Since the article was published in The Independent, interesting things had happen.
To begin with, in less than 6 hours it was translated and started circulating in all Bulgarian sites for news and in the online editions of different newspapers. In the same night there were 10 pages with result in Google with the same title. To be honest, this is not such a surprise, as every time something is written somewhere about a Bulgarian, our media reacts like this. We are a small country, in the end.
More interestingly, my grandma called yesterday night to ask why haven’t I told her that I won’t continue my studies. Can you imagine they have said this on TV? It was so ridiculous! I haven’t taken such a decision. It’s just a possibility and I hope that it won’t be the case and I will get my work permit soon.
(One more lesson how you should do journalism! Not to scary my grandma! 😀 )
After this family issues, I received a letter from Kerry McCarthy MP. It starts:
“Dear Ms Kosharevska,
Thank you for your email regarding the treatment of people coming to study in the UK from outside the EU.”
I hope this is just a typing mistake, because Bulgaria and Romania are in the EU. However, she is really supportive and:
“On your behalf, I have written to the Minister of State for immigration, Mark Harper MP, to express your concerns. In particular, have asked the Minister to address your concern regarding the employment restrictions placed on Romanian and Bulgarian students, while they are studying in the UK.”
I’m really positive that she will help us and I’m looking forward to the trip to the parliament, organised by UWE.
Apart form this, my “Other” inbox in Facebook got quite crowded with people congratulating us and giving ideas. (Good for Facebook that they are now visible – before some months they weren’t and I missed important messages about our fundraising campaign.) I really appreciate this, but of course I don’t expect only positive reactions – a short look in the comments in The Independent and the Bulgarian translations will show that I’m right 😀 However, this is a risk worth taking.
The petition is going on and I would like to ask each of you to sign it. An open letter is being prepared and will be send to the authorities.
Yesterday I gave a long interview to a Bulgarian media and today it should appear. It feels so awkward to be the one who answers the questions and not the one who asks them. 😀
As a conclusion, I can say that the most important thing at the moment is that all Bulgarian and Romanian students stick together. If each of us starts doing something alone and doesn’t keep in mind the whole picture, we won’t succeed.
tea story box 