COVID-19 and return intentions among mobile Bulgarian citizens living abroad

The article presents the results from a virtual ethnographic study, focused on the return intentions of 11 mobile Bulgarian citizens living in several countries in the European Union and beyond, employed in highly qualified jobs. In-depth interviews were conducted online in the months of April-May 2020, at the time of the first lockdowns and restrictions on international travel both to/from Bulgaria and to multiple countries around the world. The core issues, analyzed in this article, are the motivations for potential return and how the Bulgarians abroad observe and feel the COVID-19 situation in their current destination country. The qualitative data shows that in this particular small number of respondents, the majority of the highly qualified mobile Bulgarians do not have intentions to return to Bulgaria, most of them prefer to stay in their current country. In several cases, COVID-19 blocked their opportunities to further move internationally, for example, to a new job position in a third destination country. Three figures of highly qualified mobile people are synthesized, explaining three models of return intentions at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.