Self-Perceptions of the Risk of Discrimination and Social Exclusion: Assessing the Six-year Aftermath of the National Strategy for Roma Integration in Bulgaria

Abstract

ABSTRACT The research hypothesis of this paper stems from the argument that the Bulgarian authorities and the broader audiences decode Roma integration through the prism of an inequalities-poverty-social exclusion framework, meaning that the growth of ‘being integrated’ is viewed as a gradual decrease of the value of indicators related to social exclusion and a steady rise in indicators of well-being. In elaborating their argument, the authors consult the recent ‘integration literature’ and then theoreticize the Bulgarian NRIS and the change of ‘integration’ vocabulary over time. A representative sociological survey is deployed as an empirical foundation for proving, or disputing, that the effects and consequences of the NRIS can be assessed based on the presented data. The explored data represent the self-assessment of individual exposures to the risk of discrimination and social exclusion in access to healthcare, employment and public services alongside the progress of NRIS. In addition, a baseline from an earlier period is used to visualize the course of social processes.