What makes us choose the city we live in? Did someone else choose it for us? If you could move and start anew, where would you go? Humans, unlike trees, are moving creatures. They settle, but they also migrate. Both are part of the human experience. Choosing where to live is a luxury for far too many people. For those who run from a conflict, escape a corrupt state, or need medical help, there is little choice. For decades, people of Eastern Europe felt they had no choice either. If they wanted a better life or better chances, the West was the only direction. This is obviously changing—in some places faster than in others. It is worth looking into the outliers—the cities that managed to escape the death knell of depopulation.
This presentation will focus on three cities in CEE that are on a path to success—Gdańsk in Poland, Cluj-Napoca in Romania, and Plovdiv in Bulgaria—and address the following questions, among others: How did these cities turn the tide? What were their momentous decisions that ultimately changed their paths? Can others learn from it? Why are cities more important than states in attracting talent? All these questions are meant to lead us to the crucial one: What makes cities grow again?
Ognyan Georgiev has been a long-time journalist and managing editor of the prestigious Bulgarian business newspaper Capital. He focuses on regional development, urban politics, EU funding, local corruption, and remigration. He was a Fulbright scholar at MIT where he compared the population dynamics between the interior and coastal areas of the United States with those of Eastern and Western Europe. In partnership with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Ognyan compiled a report on return migration to post-Covid Bulgaria.
IWM Rector Misha Glenny will moderate the discussion.
