Judging on the data provided by Eurostat, Bulgaria is definitely not a popular immigrant destination. This country, together with neighboring Romania has the smallest number of immigrants, as compared to other EU member states. The newcomers have faced serious obstacles in Bulgaria in their attempts to integrate into the local society. The national campaign that started four months ago, aims at helping these people through various initiatives.

The daily round of the average immigrant in Bulgaria is quite difficult and is accompanied by poverty, uncertainty and muddle. The first problem each immigrant faces in Bulgaria is the language barrier. The foreigners who come from Slavic countries such as Russia and Ukraine for example do not experience serious problems, because their mother languages are similar to the Bulgarian. However, the rest of the newcomers meet serious hardships linked with the specific language. Thus, they also face a number of administrative barriers and instead of fulfilling their personal dreams and making a career in this country, they queue from one desk to another, without even knowing what they are queuing for. It turned out that the language barrier is one of the main hindrances to the foreign nationals residing in Bulgaria. That is why the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals finances the project named National Information Campaign for Immigrant Rights and Better Acceptance by Bulgaria’s Society. The project is to the tune of nearly EUR 80 thousand. For a period of four months or so a team of experts will try to help these people adapt better to the local reality through billboards, explanatory brochures and meetings with immigrants from different countries.

Where do most immigrants come from? Most of them come from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Afghanistan. “Recently the number of Arabs and of Syrian and Chinese nationals has been constantly on the rise”, says for Radio Bulgaria Yordan Boyanov who is a member of the team which operates under the project Information Campaign on Immigration Phenomenon. If one walks along the streets near the Sofia open markets, he would be surprised by the large number of Chinese and Arab shops. Their owners enjoy good profits and clientele. These people somehow manage to incorporate into the Bulgarian reality. However, in most cases the immigrants remain outsiders.

“Many of the immigrants come from countries where no Slavic languages are spoken and later they find it difficult to integrate in the new society. This is so, because most of the information in this country is entirely in Bulgarian. Some of the information in the big Bulgarian cities in also written in English, but the number of immigrants who do not speak this language is huge. Thus, they are kept entirely in the dark and have no clue where to look for help. Even if they do so, they can not tell their problems out loud. Let alone their collision with a completely different culture. The Ministry of Education and Science could help them find out how to attend given language courses, in order to integrate easier in the local society. When immigrants arrive to Bulgaria they want to know whether they have any insurance, where they can receive medical consultation free of charge and use any ER services”, Mr. Boyanov continues.

However, it turned out that most immigrants have no insurance in Bulgaria. The newcomer has to pay, in order to receive any hospital treatment. Unfortunately, most people can not afford to pay the price. That is why these people definitely need help. This is the main goal of the campaign financed by the EU. It focuses on cities with highest number of immigrants such as Plovdiv, Varna, Kardjali and Burgas. Many of the newcomers have a provisional status which means that they reside in Bulgaria for a short period of time until they move to a more prosperous EU country. Although their stay in the country is short, they find it hard to deal with their life of immigrants in a country like Bulgaria, known as the poorest EU member state. When they overcome the initial shock, those who adapt better to the new conditions find jobs and some of them become translators. Others, who learn Bulgarian well enough, manage to make a private business. However, most of them remain outsiders due to financial difficulties and the lack of qualification and skills which is good news for the grey economy which is looking for cheap labor, evades paying taxes, social security contributions, etc. The web site www.immigrant-bg.eu is also part of the support provided to immigrants. Each newcomer can share there his worries and look for an advice and support. More from:

“We launched this web site, in order to make the contact of these people with institutions easier” Yordan Boyanov further explains. “We received various reports and comments from the immigrant community during the whole campaign. People were visiting the web site, they wrote many letters to us and asked us various questions.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov