Bulgarian community in Chicago: A model of development

This paper presents the first comprehensive model of development of the Bulgarian settlement in the Chicago area from its earliest traces to the present day, from historical and anthropological perspectives. In the process, we distinguish five periods of Bulgarian presence spanning more than a century and discuss the patterns of Bulgarian settlement, economic profiles and community life for each of those periods. The paper highlights the struggle for survival and recognition of early Bulgarian migrants during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the political rivalry of the Cold War Bulgarian refugees preventing their consolidation and the contemporary, post-1989, Bulgarian economic mass migration which becomes increasingly visible and emancipated, claiming Chicago as the Bulgarian City. In the process, we seek to explain why this long history of Bulgarian immigration has not resulted in the community's overt visibility, either in the literature and studies of Chicago's ethnic landscape or through the creation of an ethnic enclave with vernacular urban centralized space distinct from other ethnic migrant groups and their neighborhoods such as Little Italy, Ukrainian Village, Greek Town and Chinatown.