Sense of Belonging and Transnational Way of Life Among the Turks of Bulgaria

Abstract

The recent conceptualizations of citizenship, such as the concepts of post-national and flexible citizenship are closely related to transnationality, as people’s sense of belonging cannot just be restricted to holding a passport of a nation-state or residing inside the borders of it. Nevertheless, multiple belongings that minorities and migrants have also indicate that there is more than one relationship model with different nation-states. In that sense, the case of the Turks of Bulgaria offers a perspective of transnationality, in which multiple attachments and interconnectedness of this specific ethnic group regulate and redefine their identity across borders. To what extent the Turks of Bulgaria has transnational ways of life and which elements of transnationality are embedded of their identity are the main problematic of this paper. Hence, by providing theoretical framework of transnationality and transnational migration, and by providing an analysis of the conducted field research, this paper tries to analyze the ways of having a transnational way of life for the Turks of Bulgaria.