Dismantling Security Discourses and Threat Perceptions Related to Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Croatia

“At first it was not very pleasant … Now it is different”: Experiences and Challenges of Refugee Integration in Croatia

“…Deep structural changes and transition difficulties resulted in the reaffirmance of the nation through new lines of inclusion/exclusion and transformation of a citizenship regime, longing for the diaspora to return (Štiks 2010). This inclination of the state has also resulted a restrictive (im)migration regime, a rigid understanding of asylum policy, and a lack of political will for the coherent implementation of integration programmes, leading society to gain the disintegrative tendencies of low public trust in institutions and suspicion towards minorities and "Others" of any kind (Hameršak et al 2020;Župarić-Iljić & Gregurović 2020). Integration and disintegration tendencies are much like dialectic processes, influencing the daily lives of migrants, especially in the context of contrary forces taking place at the expense of newcomers seen as passive "beneficiaries" of a welfare state (Collyer et al 2020).…”

“…Soon after the closure of the corridor in the spring of 2016, harsh securitisation practices took place with ethnic and racial profiling of migrants stuck at various sites on the Balkan route, with dubious state-tolerated violence and organised push-backs of irregularised migrants on the borders with Serbia, and Bosnia and Herze-govina. In parallel, the criminalisation of migration and of citizens' initiatives in their solidarity with migrants and refugees resulted in the erosion of public trust and propensity towards migrants in general, and asylum seekers in particular (Župarić-Iljić & Gregurović 2020).…”

Integration Policies and Public Perceptions of Immigrants in Europe

“…Further on, public attitudes are also context-dependent, especially having in mind complex social processes deriving from the unexpected events with long-bearing consequences such as the European 2015/2016 "migration (or refugee) crisis". These attitudes are shaped by and conveyed through the legal framework, socio-political institutions, media portrayals and daily interactions within the national and regional context in which they occur (Župarić-Iljić and Gregurović, 2020). Dempster and Hargrave (2017) posit that the government's asylum and integration policies, as well as the migration system and border regime, set a context in which those public attitudes are formed.…”