Bulgarian Americans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bulgarian Americans are citizens of the United States with significant Bulgarian heritage. Those can include Bulgarian Americans living in the United States for one or several generations, dual Bulgarian American citizens, or any other Bulgarian Americans who consider themselves to be affiliated to both cultures or countries. Some Bulgarian Americans might be born in Bulgaria, the United States or other countries with ethnic Bulgarian population. Some Bulgarian Americans from Vardar Banovina and other Macedonian origin dating back to the end of the 19th century, first part of the 20th century, might also consider themselves to be Bulgarian American.
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[edit] History
Mass Bulgarian immigration to the United States began sometime in the second part of the 19th century. Chicago is a good example of a city known through the years for being inhabited by a significant number Bulgarians compared to other cities. There was a book written by a Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov called To Chicago and Back (Bulgarian:"До Чикаго и назад") from that period. However, according to the US census for 2000 the highest number of Bulgarians lived in the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami.
The United States has one of the highest numbers of Bulgarians than any country in the world. As many as 250,0001 Bulgarians live in the country. From the Eastern European countries, Bulgaria has the second highest number of students who study in the United States, after Russia. They are generally well-educated and come from middle- and upper-middle class families, looking for new or better opportunities.
[edit] Demographics
There might be as many as 250,000 Bulgarians in the United States at the present time, according to 2004 estimates of the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad. The United States Census of 2000 shows that there were 63,000 people of Bulgarian descent in the US. According to the same source, the state with the largest number of Bulgarians is California, followed by Illinois, New York, Florida, and Ohio. According to the US census for 2000 the cities with the highest numbers of Bulgarian Americans are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. 17% of Bulgarian Americans hold a bachelor's degree or higher [2]. Bulgarian Americans have an annual median household income of $44,578 [3]. 28% of Bulgarian Americans are married with children under the age of 18 [4].
[edit] Language
According to the 22nd US Census, 28,565 people indicated that they speak Bulgarian at home in 2000. Some Bulgarian Americans speak Bulgarian, especially the more recent immigrants, while others might not speak the language at all, or speak Bulgarian mixed with English to a lesser or greater extent. Some Bulgarian Americans understand Bulgarian even though they might not be able to speak the language. There are cases where older generations of Bulgarians or descendants of Bulgarian immigrants from the early part of the 20th century are fluent in the Bulgarian language as well.
[edit] Famous Bulgarian Americans
See List of Bulgarian Americans
[edit] Interesting Facts
- Two-time Academy Awards winning American actor Tom Hanks spoke in Bulgarian in his role as Viktor Navorski in the movie The Terminal.
[edit] References
- Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism. Ed. Susan Auerbach. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1994. REF E 184 .A1 E58 1994
- The Bulgarian Americans by Claudia Carlson (Chelsea House, out of print, 1990) ISBN 0-87754-865-X
- Peter Menikoff: The Story of a Bulgarian Boy in the Great American Melting Pot by Peter Dimitrov Yankoff (Cokesbury Press, out of print)
- University of Minnesota. Immigration History Research Center.
- The Immigration History Research Center: A Guide to Collections. Compiled and edited by Suzanna Moody and Joel Wurl; foreword by Rudolph J. Vecoli. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. xxiii, 446 pp., ill., bibliographies. LC call number: Z1361 .E4U58 1991 LH&G; MRR Alc LC control number: 91016262
- Nikolay G. Altankov, The Bulgarian-Americans (Palo Alto, Calif.: Ragusan Press, 1979)
- Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Gale, 2000. 3 vols. by Eleanor Yu, ISBN 0-7876-3986-9, 2000.
[edit] Notes
↑ Estimates of the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad for the numbers of ethnic Bulgarians living for the country in question based on data from the Bulgarian Border Police, the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and reports from immigrant associations. The numbers include members of the diaspora (2nd and 3rd generation descendants of Bulgarian immigrants), legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, students and other individuals permanently residing in the country in question as of 2004.
[edit] External links
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