field of equal opportunities, social inclusion, and non-discrimination. The overall approach to integration of immigrants is based on equal rights and duties of immigrants in the labour market and society, with no additional support for immigrants, except for humanitarian migrants (see below). So far, no action plans with specific measures on integration have followed, and no budget has been allocated to integration policy (European Commission, 2023[3]).

There are no public integration measures for immigrants in Bulgaria. The available integration measures are offered by NGOs and International Organisations, such as for example the Bureau for Information and Services for Foreign Citizens in Sofia. The Bureau is a one‑stop-shop established in 2021 as a collaboration between Sofia Municipality, the Sofia Development Association, the Bulgarian Red Cross and “Vazrazhdane Markets” municipal association, with the support of UNHCR and the participation of over 13 local NGOs. Foreign citizens can access support on many aspects of integration, including language classes, psychological support, navigating the healthcare system or the labour market.

Almost all OECD countries offer public funded language training for family, and even labour, migrants. Some countries offer more extensive integration programmes including upskilling programmes and measures to facilitate labour market access or mainstream integration by fully integrating support for migrants into other training programmes, such as active labour market policies (ALMPs) (OECD, 2023[4]). Integration support is an investment in immigrants’ potential contribution to the Bulgarian labour market and society and a factor of attractiveness for potential immigrants, and particularly so for high-skilled immigrants (OECD, 2023[5]).

Currently, Bulgaria performs relatively badly in terms of immigrant labour market integration outcomes. According to the 2021 Census, the foreign-born are less likely to participate in the labour force and less likely to be employed than the native‑born. Only 57% of the foreign-born working-age population is employed, and up to 38% is inactive, compared with 63% and 30% of the native‑born (OECD, 2023[6]). Immigrants in Bulgaria had among the lowest participation and employment rates among OECD countries (OECD/European Commission, 2023[7]).

4.2.2. Reception conditions have struggled to keep up with the increasing number of asylum seekers

The number of asylum requests has increased almost ten‑fold in the last few years: from approximately 2 000 first asylum applications in 2019 to over 23 000 in 2023. This is more than the number of applications received in 2015. Dealing with this large increase has been challenging for the State Agency for Refugees (SAR), which processes and takes decisions on all asylum requests, as well as manages the reception centres that house practically all asylum seekers in Bulgaria. Reception logistics in Bulgaria are further complicated by the very high rate of onwards migration, with many asylum seekers leaving reception centres few days after first arriving. The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) is currently providing technical assistance to Bulgaria to, among other objectives, enhance the capacity of Bulgarian authorities to provide reception conditions in line with the Common European Asylum System (European Union Agency for Asylum, 2023[8]).

The living conditions in the reception centres have deteriorated significantly in the last years. The SAR provides for accommodation in the centres, meals, and health insurance. Medical support is also provided in the reception centres. At the end of 2022, the reception capacity was up to 3 932 individuals, since the remaining 1 228 places (out of the total 5 160) were located in premises unfit for living. The strained budget of the SAR has not allowed for basic maintenance and repairs. The occupancy rate at the end of 2022 was approximately 60%, with approximately 2 400 asylum seekers living in the reception centres. The sole factor that prevented overcrowding in reception centres in 2022 was the high absconding rate of Afghan applicants, which reached 95%, while they represented the second largest country of origin after Syria. Furthermore, the SAR needed to rely on NGO support even for running costs of the reception centres on some occasions in the past couple of years (Asylum Database Information, 2022[9]).

The SAR is expected to provide first integration support. The SAR’s social experts are tasked with co‑ordinating all aspects of early integration, such as information on the rights and duties of asylum seekers, the asylum procedure, school enrolment for the children, and information on the Bulgarian labour market. They are also tasked with collecting basic information to draw integration profiles based on age, education, family composition, and previous work experience.3 In practice, there are only approximately 30 social experts in total for the six existing reception centres. Furthermore, the number of unaccompanied minors requesting asylum in Bulgaria also increased sharply, further straining the support available. Out of the 23 000 asylum seekers who arrived in Bulgaria in 2023, nearly 4 000 were unaccompanied minors.

All other support measures are provided by NGOs, including language classes (provided by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism), as well as psychological and other necessary support. Furthermore, the reception centres do not have their own translators on staff and rely on EUAA translators available only weekdays within working hours.

Safety in reception centres has become a serious concern. The SAR relies on private security for the reception centres and has submitted several requests to the Ministry of Interior to provide police guards in replacement of private security of reception centres. The requests have so far been denied (Asylum Database Information, 2022[9]).

4.2.3. Bulgaria currently has no integration programme for beneficiaries of international protection

The number of beneficiaries of international protection has greatly increased in the past ten years. From 2013 to 2022, approximately 26 000 asylum seekers received international protection in Bulgaria, according to Eurostat data. Not all beneficiaries of international protection have remained in Bulgaria since there is evidence of secondary movements to other European countries. Nevertheless, the increase in the population is sizable and may be expected to increase given the increasing number of asylum requests.

Since 2014, there has been no integration programme for beneficiaries of international protection in Bulgaria. There are no measures in place and no funding allocated to the integration of this population group. Previously, the National Program for Integration of Refugees (NPIR) 2005‑13 included support in finding housing, an allowance for rent, language training, professional training and support in accessing social services and in registering with the EA as job seekers.

Beneficiaries of international protection have the same rights, and access to the same support, as nationals. Nevertheless, there is a case for an integration programme for this vulnerable population, to address the specific difficulties in integrating into the labour market and society at large. Most OECD countries have developed integration instruments specific to humanitarian migrants, of varying scale and scope (OECD, 2016[10]).

A first difficulty faced by beneficiaries of international protection (BIP), in Bulgaria as elsewhere, is access to housing. In Bulgaria, this difficulty is exacerbated by two factors. First, BIP need to find housing very quickly as they are required to leave the reception centres within two weeks after receiving international protection, except for the most vulnerable cases. Second, a postal address is required for a BIP to be issued personal identification documents and hence to be able enrol with the social system.

Furthermore, once the asylum seeker receives international protection, there is no case transfer from the SAR to the mainstream services, except in the most vulnerable cases. This may lead to difficulties in practice in accessing support and is a source of inefficiency given that the SAR collects information on the integration profiles of asylum seekers. NGOs fill this void by liaising with the SAR and supporting BIPs. In fact, the number of BIPs receiving any form of assistance is low. In 2022, only 26 BIP registered with the social services and received any form of benefit, social or family allowance. In the same year, 4 370 asylum seekers received international protection.4

Bulgaria had a well-designed programme for labour market integration of BIPs from 2018 until 2022 but its impact has been negligible. The National Refugee Employment and Training Programme was run by the EA. The programme aimed at supporting the labour market integration of BIPs through Bulgarian language training and/or training for acquiring professional qualification (300 academic hours for acquiring the first degree of professional qualification or qualification in part of a profession) and providing subsidised employment (for up to 12 months full-time).5 Very few BIPs accessed subsidised employment (eight in 2018) and language training started only at the end of 2021 for lack of funding.6 The scope of the programme is also limited. In 2022, the programme’s expenditure was approximately EUR 72 000 (Employment Agency Annual Report 2022).

In addition to the growing population of beneficiaries of international protection, Bulgaria also hosts Ukrainians under the Temporary Protection Directive, as well as a small number of humanitarian migrants resettled from Türkiye or relocated through the EU relocation scheme. In 2023 (2022), 9 (50) humanitarian refugees were resettled and 93 (179) were relocated to Bulgaria.

Resettled and relocated humanitarian migrants benefit from an integration programme financed by EU funds in which municipalities are responsible for all aspects of integration (among which housing, education, health, employment). Specific integration measures and support were also put in place for Ukrainians under the EU Temporary Protection Directive (Box 4.2). Bulgaria could build on the lessons learnt from these different programmes to design a unified integration programme accessible to all humanitarian migrants.

Box 4.2. Reception and integration of Ukrainians

On 4 March 2022, the Council of the European Union enacted, for the first time, the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD, 2001/55/EC) to provide quick and effective assistance to people fleeing the war in Ukraine. Similarly to other EU Member States bound by the directive, Bulgaria activated temporary protection on 10 March 2022, and has since extended it until March 2025. By the end of 2023, more than 174 000 people had registered for temporary protection in Bulgaria, with the UNHCR reporting that about 51 800 refugees from Ukraine remained in the country.

The TPD calls for harmonised rights for the beneficiaries of temporary protection (BTPs), including access to suitable housing, employment, medical care, education for children, social welfare, or means of subsistence if necessary. In response, Bulgaria had to introduce legislative amendments, including changes to the Law on Labour Migration and Labour Mobility, adjust policies, and enhance existing capacities to fulfil its obligations.

Among other steps, this involved establishing new co‑ordination structures to address the response better. After the activation of the TPD, the government appointed a national task force group to co‑ordinate the work of six interdepartmental sub-groups responsible for the reception and registration of Ukrainian refugees. This task force operated until August 2022 when the parliament was dissolved. In November 2022, a National Operational Headquarters, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security and the Minister of the Interior, was established to oversee the reception and assistance of BTPs in Bulgaria and co‑ordinate the response with NGOs, UNHCR, IOM, UNICEF, and the Bulgarian Red Cross.

Bulgaria introduced new measures to support the new Ukrainian arrivals. Ukrainians were given the right to health insurance in the National Health Insurance Fund, following a change in the Law on Health Insurance. From September 2022 until February 2023, the Social Assistance Agency (SAA) started providing nearly 40 000 basic assistance vouchers to displaced Ukrainians with a nominal value of BGN 100 (EUR 50) each. These vouchers were intended for the purchase of food, clothing, school supplies, hygiene materials, and other necessities. The vouchers were distributed through the territorial structures of the SAA – Social Assistance Directorates (SAD) – which were also responsible for providing additional support in the form of individual counselling and information, including details about their rights, available social assistance and services, socio‑economic integration, and specific support for children and people with disabilities, including referrals to medical experts to establish disabilities.

The EA implemented the Solidarity Project to support the speedy labour market entry of BTPs in Bulgaria. Subsidies for employment of Ukrainians were available for up to six months and a monthly integration supplement of BGN 356 for up to three months. Furthermore, the Solidarity Project employed a mentor to help Ukrainians adapt to the working environment. BTPs were able to benefit from career guidance, psychological support, and prepare an individual action plan for finding a job. Although the intended target group was 9 000, a total of 3 838 displaced Ukrainians participated in the project before its conclusion in July 2023.

4.3. Developing a national strategy for Bulgarians abroad

Since the early 2000s, Bulgarians had increasing access to mobility opportunities as Bulgaria sought closer ties with the European Union. The accession of Bulgaria to the European Union in 2007 represented a turning point, and while some restrictions on free mobility remained in place until 2014, Bulgarians increasingly migrated to other EU countries, mainly Spain and then later on Germany and the United Kingdom.

The Bulgarian diaspora is both high and low skilled, with significant variation across host countries. According to preliminary 2020 DIOC data, approximately 20% of Bulgarian emigrants in Spain are tertiary educated, compared with one‑third in the United Kingdom and over 60% in the United States.

A direct contribution of the diaspora to the Bulgarian economy is through remittances. In 2023, the share of personal remittances received by Bulgarian households accounted for 2.4% of total GDP. While this remains a significant contribution to Bulgaria’s GDP, it is down from almost 4% in 2017, when remittances accounted for a higher share of GDP in Bulgaria than in any OECD country apart from Latvia. The trend in the decline in the importance of remittances in the last years, and in particular post-pandemic, mirrors the decrease in Bulgarian emigration (Figure 4.1).

The importance of remittances is underestimated for all countries given that only a fraction of remittances is sent through official channels. This is particularly important in the case of Bulgaria, in which most recent emigration is temporary and to other EU countries. Bulgarian could provide opportunities for remittances to be channelled into activities or projects which contribute to the country’s development.

Figure 4.1. Personal remittances received

Source: World Development Indicators, dataset Personal remittances, received (% of GDP) (accessed 6 August 2024).

Statlink

4.3.1. Bulgaria lacks a comprehensive diaspora policy

Bulgarian diaspora policy is fragmented. In Bulgaria, there is no general legislative act nor organisational structure that implements a national policy related to Bulgarians abroad. Depending on their content, measures regarding the diaspora are implemented either by the Executive Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, or by the different relevant Ministries (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Ministry of Justice).

The scope of state‑funded activities towards the Bulgarian community abroad is limited. There are two main regular activities financed by the state budget, through the Ministry of Education and Science. The ministry supports the activities of Bulgarian Sunday schools abroad as well as the policies to attract foreign-born ethnic Bulgarians to Bulgaria’s higher education system (Section 4.1.2). On a project basis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs supports the activities of associations of Bulgarians abroad.

These activities mirror the focus of Bulgarian diaspora policy of the last decades. Bulgarian diaspora policy has been focused on the promotion of Bulgarian culture and identity, especially through courses in Bulgarian language and culture for children born to Bulgarian emigrant parents, through the Bulgarian Sunday schools. The target group of these policies was mainly well established ethnic Bulgarian communities abroad.

In the past few years, the return of Bulgarians abroad has become more of a policy priority. Emigration to other EU countries has been high in the past 20 years contributing significantly to the decrease in the population (Chapter 2). Encouraging Bulgarians emigrants to return and making use of their skills acquired abroad is increasingly perceived as a tool to counteract population ageing and address skills shortages. In fact, attracting Bulgarian emigrants is a main objective of the National Strategy on Migration of the Republic of Bulgaria (2021‑25).

While there is no comprehensive outreach policy for Bulgarians abroad, recent initiatives aim at attracting emigrants. Currently, there is no national programme to attract and re‑integrate them, and no tax incentives to encourage return migration. However, in the last few years, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the EA have implemented some measures to attract Bulgarians abroad, mostly career forums in main destination countries of Bulgarian emigrants (Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Netherlands). Other initiatives to attract emigrants have been taken by the civil society and NGOs, such as the Bulgaria wants you platform or the ITogether.BG targeting IT specialists and created by the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (OECD, 2023[11]).

Furthermore, a new promising programme Destination Bulgaria under the Human Resources Development Program (2021‑27) has been approved to attract Bulgarian emigrants, as well as foreign citizens, to work in Bulgaria. The operation budget amounts to BGN 15 million (EUR 7.5 million) and will be implemented by the EA. The measures will include support in finding employment the labour market, rent support, and Bulgarian language classes for foreign citizens.

4.3.2. Return emigrants would benefit from targeted measures

Returned emigrants face difficulties integrating into the Bulgarian labour market. Surveys on Bulgarian return migrants indicate that in many cases they face unemployment upon return and difficulties in finding a job (Misheva, 2021[12]). This is confirmed by 2021 Census data. Bulgarian-born emigrants who returned to Bulgaria in the 2010s are less likely to be in employment, and more likely to be unemployed or inactive than Bulgarian-born individuals who did not emigrate. Only 58% of return migrants aged 25‑64 are in employment (10% are unemployed and 31% are inactive) compared with 69% (7% and 24%) of individuals with no migration experience. Return migrants are also more likely to be self-employed with no employees, which points to potential difficulties in integrating into the labour market.7

The challenges in the labour market are equally felt by highly educated return migrants. Approximately one‑third of returnees are tertiary educated, a similar share than non-emigrants. Tertiary educated returnees are more likely to be in employment (72%) but face nevertheless a large employment gap relative to native‑born tertiary-educated Bulgarians who did not emigrate (83%).

Bulgaria currently lacks targeted measures to help return Bulgarian emigrants integrate, or re‑integrate, in the labour market and in the society. Finding employment comes up as the key difficulty return migrants face in recent surveys (Misheva, 2021[12]). Bulgarian emigrants benefit like other Bulgarians from the support of the EA but there is no dedicated support to ensure their skills, competences and experience acquired abroad are recognised and put to use. In addition to support in integrating into the labour market, support in enrolling children into school, finding housing, navigating the social security and tax systems may be helpful in quickly integrating return migrants.

References

[9] Asylum Database Information (2022), Bulgaria Report.

[1] Bobeva, D. (2018), Migration Report Bulgaria, OECD Expert Network on Migration.

[3] European Commission (2023), Bulgarian Labour Market Needs as Key to Refugee Employment, https://migrant-integration.ec.europa.eu/library-document/bulgarian-labour-market-needs-key-refugee-employment_en.

[8] European Union Agency for Asylum (2023), Operational Plan 2023-2024 Agreed by the European Union Agency for Asylum and Bulgaria.

[12] Misheva, M. (2021), “Return migration and institutional change: the case of Bulgaria”, Economic Studies, Vol. 30, https://www.iki.bas.bg/Journals/EconomicStudies/2021/2021.

[4] OECD (2023), Introduction Measures for Newly-Arrived Migrants, Making Integration Work, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5aeddbfe-en.

[6] OECD (2023), OECD Economic Surveys: Bulgaria 2023, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5ca812a4-en.

[11] OECD (2023), OECD Skills Strategy Bulgaria: Assessment and Recommendations, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c2eb2f34-en.

[5] OECD (2023), What is the best country for global talents in the OECD?, OECD, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/what-is-the-best-country-for-global-talents-in-the-oecd_5186ab2d-en.html.

[10] OECD (2016), Making Integration Work: Refugees and others in need of protection, Making Integration Work, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264251236-en.

[7] OECD/European Commission (2023), Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2023: Settling In, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1d5020a6-en.

[2] OECD/European Union (2016), Recruiting Immigrant Workers: Europe 2016, Recruiting Immigrant Workers, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264257290-en.

Notes

← 1.  Employment Agency, Annual Report 2017‑2.2

← 2.  There are also discussions underway at different stages with Ukraine, Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

← 3.  Asylum seekers in Bulgaria have access to the labour market three months after filing their request. In 2022, the SAR issued 302 official notices for access to the labour market.

← 4.  Similarly, in 2021, 54 BIPs received some form of social assistance and 2015 asylum seekers received international protection in total.

← 5.  The second objective of the programme is to increase the capacity of transit and registration and reception centres, municipal and regional administrations to work with refugees. This has been the main use of the programme. Bulgaria: National refugee employment and training programme 2021-2022 | European Website on Integration (europa.eu)

← 6.  Bulgaria: National refugee employment and training programme 2021-2022 | European Website on Integration (europa.eu)

← 7.  8.3% of Bulgarian-born return migrants (in employment, aged 25‑64) are self-employed without employees compared with 6.9% of Bulgarian-born who did not emigrate. However, they are less likely to self-employed with employees, 4.7% compared with 5.7%.