BULGARIANS PREJUDICED AGAINST ROMA, BLACKS, ARABS: STUDY

Agence France Presse
July 21, 2009 Tuesday 2:51 PM GMT

Most Bulgarians are prejudiced against minorities, particularly the
large Roma population, but also against the few black, Arab and Asian
immigrants in the country, a new study showed Tuesday.

The Open Society Institute found that Roma, who make up around nine
percent of the population, are seen by most Bulgarians as "thieving",
"dirty" and "ignorant".

By contrast, ethnic Turks, whose population is around the same size
and who were stereotyped as cruel and religious fanatics during
communism, are nowadays seen as "hard-working" and "entrepreneurial",
the study found.

Many Bulgarians are similarly tolerant towards traditional minorities,
such as Jews who are seen as "wealthy" and "businessmen", and
Armenians, who were seen as "ingenious".

Among foreigners, those coming from the European Union were most
well-received, while blacks were rejected, regardless of their country
of origin.

Fewer than four percent of the population wanted their children to
attend a school with high numbers of black or Kurdish children, and
fewer than six percent said they would enroll their children in schools
with large numbers of Roma, Chinese, Vietnamese or Arab children.

In the workplace, 11 percent of people said they would take orders
from a black, Roma, Kurdish, Albanian or Vietnamese superior, while
more than 44 percent were willing to work for a European boss.

Just 26 percent of Bulgarians said they would accept Roma, Africans
or Albanians as neighbours, but 55 percent would be happy living next
door to Europeans.

Only 11 percent said they would marry a black, Roma or Kurd, while
44 percent said they would happily marry a European.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress