Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist Bulgaria
In this article, I investigate state policies in socialist rule in Bulgaria, encouraging pensioners to work beyond retirement and their impact on eldercare. First, I argue that in the 1970s, Bulgarian pensioners began occupying economic niches similar to those of labor migrants in Western Europe. Th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Genealogy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/6/3/65 |
| _version_ | 1797488055099064320 |
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| author | Ilia Iliev |
| author_facet | Ilia Iliev |
| author_sort | Ilia Iliev |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this article, I investigate state policies in socialist rule in Bulgaria, encouraging pensioners to work beyond retirement and their impact on eldercare. First, I argue that in the 1970s, Bulgarian pensioners began occupying economic niches similar to those of labor migrants in Western Europe. The policies actively promoting work after retirement were introduced in parallel with legislation encouraging older people to distribute their property among potential heirs as a donation instead of their last will. I argue that this combination of work beyond retirement and inheritance patterns had a negative impact on eldercare and should be taken into consideration when designing new policies addressed at working pensioners. The research is based on letters of complaint or denunciation from the 1970s, available in the Bulgarian State Archives. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:57:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9af6c5c420504bc98ec7f2794a018aa2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2313-5778 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T23:57:38Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Genealogy |
| spelling | doaj.art-9af6c5c420504bc98ec7f2794a018aa22023-11-23T16:22:56ZengMDPI AGGenealogy2313-57782022-07-01636510.3390/genealogy6030065Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist BulgariaIlia Iliev0Department of Ethnology, Sofia University, 1504 Sofia, BulgariaIn this article, I investigate state policies in socialist rule in Bulgaria, encouraging pensioners to work beyond retirement and their impact on eldercare. First, I argue that in the 1970s, Bulgarian pensioners began occupying economic niches similar to those of labor migrants in Western Europe. The policies actively promoting work after retirement were introduced in parallel with legislation encouraging older people to distribute their property among potential heirs as a donation instead of their last will. I argue that this combination of work beyond retirement and inheritance patterns had a negative impact on eldercare and should be taken into consideration when designing new policies addressed at working pensioners. The research is based on letters of complaint or denunciation from the 1970s, available in the Bulgarian State Archives.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/6/3/65work beyond retirementelder careage and genderkinship and state |
| spellingShingle | Ilia Iliev Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist Bulgaria Genealogy work beyond retirement elder care age and gender kinship and state |
| title | Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist Bulgaria |
| title_full | Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist Bulgaria |
| title_fullStr | Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist Bulgaria |
| title_full_unstemmed | Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist Bulgaria |
| title_short | Retirement Is a Foreign Country: Work beyond Retirement and Elder Care in Socialist Bulgaria |
| title_sort | retirement is a foreign country work beyond retirement and elder care in socialist bulgaria |
| topic | work beyond retirement elder care age and gender kinship and state |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/6/3/65 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT iliailiev retirementisaforeigncountryworkbeyondretirementandeldercareinsocialistbulgaria |