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THE SHIFTING IDENTITIES OF THE BULGARIAN-CANADIAN DIASPORA, 1900-2015
Bulgaria and were hesitant to declare a Bulgarian identity. Even the fervent
Bulgarian nationalist Pando Mladenov, opposed the presence of a Bulgarian
national flag in his parish of St. George Macedono-Bulgarian Orthodox Church
during the Cold War.‘ For him, the Bulgarian national flag with its communist
coat of arms and a red star was not a symbol of Bulgaria, but rather a symbol of
the brutal communist regime in the country." Dr Ivan Gadjev, illustrated this
love-hate relationship of the Bulgarian immigrants with Bulgaria and referred
to Bulgaria in the period 1944-1989 as ‘Bulgaria-our stepmother.”
It should also be noted that during this period, particularly after the 1960s,
many Bulgarian Canadians achieved professional success since many ofthem
were already fluent in English and received their education in Canada. After
they earned university degrees they became doctors, lawyers, engineers,
teachers, managers and even MPs in the Canadian Parliament.°°
After 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and the Bulgarian borders were finally
opened, there were two waves of immigration from Bulgaria to Canada. The first
(1990-1995) consisted primarily of bogus refugees, who were economic
migrants using flights from Sofia to Havana to land in Newfoundland, where
the airplanes had stopped to refuel. The scheme was simple. When the airplane
landed in Newfoundland to refuel and the passengers had to wait in the transit
hall of the airport, some Bulgarians contacted the airport staff to declare that
they would like to stay and apply for a refugee status. These Bulgarians had
various levels of education and many of them had no knowledge of English or
French. Most of them claimed to be persecuted by the Bulgarian authorities
due to their allegedly anti-communist views, religious affiliation or sexual
orientation. Many of them managed to persuade Canadian authorities to grant
them Permanent Resident Status in Canada. After they legalized their status
in Canada, most of these quasi-refugees moved to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa
and other Canadian cities. Once in Toronto, a number of them approached Sts.
Cyril and Methody Macedono-Bulgarian Orthodox Church for help, but later,
when they learned English and found jobs, they became very passive and did
not get involved in the religious and cultural life of the Bulgarian community.”
The apathy of these new immigrants to the local Bulgarian churches and
"7 Pando Mladenoy, interviewed by the author, 16 May 2007.
18 Ibid.
9 Ivan Gadjev, Istoriya na bulgarskata emigraciya v Severna Amerika: Bulgaria, Mashteha
nasha (1944-1989), Vol. II [History of the Bulgarian Emigration to North America: Bulgaria:
Our Stepmother (1944-1989), Vol. 2], Goce Delchev: Institute for the History of the
Bulgarian Emigration to North America ‘Iliya Todorov Gadjev’, 2006.
"0 Gurdev, Bulgarskata emigraciya, 83-100. Ken Boshcoff was the latest Bulgarian Canadian
MP in 2004-2008 and a former mayor of Thunder Bay, ON.
Rev. Valeri Shumarov, interviewed by the author, 15 May 2007.
° 65°