Abstract
Bulgarian migrants and university students in particular have recently fallen into the spotlight of British media, firmly positioned within fervent immigration debates. Drawing on Brewer’s concept of nested identities, this paper explores how Bulgarian university students in the UK manage four different identifications: national, European, migrant and student. Thus, the process of establishing nested identities is investigated on three different contextual levels: the transnational, regional and the everyday (at university and at the workplace). Paying particular attention to the factors that influence the process, this article also scrutinises its implications for Bulgarian students’ values and perceptions. Utilising semi-structured interviews and participant observation with Bulgarian students, this paper will argue that the four identifications emerge as highly dynamic, context-specific and constantly negotiated relationships. Retrospectively, this article aims to contribute not only to current literature on Bulgarian migration but also to wider debates on transnational youth identities.
Highlights
Sofia Airport, bearing the rather unfriendly name of “Vrazhdebna” is not the main airport in Bulgaria but its’ Terminal 1 and 2 have popularly been viewed as a symbolic reference point, epitomising Bulgarians’ urge to migrate
Focusing on the specific case of Bulgarian students in the UK, it was argued that the need for reinvention (Elliott 2013) in a globalised world has normalised intra- European student mobility but, as
Faist (2013) has rightly claimed, it has made it a prerequisite for successful social mobility. This highlights the necessity of applying a transnational perspective to the experiences of full- time EU students. Such a dynamic environment challenges the meanings attached to various identities such as national, European, migrant and student but it imminently redefines their nexus
Summary
Sofia Airport, bearing the rather unfriendly name of “Vrazhdebna” (meaning “hostile” in Bulgarian) is not the main airport in Bulgaria but its’ Terminal 1 and 2 have popularly been viewed as a symbolic reference point, epitomising Bulgarians’ urge to migrate. With the removal of labour restrictions for Bulgarians on January 1st 2014, the British press has forged negative rhetoric, (Culliford 2013; The Telegraph 2013; Mahmood 2013) unleashing processes of othering This consistent construction of the “Bulgarian-as-the-Other” closely resonates with and is shaped by three larger tendencies evident in Britain: stricter immigration policy and border control (May 2010; Cameron 2014), a shift away from multiculturalism (Però 2008) and strong eurosceptism (Farage 2012). I will look at three different elements of the process— the relationships among different identities, the situational context where the dynamic changes and the implications for values and experiences of Bulgarian students in the UK The latter will help to elaborate Chavdarova’s (2006) profile of the ‘new Bulgarians’. The conclusion summarises the findings, endorsing nested identities as a concept that can more accurately capture the identity construction processes of young migrants, situated in a transnational context
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