Becoming and Remaining Izbjeglica: Refugee Identifications and Shifting Self-Understandings in Bosnia and Herzegovina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v21i1.3Keywords:
refugees, refugee label, identification, internal displacement, IDPs, Bosnia and HerzegovinaAbstract
This article examines how displaced Serbs in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, engaged with the category izbjeglica (refugee) in the decades after the 1992–1995 war. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it traces how identifications with this label shifted over time – at once inhabited, contested, and redefined – as displacement moved from temporary suspension to long-term settlement. By situating these dynamics within the Bosnian post-war context, where international policy privileged “minority return” while co-ethnic re-settlers were largely overlooked, the article shows how refugee labels endure beyond their legal status, acquiring new meanings in everyday life. It highlights how, in the absence of a “myth of return”, belonging was rebuilt through endurance, resourcefulness, solidarity, and difference, shaping what it means to be and remain izbjeglica.
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