UNIVERSITY OF NATIONAL AND WORLD ECONOMY

Department of Economic Sociology

Economic Research Institute

at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

International Conference

RETURN MIGRATION:

EUROPEAN AND BULGARIAN PERSPECTIVES

Sofia, UNWE / February 28, 2020

The relevance of migration issues in their various aspects and dimensions is indisputable. Migration is not a new phenomenon, but in the last century, and especially since the end of WWII, migration as an international and global phenomenon has intensified. Among the increasingly visible and attention-grabbing aspects of this phenomenon are the processes associated with return migration back to the countries of origin. Hence, questions about the causes and motivation for return, the economic and social implications and consequences of return for the migrants themselves as well as for their homeland, and the opportunities and limitations to manage these processes through targeted policies have been subjected to legitimate academic and policy-related interest at both national and international level. In the last decade, the debate on policies and normative mechanisms for managing immigration and emigration, as well as the engagement of countries with their citizens living abroad, including questions about their potential return, has intensified in both research and political practice.

For CEE and SEE countries, these issues are of particular importance in the context of the so-called 'brain drain' problem or the large and relatively constant immigration of skilled migrants from these regions to more developed countries in Western Europe and North America in recent decades. With the unfolding of the EU enlargement processes, and especially the 2004, 2007and 2013 waves of accession of new Member States, the area of free movement of persons is increasing. Despite the temporary restrictions introduced in some of the "old" Member States designed to protect national labor markets from being "flooded" with cheaper labor force from Eastern Europe, the higher standard of living and higher wages in these countries have been a constant lure for a steady migration flow from east to west in Europe. Consequently, this outflow from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe raises concerns about the demographic picture in the sending countries and fuels the search for ways of potential return of migrants.

For Bulgaria, return migration is a relatively recent phenomenon. However, being a net “exporter” of labor and especially skilled labor, the issues pertaining to Bulgarians returning from abroad are extremely important. Although the mechanical growth from external migration remains negative, i.e. emigrants with Bulgarian citizenship are more than those who return to the country, the phenomenon of "returning migrants" is a fact and more than ever before there has been a need to explain both the reasons, as well as the consequences and implications of the return of Bulgarians to their homeland.

This is the rationale behind our invitation for contributions (presentation of research, position papers or poster presentation) to the conference from researchers, analysts, political practitioners and PhD students in the following thematic areas:

• Return migration: state-of-the-art theories and research
• Migration trajectories and return: factors and motivational structures
• Segmentation and stratification of returnees
• Returnees’ impact on Bulgarian economy and society
• Institutional context, legal frame and policies for return migration and reintegration of returnees

Please, send the filled-in application form to [email protected] by January 15, 2020 at latest. Download the application form from http://departments.unwe.bg/soc/bg/pages/16872/international-conference-return-migration-european-and-bulgarian-perspectives.html 

ORGANIZATIONAL TIMETABLE: IMPORTANT DATES  AND  DEADLINES

Send a filled-in application form                       by January 15, 2020 (at latest)

Notification of acceptance                                 within 2 weeks from receiving the application

Send the full paper                                              by February 20, 2019

Preliminary program                                          sent to participants by February 15, 2020

CONFERENCE LANGUAGE is English. However, for a limited number of presentations a consecutive Bulgarian-English translation will be provided (to be noted in the application form).

PUBLICATION OPTIONS

• All papers presented at the conference together with the scripts of plenary discussions will be published in an edited conference proceedings volume (indexing in world scientific databases pending).
• Selected conference papers will be published in a special issue of the Economic Studies Journal of the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Science (indexed in Scopus), or in UNWE scientific journals: Research Papers (RePEc, ROAD, CEEOL); UNWE Yearbook (CEEOL, RePEc) or Economic Alternatives (EconLit / EBSCO, RePEc, etc.).

CONFERENCE COST

There is no conference fee. The conference organizers cannot cover costs of international travel.