A majority, 59% of Bulgarians are against refugees living in their country, according to latest surveys. It turns out that our society is not as tolerant as it boasts to be, or as it was perceived from the outside. Imperceptibly, it has become a xenophobic one.
I doubt that this phenomenon has developed overnight, with the sudden influx of refugees. Perhaps, we were unaware how through the years, enclosed in our own misery, hating the government, the politicians, we were also hating ourselves.
Now we have the chance to hate an outsider – the refugees. And so, we can hate ourselves less.
We complain about the UK's unwillingness to accept Bulgarian immigrants, yet our attitude towards Syrians is justified. The logic behind both, however, is the same.
For the British, we are "Syrians", because they do not know us. They only know our pickpockets in the London metro, or the Roma camps in France. Our yuppies though, remain in the shadows, and that is our problem.