Impact of Migration and Workforce Diversity on Financial Performance of Firms: Evidence from Bulgaria, Finland and Slovakia

Research background: The relationship between migration-induced workforce variety and corporate financial performance is little studied in Central and Eastern European contexts, particularly from a crossindustry and cross-national perspective. Purpose of the article: This paper examines the effects of migrationinduced workplace diversity on labour productivity in Bulgaria, Finland, and Slovakia—three EU member states with differing migration policy paths and economic structures. Methods: This study used secondary data obtained from Eurostat for the period 2015 to 2023. The analytical procedures include Pearson correlation analysis, one-way ANOVA, paired Welch t-tests with Bonferroni adjustment, and year-on-year sign scheme concordance analysis. Findings & Value added: ANOVA revealed that there is a statistically significant difference in the labour productivity growth between the three countries (F(2, 24) = 5.85, p = 0.009). The correlation analysis showed strong positive correlations between the share of foreign workers and productivity in Bulgaria (r = 0.95) and Finland (r = 0.94), and a strong negative correlation in Slovakia (r = −0.81). The analysis of the sign scheme revealed 75% agreement (6 of 8 years) for BG and FI, but SK showed only 37.5% agreement (3 of 8 years). The study offers context-specific insights for underresearched EU economies across many sectors and personalised suggestions for enterprises and policymakers.