The identity of the Bulgarians in Hungary

Abstract

The immigration of Bulgarians in Hungary was the result of the centuries-old traditions of migrant work within the Bulgarian people. In accordance with the productive activity, the way of life and the stages of resettlement of the immigrants, we can distinguish four stages in the establishment of the ethnic community. Since the 1950s, the awareness of collective identity has strengthened, and the ongoing process has become deeper and wider with the adoption of the related legal framework, the (public law) system of minority self-governments started in 1994–1995 and the increasing number of cultural institutions. The role of the old homeland in the identity has been clearly relegated to the background. The changes of the past two decades seem to indicate that evolving from a group of economic migrants, the Bulgarian community has definitely become a national minority, which has brought renewal as well as cultural and autonomous institutional development, but may also involve the risk of accelerating linguistic assimilation.