Емигранти, пътешественици и бегълци: семейство Хайдутови межу Запада и Изтока
Emigrants, Travelers, and Escapers: the Haidutoff Family between Occident and Orient

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the migrations of young Bulgarians abroad in the 1920-1930s, caused by the Great Depression and in particular the labor migrations of Bulgarian musicians in Egypt and the Near East and their cultural and social interactions with the Bulgarian diaspora there and with the local population. The focus of the study is the travels of the Haidutoff family – a musical trio that has made a living in Egypt for many years, and in the 1920s-1930s traveled and gave concerts in Argentina, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia and Java island, then returned to Bulgaria and re-emigrated to Egypt. The text analyzes how their mobility is facilitated by blood-related networks, professional networks and interest networks, how it enables their nationalism to interact with the international environment, and how they perceive the West and the East (Orient) as traveling people through their own cultural stereotypes and social distances. The fate of the violinist Nedyalka Simeonova – the daughter-in-law in the family and a member of the musical trio – is traced in detail.

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