Circular migration from the Eastern neighbourhood to the EU Citation for published version (APA): Vankova, Z. (2018). Circular migration from the Eastern neighbourhood to the EU: The rights of migrant workers in Bulgaria and Poland. Wolf Legal Publishers (WLP). https://doi.org/10.26481/dis.20180627zv Document status and date: Published: 01/01/2018 DOI: 10.26481/dis.20180627zv Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement: www.umlib.nl/taverne-license Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at: [email protected] providing details and we will investigate your claim. Download date: 29 Sep. 2021 Circular migration from the Eastern neighbourhood to the EU: the rights of migrant workers in Bulgaria and Poland Zvezda Vankova Circular migration from the Eastern neighbourhood to the EU: the rights of migrant workers in Bulgaria and Poland Zvezda Vankova ISBN: 9789462404724 Published by aolf Legal Publishers aolf Legal Publishers (WLP) P.O. Box 313 5060 AH Oisterwijk Tel. +31 (0)13 - 582 13 66 Fax +31 (0)84 - 837 67 00 E-Mail: [email protected] www.wolfpublishers.nl All rights reserved. Subject to the exceptions laid down in the Dutch Copyright Act 1912, no part of this publication may be reproduced (including stored in an automated data system), or made public, in any way whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The amount due for photocopying under Articles 16B and 17 of the Dutch Copyright Act 1912 is to be paid to the Dutch Stichting Reprorecht. Pursuant to Article 16 of the Dutch Copyright Act 1912, anyone wishing to reproduce part of this publication in anthologies, readers and other compilations must the seek the publisher’s prior permission. Although great care has been taken in the production of this publication, neither the author(s), editor(s) nor the publisher accept any liability for possible errors or imperfections. © Zvezda Vankova / Wolf Legal Publishers 2018 Circular migration from the Eastern neighbourhood to the EU: the rights of migrant workers in Bulgaria and Poland Dissertation To obtain the Degree of Doctor at the Maastricht University, on the authority of the Rector Magnificus, Prof. Dr. Rianne M. Letschert in accordance with the decision of the Board of Deans, to be defended in public on Wednesday, 27 June 2018 at 16.00 hours by Zvezda Vankova Supervisors: Prof. Dr. H.E.G.S. Schneider Prof. Dr. M.P.Vink Assessment Committee: Prof. Dr. B.E.F.M. De Witte (Chair) Prof. Dr. Kees Groenendijk, Radboud University Nijmegen Prof. Dr. S. Carrera Nuñez, European University Institute, Florence / Maastricht University Prof. Dr. R. Skeldon, University of Sussex / Maastricht University Prof. Dr. H. Verschueren, University of Antwerp The research conducted for this dissertation is part of the project Transna- tional Migration, Citizenship and the Circulation of Rights and Responsibilities (TRANSMIC) funded by the European Union under the FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN call of the Marie Curie Actions — Initial Training Networks funding scheme (Project number – 608417). На моето семейство / To my family Acknowledgements It was 2005 and I was living in Copenhagen where I was enjoying my Erasmus year abroad. I saw a poster at the University of Copenhagen advertising a Migration Studies conference in Maastricht. I impulsively decided to go without even suspecting that this event would change my life forever! After almost a year in Denmark, full of immigration challenges and life-changing integration experiences, I had already made up my mind to focus my professional path on migration and refugee issues. My meeting with prof. Hildegard Schneider and the interactions with all the fantastic scholars that Maastricht University had brought together, gave me the final impetus to pursue a migration-related career. I did not realise that it was just a matter of time until my life path would bring me back to Maastricht. In October 2009, my friend and colleague Valeria Ilareva invited me to join the annual conference of the European Network on Free Move- ment that was coordinated by the Centre for Migration Law of the Radboud University in Nijmegen. Meeting prof. Kees Groenendijk there was a turning point in my future academic path. He read my first ever PhD proposal and encouraged me to pursue my research project that was devoted to circular migration policy. A couple of months later, prof. Groenendijk put me in touch with Hildegard and the rest is history! So many people from so many different places contributed to the successful accomplishment of this ambitious project, which has travelled throughout Europe like a circular migrant with a constantly changing trajectory. I would like to acknowledge all of them here. I would like to first thank to my first supervisor Hildegard Schneider who gave me the chance to pursue a PhD with her. I will never forget our second meeting at the hotel cafe facing the Gare Central in Brussels where she offered me the opportunity to start a PhD at Maastricht University as an external candidate and later on gave me the chance to work on my dream PhD project as part of TRANSMIC. Encouragement, inspiration, patience and trust are the qualities that make Hildegard such a great supervisor! I would like to thank her for always finding the time to talk to me, listen to my frustrations (academic issues, but also VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS those of a more personal nature), and reminding me that despite the fact that I am a PhD candidate, I should not forget to enjoy life! I would like to also thank her and René for opening the doors of their home to me so many times and for all the inspiring conversations that were held over a glass of wine. I owe a big thanks to my second supervisor, Maarten Vink who joined my PhD ride a bit later on. I am particularly indebted to him because of the structure he brought to my PhD dissertation, for the numerous comments and suggestions for improvements, as well as the faith he had in me! The empirical part of this study would not have been of such quality without his active feedback and constant encouragement. My heartfelt gratitude also goes to my PhD Assessment Committee who read and assessed this hefty tome: prof. Bruno de Witte, prof. Kees Groenendijk, prof. Sergio Carrera, prof. Ronald Skeldon and prof. Herwig Verschueren. I would like to give my sincere thanks to prof. Bruno de Witte who was my super- visor during my research stay at the European University Institute in Florence and contributed to the successful accomplishment of my PhD with inspiring ideas, suggestions for useful literature, as well as introducing me to wonderful scholars at the EUI and beyond. Throughout the years, prof. Kees Groenendijk has become my professional mentor and even a “shadow” supervisor providing countless comments, feedback and encouragements in numerous countries and at various occasions. I have learned so much from his encyclopaedic knowledge which has helped me to overcome various European migration law frustrations. He is the person who showed me how academic research can also be policy-relevant and that I can continue to do what I love in my new academic path, namely combing law and sociology. I am greatly indebted to prof. Sergio Carrera for the support he has offered to my PhD since the very beginning when he opened the door to the “Brussels affairs” for me, helped me with contacts for my interviews and provided me with feedback throughout the whole PhD project. At the end of the PhD, Sergio also gave me the possibility to use some of my research findings and contribute to two extremely important policy reports for the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. I was honoured to have prof. Ronald Skeldon in my Assessment Committee. I would like to thank him for our conversations which brought me back in time VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS when circular migration was first introduced as an academic concept. His comments and inspiration have immensely helped me to successfully finalise this piece of research. Prof. Herwig Verschueren is the person who made me realise that the only way this study could be close to exhaustive is by including social security coordination as one of the policy areas under consideration.