Revisiting European migration industries amid the Covid-19 pandemic: Changes in the recruiting practices of Bulgarian agencies

Abstract

Workforce mobility in the European Union (EU) has faced enormous challenges regarding the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020. Member-states reacted by imposing border closures and eliciting travel restrictions and sanitary measures, some of which continued well into 2022, with far-reaching consequences in all areas of mobility experience. In a time of constant changes in the regulations of the internal market, the work of labour market intermediaries deserves special attention. Recent studies have shown that, being a relatively new EU member-state, Bulgaria managed to develop an important migration industry comprising a complex network of public and private actors. We focus on an interpretative analysis of ten in-depth interviews conducted in 2017 with practitioners working in such agencies, and ten follow-up interviews five years later. The comparative analysis of these intermediaries' reflections on the mobility policies and practices before and during the pandemic allows us to examine the processes of structural and functional adaptation in the industry in multiple dimensions: assessment of changes in mobility practices, perceptions of employers' and migrants' needs and expectations, and the challenges facing their agencies vis-à-vis the role of other actors in the field. The conclusion underlines trends and transformations which are of interest for the developing recruitment sectors in other Central and East European countries, as well as for the dynamics of the East-West labour mobility throughout the entire EU.