Today over 1 million Bulgarians live abroad. Of them about 700 thousand are in EU states. Western countries such as Germany have a more aging population, but their wealth provides them with greater opportunities to deal with the fiscal problems of the reduced workforce.
We have the problem of a rich country, although we are not one, Georgi Angelov, senior economist at Open Society Institute – Sofia, said to Economist magazine.
In the last years emigration has been decreasing and some Bulgarians return, but due to the low birth rate, the population is still decreasing. Optimists look at well-governed Estonia, which lost 17% of its population after its liberation from the Soviet rule, but has recently seen the return of emigrants. Poland, which accepted hundreds of thousand Ukrainians to work in its economy, is an alternative model.
The complete text of the analysis If Hell is Other People, Bulgaria is Paradise
