Bulgarians do not pose a threat to the labour market of any EU Member State

A total of 131 Bulgarians left for Britain in 2005 and 2006 to take jobs found for them by licensed placement agencies, according to official figures of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP), provided by the Ministry’s Press Centre.

BTA approached the Ministry in connection with British press items about an expected influx of workers from Bulgaria after the country’s EU accession and the debate on restricting the access to the UK labour market.

At this point, six job placement agencies have registered with the National Employment Agency seven contracts for work in the UK: five for 2004 and two for 2005. The contracts are for intermediation in the recruitment of auxiliary medical staff, nurses, and hotel and restaurant staff. In 2005, licensed agencies sent 68 Bulgarians to work in Britain: 58 as auxiliary medical personnel and 10 as farm labourers. Since the beginning of 2006, 63 Bulgarians have left for the UK under such arrangements, all of them to work as auxiliary medical personnel.

Bulgaria and the UK have not concluded an intergovernmental agreement on employment and exchange of labour force.

According to a survey, cited by MLSP EU Integration 2 Department Chief Raymond Saparev, the UK is not among the top destinations for Bulgarian job-seekers abroad: merely 0.2 to 0.4 per cent of those polled said they prefer a UK job. Bulgarians would rather work in the US, Germany, Spain and Italy.

New Member States are subject to post-accession transitional periods of restricted access to the labour market (i.e. to work under an employment contract), Saparev explained. He specified that the first two years of the transitional period of the newly admitted Member States ran out by the end of April, and it is normal to make assessment of the immigration flows now.

Of the "old" EU Member States, only the UK, Ireland and Sweden introduced liberal arrangements, i.e. they did not close their labour markets to the newly admitted members, Saparev recalled.

A debate is in progress in the EU on whether to restrict or liberalize access to the labour market. Only Germany and Austria have categorically declared that they will continue to apply transitional periods.

A report of the British Institute for Public Policy Research, released in April 2006, notes that Bulgarians are less inclined to migrate as a result of an improvement of the economic situation in their country, the expert said, adding that Bulgarian surveys have arrived at the same conclusion.

Bulgarians do not pose a threat to the labour market of any EU Member State, the MLSP notes.

The Ministry is compiling brochures explaining how Bulgarians can avoid unregulated job recruitment abroad.

Source: BTA. Author: Valeria Petrova