Интеуркултурен диалог и културен обмен: изследване на младежката краткосрочна трудова миграция по програмата "Work and Travel"
Intercultural Dialogue and Cultural Exchange: a Study on the Youth Short-term Labor Migration in the Framework of the Work and Travel Program

Author(s): Zlatina Bogdanova
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Culture and social structure
Published by: Пловдивски университет »Паисий Хилендарски«
Keywords: short-term labor migration; post-socialist transition in Bulgaria; students; intercultural communication
Summary/Abstract: This paper is based on interviews with Work and Travel USA participants (the initial interviews were taken in Sofia back in 2003) and materials from the fieldwork carried out in the campus of the American University in Bulgaria (AUB) in Blagoevgrad in 2012. The author focuses on a cultural phenomenon accompanying the so-called post-socialist transition in Bulgaria – the short-term labor migration of Bulgarian students to the US. The research emphasizes on the role of the intercultural communication in a rapidly expanding work environment where young people are compelled to endure multiple intercultural interactions and face significant social and personality effects. The intercultural aspects of the migration include perceptions of intercultural differences, cultural subordination, and behavioural patterns expressing cultural relativism, manifestations of ethnocentrism, culture collision and culture shock. Identity and adaptation problems experienced by the participants are given special consideration.

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