The Balkan Gurbet: Traditional Patterns and New Trends

Abstract

Petko Hristov describes and analyses a traditional system of labour migration known as gurbet or pečalbarstvo as it existed in two mountainous regions of the Southern Balkans—Šopluk and Mijak. These traditional migration systems, which also existed elsewhere in the region, have disappeared, yet despite their differences from modern labour migrations the word gurbet is still used and the memory of these past migrations still plays a role in relating to the present.