EXPECTED WAVE OF BULGARIAN-WANNABES

Trud daily (18 March 2004)

$ 50,000 have been paid by Allan Thornton and his wife Patricia for this lovely home in a village close to Veliko Tarmovo. Photo by V. Angelova, Trud daily

Europeans would rather become Bulgarians, than vice versa. The research of “Trud Daily” shows that foreigners in large numbers buy realties in our villages, and the greatest part of them is people from Great Britain. The subjects of Her Majesty have already settled in the villages around Elhovo, Tarnovo and Varna. A Japanese family lives in the town of Shipka for years and awaits followers. According to the demography experts, Bulgaria should prepare for a new wave of Bulgarian wannabes after we enter the European Union.
The analysis of the National Statistic Bureau show that in 6-7 years time more foreigners will settle in Bulgaria, than Bulgarians will immigrate abroad.

The head of the Demography Department of the National Statistic Bureau Mr. Yordan Kalchev, prognosticates that after Bulgaria enters the European Union, people from Western Europe and the neighboring countries will come to live in Bulgaria in large numbers. He does not exclude also the possibility of many Africans and Asian people to settle here. It is not hard to guess that this interest towards our country shall be due to the fact that after 2007 Bulgaria will become external border of Europe.
However, the new-comers seeking affluence in Bulgaria, will be to our benefit. According to the vital statistics, Bulgaria should inevitably “import” people, in result to the exceptionally heavy demographic situation in which our country is at the moment. For the previous year, the negative natural growth of the population in Bulgaria is 5.7 to 1000. May be only the Baltic republics come near to this statistic with population decreasing to 4-5 to 1000 per year. Yordan Kalachev claims that the birth of a child is not longer a priority in the Bulgarian women’s system of values.
Bulgaria is yet to decide which foreigners to accept. The practice of the different European countries is quite varied. The former empires import “fresh blood” from their ex-colonies. For that reason in Great Britain live many Indians and Pakistani, while in France – many Algerians and Moroccans. Italy, due to the Vatican policy – is rich in Catholics from Asia – mainly from the Philippines.
Of course, Bulgaria can not follow this practice. The easiest thing to do is to import “new Bulgarians” from the neighboring countries, which are still not part of the European Union – Macedonia /even now there are many candidate-Bulgarians/ and Serbia. Immigrants from the ex-Soviet countries can also be expected. The former emigrants to Turkey will probably regain their Bulgarian citizenship, in order to receive European passports.
Another immigrant wave will most likely come from Western Europe. It shall consist of people, who will come to enjoy the wonderful nature. Along with this they will spend their European pensions for goods at much lower price than in their home country. They had already started to purchase houses in Bulgaria: Japanese in the region of Shipka, British in the regions of Elhovo and Veliko Tarnovo, Turkish emigrants in the region of Ardino. What is hard to predict is will we lose our national identity? Foreigners remain foreigners prior to the moment they try our plum brandy.

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