EMIGRATION OF SCIENTISTS
AND ENGINEERS FROM BULGARIA
Bulgaria has no Nobel Prize winners. Over the last few decades
public opinion was manipulated by the communist regime and its ideologists,
who enforced a negative attitude towards the academic sphere. Academic
work and scientific research was declared non-productive, while the work
of unqualified laborers was praised. The scientist was placed in the humiliating
position of receiving lower wages than bus drivers and ideological servility
was virtually the only possible mechanism for making a career in science.
Nevertheless, during that period the science sector in Bulgaria achieved
substantial results and, although rather hesitantly, resistance against
the Bulgarian Communist Party was born and was carried mainly by scientists
and academics. Today, they are paying the highest price for the transition
towards a market economy and yet they remain the main driving force for
their implementation. Academics and scientists comprise more than 60 per
cent of National Assembly deputies; only four ministers in the recent reform
government of the Union of Democratic Forces had no scientific degree.
In the present government, headed by the non-aligned figure of Professor
Berov, only three Ministers have no academic qualifications. Both the President
and the Prime Minister are professors.
Emigration and the brain drain are a painful social problem resulting not
only in a loss of the existing intellectual potential of the nation, but
also in a reduction of the social base for the implementation of the reforms.
THE CRISIS IN SCIENCE
The emigration of scientists and university graduates reflects the general
trend of the emigration outflow from the country. It is also the result
of the work of some specific factors to do with the particular motivation,
status and orientation of intellectual migrants.
Research data indicates that the Bulgarian population as a whole - and
its intellectual component - possess a high degree of potential mobility,
which has remained at a continuously high level over the last several years.
The size of the actual migration, on the other hand, is declining - above
all due to the closing of the various routes that it has been using.
In 1989 the mass emigration wave - mostly composed of ethnic Turks pushed
out by the communist regime into neighbouring Turkey - reached some 218,000.
In 1992, the number of emigrants has probably not exceeded 38,000 (Table.1).
An important factor causing the decline in migration is the gradual disappearance
of the "effect of the unknown world".
Today, it is not the attractiveness of the Western world, but, rather,
the difficulties of the transition in Bulgaria itself, that motivate the
outflow of intellectuals towards the developed countries.
In the case of scientists and university graduates, these difficulties
are rooted in the deep crisis of science as a part of the general economic
and social crisis that accompanies the transition and the reforms which
compose it. The main reason for this crisis are as follows:
1. The severe cuts in expenditures for the science sector over the last
years.
The proportion of the national income spent on science was highest in 1985,
reaching 3.5 per cent. In 1992 this share was only 1.95 per cent of the
GDP.
The total expenditure for the science sector out of the state budget (this
is the only kind of expenditures for science made in this country) in 1990
amounted to 331.7 million leva, which comes to 1.17 per cent of the spending
part of the budget, and in 1992, to 879.3 million leva, which makes up
1.64 per cent of the expenditure part of the state budget.
Bearing in mind the fact that inflation in the period December 1990 - December
1992 accelerated to 542 per cent, real spending on science has more than
halved.(Table 3)
2. Besides the cuts in spending on science, a substantial motive for the
emigration of scientists and university graduates is the dramatic decline
in the number and the proportion of the employed in the science and the
science services sector.
During the three years of transition (from the beginning of 1990 till the
end of 1992), the number of people employed in the science sector has halved
- from 86,310 to 46,880. (Table.3).
To a significant extent this decline is due to emigration. The relative
share of people employed in the science sector out of the total number
of employed has also diminished - from 2.2 per cent in 1990 to 1.7 per
cent at the end of 1992.
The 1992 data on lecturers has not yet been published.
But it can definitely be stated that the changes during that year will
turn out to be very dramatic due to the following circumstances:
-In 1992 the Law on Additional Requirements to Members of Managing Boards
of Scientific Organizations and of the Higher Certifying Commission was
passed. It became popular under the name of Law on Decommunisation of Science.
According to the Law, no employees on the staff of the former Bulgarian
Communist Party (paid or unpaid) are allowed at present to occupy managerial
positions in scientific institutes and education establishments. Although
strongly disputed, the Law is coming into force and this will lead to substantial
displacements and restructuring of scientific personnel.
Throughout 1992, the Higher Certifying Commission was in effect put on
"hold", and that put an end to the awarding of scientific degrees
and titles. This process had already started in 1991, when only 26 scientists
were awarded doctoral degrees and only 80 received the degree of a Candidate
of Science, while 1985-6 the number of the newly conferred doctoral degrees
was 305 and that of Candidates- 1270.(Table.5).
-1992 saw the onset of the complete restructuring of the scientific institutes.The
research units connected to industrial enterprises were most heavily affected.
The wave of redundancies and lay-offs in the first years of the transition
started here.
In 1992, following the decommunisation of university education, the ideological
departments of the higher institutes were closed. More than 15 Institutes
in the field of the public, natural and agricultural sciences were also
closed.
These structural transformations were carried out chaotically, without
any long-term perspective for the overall development of science, and they
led to substantial losses in the intellectual potential of the nation.
Naturally, these changes were also the result of existing shortcomings
of the science sector structure, as well as of the unrealistic strategy
followed by the old regime, which decided that a small country like Bulgaria
should completely develop all branches of science.
In this sense, there should be no regrets for the elimination of scientific
units for the research of corals (bearing in mind that in Bulgaria there
are no corals even in the Natural-Scientific Museum), or for the closure
of the Scientific-Research Institute on Foot-and-Mouth Disease and other
similar misunderstandings. Nevertheless, the overall transformation of
science should be carried out on the basis of a profound strategy for the
development of science, instead of mostly along the lines of political
expediency and budget limitations.
One of the indicators of the crisis in the science sector is unemployment,
which is one of the basic factors for emigration and the de-qualification
of scientists.
At the end of 1992, the number of university graduates registered as unemployed
35,000. Most of these are engineers - 44.6 per cent, teachers at various
levels - 18.3 per cent, economists - 13.9 per cent. (Data from the National
Employment Office.)
Another important symptom of the crisis is the low income level of scientific
personnel as well as the devaluation of the scientists' status. (Table.6.)
Wages in the scientific sector have always been somewhere round the average
for the country (in 1980, it was only 3 per cent higher than the average).
For ideological reasons, a substantial proportion of the underqualified
workers received wages higher than lecturers and researchers at higher
educational establishments. Unfortunately, during the years of transition,
this irregularity was not abolished and the gap opened up even more. The
average wage of the scientists during the period 1980-1991 has increased
4.1 times and the average wage for the country - 4.2 times.
This excessively depressive social environment imposes strong pressure
on scientists and the highly qualified strata of the society. Science does
not provide financial prosperity, nor secure employment, nor professional
improvement. Under these conditions, a substantial number of scientists
voluntarily change their profession or take part in internal or external
emigration. Emigration becomes way of professional and social survival.
Hence it may be presumed that emigration of scientists and engineers will
continue to increase.
REAL EMIGRATION
Due to methodological difficulties, no precise data on the real emigration
of scientists and engineers during the last two years is available. There
have been several studies on scientists who have, for various reasons,
gone abroad. According to data from the border checking points, during
the first half of 1992 the Bulgarian citizens paid 2,231,000 visits abroad
- i.e. every fourth Bulgarian travelled abroad. During the same period,
72,469 business trips were registered, including 54,674 short-term visits
and 1,775 labour migrations.
The growing intensity of scientific exchange and the opening up of the
borders of the country have created new opportunities for emigration. Scholarships
have had much the same effect. In 1991, more than 1,700 contracts for medium-
and long-term scholarships were signed by Institutes and by individuals.
A substantial part of scholarship students emigrate due to the greater
opportunities for professional realization in the receiving country, as
well as due to the dramatic number of lay-offs in their own scientific
establishments in Bulgaria - very often including their own posts.
According to data from a study carried out by the National Statistical
Institute at the border checking points in 1991, 25.8 per cent of leaving
scholarship holders students were potential emigrants. Close to 8 per cent
intend to stay longer than a year in the receiving country, 2.6 per cent
intend to settle abroad in the future but not immediately after this trip,
and 15.5 per cent would settle abroad under certain circumstances and conditions,
but not at the time of that trip (2).
Not one respondent has answered that this particular trip would result
in a permanent domicile abroad. But it is extremely important to note that
the potential for emigration among scientists who travel abroad and establish
professional contacts are 20 per cent higher than in the case of scientists
who do not travel.
According to data of the National Statistical Institute, 22,665 university
degree holders have emigrated from the country, which is some 26.3 per
cent of the entire emigration wave (in comparison, the proportion of university
degree holders in the working population is only some 10.8 per cent). So
we can in fact speak of an emigration wave of intellectuals. Similarly,
4,395 researchers and university lecturers have emigrated, making up 5
per cent of all emigres (in comparison, their share in the working population
is only 1.7 per cent).
EMIGRANTS WITH HIGHER EDUCATION
1990*
Professional groops
Number the total
Per cent from
Total
22665
100
- economists and agricultural specialists
5098
5.8
- scientists
4395
5.0
- sportsmen
879
1.0
- doctors
4571
5.2
- engineers
8526
9.7
Source: National Statistical Institute
*Emigrants are the persons who have left or declared that they are leaving
the country for more than
1 year.
It is obvious that, starting at the beginning of 1990, when the authorities
liberalist the travel regime, there is a definite brain drain on Bulgaria.
On the one hand, this process can be seen as something positive, because
travel and work abroad means gathering experience, know-how and also financial
savings which would be used after an eventual return to Bulgaria; the absence
of thousands of scientists from Bulgaria also means less pressure on the
shrinking employment resources in the scientific sphere.
On the other hand, bearing in mind the professional and age profile of
emigres, and the fact that as a result of emigration Bulgaria is being
left without whole branches of scientific knowledge, there is a definite
need for state action, and the OECD countries are already helping in this.
POTENTIAL EMIGRATION
Over the past three years there have been more than 10 national representative
studies on potential emigration. They differ in their samples, methodology,
aims and definitions. But, as a whole, these studies reveal some basic
trends in potential emigration.
First, the potential for emigration in the population over the last few
years has been high and remains high. According to NSI data on 1990 and
1991, and to results of studies conducted by the Center for the Study of
Democracy in 1990, 1991 and 1992, the potentially mobile part of the population,
which would like to emigrate, is some 26-28 of the population of working
age.
Inside the group of potential emigres, the "firm" leavers (according
to NSI data gathered at the border points) - people who are prepared to
emigrate at all costs during their present trip abroad - make up around
5 per cent of all people leaving the country.
Second, the greatest potential emigration is to be found among people with
the highest education levels. According to the studies conducted by the
CSD in 1990, 1991 and 1992, among people ready to leave 3.9 per cent have
primary education, 6.5 per cent have basic education, 11.5 per cent have
secondary education and 15.9 per cent have higher education. Those who
categorically reject the emigration option under any conditions - ie. the
categorically non-mobile - are least in the group with higher education
- 55.1 per cent, followed by 63 per cent among people with secondary education,
77.6 per cent among people with basic education, and 81.9 per cent with
primary education.
Third, the potential for emigration among scientific researchers and engineers
is higher than that of the population as a whole, but it comes with greater
demands on the conditions of emigration.
Categorically against emigrating - ie. people who would never leave under
any circumstances - are 90.3 per cent among those in the agricultural sector,
95.4 per cent of industrial workers, 98.2 per cent of artisans, 86.7 per
cent of managers of state enterprises, 94.4 per cent of civil servants
and only 75.8 per cent of researchers.
Evidently, the nature of the work of the scientist forms a specific type
of mobility potential and a type of personality which sees emigration as
a possible way of life and a normal phenomenon.
Fourth, research data outlines some social characteristics of potential
emigres among researchers and scientists:
- they hold on the whole radical political views in support of anti-communist
political parties. Conversely, among those who reject emigration dominate
supporters of the former Communist Party.
- They are mostly physicists, chemists, engineers and others working in
the field of the natural sciences, both in its practical and theoretical
branches. It is understandable that people engaged in the humanities economics,
philosophy, history - are less inclined to emigrate. It is rather a pity
that such disciplines - which were once called ideological sciences - are
less affected by emigration.
The young scientists are rather more inclined to emigrate, which complicates
the changeover of generations in science.
These trends will probably continue to have a negative effect on the overall
development of Bulgarian science as well as on its reforming in the spirit
of democracy and the market economy.
Over the last three years - the years of Bulgaria's transition from totalitarianism
- the country has not felt the positive results of the emigration of scientists
and engineers. The reason is simple: those who have left have not yet come
back. The great difficulties of the transition and its heavy social price
mean that those who do come back find it difficult to reintegrate into
the world of science. There are, however, two kinds of silver lining to
this gloomy picture.
First, in spite of everything the number of university students is increasing
every year, stimulated not least by the easier access to places of higher
learning and the introduction of private education. Second, Bulgaria does
receive technical aid from the developed countries, which helps the reform
along and will eventually make our country more attractive in our own eyes.
