The vast majority of Romanians and Bulgarians would move to the UK “only with a firm offer of work,” according to a new UK migration study. With the ongoing British obsession over potential migration from Romania and Bulgaria, the BBC program Newsnight has carried out a survey of the intentions of potential migrants from the two countries. The results, to be published later today (April 22 ), reveal some interesting points and marked differences between Romania and Bulgaria.

Although the two countries tend to be lumped together by the international media, the study found significant differences between the respondents from the two EU Member States. The survey attempted to provide a real picture of migratory intentions, rather than vague desires, because, according to the BBC, the numbers who express a wish to migrate are far higher than those that make real plans and follow through on their intentions to migrate .

“We found that in Romania very small numbers of people, 1 percent of the total survey sample, said they were looking for work in the UK in 2013 or 2014, whether with a recruitment agency or on their own,” reads the BBC article. The figure was higher for Bulgaria, 4.2 percent, according to the joint BBC/Gallup poll. However, there was an overwhelming response from respondents in both countries that they would only consider moving to the UK “with a firm offer of work, either from an agency or directly from a company.”

Also, the study found that more people are planning to move to the UK this year than in 2014, when the restrictions on EU membership rights are lifted for Romania and Bulgaria.

The BBC survey tried to uncover what sort of people were planning to emigrate. “Romanians who are interested in working in Britain are more likely to have a university degree than the average respondent, they are more likely to be employed, and they are likely to have more money than the average in the survey,” reads the BBC article. Bulgaria showed a different trend; the unemployment levels among those wishing to emigrate were around the survey average, as was the level of education.

When questioned whether changes to the UK's welfare system would affect plans to emigrate, the majority of Romanians said it would be a factor in their decision, while most Bulgarians said it would not make a difference to their plans.

This tendency among Romanians was described as “puzzling” by one of the researchers, given the low average dependency on state welfare in the UK among EU workers.

Read the BBC article.

editor@romania-insider.com