Emotional Returns and Diasporic Belonging: Identity, Memory, and Generational Change among Bulgarian Turks

Abstract

This study explores the complex and emotionally layered experiences of diaspora tourism among Bulgarian Turks, a regionally situated diaspora shaped by forced migration and cultural proximity. Using a qualitative methodology based on 34 semi-structured interviews, the study investigates how return visits to Bulgaria influence identity formation, intergenerational memory, and emotional belonging. Findings reveal significant generational differences: while first-generation migrants perceive return visits as emotionally charged acts of reconnection, younger generations view them as symbolic rituals shaped by familial obligation or cultural curiosity. The study highlights the gendered dynamics of diaspora tourism, with women often assuming roles as cultural transmitters and emotional caretakers. Participants also encountered linguistic barriers and cultural unfamiliarity, leading to fragmented belonging and emotional ambivalence. By examining diaspora tourism through the lenses of transnationalism, gender, and post-memory, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of return travel as both an act of remembrance and a negotiation of identity. This study advances existing diaspora tourism frameworks by demonstrating that return travel is not only shaped by transnational mobility or long-distance displacement but also by regional trauma, state-imposed assimilation, and intergenerational silence.