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Wed, Feb 08 2012
Open Society Institute report sees racism in Bulgaria
INTOLERANCE: A March 2009 Ataka rally, with a hand-made poster lampooning Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, wearing a fez and Turkish clothing. The Open Society Institute said that most Bulgarians in fact had a tolerant attitude towards their compatriots of Turkish descent, seeing them as hard-working entrepreneurs.
Photo: Anelia Nikolova
Bulgarian society displays significant prejudice against African, Arab, Vietnamese and Chinese minorities, sees Roma as thieving and dirty but views ethnic Turks as hard-working and entrepreneurial, according to a survey done by the Open Society Institute.
According to reports by daily Sega and Bulgarian news agency Focus, Bulgarians are tolerant towards ethnic Turks – the legacy of the country’s 500-year domination under Ottoman rule – and also towards Jewish people, who not dissimilarly to people of Turkish descent, are seen as entrepreneurial and wealthy.
The Armenian community was seen as "ingenious," Focus said, quoting AFP.
Among foreigners, those coming from the European Union were most well-received, while black people were rejected, regardless of their country of origin.
Fewer than four per cent of the population wanted their children to attend a school with high numbers of black or Kurdish children, and fewer than six per cent said they would enroll their children in schools with large numbers of Roma, Chinese, Vietnamese or Arab children.
In the workplace, 11 per cent of people said they would take orders from a black, Roma, Kurdish, Albanian or Vietnamese superior, while more than 44 per cent were willing to work for a European boss.
Just 26 per cent of Bulgarians said they would accept Roma, Africans or Albanians as neighbours, but 55 per cent would be happy living next door to Europeans.
Only 11 per cent said they would marry a black person, Roma or Kurd, while 44 per cent said they would happily marry a European, Focus said.
According to reports by daily Sega and Bulgarian news agency Focus, Bulgarians are tolerant towards ethnic Turks – the legacy of the country’s 500-year domination under Ottoman rule – and also towards Jewish people, who not dissimilarly to people of Turkish descent, are seen as entrepreneurial and wealthy.
The Armenian community was seen as "ingenious," Focus said, quoting AFP.
Among foreigners, those coming from the European Union were most well-received, while black people were rejected, regardless of their country of origin.
Fewer than four per cent of the population wanted their children to attend a school with high numbers of black or Kurdish children, and fewer than six per cent said they would enroll their children in schools with large numbers of Roma, Chinese, Vietnamese or Arab children.
In the workplace, 11 per cent of people said they would take orders from a black, Roma, Kurdish, Albanian or Vietnamese superior, while more than 44 per cent were willing to work for a European boss.
Just 26 per cent of Bulgarians said they would accept Roma, Africans or Albanians as neighbours, but 55 per cent would be happy living next door to Europeans.
Only 11 per cent said they would marry a black person, Roma or Kurd, while 44 per cent said they would happily marry a European, Focus said.
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I believe this is not true. I feel that nearly al Bulgarians do not feel this way about our neighbours.
I'm Bulgarian married to an African, what do you think is running throuhg our heads before we travell to see our family?
How should we handle this racism stories but also violence against black people? It's the second time that I'm confronted with this problem, after a visit two years ago as Ataca came out strong and the walls in sofia full of rasistic slogans against roma, turks and jews. Maybe the European Union should look harder at this problem. Now we fear to visit our home in Europe. I really feel angry and ashamed.
You must be Bulgarian.
Only the provincial mentality of a small country makes a person labor under concepts like "makes us look bad".
No person or a party can make any one else "look bad".
Does Medoff make Jews look bad?
This comment has been removed by the moderator because it contained
People that make these broad statements about not wanting to marry someone of Roma or black orgin are just ignorant. Maybe they should get to know the indivual person before they make such broad comments. This just goes to show how uneducated some of the people of Bulgaria are, with there so called degree's. I've seen people with so called degree's from University and they are about as smart as a high school student in the states, if even that, so don't go around bragging that you have all of these degree's when you don't have the brain to back [...]
Read the full comment it up. I mean really, how many members of Ataka do you think are educated and if so how can they still have this opinion of people that are different then themselves? Ataka is just an American version of the KKK without the white robes, they yell and scream and have nothing to say at all, it makes Bulgaria look so stupid, it's a shame. I know Bulgarians are not stupid but people like Ataka should be banned or sent out to the woods and left to burn cross's and put on the white hat's and talk about all the people they claim to hate. To think that in today's world people still actually hate is also unreal.