The papers examine the migration potential of skilled agricultural workers from those countries in order to counteract the increasing deficit of qualified farmers in the East German federal states. An evaluation of several interviews with experts and agricultural graduates shows that a limited number of young skilled agricultural workers from Russia and Bulgaria are experiencing difficulty finding employment in their domestic labor markets, and are therefore considering emigration. In principle, qualified Russian and Bulgarian personnel could be recruited for the German agricultural sector with the help of incentives and active measures such as language courses, internship programs and awareness raising.
Both German language publications were prepared as part of the research project “Competence Management to Promote Skilled Foreign Workers in Agriculture (Alfa Agrar)” which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The results of both country case studies for Russia and Bulgaria are available free of charge here.
Country case studies on skilled agricultural workers from Russia and Bulgaria
IAMO researchers Vasyl Kvartiuk and Diana Traikova published their current research results entitled “Eastern Europe as a source of skilled agricultural workers in Germany?” in July, 2015. One case study is focusing on Russia, one on Bulgaria.
