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.