When it comes to migration, several types of migration can be addressed. One form of migration that is being explored in the EU is circular migration. In the case of circular migration, migration is organised in a manner that makes legal mobility possible to some extent, allowing back and forth movement between two countries, i.e. to facilitate labour migration.

Most of the literature on circular migration focuses on conceptualising the EU approach and not on its implementation on national level in the EU Member States. It is the aim of this PhD project to fill this gap by focusing on the transposition of the EU legal migration directives incorporating circular migration elements, as well as the effects of the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility implemented through mobility partnerships and visa facilitation with the Eastern partnership countries. By developing a comparative benchmarking framework for analysis based on international standards and soft law, the dissertation explores the potential inconsistencies created by these instruments and the consequences for the migrant workers’ rights. The research analyses the implementation of the circular migration approach in national legislation and policy of two new member states chosen for case studies: Bulgaria and Poland, transforming from sending through transit and receiving states for migrants mainly from Eastern partnership countries. This research project has an interdisciplinary character and employs legal and policy analysis as well as quantitative research methods.

The doctoral dissertation, titled ‘Circular migration from the Eastern partnership countries to the EU – the rights of migrant workers in Bulgaria and Poland’ is supervised by Prof. dr. Hildegard Schneider (Faculty of Law) and Prof. dr. Maarten Vink (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences). The dissertation is conducted in the framework of the TRANSMIC project. The project’s aim is to analyse the implementation of the European Union’s approach to circular migration and its impact on the rights of the economically low- and highly- skilled legal migrants from the Eastern partnership countries, ten years after the European Commission introduced this concept.

The PhD Conferral takes place on Wednesday June 27^th, 2018 at the Maastricht University Administrative Office.

Zvezda Vankova

Zvezda Vankova has been a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University as a part of the TRANSMIC Project since 2014 and recently joined the
Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility / ITEM.

Zvezda holds a BA degree in Public Administration and a MA degree in International relations from the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She was awared a scholarship by the Danish Agency for International Education (CIRIUS) and specialised European Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

About TRANSMIC

TRANSMIC (Transnational Migration, Citizenship and the Circulation of Rights and Responsibilities) is a project, which has the aim to contribute to the understanding of transnational migration, in particular by looking at the conditions for and effects for transnational migration, possibilities for the mobility of migrants’ rights to be enhanced, and the links between migration, citizenship, and migration and development.

TRANSMIC is funded by the European Union.