By the means of multiplicative intensity regression applied on data from the first wave of Gender and Generation Survey in Bulgaria (2004) we study the ethnic differentials in the risk of second birth in Bulgaria. Substantial decline in the risk of second birth is observed among all ethnic groups in the country in the period since 1990. However, the direction of the ethnic differences remains unchanged – the Bulgarian women have the lowest risk of having another child. The Turkish and especially the Roma women are more likely to give birth to a second child. The Roma women have very short birth intervals in comparison to Bulgarian and Turkish women. This is an indicator for poor family planning prevailing in this group. The analysis uncovers also important differentials not only between but also within the ethnic communities in the country. The higher education is associated with lower risk of second birth among the women in all ethnic groups. The highly educated Bulgarian women have the lowest risk of having another child, whereas the lowly educated Roma women have the highest risk. The negative correlation between education and higher order fertility raises serious concerns about the human capital transferred from the parents to of the future generations in Bulgaria.

The outcome of a rapid assessment study on the knowledge and attitudes towards risky sexual behaviour of Roma youths living in four distant provinces in Bulgaria is the main topic of the discussion. The paper focuses on the possible use of vignette questions when sensitive issues appear to be a research subject. The fieldwork was based on four focused group discussions with young people and 12 focused discussions with medical doctors, health mediators and Roma women. Six sensitive situations were presented in the style of a soup opera plot as follows: early coitarche, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood, abortion and contraception, sexual transmitted diseases and traffic in women and girls. The outcome of the study suggests that there is an extremely high level of tolerance towards the teenage pregnancy and a high level of tolerance towards the early beginning of the sexual life, which puts young Roma women in a risky situation. Trafficking in women and girls seems to be the less risky situation from all listed above. However, it could be that it is simply better known because it is the most widespread among the Roma population in Bulgaria. This should be a topic of further discussions and a possible part of a representative survey which can use the same vignettes but with pre-defined answers based on the outcomes from the focused groups.

The analysis reveals that ethnicity exerts impact on fertility and reproductive behaviour. Among all age groups, the Roma ethnic minority shows the highest fertility rates, followed by the Turkish one and the Bulgarian ethnic group, which has the lowest. The Bulgarian ethnic group has had on average 1.8 live-born children per fertile woman for 30 years now. The Turkish ethnic group has significantly decreased the average number of live-born children: from 3.2 to 2.4 children per fertile woman. The Roma have considerably higher fertility compared to the Turkish ethnic minority and especially to the Bulgarian ethnic group; for the last 30 and more years fertility rates are 3.3-3.2 live-born children per fertile woman. The problem concerning births among young and very young people, which are more typical for the Roma ethnic group than any other ethnic group, appears to be a serious one. Furthermore, that problem leads to other important issues – higher mother and infant mortality rates; higher morbidity and more cases of children born with disabilities and malformations; abandonment of children and their placement in specialised institutions.

The Roma/Gipsy minority is presented as a part of European population since early medieval ages. A quarter of the total Roma population in the continent lives in Eastern European countries. It is difficult to construct its full demographic profile because of the lack of systematic uniform studies and deficiencies of statistical surveys. Discussing the main frequencies in Bulgaria and Romania the author presents Roma demographic behavior and future size insisting that the studies are to enhance the process of their development and social infusion rather than comparisons of estimates and isolated facts. This way their stages of the First demographic transition are reviewed together with some comments on Second demographic transition.

The existing of number of national strategies, programs and plans, created with the purpose to solve Roma problems, is a matter of fact. But an entire, consistent, systematic, and well provided Roma policy based on the addressing of root causes of Roma social exclusion is still not elaborated. The stigmatization and prejudice, the negative and derogative attitude toward Roma are the reason many Roma to not to have the opportunity to define by themselves who they are and to establish subordinated instead of equal relationships with their fellowcitizens. The setting of Roma issue under the direction of social policies shapes a discourse that represents Roma as „social problem” and reinforces the negative image of Roma in the society. The mobilization and empowerment of Roma community is a necessary perspective in the strategies and policies for Roma. This is a way Roma as a community to challenge the public ideologies that determine the lower social position of their group and to claim their right to take respected and equal place in the society.

The Roma, a heterogeneous group whose identity is multidimensionally diverse, are Europe’s largest ethnic minority. Millions of Roma live in many European countries where they are „traditionally” among the poorest and most marginalized minorities. The article describes characteristics and backgrounds of the situation with which large segments of the Roma populations in Bulgaria and Romania have to deal. During socialism, in spite of repressive measures that aimed at the Roma`s forced economic integration and at their complete assimilation, they benefitted from permanent employment, regular wages, social security and better opportunities for education. After the collapse of socialism, the institutional framework provided a basis for an ethno-specific organization and articulation of interests as well as for cultural development and social and political participation. Meanwhile, the transition brought new hardship – unemployment rates above average, severe impoverishment, new forms of discrimination, increasing segregation in the spheres of housing and education and terrible health problems. Large segments of the Roma populations in both countries are trapped in a vicious circle of poverty and exclusion. The situation has a clear European dimension and bears enormous social and economic risks.

The paper explores the issues of Roma women’s health and reproductive attitudes and behavior. The Kustendil case study presents a bunch of positive results: Roma mothers’ and children’s mortality is the same as that of the local Bulgarians; Roma women’s health and reproductive culture is very similar to those of the local Bulgarians; the number of abortions in Roma neighbourhood decreased significantly in the last years; two fifths of Roma women use modern means to prevent unwanted pregnancy – mainly intra uterine devices. All these changes became a fact as a result of long and pervasive activity of local medics, the medic centre in the Roma neighbourhood and local institutions and NGO’s. Further homogenization of reproductive attitudes and behavior among Roma and Bulgarians in Kustendil district could be reached only by improvement the education and the social inclusion, especially in the labour market of Roma women.

The fieldwork „Roma in Sofia: From Isolation to Integration?” was carried out in May 2007 by a research team headed by me and including students in sociology at Sofia University. It took place in Fakulteta and Hristo Botev quarters of the capital city and in several schools located in close proximity to them where presumably there are pupils of Roma origin. The results of the fieldwork are presented in the third part of the book of the same name (See Grekova, M., V. Dimitrova, D. Kyuranov, N. Germanova, Y. Markova. Roma in Sofia: From Isolation to Integration? Sofia: Iztok-Zapad, 2008). In the second part of the book, on the basis of archival documents, I analyze the situation of Roma in Bulgaria, more particularly in Sofia, during socialist times. In this paper, I present in summary that part of my analysis where the focus is on the questions: What do the „Roma” neighborhood and living there mean for young Roma? How does it feel to them leaving the „neighborhood” and moving around the city where the „others” live? Is there any „other” way of living that is accessible to them?

The paper discusses specific delinquency and deviance issues concerning Bulgaria’s adolescent and minor offenders. Through profiling, ethnic Bulgarian and ethnic Roma offenders in correctional institutions are compared for similarities and differences. Twelve socio-demographic traits are statistically analysed and interpreted to answer the question if there are significant differences between the two ethnic groups. Similarities outnumbered the differences which fact puts the two groups in analogous vulnerable situation in case there is a link between persecution and the social and demographic traits of persecuted underage offenders. Special attention is paid to offenders’ age, education, families, substance use and abuse, length of stay and previous institutionalisation.

The paper presents data from a research conducted in Roma neighbourhood in town of Stara Zagora aiming to identify the reasons for children dropping off school and possible prevention measures, as well as to examine the conditions under which different approaches could be taken for family planning encouragement. The main problems identified are: significant financial difficulties and bad housing, poor social service based in the community of Stara Zagora municipality, low options for child care in the community, limited access to health services and services for family planning due to the lack of active health insurance status, lack of sexual education with girls, early marriages and birth giving, low reproductive culture and poor parental preparation.

The article contains the main results obtained from a sociological survey of the social institutions regulating the ethnic integration in one Bulgarian village (the village Mechka, in the Pleven region), where the population belongs to two ethnic groups – Bulgarian and Roma. Preliminary data provided evidence for a high level of ethnic tension, including permanent house robberies and violence. The results of the research are directed to the basic reasons and determinants for the ethnic tension, linked to the state institutions operating in the present demographic and economic context, in the context of the present legislation, and social norms. It becomes evident that changes in the legislation are needed in this period of transition, typical for the whole country, in order to respond to the European norms and criteria for modern social live, more precisely in the field of protecting the rights of children to education, information, and communication; health education; integration of the Roma population into the economic and cultural life, etc. Investments are needed for the public services, and public works in the village, in the aim to increase the level of life of the population, and to activate the economic and cultural integration and participation of people from both ethnic groups.

The status of the Roma women and their problems in the family during the transition to the market economy of the country are reviewed. Their unequal positions regarding employment, education, parenthood, responsibility and partnership in bringing up and education of the children are underlined. Their reproductive behavior compared to the other ethnicities and its features related to the Roma tradition and habits as far as the early marriages, giving life and family planning are discussed. The higher mothers’ death rate and child mortality, the shorter life span compared to the total female and to other ethnicities and men’s dimension are explained by the lower Romas’ income and standard of living, their worsened health condition and lower reproductive culture.

The results of a study carried out on the possibilities to construct specific indicators measuring economic activity levels by ethnic group in Bulgaria, such as participation rates, activity rates and age specific activity rates, are presented in the article. The time period starting from the 1960s was studied in order to establish the presence of long-lasting differences and their dynamics. Data from all population censuses over the examined period and from Labour Force Survey conducted since 1993 in Bulgaria were considered. The results obtained show that the available data on population distributions by economic activity and ethnic group are very scarce, too aggregated and fractured in time which does not allow the construction of uniform and comparable time series of data neither for the studied period nor for any other period long enough to analyse dynamics of the examined process. At the same time the lack of detailed data even within one population census does not give any possibility to develop the analysis of the process deeper and to study its main determinants in a given moment of time. This situation makes impossible to give correct answers to the important research questions concerning economic activity variation in the ethnic groups in Bulgaria so far.

This paper explores how the social and economic development in Post-Communist Bulgaria influences the everyday life of Roma women. It presents statistical, economic and sociological data about the changes in Roma demographic behavior; the new patterns and challenges of Roma children and adults’ education; the Roma women’s exclusion from the labor market; the Roma access to health and social services; and the Roma women’s participation in Bulgarian social and political life. It concentrates on the way the Roma women interpret the problems they face and on the corresponding governmental social policies.