1 Economic and Social Effects of Migration on Sending Countries: The cases of Albania and Bulgaria Eugenia Markova 1. Transnational perspective on migration: the need for the study Until recently, European migration research has been mainly focused on the way immigrants fare in the host labour markets (e.g. what jobs they are doing and by doing them, whether they substitute or complement local labour; what’s their effect on local wages; any fiscal effects: whether they pay taxes, have use of social benefits etc.). I myself have devoted years of research on the effects of Bulgarian migration on the Greek labour market, later on I did similar work on the Spanish and UK labour markets; the only part in my survey work that was somewhat related to effects on the origin referred to questions about remittances (‘How often do you send money home? How much do you send on average per month? What’s the use of the money you send at home?). Not much attention has been paid to the effects of migration on the origin countries. In fact, some US-based anthropologists argued that the traditional migration theory, informed by and developed in service of the nation-state (Kearney, 1991) treated migrants as individuals who either departed (emigrants) or arrived (immigrants). This false dichotomy can only be overcome by accepting that migration is a transnational phenomenon that involves immigrants who ‘forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement’ (Basch et al., 1994). Thus, sending and receiving countries are understood as constituting one single field of migration analysis. Within such a framework, which is more realistic in migration research, effective management of migration flows (e.g. prevention, integration or repatriation) requires the understanding of the costs and benefits of migration for both the sending and the origin countries. 2. Methodology: • Evaluative review of relevant country - studies; • My own survey work with Bulgarian immigrants in Greece (1996- 200), Spain (2003-2004) and the UK (2004-2005) regarding legal status, remitting behaviour and intentions for return. There is an abundance of research on Albanian migration from both home and host countries perspective mainly because of the dramatic scale of Albanian emigration in the beginning of the 1990s which attracted huge research and funding interest. The case of Bulgaria is different in there is still relative scarcity of research on both the origin and destinations (usually small- scale surveys). 3. Background: 3.1 Overview of migration processes in the two countries before 1989 Bulgaria and Albania had quite different emigration policies and patterns during the Cold War period. Of all countries in the former Socialist bloc, Albania was the most isolated and highly controlled. Emigration was virtually