Carolyn,

I mostly agree with the people who stated that there are opportunities in Bulgaria for the people who have decided to go back, but it seems to me that they were not living in the west long enough, let's say 3-4-5 years or more. By doing so, they would have noticed that by living in another country, you're not only meeting people from hundreds of nationalities, who enrich your world every day enormously, but you also develop relationships and change your own mindset bit by bit and your whole way of looking at things. On the other hand, the financial costs are enormous for a bachelor’s degree in Europe, for the USA it’s absolutely pointless to talk about, and most students who are coming from a middle-class background simply cannot afford to go back to Bulgaria and be in debt for the rest of their lives. I was thinking about this because next year I'm graduating and when I calculated after how many years I would be able to pay off my debts if I go back to Bulgaria, I realised that I would be better off by staying here. Tuk-tam sounds like a good idea, but let’s not forget that most students are not destined for the hot seat of the multi-national executive or a CEO of a large corporation or government agency, so they won't be better by going back to Bulgaria in a long term. In fact, by returning home, they would forfeit their resident status in the foreign country they were studying in, which would limit their career options should they choose to go back and try to enter the labour market there.

The whole situation is a complete mess. The Bulgarian universities are poorly equipped in terms of modern equipment and technology, some of the professors there are absolutely old-fashioned and out of touch with the reality of the modern business, commerce, economy and the needs of the new generation and on top of it all, the money is always in short supply which exacerbates the situation further.

Let me finish on a more upbeat tone. I believe that after 20-30 years when / if Bulgaria’s economy improves significantly, many well-educated pensioners would go back to Bulgaria to retire there and spend their hard-earned cash in their motherland. It’s a plausible explanation, isn’t it? Hahaha. :)