The Romani in Bulgaria: October 24, 2021
Bulgaria
From my last post, one can recall that the Romani have had no easy life. They were persecuted, enslaved, and abused in many parts of Europe. For today's post, I'm going to focus on their life in Bulgaria.
As I stated before, the Romani were mistreated by most European countries, and this treatment continues today. According to a 2011 census, the Roma population makes up about 4.5% of Bulgaria's whole population, and according to the 2020 census, the percentage is now 5.4%. From the data, one can see that many Romani live in this country and that their population is increasing. However, the Roma are vastly discriminated which results in a lifestyle of poverty and ghetto-liked neighborhoods covered in trash and lack clean water. Additionally, 40% of the Romani live below the poverty line ($215.47 or less per month).
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| Local market in Stolipinovo, the largest Roma neighbourhood in Europe. |
The picture above is from photographer Nate who visited Stolipinovo, Bulgaria, a Roma neighborhood. His photographs depict the utterly appalling living conditions and a parallel universe that this community lives in. I recommend that each of you check his work out (the link will be in the bibliography). In addition, to the living conditions, there is also a lack of high-quality education. Consequently resulting in 22% of Roma people in Bulgaria being illiterate, 91% not receiving secondary education, and a direct link in lack of schooling and teen pregnancy. Furthermore, since the schools in Roma neighborhoods are low-quality, many parents see school as pointless and keep their children at home. The children then find jobs for extra income, watch over younger siblings, or if their parents have enough money, they're sent to an overseas school.
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| These kids had set up a makeshift bar, on the streets of Stolipinovo, Bulgaria. |
Lack of Education with Teen Pregnancy
As mentioned above, there is a direct link between lack of education and teen pregnancy, and in the last blog, I said that women marry young and that once they give birth, they earn more power and respect. This aspect of Romani culture leads to early marriage and, therefore, early pregnancy. When a girl gets pregnant, her option is to quit school, earn money and take care of her children and husband. In Bulgaria, there is a trend of illiteracy and teen pregnancies that account for 10% of the population. Consequently, the government has mandated 1000 teams of specialists to travel to communities to convince parents to send their children to school. However, in my opinion, this is not enough. Parents don't send their kids to school because, as stated before, the education being offered is not high-quality, thus making them see that sending their children to work to earn more money is the better option. Unless the government can increase the quality of education for Romani schools and their living conditions, nothing will change. I find it quite naive that the Bulgarian government plans to fix the pattern of lack of education that leads to teen pregnancy and illiterates through "talking" to parents. When in fact, they should improve the overall communities of the Romani.
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| Women prepare the hair of girl from the Tinker minority at an open-air market for brides in the town of Plovdiv some 120km from Sofia, Bulgaria, 13 April 2015. |
Bibliography
Euractiv. "Bulgaria makes effort to bring Roma children back to school." Euractiv. October 12, 2017.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/languages-culture/news/bulgaria-makes-effort-to-bring-roma-children-back-to-
school/.
Human Rights Fund Progress. "Early Marriages Among Roma: Understand or Condemn." Human Rights Fund Progress.
February 13,2014. https://rozvitok.org/en/early-marriages-among-roma-understand-or-condemn/.
Turner, Emily. "Budding Hope For Romani People In Bulgaria." The Borgen Project. July 19, 2019.
https://borgenproject.org/tag/romani-people-in-bulgaria/.
Yomadic. "The Lates Gypsy Ghetto in Europe - Stolipinovo, Bulgaria." Yomadic. March 29, 2016.
https://yomadic.com/stolipinovo-gypsy-ghetto/.
Great post! It is sad yet also intriguing that the Romani face the same sort of problems in Bulgaria as they do on the Iberian Peninsula. The Romani, otherwise known as Ciganos and Gitanos in Portugal and Spain and Gypsies to the rest of the world have historically faced fierce discrimination. This leads them to have poor education and makes it harder for their members to move up in society. That being said, the gypsies have been able to move into whichever country and adapt their style to that countries culture. On the Iberian Peninsula, Gypsies have lived there for at least two generations and have merged themselves into society relatively well. They take Portuguese dishes and make them their own by adding a rich and fattiness to them. One of the most famous Spanish Gypsy dishes is called TORTILLA AL SACROMONTE DE GRANADA, which is a frittata type Spanish circular omelette filled with cured ham and mollejas ( lamb sweetbreads ). Because the Gypsies have become a part of Iberian society by accepting Iberian culture, they are less discriminated against and are a bit more wealthy than those in other countries.
ReplyDeleteIt's very disappointing that the Romani are still treated this way! I hope that in the future they receive the proper education and whatever they need to succeed. Child marriage is something that still plagues the world. The Romani, though under-privileged, still are very crafty and still stylish with what they wear such as the extravagant Diklo, a traditional headscarf that married Romani women wear. Their clothing is often connected with their religion and traditions. In France, I believe that contemporary fashion styles are still repeated in modern fashion. Traditions are represented throughout the fashion of various countries!
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