Ethnicisation

Citizenship and nationhood in Bulgaria

Dimitar Bechev
Bulgarian presidency

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.

Serbian Citizenship: The Recent Developments

Marko Milenkovic
Parliament of Serbia

Over the past two years there have been more than a few interesting legal and political developments regarding the Serbian citizenship regime. Firstly, there were a number of acts adopted that are important for the regime. Secondly, citizenship itself and related issues remain at the forefront of the dispute between Serbia and the province of Kosovo over its status as an independent state.

The citizenship regime in Serbia has gone through a series of changes in the past twenty years that reflect the shifting political and ethnic landscape in the former Yugoslavia.

The Politics of Selecting by Origin in Post-Communist Southeast Europe

Marko Žilović
Street name changes

In deciding whether to seek access to a particular citizenship most people tend to be practically minded. However, the broader sum of these individual decisions, as well as the sheer symbolic potential of using citizenship to uphold special ties between a state and a particular group, have important implications for wider political issues, such as ethnic politics, the fortunes of political parties, control of diaspora organisations, and sometimes even the high international politics in the region.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Paper Series and is available for download

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