Ethnic Violence, Local Security and Return Migration: Enclave communities in Kosovo

Abstract

Forced migration has become commonplace in the international political landscape. In 2015, 60 million people were displaced by violence, more than ever before recorded (UNHCR, 2015). While we know that violence leads to displacement, we know little about return migration after conflict -who comes back and where they settle. This article seeks to engage and supplement the literature on return migration after conflict, advocating for a broader understanding of the security choices made by displaced people. Emphasized here is the importance of a local understanding of safety and the role played by enclave communities in providing a secure context in which people can enjoy the society of their co-ethnics.

Law, Violence, and Property Expropriation in Syria: Impediments to Restitution and Return

“…Hitler and the Nazi party confiscated land, housing, and businesses of most Germany's Jews by removing the owners from their property and stripping them of any rights, eliminating any potential obstacles to confiscating their property. In the many examples from the Balkans Wars of the 1990s violence and property expropriation went hand in hand [4,5]. Similar, though less well-documented instances of population and property displacement occurred in the Ba'athist displacement of Iraqi Kurds, which we will address briefly later.…”

“…We briefly address alternative explanations of events, the role of external actors to the conflict, and conclude by discussing the changes in the Syrian population that are apparent today as well as those we might expect in the future as a result of state policies. This article is part of a wider research project of one of the authors (Joireman) on the topic of post-conflict property restitution and return migration [5][6][7][8][9].…”

House Damage Revisited: How Type of Damage and Perpetrating Actor Affect Intentions and Actions of IDPs in Iraq

“…Although little is known on return migration after conflict (Joireman, 2017), several hypotheses try to explain the reasons why some people return but not others; including war trauma, political pressure, integration, gender and age-related factors, social capital and security hypotheses (Stefanovic and Loizides, 2017).…”

“…According to the latter, the first factor sine qua non of returns is basic security. “While household characteristics, economic situation, length of displacement and experiences prior to leaving are all important in the decision of a household to return, the most important issue is security” (Joireman, ). The presence of members with a different ethnic, religious or tribal background in the location, civilians or military forces, is a spur to fear of violence which influence the decision not to return (Stefanovic et al., ); in particular when the displaced group is minority – understood as the group with less power in a situation of post–conflict‐ in origin (Stefanovic and Loizides, ).…”

“…On 21 June 2017, the destruction by IS of Mosul's Al-Nuri mosquethe same mosque where the so-called caliphate had been announced on 29 June 2014was described by the Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi as "a formal declaration of their (IS group) defeat" (Chulov and Shaheen, 2017). Only two weeks after the destruction of Al-Nuri mosque, a new, less publicized landmark was reached: the number of returned IDPs reached 2 million individuals (IOM Iraq Mission, 2016;October;IOM Iraq Mission, 2017a). However, approximately three million Iraqis remain internally displaced across the country and their potential return presents several challenges.…”