What is Wrong with the Process of "Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society": The Case of Education
What is Wrong with the Process of "Intergation of Roma in Bulgarian Society": The Case of Education

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I examine the understanding of Roma integration which, although not explicitly articulated in the official documents of Bulgarian state institutions, nonetheless implicitly informs the “politics of Roma integration” declared in these documents. The goal of the analysis is to outline a fundamental problem that largely condemns to failure the “national politics of Roma integration”, whose objectives have been consistently reconfirmed over the years. First, I formulate the problem with the situation of the Roma minority in Bulgaria and, in this connection, my understanding of “national/ethnic” minority as a social construction and a contemporary political concept. Next, I offer a review and critical analysis of the documents which state “the national policies of Roma integration in Bulgarian society”. In the last part I focus on the policy of so-called “educational integration of children and students from ethnic minorities” in an attempt to show how the understanding of “integration of Roma in Bulgarian society” condemns integration policies to failure.

• Details
• Contents