Резюме

The paper focuses on the "stay or leave again" dilemma of Bulgarian return migrants. Data from a unique representative survey among households and their members who had been abroad during the period 2001-2005 is utilized. Special attention is paid on the satisfaction from the stay abroad and on the inclination of return migrants to leave again. Two binary regression models are estimated for this purpose. The independent variables reflect the socio- demographic profile and foreign experience of return migrants. Satisfaction is related to age, duration of the stay abroad, qualified job under official contract, and employment in services. Clear differences in satisfaction levels are found with respect to the region of stay: almost each fourth respondent returned from Southern Europe was not satisfied. Nevertheless, the majority of return migrants express a high likelihood to go abroad again. The availability of acquaintances residing abroad is found to be a strong determinant of the re- migration likelihood. The leave again question has a clear positive answer for return migrants satisfied with their foreign experience. However, Bulgarian labor market faces a serious deficit in a range of professions which is supported by the finding that educational level acts as a hold-up factor regarding return migrants' likelihood to leave again.