Homes in the Making: Property Restitution, Refugee Return, and Senses of Belonging in a Post‐war Bosnian Town

Stefansson, Anders H.

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2006.00374.x

Cited by 62 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Second, the significance of income is related to the aspiration to regain lost social status, which might play a bigger role for those who had higher incomes before the war and who faced significant losses in social status after leaving Syria. Other individual characteristics, such as age and gender, were not significantly related to current return aspirations, which contradicts the literature showing that younger people (Stefansson 2006; Tuathail and Dahlman 2004) and women may be less likely to return (McSpadden 2004; Tuathail and Dahlman 2004; Zetter 1994).…”

Section: Findings: the Role Of Aspirations In Current And Future Retu...contrasting

confidence: 81%

“I Will Return Strong”: The Role of Life Aspirations in Refugees’ Return Aspirations

Müller‐Funk

Fransen

2022

International Migration Review

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This article studies how return migration aspirations are formed and realized in the context of protracted displacement. Drawing on a mixed-methods study that included survey research and in-depth interviews in Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria conducted, we study whether respondents aspired to return (i) currently, with the conflict still ongoing; and (ii) in the future, if the war were to end. Our analyses reveal how broader life aspirations play a crucial role in shaping return aspirations, and how current and future return aspirations are separate concepts. Current return aspirations were strongly stratified. For economically vulnerable respondents, current return considerations were often related to survival, whereas for respondents from the educated middle class, current return aspirations were part of their broader life aspirations. Aspirations to return after the war's end were largely driven by a wish to realize broader life goals. Future return aspirations often functioned as a mental coping strategy to keep hope for change in the future — including political change — alive. Return abilities favored those with higher socioeconomic status, those who had remained neutral in the conflict and those willing to take high risks. Overall, our analyses illustrate the usefulness of the aspirations-abilities framework, and the important role of life aspirations, in understanding return-migration decisions in a context of protracted displacement.

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Section: Findings: the Role Of Aspirations In Current And Future Retu...contrasting

confidence: 81%

“I Will Return Strong”: The Role of Life Aspirations in Refugees’ Return Aspirations

Müller‐Funk

Fransen

2022

International Migration Review

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“…During the summer, his village pulsates with life although it is deserted for the rest of the year. Vacation time creates an impression of restored prewar multiethnicity (Stefansson 2006) thanks in part to Samir and other members of the Bosnian diaspora.…”

Section: Sustainable Vs Unsustainable Forms Of Returnmentioning

confidence: 99%

After coming home: Forms and meanings of return in Dayton’s Bosnia and Herzegovina

Žíla¹

2019

Glas Etnogr inst

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The Dayton Agreement was meant to end the war, restore the Bosnian state to its prewar multiethnic composition, and facilitate rebuilding coexistence among its constituent nations. The peace treaty stipulated that people who were forced to leave their homes had a right to return home freely. To do so, the most important provisions were contained in Annex 7, which focused on arranging the return of refugees and IDPs. Minority returns became a special tool for measuring success in the peacebuilding process. Since repatriation did not happen in the way the international community anticipated, the fulfillment of Annex 7 became a political priority. Since 1999, international agencies (OHR, UNHCR, and others) have set the return of minorities at the top of their agenda. Although the repatriation process has not officially been concluded, the number of returnees were low after 2006. It is no longer much of a priority for anybody except verbally for political purposes. This study addresses the question of under what circumstances we can talk about a minority return being "successful". Given the complexities of the repatriation process, its dynamics, and the fact that no return could actually end at the moment of formal inhabitation at the prewar address, this article proposes that categories for minority repatriation should not be considered through the binary of "successful" and "unsuccessful" but along a continuum running from "complete" to "incomplete" types of sustainable return and to specific forms of unsustainable ("unsuccessful") return. Based on results obtained from field research in select Bosnian localities between 2010 and 2018, I argue that the term "return" has several facets which impact its sustainability and character.

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“…The repatriation policy was to a large extent based on the assumption that return migration is desirable for all refugees and that re-integration into one’s home country happens naturally and quickly [15]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Return Migration among Elderly, Chronically Ill Bosnian Refugees: Does Health Matter?

Handlos

Olwig

Bygbjerg

et al. 2015

IJERPH

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Elderly migrants constitute a considerable share of global return migration; nevertheless, literature on the health aspects of the return migration among these migrants is still scarce. This study explores the significance of return migration among elderly, chronically ill Bosnian refugees from Denmark and the role of health issues in their decision to return. It is based on semi-structured interviews with 33 elderly, chronically ill Bosnian refugees who have moved back to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 10 elderly, chronically ill Bosnian refugees who have remained in Denmark. The interviews show that physical health, in the sense of the absence of illness and easy access to necessary health-care services and medicines, was not highly prioritized when the decision was made whether or not to return. However, if health is regarded more broadly as involving more than mere physical health and the absence of illness, health did matter. Viewed as physical, social and mental well-being in line with WHO’s definition of health, health was indeed one of the most important factors when the decision to return was made.

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Homes in the Making: Property Restitution, Refugee Return, and Senses of Belonging in a Post‐war Bosnian Town

Cited by 62 publications

References 14 publications

“I Will Return Strong”: The Role of Life Aspirations in Refugees’ Return Aspirations

“I Will Return Strong”: The Role of Life Aspirations in Refugees’ Return Aspirations

After coming home: Forms and meanings of return in Dayton’s Bosnia and Herzegovina

Return Migration among Elderly, Chronically Ill Bosnian Refugees: Does Health Matter?

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