The geopolitics of diaspora (original) (raw)
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The Croatian Diaspora as an Unfinished Transdisciplinary Project
The Croatian Diaspora as an Unfinished Transdisciplinary Project In a discussion involving 20 th century Croatian emigrants, it is imperative to mention Boris Maruna. Maruna was not only one of the most astute commentators on the vicissitudes of an exilic and emigrant existence, but also one of its most gifted poets. Upon his return to the democratic Croatia in 1990-after 30 years in exile-as the newly elected president of the Croatian Heritage Foundation, he pointedly welcomed "the cancellation of artificially created divides in the diaspora between an economic and a political emigration." 1 Ever since the closing of the wide ideological gap that was placed and then meticulously upheld between emigrants and their home country from the decades following the end of World War II until the fall of communism in 1989, the Croatian diaspora has found itself in uncharted waters, and between states, cultures, and disciplinary protocols both in the country of origin (i.e. Croatia), and in the host country. Taking as an example the traditionally strong and durable Croatian diaspora in the United States, this article will consider how changing geo-political conditions have affected the study of the Croatian diaspora in the latter half of the 20 th century. It will then attempt to extrapolate the trends of the 21 st century, which is already underway.
Spacesofidentity.net, 2001
is article presents the results of an empirical study examining the impact of democratization, ethnic tensions and the conflict situation in Croatia on the self-perception, ethnic homogenization, and the process by which a "transnational national community" developed among the Croatian diaspora in North America. e main methodology used in this research is a discourse analysis of articles published in the Fraternalist during the period -. e Fraternalist is the official journal of the Croatian Fraternal Union (CFU), the most influential Croatian diasporic organization in North America. For the purpose of this study, only articles describing the activities and attitudes of members of the Croatian diaspora toward their homeland were taken into consideration. Loring M. Danforth defines a diaspora as a social entity that "...consists of people who left their homeland either voluntarily or by force, and who have an awareness of constituting a minority immigrant community in the host country in which they have settled. " According to Robin Cohen, the main feature that distinguishes diasporic from other kinds of immigrant communities is a strong emphasis on group identity and a refusal to totally assimilate into the host society. Members of the group are stretched between two countries and two loyalties. is is particularly the case with first generation immigrants for whom the native country is the main point of their collective thoughts and efforts. Moreover, diasporic communities tend to feel an obligation to influence the home society by all possible means. Greece, Ireland, and Israel serve as illustrative examples of the impact that diasporic communities can have on the process of struggle for a separate nation-state. In those cases, nation-state formation was supported by large, well-organized diasporic communities, which have exercised a "long tradition of active participation in the nationalist struggles of their homelands.
Diasporas and Quadruple Transitions: The Case of Croatia
Literature on the transitions facing former Socialist states throughout Europe and Eurasia, while attentive to the multiple simultaneous processes taking place, has not paid sufficient attention to the actors involved in those processes. Much of the scholarship that focuses on any of the individual processes or even on an in depth case study of a single state limits the analysis to the main actors that make up the triadic nexus identified by Brubaker . Thus, left out of the transitions literature is the advances made in the study of diasporas and the transnational practices of migrants and the way such dispersed populations in fact contribute to each of the processes of transition underway in the post-Socialist space. In this essay, I will demonstrate the ways in which a country's diaspora contributes to and effects transitions in the "homeland" through an in depth look at the process of transition in Croatia. It is my contention that these multiple transitions and their trajectory cannot be understood without taking into account the role of dispersed populations.
Diaspora Politics and Post-Territorial Citizenship in Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia
How has the conception of the “nation” evolved in the countries of former Yugoslavia? After fighting one of the most brutal civil wars on European soil - a war focused on the acquisition and ethnic cleansing of territories, the importance of this key feature of the Westphalian nation-state is going through important transformations. By looking at citizenship policies of Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia, we argue a new form of post-territorial citizenship, centered around the inclusion of “diasporas” and the re-configuration of the nation as “global” is emerging. Far from being the expression of a post-national or cosmopolitan conception of belonging, post-territorial citizenship establishes itself as a new principle of inclusion and exclusion based on ethno-cultural categorizations that transcend the traditional, territorial referent.
''The ambivalent role of diaspora engagement for the homeland in the Balkans''
12 (2019) 3 Global Campus Human Rights Journal, 2019
Diasporas have become significant role players in the democratic lives of their countries of origin. Such dynamic is particularly evident in the South East European context, a region characterised in contemporary history by massive movement, displacement and outflow of populations. This article aims at exploring the dichotomies that the diasporas' political, economic and cultural involvement in the homeland present, including the discourse over its positive and negative features, hence tackling the issue of its potential to give rise to controversy. In fact, in addition to exerting a pro-active role for the democratic and socioeconomic development of their home countries, diaspora communities may also embrace antagonistic approaches, countering certain transformation processes, state-building agendas or favouring one elite rule over another. Through a set of cases from the South East European context, the research addresses the regional, therefore global, question of how diaspora groups transnationally participate in the life of their home states, what their objectives are and how they may hinder democratisation processes, acting as incubators or accelerators of-potentially violent-change.