The paper examines the dynamics, scope, and directions of external migration among the Roma ethnic group in Bulgaria following the country’s accession to the European Union. Based on a national sociological survey and in-depth interviews, the study outlines significant changes in the migratory behaviour of the Roma population over the past two decades. Migration, which was limited and irregular before 2000, has intensi ed signi cantly, particularly after 2007, and is increasingly driven by economic motives such as employment opportunities, improved living conditions, and access to social services abroad. The research highlights the transition from individual, temporary labour migration to more stable, family-based patterns, supported by growing ethnic-based networks in the host countries. These processes have contributed to the development of the Roma community abroad, while also triggering visible changes within the community remaining in Bulgaria – such as depopulation of certain neighbourhoods, improved housing conditions, and a moderate decline in fertility rates. The findings emphasize that external migration has become a long-term life strategy for many Roma families, influencing their socioeconomic status, cultural orientation, and integration trajectories. The study fills a research gap by offering an empirically grounded portrait of the Roma migration process, and underlines the need for continuous monitoring of its long-term implications for both sending and receiving societies.

The paper analyzes the trends and transformation of employment among the Roma in cities in Bulgaria before and after the country’s accession to the European Union. The study examines the historical development of employment among the Roma, focusing on their almost full employment during socialism, followed by a dramatic decline after 1989 due to the economic transition, lack of qualifications, and discrimination. After 2007, the opening of the EU borders provided new opportunities for labor migration, with work abroad becoming the main source of income for a significant part of the Roma households. At the same time, problems such as high unemployment, low educational level, lack of employment contracts, and dominance of the informal economy are deepening. Social isolation, limited accessibility to the labor market, and spatial segregation in cities make it difficult for the Roma to integrate. The authors emphasize the insufficient effectiveness of Roma integration policies, including the lack of real monitoring and coordination between institutions. In conclusion, the need to increase the educational level and professional qualifications of the Roma population, creation of a national database and an effective system for monitoring the socioeconomic situation of the Roma, as well as more committed institutional actions for integration at all levels, has been emphasized.

This article explores the social segregation of Roma ghettoized urban structures in small towns in Bulgaria (up to 30,000 inhabitants), emphasizing the spatial, institutional, and socioeconomic mechanisms sustaining segregation. Based on a nationally representative sociological survey conducted among 900 Roma respondents, the study applies factorial and cluster analysis to identify key patterns and correlations within the dimensions of housing, education, healthcare access, employment, and social isolation. The factorial analysis reveals two latent dimensions: “institutional access and social mobility” and “economic activity,” which illustrate distinct aspects of Roma communities‘ integration into urban life. The cluster analysis distinguishes three models of social segregation: (1) highly segregated communities, (2) partially segregated communities, and (3) marginalized but institutionally connected communities, each characterized by different levels of access to services, labor market participation, and interethnic interactions. The study finds important internal variation depending on city size. In towns with fewer than 10,000 residents, institutional isolation and economic inactivity are more prevalent, while towns with 10,000–30,000 inhabitants show stronger educational segregation and interethnic social barriers. Correlational findings indicate a very strong relationship between educational segregation and social isolation (r=0.99), and moderate links between spatial segregation and limited institutional access. The article proposes targeted interventions for each community type, such as improving local infrastructure, increasing access to education and healthcare, promoting inclusive labor market participation, and fostering intercultural initiatives. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of urban social fragmentation in small towns and offers a foundation for evidence-based policy design to address persistent segregation and inequality.

This article explores Roma ghettoized urban structures in Bulgaria as transitional spaces situated between marginality and participation in urban life. While these areas are commonly perceived as zones of exclusion, the research demonstrates that they are not fully detached from the social, economic, and institutional dynamics of the city. Instead, they function as hybrid spaces marked by both physical and symbolic boundaries, where limited forms of mobility, social interaction, and urban engagement emerge despite structural disadvantages. Drawing on a nationally representative sociological survey, the study reveals that residents of these neighborhoods often navigate between segregation and connection. Patterns of daily mobility, employment outside the neighborhood, and the existence of social and familial ties across urban space indicate a form of partial urban integration. However, this inclusion remains highly conditional and uneven. Access to healthcare, education, and cultural participation is significantly limited, reinforcing the marginal status of these communities. The concept of “transitional space” is employed to capture the tension between isolation and connectivity, and between exclusion and adaptation. The findings highlight strong internal cohesion within the neighborhoods, contrasted with low levels of external engagement, especially in cultural and institutional domains. Gender and age differences further shape the extent of social mobility and interethnic interaction, with younger people and men showing greater capacity for external connection. Ultimately, Roma ghettoized neighborhoods emerge as paradoxical urban forms—socially active yet institutionally peripheral. They illustrate the persistence of spatial inequality and symbolic boundaries in contemporary urban landscapes. The article argues for the need to reconceptualize these areas not only as problems of urban exclusion but also as sites of resilience and potential. A more integrated and place-sensitive policy approach is required—one that fosters access to services, strengthens participation, and recognizes the agency of local communities within the broader urban fabric.

Bulgaria is a country of a relatively significant share of Roma – although the oficial data states that the Roma represent around 3-4 % of the total population, the so-called expert assessment provides that the actual share of this community could be around 12-13 % of the total population, making it the largest minority ethnic group in the country. The study of the Roma requires multifaceted approach, employing various research methods in from sociology, ethnology, cultural and ethnic studies, demography, and geography. The current paper reveals the differences between the Roma neighbourhoods in Bulgarian urban settlements (cities/towns) in terms of access to kindergartens and primary schools, as part of the overall spatial segregation of such ghettoized urban structures (GUS). Access to primary education facilities is considered crucial for the integration of the Roma population, preceding its integration at higher levels such as the labour market. The walking distance of 600 m to a primary school and kindergarten has been used for the generation of isolines, using the ORC tool in QGIS. Based on the share of each studied Roma neighbourhood falling within that distance, 3 types of access has been established – good, partial, and poor. The study shows that some 55 % of the Roma neighbourhoods in Bulgarian cities/towns have poor access to primary schools and kindergartens, while in some 14 % of the cases full access is observed. Regarding the correlation between city size and access to primary educational facilities (PEF), it has been established that cities of population higher than 50 000 residents provide a better access to PEF than small towns. Some local communities’ feedback regarding the education of the Roma children has also been presented in the paper.

The Ghetto – this urbanistic and social hybrid – has long ceased to be merely the poor neighborhood. It stands as a political form, an ethical rupture, and an aesthetic reality where the core symptoms of the contemporary world collide: inequality, alienation, surveillance, and rebellion. This publication examines the ghetto as a site of systematic deprivation – of space, voice, and rights – but also as a territory of potential subjectivity, resistance, and creative explosion. The ghetto is both a symptom and a premonition – simultaneously a wound and a vision. It unveils the mechanics of dispossession while revealing the potential for recreation. When we consider the ghetto not merely as a zone of misery but as a philosophical stage, we uncover everything that society strives to conceal: the failure of modernity, the falsehood of universalism, and yet – the power of human resistance. The interdisciplinary structure of this publication, interweaving key concepts from the philosophical discourses of Agamben, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari, Baudrillard, and Fanon, constructs an alternative and critical reading of the ghetto phenomenon. This approach offers an opportunity for radical rethinking and deconstruction (in Derrida‘s sense) of the very ideas surrounding the ghetto. Thus, the ghetto is no longer merely a geography of despair; it becomes a symphony of remnants through which culture is created – a culture that the world perceives with awe or repulsion. It is a culture of hyperexpression – graf ti, music, dance, color, sound – that carries the pain of the excluded, yet also the will for symbolic survival.