Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Mila Maeva
(Institute of Ethnology and Folkloristic Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Petko Hristov (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at BAS)
Send message to Convenors
- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Mobilities
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 22 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
The panel concerns the post-2004 movements to the Eastern European countries. Taking into account the intensification of global movements and their impact on the cultural heritage, we will aim to look at its role, content, societal place and its transgression in the immigrant adaptation process.
Long Abstract:
The increasing mobility and migration do concern a plethora of social processes, but their effect on the cultural diversity in the countries on their both ends is truly pronounced. The panel we propose is aimed at presenting the results of the post-2004 immigration movements to the ex-communist countries of Eastern Europe, unravelled and intensified by the accession of (some of) the latter to the European Union. While still being "leaders" as sending countries, the new EU member-states now play the dual role of receiving countries as well. Part of these new intensified movements is becoming a diverse population, motivated by a number of reasons to seek "better luck", more money or improved wellbeing and working or living conditions. This in turn organizes a multitude of new migrant groups, such as labour and leisure migrants, expats, students and refugees provoked by the new possibility for studying, living and business there. Taking into account the continuous intensification of global movements and their impact on the cultural heritage, we will aim to look at its fluctuating role, content, societal place and lastly its transgression in the immigrant adaptation process. The negotiation between cultures (own, national, regional or local) in the context of ex-totalitarian countries put in the foreground questions concerning the quick changes of the local social and cultural landscape and provoke discussion on the acceptance, integration and discrimination on the axis between "us" and "them".
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 22 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
The paper is focused on contemporary immigration to Bulgaria and its contradictory influence on the two cultural aspects: on Bulgarian cultural heritage and the culture of the sending country. The construction of the multilocal practices as a way of transgression also is the object of the research.
Paper long abstract:
Migration has become a key issue and challenge for Europe, which will dominate the European Union’s policy and the individual member states’ political programs in the coming years. Referring to Bulgaria, attention is mostly focused on emigrants leaving the country. However, the current proposal focuses on immigrants who arrived after 1990, called the ‘Bulgarian Migration Phenomenon’ by A. Krusteva (Krasteva 2005: 4). Immigration in Bulgaria has a long history which dates back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has intensified since the fall of the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria in 1989. The moves are comprised of four main categories: political, student, labour, and marriage migration. Numerous entrepreneurs have arrived with the new labour migration, new communities of Chinese migrants have arisen, and the number of Arabs, Vietnamese, Kurdish, Africans, Ukrainians, and others permanently settled in Bulgaria has increased. Immigrants in Bulgaria have grown especially since 2007 with the country’s acceptance to the EU. The acute labour shortage that has been felt in the country since 2007 is filled with workers from Vietnam, Turkey, India, Macedonia, the Philippines, etc. This paper focuses on patterns of adaptation and integration, immigrants’ influence on the social situation in the country, as well as the stereotypes and attitudes towards them. The aim of the study is on contemporary immigration to Bulgaria and its contradictory influence on the two cultural aspects: Bulgarian cultural heritage and the culture of the sending country. The construction of the multilocal practices as a way of transgression also is the object of the research.
Paper short abstract:
Not only German retirees decide to look for a ‘better luck’ in Bulgaria but also working Germans settle down in Bulgaria and continue their normal life, combining their native cultural habits and heritage with newly acquired elements of the cultural heritage of the new host country.
Paper long abstract:
Not only German retirees decide to look for a better life in Bulgaria but able to work Germans also settle down in Bulgaria and continue their life, combining native cultural habits and heritage with newly acquired skills and elements of the cultural heritage of the host country. In the paper will be compared individual adaptation strategies of Germans living in Bulgarian villages, more exactly the ways they manage their daily tasks, their social contacts and inclusion in the life of the local community, the spheres in which they apply their Bulgarian language knowledge, but attention will also be paid to the holidays they celebrate and the dishes they cook. Thus, living in Bulgaria, when they contact members of the host society, listen to Bulgarian radios, watch Bulgarian TV, etc., they transgress the boundaries of their own culture and try to experience the Bulgarian one in order to better understand the local people and to integrate socially in the host community.
Paper short abstract:
Based on qualitative research online and on-site among Russians living in Bulgaria the paper aims to elucidate the issues of the current migration by looking at specific online strategies of communal adaptation. The question remains – is this a real adaptation or a strategic avoiding of it?
Paper long abstract:
The paper based on qualitative online and on-site research aims to present an understudied topic in Bulgarian (and wider) context. As it comes to Russians in Bulgaria, there are several defined “waves” of migration with different socio-economical, historical and political motivations until the EU accession of the latter. Nevertheless, the one developing in the past decade under the changed conditions provides with a different migrant profile. These are predominantly young people in their 20s and 30s who have grown tired of the dissatisfying state of their country as it comes to the quality of life (food, ecology, politics, etc.). As a result, they have decided to move to the Bulgarian seaside (or other cities) to enjoy the good weather, better food, but also cheap flights, approachable travelling conditions, better future for their children, who are to grow as legitimate European citizens. What separates them from previous migrant generations, nevertheless, is the fact that they often choose to move to the country despite not having any “network” of acquaintances and/or family. This, in turn, serves for the accumulation of new strategies of adaptation among their communities and groups, namely the online “instructions of use” of the everyday life in Bulgaria, published predominantly by Russian women on social media (Instagram, Facebook). But what is the state of their adaptation? Do they feel and act as equal Bulgarian citizens or do they create in turn closed microsystems resisting the foreign atmosphere culturally and even economically using “life cheat sheets”?
Paper short abstract:
This paper is focused both on adaptation of refugee children from the Middle East at ethnically mixed classrooms, and on challenging issues, which the female researcher encounters during her fieldwork in a camp. The refugees I worked with came to Bulgaria mainly after 2013.
Paper long abstract:
This paper deals with my experience as ethnographer at the refugee camp in Kharmanli, a small town in South Bulgaria, where I did a fieldwork in 2018 among refugee parents and children from the Middle East. I will analyse the process of adaptation of children during two school years - 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. Then, for the first time, a large group of refugees were enrolled in municipal schools and this provoked a public discussion on acceptance and discrimination. By taking into account the cultural and social elements of their adaptation, I will present the most challenging issues, which the female researcher encounters during her fieldwork.
Specifically, this paper is focused on adaptation of refugee children at ethnically mixed classrooms, and is interested in social relations between Afghani pupils, Bulgarian Gypsies (Roma), ethnic Bulgarian, Turks, and other refugee children from the Middle East (Syria, Iraq), and relations of parents and children with the school-related staff. Also, it is interested in parents and children’ attitudes to 'Afghani' school, which they self-created within the camp in 2016. Broadly put, the refugee pupils are considered as ‘vulnerable’ students, supposing to have specific educational needs, and are approached as ‘different’ along with the Bulgarian Roma students, assuming that both do not have a good command of Bulgarian and are at risk of social exclusion. Cases of discriminate attitudes are also common towards refugee and Bulgarian Roma kids. Here, often the reference by school staff is made to the tension between ‘school culture’ and ‘family culture’.
Paper short abstract:
The paper will analyze the latest dynamics of the refugees’ integration and adaptation processes in Bulgaria, including the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two axes of exploration will be drawn, revealing consistencies and transgressions in policies and practices on national and local level.
Paper long abstract:
For the first time, people who have been granted international protection (refugee and humanitarian status) in Bulgaria, will also be surveyed in the 2021 National Population Census. The lack of accurate data is an impediment showing the scope of the refugee phenomenon in the country. Observations of UNHCR’s Bulgaria office show that the settled refugees (both refugee and humanitarian status) are somewhere between one and two thousand people as of October 2020. Being the poorest member of the European Union is considered to be one of the main factors for the transit character of the country, among other reasons. The paper will analyze the latest dimensions of the integration and adaptation processes of refugees in Bulgaria. Based on interviews with key stakeholders, refugees, and other up-to-date studies carried out in 2020, two axes of exploration will be drawn, revealing consistencies and transgressions in policies and practices on national and local level. Three key questions will be opened for reflections: 1) To what extend the lack of integration policy on national level influences the local integration practices? 2) What are the major motivation factors and drivers for those who choose Bulgaria as their new home, as well as for those who move further? 3) To what extend the cultures and cultural heritage of the countries of origin and the local ones interact and play significant role in the integration and adaptation processes? Additional focus will be put on the COVID-19 pandemic and how it influenced the questions raised.