Representatives of leading local companies, municipal administration, stakeholders and citizens participated in the second local migration forum in Burgas, chaired by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Haralan Alexandrov – a social anthropologist. The meeting aimed at generating discussion on YOUMIG’s pilot activity planned for Burgas Municipality, which is to attract young migrants to Burgas to contribute with their potential to the development of the city.

A number of interviews and surveys have been prepared as part of a local analysis completed in Burgas, which drew conclusions and made recommendations for planned actions. From the analysis it became clear that Burgas is rather a mixed type as a city: it is both receiving and sending young migrants. The data show that for the last few years Burgas has welcomed a significant number of immigrants from countries like Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. The tendencies are that the number of the local population stays in a negative trendline of constant diminishing and that the population is aging: Fully 37% of its share are people over 50.

For these reasons Burgas Municipality has set the ambitious goal of creating an environment for successful entrepreneurship development, to assist, retain and attract young people who have already gone to other cities in the country or abroad. The measures outlined to help return these youth are boosted with some local initiatives, such as support of developing business plans and generating ideas, initiating meetings between young people and businesses, social media consultations, and building special platforms for returning emigrants.

The Forum started with a short presentation of the outcomes of Burgas’s Local Status-quo Analysis, elaborated by Prof. Alexandrov as the thematic expert for Burgas Municipality. The economy of Burgas due to its sectoral structure (dominated by mining, processing and chemical industries) is characterized by a low and medium level of technology. The research found that companies need people with secondary education more than higher education graduates. This assumption was confirmed by Rosen Grigorov – Head of the HR department of Lukoil Neftochim Burgas at the forum. „In Lukoil there are about 1,500 employees, five of whom are Russian citizens in the company’s management. The majority of the staff have specialised secondary education.”

Mr. Grigorov revealed that among employees who leave them, there are people with families, with two children, for example, who have a long history with the company and a monthly salary of BGN 3,000 (about EUR 1,530). When asked about the reasons for quitting, they say: “I have everything but no future for my children”. This answer shows that the reasons are much deeper, connected not only with the economy and employment opportunities, but also the quality of life, the social environment and with individual self-fulfillment.  

The representatives of other employers were a little more optimistic, but all participants in the forum were united around the idea that in order to hold or attract people in Burgas, there must be new educational methods and practices established, which can make people more creative, more adaptive and properly motivated for work and self-realization in Burgas.

A business incubator, which Burgas is planning under YOUMIG’s pilot action activity, can serve as a place for interaction between different stakeholders by setting up a friendly environment for fostering entrepreneurship via an exchange of ideas and good practices.

There is also an idea to work with school headmasters to offer classes in career guidance – meetings with successful professionals in different fields combined with dual education. The innovative element is that this can be done online through a live stream of the meetings with the professionals. The meetings can be recorded, so that they can be accessible also later on from anybody who is interested.