Bulgarian Elderly Migration to the United Kingdom, or: “Grandparents are Our National Pride”
Bulgarian Elderly Migration to the United Kingdom, or: “Grandparents are Our National Pride”

Summary/Abstract: Immigration into the United Kingdom has been one of the most important issues driving the debate over whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union. Britain’s exit from the EU, or “Brexit”, comes as a result of the referendum on June 23, 2016, and it could be that some saw an exit as a way to slow down immigration into the UK. In the context of the complicated situation, scholarly discussions on elderly people’s movements are focussed on retirement migrants settling into the Mediterranean region, and mostly in Spain. The aim of this article is to discuss the UK experience of people of the “fourth age” moving from Bulgaria to Great Britain. My work is based on ethnographic qualitative research and includes direct interviewing, life story (autobigraphic) methods and narrative analyses, conducted between 2007 and 2015 in the UK and Bulgaria. The study is focused on three main topics: ways of movement and settlement, problems in immigration and the role of the elderly people in the preservation of Bulgarian culture and traditions in the UK as a way to analyze their specific migrant profile. The scholarly object are immigrants with Bulgarian ethnic origin, belonging to the first generation. The choice of this subject is motivated by the role they played for the preservation of the Bulgarian family model, Bulgarian traditions, and even Bulgarian identity.

• Details
• Contents