Citizenship legislation and the associated administrative practices highlight several key points. First, membership in a supranational entity such as the EU has far-reaching effects, erasing to some degree the distinction between citizens and non-citizens but also making Bulgaria a more attractive proposition for various “third-country nationals”. Second, the provision of citizenship via naturalisation has broadened rent-seeking opportunities and exposed institutional weakness, a painfully familiar story in post-communist Bulgaria. Third, and most important, citizenship continues to oscillate between civic and more ethnicised notions.
To understand the roots, evolution and workings of citizenship, along with the norms and practices of inclusion and exclusion in present-day Bulgaria one must look back to history. As elsewhere in South East Europe, Bulgaria’s approach to national identity and citizenship reflects the country’s path from Ottoman rule to independent statehood.
