Bulgarian Labor Agency Assuages UK's Migrant Workers' Fears

Britain's fear that it would be flooded by Bulgarian migrants after 2013 are unfounded, according to Bulgarian officials. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Concerns in Britain that it might be flooded by migrant laborers from Bulgaria and Romania after the due lifting of its EU labor market restrictions on January 1, 2014, are completely unfounded, according to Elena Vidinska, chief expert at the Bulgarian Employment Agency.

"Bulgarians traditionally prefer Spain, Italy, Greece, and Germany [as migrant laborers], and that's where we have large Bulgarian communities," Vidinska told the Focus news agency Tuesday.

"Many other EU member states have opened their labor market for Bulgaria including Ireland last year but there have been no reports of Bulgarians flooding Ireland after it opened its labor market," she added.

Vidinska further cited a number of surveys carried out by the Bulgarian Employment Agency which concluded that the citizens of the new EU member states actually boosted the economic development of the old EU member states.

"What is more, the UK and other countries such as Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands are trying to attract those Bulgarians who completed their education there by offerring them jobs because all of Europe is hungry for skilled labor," she added.

The Employment Agency expert also pointed to a report of the European Commission from November 2011 on laborers from Bulgaria and Romania indicating that Bulgarians and Romanians make up 1% of all who are unemployed in the old EU member states, while the citizens of non-EU countries make up 4.1% of the total number of unemployed in the old EU member states.

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