Bulgaria
Child migration was a phenomenon concomitant the Bulgarian market-gardeners’ migration flow to Austria-Hungary in the second half of 19th and early 20th Century, due to children labor (mostly boys) used in market-gardening. Child labor brought master gardeners the biggest profit since children did not get paid but only worked as apprentices for their daily bread. Younger children helped in the gardens and learned gardening skills; while those who were already physically strong performed specialized gardening activities. Different patterns of child migration can be distinguished based on the autobiographies and personal life stories of market-gardeners: children who migrated with their market-gardening parents as a family or the of market-gardeners who were born abroad; children who migrated with one of the parents (usually the market-gardening father) or with relatives of the market-gardening father so as to “learn the craft”; children who migrated with their market-gardening parents as a family, then the parents returned to their homeland with the younger children, while the older child was left abroad to work “on a garden” and make his own living, thus supporting his family financially.
Read more about this topic: Child Migration