Bulgaria and Italy as Migration Gates to Europe: Comparative Analysis

The world is becoming increasingly uncertain, turbulent, and unpredictable due to dozens of factors such as global warming, military conflicts, the extraordinary health situation, the economic, financial, and social instability. All this insecurity has led to a temptation among people to flee their countries of origin in search of better living conditions, which in turn has caused unprecedented migration flows worldwide. What is more, the worsening situation in some regions in Africa and Asia, along with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, are a guarantee of even higher levels of migration. This article makes a comparison between some social, economic, and legal aspects of the asylum-seeker situation in Bulgaria and Italy, such as the most common nationality, number, gender, and age structure of asylum-seekers between 2012 and 2021, accommodation capacity, legislative framework, resource sources and provision, institutions responsible. The aim of this paper is to identify some of the existing gaps and to formulate and share recommendations. The main method used in this paper is comparative analysis. Documentary analysis, statistical data analysis, and retrospection were also used as auxiliary methods.