Labor migration of Bulgarians to the EU: background, causes, motives, consequences. Trends during the COVID-19 pandemic

The purpose of this research article is to describe the main trends in the labor migration of dozens of Bulgarians to some countries of the European Union in the period 2019-2022 in terms of the factors that shape their migration behavior. During some of her business trips and work abroad, the author of the research paper, who is Bulgarian, did this according to the methodology of one of the most widespread methods of qualitative research: she wrote down in detailed field notes what she saw, heard and experienced among the Bulgarian migrant communities in some European Union countries; and interviews: she personally asked dozens of Bulgarian labor migrants in a one-to-one semi-structured and unstructured interview a series of questions about the reasons and motives for their migration, and based on their answers, divided the migrants into several conditional groups. The labor migration trends of these conditional groups of Bulgarian labor migrants during the pandemic are also described, as the pandemic led to a reduction in their labor mobility in the EU in 2020 and 2021, which negatively affected both them and their employers. Finally, the labor migration of Bulgarians is shown neither from a negative, nor from a positive side, but as a complex phenomenon that must always be considered from both sides in its entirety, with all pros and cons arising from this as consequences, and in the present case study, the author is interested in the consequences of labor migration for both migrants and the sending country.