SUMMARYThe article analyses certain aspects of the exceptional migration process unfolding in Europe from the middle of September to the beginning of November, 2015. It focuses on analysis of managing that migration in Croatia through the presentation of the functioning of the reception (and transit) centre at Opatovac. A qualitative ethnographic and anthropological research approach has been applied. The ethnographic perspective offers a complex view of responses to the events, pointing out the paradoxes in refugee reception and transit migration management in Croatia. It is established that there are constant contradictions contained in the nexus of security and humanitarian demands in the migration process management, these largely coming to the fore because of a lack of international co-operation and a firm stance and common policy on the part of the EU. In that way, the EU has contributed to the deepening of the humanitarian migration crisis, but also demonstrated its deep value crisis.
This article proposes that the UNHCR-supported “durable solution” programs for former refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and from Croatia were at odds with the actual exilic experiences of former refugees. It introduce homemaking as an essential aspect of a successful durable solution and proposes supplementing the usual ethno-politicized understandings of home in the specific context with analyses of the process of homemaking at different scales—house (dwelling), community (the wider space of settlement containing natural, cultural, social, and economic aspects) and nation. The article also argues that repatriation and local integration in the country of first asylum—two allegedly distinct and opposite solutions to refugee crises—should be viewed as intertwined processes within a broader transnational context. It is concluded that their combination brought a durable solution to refugee predicaments in the specific case.
The chapter targets a specific population of foreign nationals in the capital city of Zagreb: well educated, highly skilled, young and middle aged immigrants of both sexes, from all over the world, who have been driven to the city by love/partnership. Based on encounters and interviews with such persons, as well as an analysis of foreign immigrants' Facebook pages, it analyses systemic constraints on migrants' agency and entrepreneurship.
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