Bulgarian Migrants Research Articles

INFLUENCE OF DISTANCE FROM BULGARIA ON THE LEVELS OF IDENTIFICATION AMONG MIGRANTS FROM GERMANY AND THE USA

Identification processes in host countries are influenced by many and varied factors. They help or hinder the successful integration of migrants. Among them, the geographical remoteness of the host country plays a key role. In fact, the role of proximity or remoteness to the country to which a person migrates is of paramount importance in the study of migration processes. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to investigate and analyze the influence of host country remoteness on identification processes. It focuses on the countries of Germany and the USA – a choice based entirely on the geographical distance of the countries from Bulgaria. The methodological toolkit includes quantitative and qualitative analysis from a questionnaire survey and interviews using the narrative-biographical method. The sample of the quantitative study included 491 Bulgarian migrants (306 respondents from Germany and 185 respondents from the USA). The statistical results were processed with SPSS and include models of frequency distribution according to the relevant trait, Chi-Square Tests and Symmetric Measures containing coefficients showing whether there are relationships between the studied variables. The qualitative study included 32 respondents (12 for Germany and 20 for the USA). The results obtained form three identification profiles (high, low and intermediate) composed of Bulgarian migrants in Germany and the USA. It was observed that the USA is mostly dominated by migrants with high and some with intermediate levels of identity. The average identification and low profile is characteristic of persons who prevail in Germany. Persons with high levels of identity in the USA identify themselves as Bulgarians and maintain contact with Bulgarians. They lack the possibility of frequent visits to their homeland, feel homesick and vote in elections. Distances are a serious barrier for them. Persons with low levels of identity in Germany define themselves as Europeans and do not maintain contact with Bulgarians. They have the possibility of frequent visits, and more communication. They do not vote, and factors such as nostalgia and sadness are not important to them. Persons with intermediate identification levels in Germany and the USA are characterized by the fact that they maintain less frequent contact with other Bulgarians. They also communicate a lot more with locals. Some wish to vote but do not have the necessary conditions. Others have conditions, but do not wish to vote and consider that as emigrants they have no right to participate in the political life of Bulgaria. They self-identify as both European/American and “other”. The results give reason to claim that migrants who have easier access to Bulgaria have weaker to medium identification. While those who live in the geographically more distant country have a more pronounced identity. The report presents the possible interpretations of the obtained result.

INFLUENCE OF DISTANCE FROM BULGARIA ON THE LEVELS OF IDENTIFICATION AMONG MIGRANTS FROM GERMANY AND THE USA

Identification processes in host countries are influenced by many and varied factors. They help or hinder the successful integration of migrants. Among them, the geographical remoteness of the host country plays a key role. In fact, the role of proximity or remoteness to the country to which a person migrates is of paramount importance in the study of migration processes. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to investigate and analyze the influence of host country remoteness on identification processes. It focuses on the countries of Germany and the USA – a choice based entirely on the geographical distance of the countries from Bulgaria. The methodological toolkit includes quantitative and qualitative analysis from a questionnaire survey and interviews using the narrative-biographical method. The sample of the quantitative study included 491 Bulgarian migrants (306 respondents from Germany and 185 respondents from the USA). The statistical results were processed with SPSS and include models of frequency distribution according to the relevant trait, Chi-Square Tests and Symmetric Measures containing coefficients showing whether there are relationships between the studied variables. The qualitative study included 32 respondents (12 for Germany and 20 for the USA). The results obtained form three identification profiles (high, low and intermediate) composed of Bulgarian migrants in Germany and the USA. It was observed that the USA is mostly dominated by migrants with high and some with intermediate levels of identity. The average identification and low profile is characteristic of persons who prevail in Germany. Persons with high levels of identity in the USA identify themselves as Bulgarians and maintain contact with Bulgarians. They lack the possibility of frequent visits to their homeland, feel homesick and vote in elections. Distances are a serious barrier for them. Persons with low levels of identity in Germany define themselves as Europeans and do not maintain contact with Bulgarians. They have the possibility of frequent visits, and more communication. They do not vote, and factors such as nostalgia and sadness are not important to them. Persons with intermediate identification levels in Germany and the USA are characterized by the fact that they maintain less frequent contact with other Bulgarians. They also communicate a lot more with locals. Some wish to vote but do not have the necessary conditions. Others have conditions, but do not wish to vote and consider that as emigrants they have no right to participate in the political life of Bulgaria. They self-identify as both European/American and “other”. The results give reason to claim that migrants who have easier access to Bulgaria have weaker to medium identification. While those who live in the geographically more distant country have a more pronounced identity. The report presents the possible interpretations of the obtained result.

Young returnees' sustainability of return: The case of Bulgaria

<abstract> <p>Return migration flow to Bulgaria is constant but not high, except for the past two years. Here, we argue that subjective and objective reasons should both be considered in line to explain life prospects of young returnees at home. An innovative approach to balancing the subjective-objective dichotomy in return migration phenomena is measuring sustainability of return through re-emigration, captured by and tested through a re-emigration index based on a national representative survey of returning Bulgarian migrants. The main hypothesis is that the sustainability of the return of young people depends on a complex group of factors, including social and emotional motives. The main findings are about the magnitude of the return migration flow and its sustainability: The factors for the return of young Bulgarians in the pre-Covid research show strong non-economic character, which intensifies in times of crisis. There are no significantly different tendencies for re-emigration/return among young people compared with all returnees.</p> </abstract>

Bulgarian community in Chicago: A model of development

<abstract> <p>This paper presents the first comprehensive model of development of the Bulgarian settlement in the Chicago area from its earliest traces to the present day, from historical and anthropological perspectives. In the process, we distinguish five periods of Bulgarian presence spanning more than a century and discuss the patterns of Bulgarian settlement, economic profiles and community life for each of those periods. The paper highlights the struggle for survival and recognition of early Bulgarian migrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the political rivalry of the Cold War Bulgarian refugees preventing their consolidation and the contemporary, post-1989, Bulgarian economic mass migration which becomes increasingly visible and emancipated, claiming Chicago as the <italic>Bulgarian City</italic>. In the process, we seek to explain why this long history of Bulgarian immigration has not resulted in the community's overt visibility, either in the literature and studies of Chicago's ethnic landscape or through the creation of an ethnic enclave with vernacular urban centralized space distinct from other ethnic migrant groups and their neighborhoods such as Little Italy, Ukrainian Village, Greek Town and Chinatown.</p> </abstract>

Bulgarians in Morocco – Cultural Heritage and Sociocultural Interaction

The article focuses on migration and cultural heritage. It presents the processes of transmission and use of Bulgarian cultural heritage abroad. The study outlines the sociocultural interaction between the Bulgarian community in Morocco and the host society. The Bulgarian migrant community established in Morocco’s Kingdom mainly during the 1960s–1980s consisted mostly of professionals: hydro- and civil engineers, geologists, teachers, and architects. Their well-done work contributed to the excellent image of Bulgaria, and the Bulgarians in the receiving country are also present nowadays. At the same time, cases of Bulgarian immigration in Morocco due to mixed marriages could be observed. Although the Bulgarian community in this Maghreb country is not numerous (around 350–400 people), it is visible with a rich cultural calendar that includes sociocultural initiatives in the interaction with the host society. The Bulgarian migrants in Morocco do not have a formal organization. Meanwhile their community is proactive and consolidated around the Bulgarian Embassy. The Bulgarian school in various formats has been operating since 1986. A folk dance group was established in 2018. The paper attempts to answer why knowledge of Bulgarian traditions, folklore, history, and preservation of the Bulgarian language and cultural identity are important for the Bulgarian community in Morocco.

Brexit, Covid and Bulgarian migrants in the UK: stay or return?

ABSTRACT Much has been written about Brexit and migration, but little from the perspective of Bulgarians in the UK. Through an online questionnaire followed by in-depth interviews, we study Bulgarians’ ‘stay’ or ‘leave’ intentions in light of Brexit and then Covid-19. Combining cross-tabulation and regression analysis of survey data and narrative analysis of interview scripts, we show how migrants’ plans are dependent on their position in the labour market and document the experiences of those who have returned. We find that stayers are more likely to be highly skilled and longer-resident in the UK. Most returns are only partially related to Brexit and are often finalized following the impact of Covid-19; family considerations are the main trigger to return. Many returnees are dissatisfied with life in Bulgaria. The article demonstrates that EU migrants’ mobility decisions post-Brexit need to be examined in relation to other contingent factors operating at various scales.

Navigating Cultural Divides via Identity Work: Bulgarian Migrant Entrepreneurs’ Tactics in the UK

ABSTRACTThe changing geopolitical landscapes and increased migration flow across the world call for a fresh perspective on the sociocultural and economic integration of migrants in their new ‘homes’ and ‘communities’. In this qualitative process study, we provide insight into the identity work dynamics that underlie interfirm cooperation in the new business context. We see a sample of Bulgarian migrant entrepreneurs as knowledge boundary spanners who employ identity work tactics for the development of shared norms and values that facilitate knowledge exchange between their home culture and the UK host culture context. This study suggests that knowledge boundary spanning is enabled by a temporal identity work process, characterized by a series of inward and outward identity work tactics. The interplay between inward and outward identity work tactics occurs over phases of identifying identity differences, adopting identity cues, and finally, realizing hybrid identity. This article contributes to the identity work and migrant entrepreneurship literature by exploring the underlying mechanisms for realizing knowledge boundary spanning by migrant entrepreneurs.

Formation of the Historical Memory of the Bulgarian Minority of Ukraine (1991 – 2020): Actors, Narratives and Commemoration

Nearly three centuries have passed since Bulgarian migrants appeared on the territory of contemporary Ukraine. They had to leave their historic homeland due to the strengthening of control of the Ottoman administration over all spheres of life of Bulgarians in the metropolis, as well as the intensification of the Russian-Turkish military confrontation, which drastically affected the economic, social, and cultural situation of the Bulgarian population. The Bulgarians, settled down on the Ukrainian lands, became an integral part of the multi-ethnic Ukrainian society, though fell victim to the assimilation policy of the Soviet period. Bulgarians are undergoing a period of national and cultural revival in the independent Ukraine, which is intimately linked to the process of recovering the historical memory of Ukrainian Bulgarians, restoring the pantheon of national heroes, memorable dates, and revival of traditional culture. In this connection, the researches dedicated to the analysis of the process of formation of the historical memory of the Bulgarian community in modern Ukraine are of particular relevance. The authors emphasize the difference between the two main groups of the Bulgarian community on the territory of Ukraine – Bessarabian and Azov (Taurida) Bulgarians, which is reflected in a reassessment of the role of the migration of ancestors of modern Ukrainian Bulgarians from the metropolis as well as in a monopolization of objects of national and cultural heritage by certain organizations, etc.

Studying the Emotional Costs of Integration at Times of Change: The Case of EU Migrants in Brexit Britain

Events such as Brexit have drawn attention to the precarity of contemporary migrants’ settlement rights and reopened the debate on the nature of integration and assimilation processes. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with Italian and Bulgarian migrants in Brexit Britain, this article develops a novel approach for understanding migrants’ changing relationships with their countries of settlement and their current and future practices. This approach builds on the sociology of emotions, which it extends to migration and diversity with a transnational sensibility. The approach is then applied to explain the different displays of emotion undertaken by our participants and their consequences. Overall, the article develops a new way to examine the subjective experiences of integration at times of change that is capable of offering important insights into the emotional costs of the neo-assimilationist climate characterising several western societies.

ВОДА В БОЛГАРСЬКОМУ МОВОСВІТІ (на матеріалі народних пісень українських болгар)

The paper provides a study of the symbolism of water in the Bulgarian linguistic culture. The author analyzes texts of the folk songs recorded by several Ukrainian and Bulgarian scholars from the descendants of the Bulgarian migrants in the last half of the 18th – 19th c., which are currently living in the regions of Odessa, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and in the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea. The role of the vocabulary around the hydrosphere in the Bulgarian linguistic world image is researched. It is outlined that water is a universal symbol of the human life. Water is thought as a primary substance that has created the Earth and the live nature. It is used in different liminal rituals as something able to purify, to heal, to charge with the live power and to bless people. And this belief in the sacral properties of water are displayed in the Bulgarian folk songs. The author investigates the linguocultureme “water” and its implementations in “reservoir”, “well”, “spring”, “rain”, “Danube”, “sea” in the folk songs of the Bulgarians in Ukraine. It is established that “water” is a symbol of a border that must be overstepped. “Well” symbolizes the living space of a human, container of the unique sacral water that sacralizes the marriage and love. However, sometimes the well designates the adultery and lewdness. “Spring” is equal to the immortality given to a hero as a thank for the completed mission of the life. “Danube” is a mythic path between the known and unknown world, like “sea” it is a symbol of the separation with the home, and it is particularly true for the Bulgarian migrants whose ancestors had left the motherland. “Rain” represents the reciprocity between the human and the supreme forces. The analyzes of these implementation of the linguocultureme “water” shows the special role of the water in the Bulgarian linguistic world image.

EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE RETURN OF BULGARIAN MIGRANTS IN RESPONSE TO THE GROWING NEED FOR SPECIALIZED STAFF IN SOFIA

This article examines the issues related to Bulgarian migration after the country acceded to the EU in 2007 and focuses its research on the phenomenon of “brain drain” – the process of mass emigration during which specialists, scientists and skilled workers leave. Today, this phenomenon is quite typical for Bulgaria as part of the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. The problems associated with the “brain drain” are very relevant as the country suffers significant economic and cultural losses while the host countries acquire large and inexpensive intellectual capital.
 During the years of transition, Bulgaria strives to be a full member of the EU and provide opportunities for development and realization of specialists, scientists, and researchers. This requires the adoption of measures and initiatives to establish sustainable development in the capital and in the country and meet the need for highly skilled labor in the industrial sphere.
 The article aims to explore the possibilities for the return of Bulgarian migrants in response to the growing need for specialized staff in Sofia. The quantitative study involved more than 500 Bulgarian migrants residing in different host countries, selected randomly and responded voluntarily.
 The article defends the thesis that if Bulgaria provides opportunities to develop specialized staff through the undertaking of specific initiatives, this can be an attraction and a motive for the return of Bulgarian migrants.
 The study methodology utilizes the quantitative studies model (and, more specifically, the questionnaire method). To obtain more reliable results, their interpretation also includes additional statistical tools. The question whether a correlation exists between the age and the degree of settlement of Bulgarians abroad is of special interest and has been investigated using the Cramér V.
 The results show that in recent years the need for specialized staff is constantly growing. In response to this need, the initiatives that are undertaken are aimed at innovations in science and education. The study also takes into account the readiness of Bulgarian migrants to return home.

Immigration, Race, and Nation in the UK: The Politics of Belonging on Twitter

At a time of rising right-wing populism, the heightened political salience of immigration as an issue is linked to conceptions of ‘the national’. In this article, we analyse tweets from non-elites, defined as isolated users with low network influence, engaged in a ‘conversation’ about migration on Twitter. We investigate the values embedded in these attitudes, and what these tell us about constructions and contestations of the symbolic boundaries of the nation among ordinary people. Our corpus includes tweets posted in temporal proximity to the lifting of transitional controls on Romanian and Bulgarian migrants in the UK (1 October 2013 to 1 March 2014). Thematic analysis reveals a cohesive set of anti-immigrant or anti-immigration sentiments linked to UKIP and that express an exclusionary nationalism based on assumptions about race, ‘whiteness’ and entitlement. Also evident is a counter-narrative of pro-immigration sentiments that draw on multiple and sometimes contradictory values. Some of these values contest racialised understandings of the nation but do not coalesce in ways to disrupt the dominance of right-wing anti-immigrant sentiments on Twitter. Our findings demonstrate the importance of investigating values embedded in both anti and pro-immigration attitudes among non-elites and what these values indicate about the possibilities of re-framing migration debates among non-elites in ways that construct more inclusive symbolic national boundaries. In addition, in using the networked properties of Twitter engagement to identify non-elite users, we make a methodological contribution to scholarship on immigration attitudes.

Inclusion and Exclusion: Image and Perceptions of Turkish Migrants in Bulgaria and Turkey

This paper deals with the image and perceptions that Turkish migrants from Bulgaria had about the Turks in Turkey, the Turkish state, Bulgarians, and the Bulgarian state both before and after 1989. Perceptions of the Turkish minority among the Bulgarian communist elite are analysed according to published reports and statements made by Bulgarian Communist Party members. The perceptions that Turkish migrants had about Bulgaria and Turkey are the main focus of this study which is based on field research and interviews conducted with Turkish migrants from Bulgaria now living in Turkey. This article shows that these migrants held both positive and negative perceptions of Bulgaria and Turkey, largely depending on the context. The Turkish minority in Bulgaria was regarded as a problem for the Communist government and as an in-ternal enemy to the Bulgarian state. Moreover, the locals in Turkey regarded the Turkish migrants from Bulgaria as “Bulgarian migrants” who possessed a non-Muslim or “liberal” culture. In this way, they experienced exclusionary attitudes from their neighbours both in Bulgaria and in Turkey. The Turks of Bulgaria perceived the Communist regime as oppressive and as a threat to their Turkish identity. Despite their dislike of the regime, prior to the period of forced assimilation that began in 1984, they still possessed a relatively positive perception about the Bulgarian people. Interestingly, while they perceive Turkey as their homeland, they nonetheless held certain prejudices against the local population in Turkey. All of these various interaction helped to strengthen their group identity as migrants from Bulgaria.This paper deals with the image and perceptions that Turkish migrants from Bulgaria had about the Turks in Turkey, the Turkish state, Bulgarians, and the Bulgarian state both before and after 1989. Perceptions of the Turkish minority among the Bulgarian communist elite are analysed according to published reports and statements made by Bulgarian Communist Party members. The perceptions that Turkish migrants had about Bulgaria and Turkey are the main focus of this study which is based on field research and interviews conducted with Turkish migrants from Bulgaria now living in Turkey. This article shows that these migrants held both positive and negative perceptions of Bulgaria and Turkey, largely depending on the context. The Turkish minority in Bulgaria was regarded as a problem for the Communist government and as an internal enemy to the Bulgarian state. Moreover, the locals in Turkey regarded the Turkish migrants from Bulgaria as “Bulgarian migrants” who possessed a non-Muslim or “liberal” culture. In this way, they experienced exclusionary attitudes from their neighbours both in Bulgaria and in Turkey. The Turks of Bulgaria perceived the Communist regime as oppressive and as a threat to their Turkish identity. Despite their dislike of the regime, prior to the period of forced assimilation that began in 1984, they still possessed a relatively positive perception about the Bulgarian people. Interestingly, while they perceive Turkey as their homeland, they nonetheless held certain prejudices against the local population in Turkey. All of these various interaction helped to strengthen their group identity as migrants from Bulgaria.

Bulgarian Builders in the Sociocultural Community of Western Siberia in the 1970s–1980s

This article is devoted to analysing arrival circumstances, population, settlement, work conditions, socio-cultural adaptation, and particularities of relations with the local community of builders from Bulgaria who migrated to Western Siberia within the framework of government contracts. The article refers to unpublished archive materials, data from journals, and field trips recorded in Tyumen Region in 2019–2020. The research reveals that travelling to the USSR in order to earn money played an important part in individual success strategies of Bulgarian youth in the 1970s and became quite widespread. Between the 1970 and late 1980s, Tyumen Region received 4 000 Bulgarians living in it with the biggest groups working in Tyumen, Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Urai, and Nadim. Several districts, working villages, and oil extraction facilities in Western Siberia were built by them. Also, both in Tyumen and Surgut, there are squares of Soviet-Bulgarian friendship, and in Surgut there is a monument to Georgi Dimitrov. Upon arrival in the USSR, the Bulgarians had a privileged status. The main adaptation difficulties were associated with the local climate and the language barrier. The life of Bulgarians and the work of the Glavbolgarstroy company in Western Siberia laid a strong foundation for economic activity that gave rise to a large influx of Bulgarian migrants to Russia in the 1990s. As a result, according to All-Russian censuses in 2002 and 2010, Tyumen region had the largest community of Bulgarians registered in Russia. Today Bulgarians in Western Siberia are present as third-generation migrants; they play a significant role in sociocultural and economic spheres of Tyumen Region. Many of them maintain an emotional bond with their motherland and keep in touch with their families and close people in Bulgaria.

Work careers of Bulgarian migrants in the European Union

After Bulgaria?s accession to the EU in 2007 increasing numbers of mobile workers have chosen emigration to the West as an attractive option for achieving a more satisfactory employment. The public debate in Bulgaria however perceives this mobility as a loss of human capital, while in the receiving countries in Western Europe immigrants are largely seen as a threat to the local labour markets. This paper builds upon 42 qualitative interviews conducted with Bulgarian labour migrants in four EU countries as part of the international project GEMM (2016- 2019). We selected interviewees with diverse education and qualifications achieved in the home and the destination country and explored their work trajectories and career aspirations. The analysis focuses on migrant capital accumulated, mobilized and negotiated in the host country and the subjective meanings attributed to the events in the life course. An important finding of the paper is that the interviewed migrants understand a successful work career to be something more than a rise in income or occupational hierarchy and associate it with a wider range of achievements: autonomy, self-reliance, learning. Often low-prestige jobs are not perceived as a failure, but rather as a new opportunity for development in personal, social and occupational terms. Migrants? work career is an essential part of their wider lived experiences.

The ambivalent lifestyle mobilities of Bulgarian migrants

Understanding how and why people migrate helps us to see beyond stereotypes and helps move the narrative beyond the deficit model. People don’t just move for economic reasons (although that is a very important factor) they also move for issues related to the development of their lifestyle mobilities. This article reports on Bulgarian students and migrants’ ambivalences towards staying or leaving the UK and the North East of England and discusses how these are the product of a shift from labour mobilities towards lifestyle mobilities.

Етнични взаимодействия в творби на български автори от Бесарабия и Таврия

The article examines the ethnic interactions of immigrant Bulgarians, which are present in the literary reflection of Bulgarian authors from the diaspora - mostly Misho Hadzhiiski (Tavria), Nikolay Kurtev and Anna Maleshkova (Bessarabia). Сontent analysis of the artistic and the journalistic writing of Bulgarian migrants has enabled us to determine their significant neighbors, the distance between them, as well as some peculiarities of the relations among them. Tavrian and Bessarabian Bulgarians’ implicit or explicit appraisals of “others” are presented too, and their conscious experience of the ethnic contacts in the “empty foreign land” is justified in the article.

The Bulgarian family in South Bessarabia during the first half of XIX century: a model of ethnodemographic development

Problems and sequential process of Bulgarian families’ adaptation to new conditions in South Bessarabia are considered in the research. During the resettlement, Bulgarian migrants brought their traditional relationship, elements of social organization and family’s structure to Bessarabia which were distinctive to the migrants’ original areas. The aim of the research is the ascertainment of main trends in evolution of Bulgarian families’ forms, structure and elements in daily life in South Bessarabia together with monitoring modifications which were inherent its intergenerational interaction and ancestral relations during the first half of XIX century. Methodological basis for the research is principles of historicism, systems and interdisciplinarity coupled with historically comparative and micro-historical methods. Scientific novelty of the research related to broad reconstruction of Bulgarian families’ qualitative and quantitative characteristics, and also to identification of specific historically-demographic and developing processes based on analysis of the massive historical sources from the moment the resettlement commenced till the middle of XIX century. While analyzing the data a 15-year period (1835–1850) in the first half of XIX century was established for family’s development and its rising size in South Bessarabia. This fact influenced on population growth in Bulgarian colonies up to 72,1 %. Possible forms of family relations are given together with possibly the most optimal complicated undivided family. Statistic data on quantity of men and women is also given in percentage terms, together with age difference between partners and low divorce rates. Bulgarian family appeared rather resistant social micro-structure under the circumstances of South Bessarabia. Conclusions: based on definite number of indicators, the author concluded that the Bulgarians brought inherent marriage traditions, demographic behavior and adaptive mechanisms to their family institution. Those exact mechanisms under the influence of legislative, administrative, socio-economic and natural factors led to the formation of a new model of demographic behavior.

STUDYING THE BULGARIAN LANGUAGE ISLAND IN UKRAINIAN PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE XX – XXI CENTURIES

Introduction. The paper focuses on the study of the language and culture of Bulgarian expatriate community in Ukraine based on the achievements of the Ukrainian linguistsin collecting the Bulgarian idioms in Odesa, Zaporizhya, Mykolaiv and Kropyvnytsky regions.The author pays attention to the linguistic publications from the end of the XX to the first decade of the XXI century related closely or proximately to the Bulgarian language island in Ukraine.Purpose. The paper aims at revealing and describing the lingual situation with Bulgarian language island based on the Ukrainian periodical publications of the XX – beginning ofthe XXI century.Methods. The study of the Bulgarian language island in Ukrainian periodical publications of the XX-XXI centuries is based on the descriptive method, the method of sociolinguistic analysis as well as empirical method.Results. Studying the status of the Bulgarian expatriate community in the contemporary Ukrainian linguistics the author has come to the following statements: the completely topical repertoire of the articles published at the end of the XX – the first decade of the XXI century and related to the Bulgarian dialects in Ukraine could be divided into six groups. They are: origin, evolution, and grammatical peculiarities of the Bulgarian migrants’ dialects; vocabulary and phraseology of the Bulgarian idiom in Ukraine; lingual interactions of the Ukrainian Bulgarians with other ethnic groups; linguocultural and ethnolinguistic issues of the Bulgarian language island; teaching Bulgarian language at school in Ukraine; history and current status of the Bulgarian philology in Ukraine. The most important names of the researchers who contributed to the study of the Bulgarian idioms’ functioning in the Ukrainian journals have been introduced in the paper.Conclusion. The paper emphasizes very important scholars’ achievements in onomatology analyzing the vocabulary of the Bulgarian rituals, interlanguage correspondence, semantic accommodation of loan units, and studying the archaic language features preserved in the Bulgarian dialects in Ukraine.

(New) Bulgarian Enlighteners and Ambassadors? The Reinvention of National Identity in Times of Crisis

AbstractDrawing on empirical data from 37 Bulgarian students and young professionals in the UK, this article explores the intersection of the discourses produced by the European crises and migrants' national identity. In Bulgaria, the crisis narrative is embedded in the arguably never‐ending democratic transition, manifested in socio‐economic instability and political volatility. Simultaneously, “Brexit Britain” is enveloped in strong Eurosceptic sentiments, propelled by a combination of austerity measures and intensified Eastern European migratory flows. Both contexts subject Bulgarian migrants to stigmatizing representations. Looking at migrants' everyday practices, the data reveals that young Bulgarians draw on the related ideas of the “new” Enlightener and Ambassador to counterbalance negative discourses. Thus, the article explores the meanings and significance attributed to the Enlighteners and the Ambassadors, arguing that the participants engage in “social creativity” and “individual mobility” strategies that lead to reinvention of national identity.