Hunting for gaps through boundaries: Gypsy tactics for economic survival in the context of the second phase of post‐totalitarian changes in Bulgaria (1994‐)

Bulgaria appears to be entering—economically and politically—a second phase in its post‐totalitarian development: a period of privatization of state industry. The measures which are likely to accompany this process will pose severe obstacles to small‐scale traders—in their majority Bulgarian Gypsies—importing goods from Turkey. On the basis of field‐study observations of the markets of Bulgaria and Turkey (Istanbul) this paper describes the survival strategies adopted by the Gypsies in contemporary Bulgaria and attempts to predict the likely influence of the upcoming privatization phase on their lifestyles and life perspectives. It specifically seeks to explore the ways and methods whereby legal and administrative regulations, as well as moral boundaries, are dealt with by ethnic groups who have limited access to the administrative and popular mechanisms for the imposition and enforcement of the regulations.