The Self-Identity Construction of Bulgarian Turkish Immigrant Women

This research is based on the fieldwork that was conducted with nineteen Bulgarian Turkish immigrant women in the Kardzhali district of Bulgaria. These women were born in Bulgaria, exposed to similar oppressions by the communist regime between 1984 and 1989, migrated to Turkey, experienced the life in Turkey for a while, and, then, returned/forced to return to Bulgaria. The aim of the research is to analyze the effects of Bulgarian Turkish immigrant women’s experiences on the two sides of the border on their self-identity construction. Firstly, I will focus on their working experiences with respect to compulsory labor under the communist regime, as well as on whether or not they were exposed to “double burden” as workers, wives, and mothers. Secondly, the differences in their migration experiences in Turkey depending on their being perceived by the Turkish state as soyda？, legal immigrant, or illegal immigrant will be elaborated. Lastly, Bulgarian Turkish immigrant women’s return experiences to Bulgaria, which were shaped by the nature of their return, i.e. voluntarily or not, will be explicated. Their voluntary or involuntary return experiences will highlight how they perceive themselves in Bulgaria. The results of the fieldwork show that when the individuals’ perception of homeland is taken into consideration, it is impossible to give an exact and unchanging definition of homeland. This impossibility is closely related to whether those women who returned to Bulgaria after migrating to Turkey returned to Bulgaria voluntarily or not. While those who returned to Bulgaria voluntarily see Bulgaria as their homeland, Turkey is the homeland for those who returned to Bulgaria involuntarily. To conclude, there is no permanent conception of the Bulgarian Turkish immigrant nor the permanent identity of Bulgarian Turkish immigrant women. There are many different identities that were assigned to them depending on the political conditions of where they were born, as well as on the changing attitude of the Turkish-state towards its immigrants, their voluntary or involuntary return to Bulgaria, and how they perceived themselves in the country where they are currently living. This research reveals the impossibility of making generalizations about Bulgarian Turkish immigrant women. Accordingly, this research also shows the importance of ethnography of particular for the discipline of anthropology