Работодателите като ключови актьори на трудовата интеграция
Employers as Key Actors in Labour Integration

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the role of employers in Bulgaria as key social actors in the processes of labour and social integration of third-country nationals (TCNs) in the context of a deepening labour shortage and demographic decline. The study draws on theoretical approaches from the sociology of migration, as well as organisational and economic sociology, which conceptualise employers not merely as passive „entry points“ to the labour market, but as active intermediaries („translators“) between mobility regimes, local institutional conditions, and organisational innovation. The empirical analysis is based on a standardised quantitative survey conducted in 2025 among 800 employers in Bulgaria, including a subsample of employers with direct experience in hiring third-country nationals. Through indices of organisational integration practices and perceived institutional barriers, the study examines employers’ attitudes, strategies, and practices. The analysis suggests that the intermediary role of employers is interpretative and context-dependent, rather than a mechanical function of the scale of recruitment or the implementation of standard firm-level measures. The empirical results indicate that increased hiring does not automatically lead to a greater prevalence of integration practices in Bulgarian firms, nor do such practices directly translate into more positive assessments of social integration beyond the workplace. The theoretical contribution of the study lies in rethinking the role of employers in the context of increasingly heterogeneous migrant flows and more complex migration infrastructures, which give rise to the accumulation of new transnational and trans-associative forms of experience not only for migrants, but also for employers themselves.

• Details
• Contents