The "Yugoslav civil religion of brotherhood and unity" (Perica, 2002; Bošković, 2013; Flere, 2007) with the stated goal of designing Yugoslavism as a supraethnic and suprareligious identity (Bošković, 2013), was arguably most ardently practiced in Bosnia and Herzegovina out of all other ex-Yugoslav states. Ironically, this is where its failures were most catastrophic.24 However, it would not be fair to conclude that the returnees, when discussing a longing for Yugoslav ethnic tolerance, are in denial of its ultimate demise. Instead, a more balanced interpretation would be consistent to the fndings of Hofman (2008), who concludes that Yugonostalgia in BiH, at least regarding its "brotherhood and unity" dimension, appears simply in response to the unbearable ethnic tensions of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Returnees are also nostalgic for the economic system of the former Yugoslavia with its main emphasis on social security. Siniša, who recalls the stories told by his parents, discusses the developed social safety net in Yugoslavia and the feeling of economic security it created.

Siniša While we were in Argentina, my parents, and others always used to say that we were Yugoslavs. Nobody talked about Serbs or Croats or something else. Everybody [in Argentina] knew about all of us as Yugoslavs and it was the most normal thing for us to say that we are Yugoslavs. I would say that most people who experienced living in Yugoslavia are nostalgic for those times and for socialism. They used to get their apartment from the state, paid leave and a completely fantastic system. I mean, I cannot speak from experience because I did not live in Yugoslavia. My parents were also emigrants from Yugoslavia, but they always had a strong sense of belonging to the Serb people, the Orthodox Church, and so on. They always looked upon Yugoslavia as something positive. They were born in this state and its economic system. The country was unifed and they could easily travel from one area to the next.

The Yugoslav legal, political and economic systems created an overwhelming sense of security, particularly as compared to the state of these affairs in the current makeup of BiH. However, perhaps most importantly, the overall values of solidarity, ethnic tolerance, contribution to the common good are what brought about a feeling of security. Vedad emphasizes taking pride in aiding community development in Yugoslavia.

Vedad: I wouldn't exactly call this Yugonostalgia, but I remember my childhood and, from the perspective of a child, I remember a different system that took care of everybody, including children and young people. I remember the Youth Labor Action, which promoted completely different values from the ones we seem to have today. In the past, as a young person, you needed

24Drawing upon results of a large-scale quantitative survey conducted by IPSOS and the University of Oslo in 2011, Kolstø (2014) argues that despite its traumatic past, BiH still scores among the highest for Yugonostalgia compared to other ex-Yugoslav states, with affection towards the former state shared by Bosniaks and Serbs alike.

to apply to take part in the Youth Labor Action. If you deserved your place, you would be admitted and allowed to dig and build as a volunteer. Nowadays, the idea would be laughable to any young person. They would say something like: 'what are you talking about? I won't be digging or building for nobody! For free? Are you joking???' Many things have changed about our values and mentality. Young people used to take pride in helping their communities and contributing to the public good.

Hrvoje is nostalgic for the quality of friendships in Yugoslavia and sees an ideological explanation for the difference he perceives in current times.

Hrvoje: I would say that the most valuable aspect of Yugoslavia were the human bonds we used to have, our excellent human relations. I mean, we could say that we had freedom of movement that simply does not exist today. In Yugoslavia you could not talk about whatever you wanted, but you could sleep under any tree or on any bench. At some point during your sleep, somebody might come to wake you up to see how you are doing or to offer you something to eat and drink. This is certainly not the case now. Today, you can say whatever you like, but your freedom of movement is limited. There is no freedom of movement that we used to have. The aspect of human friendships and a safe environment is missing. Perhaps, that was also imposed through the political system, however, I was young at the time and I simply did not think about such things. Yes, I was young at the time. This is also nostalgia for youth. That is also an important point.

As Hofman (2008) introduces and Kolstø (2014) re-asserts, political Yugonostalgia can be viewed as having two distinct strands: ideological and territorial. Territorially, Yugonostalgia is a simple longing for a larger state, where the new states are seen as small or "petty" (Jansen, 2009) with the resulting freedom of movement being restricted, such as pointed out by Hrvoje. Ideologically, Yugonostalgia is a longing for a Titoist version of Marxism as a guiding social philosophy, with the accompanying socialist self-management as an economic system. Although, there are certainly elements of both territorial and ideological Yugonostalgia in views expressed by the returnees, I would also have to agree with Maksimović (2017), who terms this type of Yugonostalgia as "normalostalgia" or a longing for a "normal life" (p. 1071), characterized by socioeconomic security, as well as ethnic tolerance (Palmberger, 2013b).

A noticeable lack of Yugonostalgia is present with some returnees, because of the former state's relations with religious communities and memories of persecution on religious grounds. Gavrilo, who discussed the importance his Orthodox Christian faith has in his daily life, says that he is not nostalgic for Yugoslav times, mainly because of the atheistic or anti-theistic25 aspects of communist ideology.

25See Flere (2007) for details on this distinction in the context of Yugoslav "civil religion."

Gavrilo: I am not nostalgic at all. I'll tell you one thing. If that country had been so well organized, it would not have failed. It was very badly setup, relations between people were very poorly developed. There was so much laziness, red tape, and the greatest tragedy of all–communism, a disaster worse than any wildfre. It set us back at least 40 years, perhaps even 50, it devastated all the people living here.

Author: So, you only see problems with communism?

Gavrilo: Only within communism! This system frstly destroyed all the morals of people. People became disbelievers, atheists, not believing in anything, ready to do anything. If people were true believers, the war probably would have never happened. There was nothing good about it. Absolutely nothing. Trust me.

Author: Not even the ideals of brotherhood and unity?

Gavrilo: Oh, please what are you talking about?! If this brotherhood and unity were real and true, would we have slaughtered each other like animals [during the war]?!

Mehmed, a practicing Muslim, expresses similar views towards Yugoslavia, based on his family stories of persecution.

Looking at Yugoslav history, it can be said that the Communist authorities, particularly after Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform, acted vigilantly to suppress religious expression (Malcolm, 1994). The Yugoslav state had a distinctly anti-theist stance and viewed the major religious traditions (Islam, Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism) as divisive and undermining "brotherhood and unity" (Flere, 2007). However, the question of exactly how free were Yugoslav citizens to practice their various religions is a subject of some controversy. The Yugonostalgics are likely to focus on some semblance of religious freedom granted to practicing religious traditions, particularly in private, while the anti-Yugonostalgics26 tend to overstate the degree of direct and indirect persecution of religious communities. Albeit important, the historical context cannot overshadow the respondents' subjective experience. Gavrilo's and Mehmed's personal stories speak of discrimination on religious grounds, which makes them have no longing for the Yugoslav state.

#### *4.1.13 Patriotic Love*

At frst glance, it can be confusing to examine the notion of "patriotic love" in the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a post-confict and deeply divided society, and the returnees, most of whom are dual and in some cases triple citizens. To clarify the apparent confusion, I have tried to introduce some distinct forms of patriotic love as a result of data analysis: divided or split, unreserved, "hurt," conditional/tempered, as well as viewing patriotism as the founding block of democratic state-building.

In some cases, the returnees' patriotic feelings are divided or split between two or more states. Admir, a dual BiH and U.S. citizen, while considering his primary emotional attachment to lie with the BiH citizenship, also acknowledges some patriotic love for his host state.

Admir: I have spent 10 years in the US, which was a really wonderful period of my life. There, I made so many friends and fell in love with the city of Chicago. I lived in Chicago for 10 years and I miss so many things. I am a big fan of the Chicago Bulls and I have all kinds of other connections with this city. I would say some patriotic love as well. I mean, my primary feelings are towards the citizenship of my birth [BiH citizenship] and if I had to, it would be very diffcult for me to renounce it, to renounce our citizenship.

The case of divided or split patriotism becomes more complicated when it is directed towards a kin-state, such as Serbia or Croatia. While being emotionally indifferent to the BiH citizenship, primarily attached to his home state citizenship of Argentina, Siniša also feels patriotically inclined towards his third, Serbian citizenship.

Siniša: Whenever I go to Serbia, I always have the same experience. For example, when driving through Šumadija, I don't know whether you ever had the chance to visit, but the people there are so hospitable, open and just so cheerful. One can sense a connection with the medieval state, the monasteries and all the cultural heritage. These are certainly highly positive emotions, because, I mean, we are talking about the history of our people. As a Serb, I feel that our roots are there in that medieval heritage, before the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian invasions or any other foreign powers occupying these territories. I feel connected through Serbia's sovereignty.

26See Kolstø (2014) for an explanation of the term "anti-Yugonostalgic", particularly as it applies to Croatia.

I feel connected to Serbia's sovereignty and statehood when visiting all the old monasteries and the cultural heritage which has been preserved.

Within the range of patriotic love, a few of the participants express an unconditional, unreserved patriotism. Gavrilo, an ethnic Serb from Nevesinje, expresses his love for Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly its natural landscape.

Gavrilo: I don't know what to tell you, but I love this country extremely. There are so many things we can't change, but we still need to hope for the best. If we have any intelligence, we will understand that we need to live together. If we are smart we will live like normal people. I have no plans to leave this country. I don't want any of my family members or anybody else to leave either. This is especially true for anybody who loves hiking and mountaineering. Just walk around our mountains and you will see how beautiful our country really is. The only problem is that we do not appreciate it.

Arif, ethnically Bosniak, expresses his love for the country and readiness to defend it in case of renewed confict.

Arif: At any mention of Bosnia and Herzegovina disappearing, I am instantaneously prepared to stand in its defense. I am ready to leave all this (gesturing at the offce and out the window towards the dairy farm) and, if need be, take to guns in its defense. I left for Norway only after fnishing my work here, work which was necessary here. After being released from the camps, I joined the BiH Army and demobilized after the war ended. It is only after serving my duty that I re-united with my family in Norway. I also served my duty, testifying at the Court in the Hague and collecting the documentation on wartime happenings in Kozarac. I spent 6 or 7 years in Norway; started successful companies there and returned to Bosnia again. All this means only one thing—there is no force, other than an act of the Almighty, that could tear the bond between myself and the homeland. I also have an obligation to leave a homeland for my children. Can I wait in Norway for somebody else to do this for my children instead of me? No, I need to make my contribution right here.

Several returnees report their patriotic feelings being hurt in postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina. Regardless of the diffculties imposed on BiH citizens by the current Dayton constitutional setup, Mahir feels it to be his duty to respect and love his home state. He uses a familial analogy to explain his patriotic love for BiH.

Mahir: I think I have a duty to respect and love these things. It's actually more respect that I feel, the way you feel about a grandfather, who wasn't exactly nice towards you. He loved some other grandchildren more than he loved you, but he is still your grandfather and you love and respect him. Still, he is not your favorite person in the world. That would be the best association I could fnd. It comes because of the respect I feel towards my father or my uncle, who died because of the war or were killed. These people used to

believe that the survival of this state is important, that resisting assimilation is important. Simply, this was their vision and I feel it to be disrespectful for the next generation to abandon this vision. Their sacrifce is the reason I can live in a free country now, in my apartment, in my old neighborhood. We need to make our own contribution.

Vedad also uses a familial analogy to discuss the necessity of loving one's country. Similarly to Mahir, he is aware of the diffculties associated with BiH citizenship, but he also focuses on the importance of each BiH citizen taking an active part in improving this situation.

Vedad: The problem is that the struggle of people has been altered into a slide to what is more comfortable. For example, students in the past used to fght for their rights. They were brave, and they took part in protests to secure a better future for their country. Nowadays, young people say things like 'look at how worn out the streets are here, I have to leave his country.' To me, this is surrender, giving up. I choose to take a different path. I want to contribute so that things improve. I am not going to give up on my mother just because she slapped me. She is still my mother. Even if she makes me happy or sad, she is still my mother and I love her.

Due to the frequent abuse of patriotic feelings, the participants are quick to point out that true patriotic love is viewed through action. Senad, an opposition politician, criticizes the local power elites whose representatives consistently call on values of patriotism with only their own interests in mind and not their communities'.

To avoid being labeled either the "naïve patriot" or the "exploitative patriot," the returnees often discuss a conditional or tempered patriotism.

Admir: First of all, I am not too patriotic, as I have a simple goal of living a normal life in this country. I was born here and, of course I have some patriotic feelings. I was so happy when we went to the World Soccer Cup. Our success in sports or music events makes me very happy, but, above all, I am interested in having the complete conditions for a normal life in my country.

Finally, the returnees consistently bring to the fore the importance of an active and engaged citizenry, viewing their contribution as citizens to be the founding block of state and democracy building.

Arif: Let's ask a different question: 'Did Norway as a homeland give to the Norwegian people all of what they have today in 1945 or did the Norwegian people build their country; created an equitable distribution; made laws; destroyed bribery and corruption; developed a society of equal opportunity?' The Norwegian people produced all of this through their voting and constant pressure. They created a fantastic political system and a Constitution, which says that all citizens are equal in front of the law, including the king. Nobody is above the law. The question we have now is whether the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina want to make something similar to Norway? We will probably never have a Norway here, but let's say that we want Bosnia and Herzegovina as an average Western European country, where we could afford social welfare, pension funds and migration policy that would provide an incentive for people to stay here and improve our demographics. Our situation is such that the Muslims are awaiting Allah to do all this work instead of them, while the Catholics and Orthodox are waiting for the Almighty God. Is God responsible for an assignment given to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including you writing this Ph.D. thesis [now monograph]? Can we build a better and more prosperous BiH? What do you think? I think that we certainly can!

The fnal perspective on patriotic love as key to democratic politics echoes the original work connecting citizenship and emotions, George Marcus' *The Sentimental Citizen: Emotion in Democratic Politics* (2002). The main premise of the "citizenship as feeling" idea formulated by Marcus is that citizens are capable of being "good" because they can feel. Patriotic love, with all its faws and imperfections, seems to be the major catalyst in this process.

#### *4.1.14 Pride*

The professional successes of fellow compatriots are the sources of pride for many of the returnees. Admir takes pride in the success of individual BiH citizens, such as the soccer player, Edin Džeko.

Admir: Of course, I am really happy when a local band makes it internationally. Dubioza Kolektiv is an international musical success. They are a wonderful group of musicians for such a small country, where there are no investments made in art and culture. Regardless of their diffculties, they found a path to world fame. I feel proud of their success. Of course, there are other examples from sports, such as Edin Džeko, who used to play in our soccer league and went on to international stardom.  I mean, we have so few positive examples here that their successes need to be talked about. In my opinion, they are very important for all of us.

While taking pride in their success, Senad also laments the fact that these successful people no longer reside in BiH.

Senad: Our social fabric has been destroyed as the best and brightest left this country. We lost our human resources. These people have been replaced with those who I would, without meaning to be a snob, I would describe as second-rate. Professionals from Bosnia and Herzegovina have made it in Europe and all over. One of our people, a talented engineer became the general manager of the Austrian Telecom. This actually happened. Another example is a person who used to work at our Youth radio station. He is now one of the most important marketing experts in North America. We gave all our human resources to foreign corporations. We lost huge numbers of people like that from all parts of our country. Their successes abroad could make all of us proud. We share the same citizenship.

Returnees also fnd pride in the experience of collective suffering. Lejla, who works on trauma release techniques with victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome views survival and perseverance as a source of great pride.

Lejla: For me, what ties me most to Bosnia is certainly not our cuisine of burek and čevapčići. I don't even eat meat. I am a vegetarian and could not care less about these dishes. My most important connection to citizenship is our common struggle and our shared, tragic experience.  We need to be proud of that.

Nusret, a Bosniak returnee to Prijedor in Republika Srpska, views return to a place from which he was once forcibly expelled as the reason for his pride.

Nusret: Pride. I certainly feel proud. This is what gives me added motivation to carry on, regardless of all the problem we encounter daily. I feel proud to be Bosnian, to have gone through all this and to have survived. In spite of everything, we collected ourselves and we continue to live here, to feel equal with everybody else inhabiting this region.

Perspectives offered by Admir, Lejla and Nusret illustrate how pride constitutes the emotional dimension of BiH citizenship through either the examples of individual successes of BiH citizens or the experience of collective survival.

The returnees, particularly in the case of minority return of Bosniaks to Republika Srpska, fnd pride in state symbols and the state, as guarantor of national survival.

Selim: It is normal for the BiH fag, particularly if you see it somewhere abroad, to stir positive emotions. These are highly positive emotions. Pride, pride, because in spite of everything that has happened, Bosnia and Herzegovina survived and it continues to exist. In whatever shape or form, it still exists

within its borders. I can say with pride that I am a Bosnianherzegovinian and that I have a homeland.

Similarly, many of the returnees take pride in civic belonging and being distinct from the three, clearly defned ethnic or religious groups.

Sanela: I am defnitely proud to be a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I belong to this country, as its citizen. This connection is much more important to me than religion or ethnicity. Although, I feel under pressure to align myself with a religious and ethnic group, still my main identifcation is with the state of BiH. My parents raised me to be proud of our country. We never felt ashamed of our home country, of our origin. We always proudly spoke of being citizens of BiH.

As Džankić (2016) emphasizes, supported by fndings of the IPSOS Survey (2011), loyalty to the state of BiH is most pronounced with ethnic Bosniaks, also the only ethnicity to be 'very proud' with their BiH citizenship. On the other hand, the majority of Serbs and Croats either feel 'somewhat proud' or 'not proud at all' as BiH citizens. Responses of Selim and Sanela are also consistent with the IPSOS Survey (2011) results, while not even one returnee who self-identifed as Serb or Croat directly expressed pride in being a BiH citizen.

#### *4.1.15 Defance*

The famous *bosanski inat* (Bosnian defance/spite) has deep historical roots, acting as what Amila Buturović refers to as "a cultural catalyst against liminality," when discussing passages from Meša Selimović's novel *The Death and the Dervish.* Buturović analyzes "spite and defance" as "liminality transformed into a metaphorical struggle for collective identity, not acting as complicit in internal divisions" (Buturović, 2009, p.46) In other words, it is out of spite and defance in Bosnia and Herzegovina that seemingly impossible to sustain notions continue to survive. Amir, whose father was murdered by Bosnian Serb forces during the ethnic cleansing campaigns in Prijedor, returned to BiH, to live in the same family home where he was born and raised as he himself says "out of spite!"

Author: How important do you think is Bosnian defance/spite?

Amir: As you can see, it is always important! It's kind of like the joke. I don't know if you've heard it?

Somebody asked a Muslim from Bosnia, a Bosniak, whether he would want to convert to Christianity in exchange for 10,000 marks?

He said: 'No!'

'How about a million?'

'No', he repeated.

'Not for ten thousand, not for a million?'

'No.'

'So, how would you convert to Christianity?'

'Only out of spite. Out of spite and defance, I would!' the Bosnian man shouted back.

Author and Amir: Laughter! Amir: That is how important our Bosnian defance is for us.

Bosnian defance or spite is pervasive to the extent that it has its own jokes and humor associated with it. This particular joke refers to a stubborn adherence to a particular religious creed, denied only as an act of defance, however, it is certainly not limited only to religion, in general, or to a specifc religious denomination. As Buturović points out, defance is seen as an antidote to liminality, whatever its source might be.

Returning to BiH was an act of defance for many of my study participants. They have returned, despite events from the past. Alija, a Bosniak minority returnee to Republika Srpska discusses defance as key in his decision to return and in his understanding of citizenship.

Alija: You will see when you visit Kozarac that the people of that area have gone through unimaginable horror, but still you will see them defant. In spite of these horrifc experiences, they love Kozarac even more passionately. They are investing in its reconstruction and development. They are rebuilding their destroyed houses and lives. A similar thing is also happening in Prijedor. In some ways, we can conceive of two reactions after tragic events. Either people say 'I will never go there. I never want to recall those events,' or the contrary 'now, I will visit even more. I will show the people who expelled me I am still alive and that this is my city too.' I feel that the second option is what I have chosen to do. I have chosen to say intentionally: 'you see, even after everything that has happened. I am still here. I am still alive and I am a citizen of this country!'

In addition, as Arif points out, defance is completely separate from a desire for revenge. Instead of the destructiveness of revenge, defance plays a crucial role in the pursuit of justice.

Arif: You see, what we have here is the rebuilding of an entire town from the ground up. Kozarac was literally wiped off the face of the Earth during the war and what we have done is to rebuild it with 5000 new houses. We, the people from Kozarac, did this within three to 4 years. A new town was born here–simply out of our defance!

People who were expelled during the 1990s, have made their fortunes abroad and are now returning to show that they remain unvanquished. Abroad, regardless of their success, they are and will always remain refugees, people who were thrown out of their homes, defeated men, those who have accepted the law of force, who has accepted that these horrible crimes have largely gone unpunished, regardless of the efforts of the International Criminal Tribunal [ICTY]. It was impossible to process each and every crime, due to their sheer immensity. Returnees to the Prijedor and Kozarac areas have also aided international justice here, as so many of the war criminals have been processed as a direct result of refugee returns. When we started to return, many of the arrests started to happen.

Are we going to accept that fascism has won in these areas? No, we will not accept this! I am not talking about any kind of revenge. I am not talking about returning so that the killing could go on. This is important to underline. I am only talking about justice and the appropriate punishment for crimes commited.

Arif's perspective on return to Kozarac is consistent with Sebina Sivac-Bryant's *An Ethnography of Contested Return: Re-Making Kozarac*, who writes of the debates between members of the kozarac.ba online community and returnees to Kozarac:

On the emotional level, it had spawned some very interesting and very self-aware debates about victimhood, the struggle to come to terms with the past, and recently (since the International Court of Justice failed to convict Serbia for complicity in genocide) a need to share stories of those who were killed as a way of reclaiming their presence within the community. At the same time, narratives are constructed in such a way as to illustrate, through individual stories, the resilience and strength of communal life despite everything, reaffrming its continuation (Sivac-Bryant, 2016).

Pursuit of justice and *not* revenge, resilience and strength *as opposed to* victimhood, are the building blocks of defance as part of the emotional dimension of BiH citizenship.

Loyalty to BiH citizenship and refusal to renounce it, even when required to obtain a second citizenship is an act of defance. When asked about applying for dual Turkish citizenship, Amir refused, explaining that he would face pressure to renounce his BiH citizenship as there is no bilateral agreement between Turkey and BiH on dual citizenship.

Amir: No, I did not want it out of spite. In order to gain Turkish citizenship I would have to give up my BiH citizenship and I would never do that. I did not want to do this out of defance. Actually, this is the same reason I rejected getting any other second citizenship. I wouldn't even hear of it. My wife is Turkish. We have been married for 19 years and I defnitely have met all the requirements for citizenship. I don't want it–out of defance. I feel defant.

Bilateral agreements on dual citizenship exist only between BiH and Serbia, Croatia and Sweden. However, as was elaborated throughout the study, most of the participants are dual, and in some cases triple citizens, with combinations such Swiss-BiH, US-BiH, Norwegian-BiH or Australian-BiH. The explanation is a tacit recognition by both BiH and the host state that dual citizenship is a reality although bilateral agreements do not exist. Dual citizenship status will not be endangered as long as one of the states does not demand renouncing the second citizenship. In the case of Turkey, the fact that the highly politicized nature of dual citizenship does not allow for the offcial signing of a bilateral agreement between BiH and Turkey, does not preclude Turkish authorities to require applicants to renounce their BiH citizenship as pre-condition for obtaining Turkish citizenship. This is the reason Amir feels defant in retaining his BiH citizenship.

#### *4.1.16 Happiness and Joy*

The returnees derive happiness and joy from contributing and from witnessing progress and the possibility for change. Alija views his contribution as active participation in economic development.

Alija: So, if I were to sum it all up it would be about my job that I love passionately and for which I see a purpose because I work on involving diaspora members in economic development. I have a satisfactory level of income and I have a sense of contributing to my home country. All these factors make me a happy man.

Ervin derives joy from aiding economic development and being an "agent of change," rejecting the possibility of taking a sidelines position.

Ervin: I feel more joy than pride. The joyous part of me confrms each day that change is actually possible. Perhaps I look at all the issues through my individual prism, the prism of an agent of change,27 one who inspires others to change. I really am not in the position of a passive observer, one who attends a soccer game, cheers for our team and says things like: 'Look at us now! Now, we have our own state.'

When discussing the happiness and joy they derived from being BiH citizens, the returnees frequently referred to what they were doing to improve the overall state of affairs in BiH, their status as "agents of change." The return migration literature has devoted considerable attention (for example, Bovenkerk, 1974; King, 1978; Gmelch, 1980; Portes, 1999) to the opportunities and limitation for returnees to act as agents of change. Some authors are hopeful about the returnees catalyzing positive social change in the home state, while others are much more skeptical. Particularly relevant to returnees who derive happiness and joy from their sense of contribution to BiH society is the concept of "vernacularization", introduced by Levitt and Merry (2009) and discussed in Kuschminder (2017). In brief, vernacularization is the process of translating and adapting internationally relevant phenomena to a local context (Kuschminder, 2017) and "vernacularizers take the ideas and practices of one group and present them in terms that another group will understand" (Levitt & Merry, 2009, p. 446). Examples of successful vernacularization in Alija's case is

27Although the interview was conducted in Bosnian, Ervin often interjected English terms into the conversation, such as "agent of change."

facilitating diaspora investment in BiH and Ervin's IT startup hub and co-working space in Sarajevo.

Besides taking an active role in the BiH economy, the returnees see themselves as members of a politically active citizenry, whether their political engagement is conducted through direct party affliation, work with municipal authorities or voting. Senad joined one of BiH leading opposition parties because he "wanted the water supply problem solved" and says that "fnally, I started doing and stopped complaining. This is my source of happiness." Vedad regularly attends meetings in his municipality and feels that he has a voice in local decision- making.

Vedad: But, do you know why is it that I am happy? I am happy because my municipality is fnally starting to care for its citizens. In the past, their only accomplishment was selling a piece of land to some Arab guy, while now they are really talking about the interest of all of us–building schools, sports and cultural facilities. It's easy to sell the land to a foreigner, who will setup his own business and make it impossible for our children to even have their playground here. When I see that the municipality authorities are starting to think of the citizens, of us–this is what makes me happy!

Alma, who takes an active role in educating kindergarten children in the values of "love for one's country" also fnds happiness in her voting preferences.

Alma: Well, what can I say…I always vote for some parties, which I hope could create change at least at the level of our canton. And I am very happy. I am talking about "Our Party." So far, they have held their promises and I have not been disappointed. They are not a very strong party, but they always have my vote. I am happy about it.

Deriving happiness and joy from political participation and performing other citizenship practices, such as voting, counters the view (Pedersen, 2003; Carling et al., 2015) of returnees as often socially alienated upon return. The concept of "vernacularization" (Levitt & Merry, 2009) fnds direct application to the returnees' political engagement. In fact, the model was originally applied to international human rights and women's rights movement and checked against their local adaptation. Senad, Vedad and Alma with experiences from the U.S. and Germany seem to be playing their roles in political vernacularization and deriving happiness from their status as BiH citizens.

#### *4.1.17 Hope*

Hope is an act of desperate defance against monstrous odds. Ivo Andrić, *Bosnian Chronicle*

Elections, with their possibility for positive change, are seen as both a source of hope and hopelessness. Admir is hopeful about the possibility for elections to bring about progress.

Admir: Well, there is always hope. I am an optimist generally in life. I still hope and believe that things will get better here. So, I have this hope every time I vote in elections that something could change.

Marija and Selim, on the other hand, are pessimistic about the prospects brought about by elections.

Marija: Well, yes. I would like the situation to change, but I doubt it can. The people who win elections work only for their own selfsh interests, while hiding behind their nationalities and their religious communities. In reality, they care for nobody except for themselves.

Besides the abuse of ethnonationalist rhetoric, Selim believes that elections are corrupted by how campaigns are fnanced and votes bought.

Selim: I mean I have absolutely no hope from elections, particularly not in these areas where votes are regularly bought through beer and pork roasts. Elections are bought and the person spending the most on a campaign is the one who wins. The winners are not the educated or the capable; they are usually criminals and war profteers. These are people with no vision for how to develop our economy. In such circumstance, my vote literally means nothing.

A major outside factor providing hope is the prospect of BiH joining the EU. Damir hopes that BiH joining the EU will make renewed confict an impossibility.

Damir: I see great hope in BiH joining the EU. I believe that all this talk of secession and referendums will lose their point once we become a member. We will live in a big community with borders erased, including our internal borders. This is my hope. Even the current talk of secession is only rhetoric for personal gain and staying in power, nothing else.

For some returnees, people of different ethnicities continuing to live together is perceived as a source of hope for a better future. Gavrilo fnds hope in everyday activities he pursues as a citizen of BiH, together with people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Gavrilo: Well, other countries had conficts, and they went through similar things as us. Most probably, things will somehow get back to normal and we will all understand that we need to work on building peace and co-existence. Through my mountaineering societies, I am friends with Croats, Serbs, and Muslims [Bosniaks] and we don't talk much of our painful past. This is hopeful to me.

For Arif, the mere act of survival against such diffcult circumstance and the courage necessary for survival is a source of hope.

Arif: And as I pass by Keraterm, each time I walk by, I get these thoughts running through my mind: 'a generation of those close to me and of my friends has been killed in one day, but still somebody, somebody survived. I survived. I am here and I can testify about everything that has happened, about each murder and each scene of torture. Somebody survived to tell the story.' Having hope is important, but having courage is more important. You need to be brave here, more so now than during the wartime camps.

Although hope is not a dominant emotion in the returnees' understanding of BiH "citizenship as feeling," still the glimmers of hope seem to be offered by some possibility for democratically induced change, BiH joining the EU and continued, albeit problematic, ethnic co-existence. Most importantly, hope seems to come from survival "against monstrous odds" (Andrić, 2015).

#### **4.2 Conclusion**

This chapter examines the specifc emotions constituting the emotional dimension of BiH citizenship for the returnees, answering the question of how does it *feel* to be a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The emotions range from rage, anger, frustration to fear, guilt, denial, disgust, shame, disappointment, pity and empathy, to nostalgia and powerlessness. On the more positive side of the emotional spectrum, there are patriotic love, pride, defance, joy, happiness and hope. In interpreting results of qualitative data analysis, I have provided commentary on the historical, political, economic, social, and cultural context of Bosnia's recent past and current realities. In doing so, I have developed the core argument of this chapter: the specifc emotions constituting citizenship are context-dependent, so a thorough understanding of the particular context is key. For my study, context is both the particular case country, but also voluntary or "decided" (Cassarino, 2008) return migration – more broadly understood. There are instances where the returnees' responses are consistent with wider themes in migration research, such as the various dimensions of migrants' guilt (Baldassar, 2001; Baldassar, 2015; Boccagni & Baldassar, 2015), the onset of disappointment upon return (for example, King & Christou, 2009), or the returnees' positioning as vernacularizing agents of social change (Levitt & Merry, 2009; Kuschminder, 2017).

Overwhelmingly, however, the specifc emotions constituting BiH citizenship for the returnees are rooted in Bosnia's recent history and the state's structure engrained in the DPA, a peace agreement which stopped a horrifc war while failing to create the conditions for a long-term and prosperous peace. Some of the main characteristics of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a return migration setting are: the failure to sustainably implement Annex 7 provisions of the Dayton Peace Agreement with the result of de facto legalizing ethnic cleansing and genocide; entrenched ethnic divisions; a bureaucratic structure envisioned by the DPA not conducive to economic growth and development; and the DPA producing signifcant power vacuums within the BiH state structure, thus providing plenty of room for corruption, with the rule of law becoming the exception and the abuse of political power by oligarchic ethnonationalist elites the effective norm. The returnees are people who have voluntarily decided to leave the relative comfort of the lives they managed to build for themselves in a variety of host countries such as Germany, United States, Australia, Austria or Switzerland, so that they could attempt to rebuild their wartorn past and contribute to the rebuilding of their home country. Their response to the various emotions constituting BiH citizenship is to persist in their efforts with determination and courage. While acknowledging the emotions they feel as citizens, they are not deterred. However, it is important to note that their courage and determination is the result of their own agency, while the success of their return is not due to state structure, but *in spite* of the obstacles it presents.

#### **References**

Bovenkerk, F. (1974). *The sociology of return migration: A bibliographic essay*. Martinus Nijhoff.

Dahaya, B. (1973). Pakistanis in Britain, transients or settlers? *Race, 14*(3), 241–277.

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## **Chapter 5 Losing, Creating and Re-creating Home and Belonging**

So far, geography scholars have theorized the emotional dimension of citizenship to be as conceptualized as *home* and *belonging*, while relevant scholarly literature treats both concepts as complex and multi-dimensional. This chapter aims to contribute to this literature by exploring the returnees' understanding of home and belonging. The life experience of my study participants makes this exploration particularly interesting, as its simplifed version includes at least three phases: the initial loss of home in BiH, followed by an effort at homemaking in the host state, and ending with an attempt to re-create their home upon return. Along these three stages, the returnees experience various types of belonging, exclusion from belonging both at home and abroad, as well as in-betweenness and multiple belonging. Throughout the process of loss, building and re-building of home and the associated types of belonging, the returnees experience specifc emotions, which create links to the overarching concept of emotional citizenship. Expressly, this chapter answers the research questions: What do 'home' and 'belonging' mean to the returnees? What do they associate these concepts with? Which specifc emotions do they convey?

The frst section of the chapter looks at the returnees' conceptualization of home within family relations, various time periods, and particular places. The possibility of "feeling at home" on the entire territory of the BiH state is investigated in-depth. How study participants understand belonging is explored next. Because of its pronounced ethnic and religious plurality, Bosnia and Herzegovina presents a unique learning opportunity to develop a more nuanced and substantiated conceptual understanding of belonging. The returnees' diversity of belonging due to life abroad adds further possibilities for enhanced interpretation of belonging. Relational, ethnic, religious, linguistic, landscape, and economic types of belonging are identifed and analyzed. Particular attention is given to civic belonging and its importance for citizenship. Parallel to "feeling at home" on the entire territory of the BiH state, civic belonging is challenged from various directions. The following section examines how the process of boundary-making often excludes the returnees from belonging both at home and abroad, leaving them in a "*neither* here *nor* there" position. In contrast, the position of "*both* here *and*

there" signifes an "in-betweenness," where the returnees exhibit multiple belonging and the transnational space becomes an arena for political, economic, cultural and other types of action. The fnal section of the chapter presents a summary of empirical results.

#### **5.1 Home as Family, Time, and Place**

#### *5.1.1 Family as Home*

The "family as home" at times refers to the nuclear family only, i.e. spouse and children for married respondents. For example, Admir used to feel as if his parents and brother provided him with the feeling of "being at home". However, ever since he got married, his wife and son give this meaning to his life.

It is important to note that the spouse and children refer to the "family as home" for happily married participants. Adnan compares how his "family as home" has changed from the time he was growing up in his parents' house, to his frst marriage, which ended in divorce, to his currently harmonious family life with his wife and their children.

couple of nights, I don't feel at home. I don't feel that their house is my home any longer, because my wife and children are not there. The rituals, our rituals are not there. My bed is not there and after two or 3 days I want to go back home, back to my home. The house I described is the place where I was born and where I grew up, but my family is not there and I no longer feel at home. The same thing happens to my wife when she visits her family in Istanbul. I guess this is only normal.

As was seen from the stories of Admir and Adnan, the "family as home" seems to depend on the marital status of the person, but it also exists with people who are neither married nor with children.

For single people, "family as home" refers to being close to their parents, as well as closeness to extended family members. For Nervan, his feeling of being at home is connected to the place where his parents live.

In some cases, the extended family, including aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins is taken to embody the concept of "family as home". Being surrounded by his extended family members gives Vedad a feeling of comfort and security, of "being at home."

In Vedad's case, the extended family provides the social context he associates with home, one in which he grew up and one which he wants for his children to grow up in. His and others' conceptualization of "family as home" points to a distinction made within the wider literature on the migration-home nexus between home as a "product" and home as a "process."

Its popular usage [*of home*] seems to involve its being used *in lieu of house* or *dwelling*, possibly because it is "warmer". This creates one of the major problems with its usage, since it is also used to describe certain *mental states*. There is thus confation between its use to refer to a *product* (the thing) and a *process* (a mental state or positive evaluation). These need to be distinguished clearly, and the current confusion is another major general problem. The *mental states* seem to involve an *affective core*, feelings of *security, control, being at ease and relaxed, are related to ownership and to family, kinship, comfort, friendship, laughter, and other positive attributes; it involves personalization, owned objects, and taking possession* (Rapoport, 1995, p. 29).

In the sense described above, "family as home" can be understood as a process or a mental state. The "mental state" could imply a happy marital life with a spouse and children, one's parents or extended family recreating the childhood experience for the next generation. Particularly relevant for the returnees, who have moved from one place to the next is the role family life plays in the continuing process of homemaking (Boccagni, 2017) and "emplacement of home" (Allen, 2008). Ultimately, as the stories of Admir and Adnan show and as the migration-home literature also confrms (Boccagni, 2017), the understanding of "family as home" leads to the "portability" (p. 12) of home itself. In Adnan's words, "family as home" can be summarized as: "I could build that place [*home*] with my family anywhere in the world."

Although the phenomenological approach to home (Antonsich, 2010) almost universally attributes security as its defning dimension, home here does not simply refer to the "domestic(ated) material space" (Antonsich, 2010, p. 646), often criticized by feminist scholars for re-enforcing patriarchal power relations. Home as a "gendered concept" was revealed when the returnees discussed feeling happy and free at home. For Marija, "being at home" is about joy and happiness in the daily routine of child rearing and family life. However, she emphasizes the repetitive aspects of her home life. As the wife and mother, she said that most of the household chores are her responsibility, so she also feels some of the burden of home life.

Author: What does home feel like to you?

Marija: I am at home. I take the children to daycare and school. Then I go to the offce and I pick up the kids after work. I prepare lunch and rest a bit afterwards. After that, we do homework together. That is what home feels like to me. It is a routine. It's a comfortable, safe routine, but still, it is a routine, repeating itself day after day. Well, it is peaceful (laughter). Peace, calmness, happiness, and joy with the children.

Gavrilo, a divorcee discusses feeling free as "being at home." He associates this feeling to his house and the more general "outside".

Author: What does home feel like to you?

Gavrilo: Joy, freedom, safety.

Author: Where do you get the sense of freedom?

Gavrilo: Anywhere. In my house and outside. If something happens to me on the road, I know that there won't be any problems, because people here help each other out.

Joy, happiness and freedom are the feelings both Marija and Gavrilo associate with being at home, however, they have different attitudes towards them. As the homemaker, Marija places her emphasis on repetition and the routine aspects of home, while Gavrilo's focus is on freedom, echoing the analysis presented in Henderson (2011) where she points to Simone de Beauvoir's distinction between immanence vs. transcendence and Hannah Arendt's labor vs. work. As de Beauvoir would predict, the home represents an anchor for the man who is left to pursue transcendent activities, while the woman is left to the immanent tasks of home keeping, including taking care of the children.

#### *5.1.2 Temporal Understanding of Home—Home in Time*

Nostalgia is associated with conceptualizing home in the past. For Amir, a Bosniak minority returnee to Prijedor, the familiar scents from his childhood make him feel at home.

Amir: Hmmm….all the emotions come rushing through. This is where I went to elementary school and on the way to school there was a cookie factory, now owned by Kraš. The smell of cookies early in the morning on the way to school tells me that this is where I belong. Of course, cookies can be found anywhere around the world, but this smell brings me back to my childhood, brings me back home.

I asked Sanela how is it she feels more at home in Banja Luka than in Sarajevo when she was forcefully expelled from Banja Luka and when Banja Luka has transformed in the meantime. She answered by discussing her feelings of being at home in the Banja Luka of her childhood.

Sanela: I don't know what to tell you. I don't want to go in, because I feel that my childhood is locked inside of me. I have no desire to enter that apartment anymore, because I don't feel it to be mine anymore. That is not my home anymore. When I go inside there, the old furniture will not be there and it won't look like my apartment. There will be nothing but walls and those walls do not make that place my home. I feel that way [at home] in the past. In the past.

Author: What feelings do you have when you think of your home in the past?

Sanela: I defnitely feel nostalgic for it all. I had the most beautiful childhood, actually perfect. That is where I feel at home–in Banja Luka of my childhood. Right now, in the present, I have no home, so it almost doesn't matter to me where is that I am located. Since Banja Luka, the way it was in 1987 is gone for good, I could be in Zimbabwe.

Due to Bosnia's painful recent history, some returnees, such as Vlado, express a direct desire to consciously break with the past.

Vlado: When I came back to my family's village estate I threw out about 99% of the things that were lying around–the ancient plow or other belongings of my ancestors. I thought about restoring all these objects, some with historical value, but, instead, I piled them up and set them of fre. This is old energy and carries a certain spirit.  I need to live life and not build an ethnographic museum. These types of things are why wars are fought, because people value objects more than they value each other. All of that is just frustrating to me. All I could do is bow down to my ancestors' heritage with gratitude, thanking them for all they have left behind, but also frmly deciding that I need to live my life independently.

As discussed by scholars from different disciplines, home has a strong temporal dimension. For example, for Howes and Hammett (2016), "home is also constructed in relation to temporality through the grounding of these emotional connections to the past, present and future in social and material, visual and audible everyday practices" (p. 22). The idealized past is often seen as a peaceful harbor, a place of nostalgic escape from present hardships, often in reference to childhood, to which there is no actual return (Lam & Yeoh, 2004). The "temporal home", as discussed by Taylor (2009), refers to the refugee's place in time as much as in space. Stories of either Amir's "idealized past", Vlado's conscious desire to create a break with the past and Sanela's "temporal home," which seems independent from the spatial dimension of home, which "could be in Zimbabwe" seem to illustrate these theoretical points. In fact, all three stories point to a displacement in both time and space.

[M]igration involves not only a spatial dislocation, but also a temporal dislocation: the "past" becomes associated with a home that it is impossible to inhabit, and be inhabited by, in the present. The question then of being at home or leaving home is always a question of memory, of the discontinuity between past and present. (Ahmed, 1999, p. 343)

Perhaps the awareness of the dual time-space displacement, leads some returnees to fght the tendency of recreating home in the past and relying on memory to do so.

As a result, some returnees actively reject any notions of feeling at home in the past, whether it is to wax nostalgic for it or to denounce it. Instead, they favor feeling at home which is frmly anchored in the here and now. Adnan feels at home with his wife and children only in their current station in life, where they are together.

Adnan: No, no, no, I do not like that at all. We never talk about the past. This might be even too much. I don't like looking at old photographs, watching my old soccer matches, even scoring important goals. For example, I never even watched my wedding video. These kinds of things simply do not make me happy.

Emir is aware of problems with feeling at home in the past, by witnessing the behavior patterns of his friends. Instead, he fnds his home in the present.

Conceptualizing home in the past comes with a set of problems both on a personal and a collective level. Adnan, who had a successful international career as a soccer player does not want to "live in the past" because he feels that this will take away from his present career and family life. Emir feels his friends keep reliving the war, thus making it impossible to create a more peaceful present and future.

#### *5.1.3 Spatial Understanding of Home—Home as Place*

Those returnees who view their physical house as their home are also prone to exclude other types of home. Vlado discusses the house he built on his family estate as making him "feel at home." While discussing his physical house as home, he excludes other parts of Trebinje or BiH as making him feel at home.

Vlado: I only feel at home on my estate. Wherever I go, I come back eagerly, because in my little heaven I feel that my heart is in its place and I feel at ease with myself. There is no distraction. I feel safe, centered, in my right place. There are no dilemmas because everything is familiar. Interestingly, I do not have this feeling in the house where I was born. I only have it at the village estate, in the house that I built myself. In front of this house there is a salvia bush dispersing its fragrance into the air, giving the place a smell, one I have known since I was a child.

Mahir spent most of his adult life moving from one country to the next, one rented apartment to the next. For him, even his own couch would start the feeling of being at home. Owning an apartment in BiH is what completed the feeling.

Mahir: For a very long time, I used to say that I would feel at home when I buy my frst couch–a couch, a TV set, and a glass bowl in which to throw the house keys. So, that was the feeling I was seeking–this glass bowl for the keys and my last name written on the front door of the apartment.

Arif connects feeling at home in his physical house to the experience of being once forced to leave that house.

Arif: Well, this is very simple. If you have been expelled from your home for so many years and when you fnally come back, you realize you are here again and that you have an enormous feeling of security. If we are talking about feeling at home, then this relates to my house, to the garden around my house.

Mostar, Anastasija's native city, has transformed because of the war. Consequently, she does not feel at home anywhere else in the city or the country, except for her prewar family apartment.

Anastasija: You see, the only remaining thing is this apartment, and that is why I invited you over here. What I mean to say is that this is the only place where I feel like I belong, from the entire country. It is only when I park my car down here (gesturing towards the parking lot in front of the building); when I pass through the corridor between the two buildings and I walk into my apartment that I feel at home. Only here.

The physical house is often viewed as the exclusive home, and in some cases, the returnees feel at home in other very specifc and relatively small places. As substituting for the lack of security provided by the state of BiH. Emir, feels at home in his village home in the mountain of Romanija, outside of Sarajevo.

When analyzing the data and surveying the relevant scholarly literature, the feeling of "being at home" has been found to be primarily characterized by security. Such as with conceptualizing home as only the physical house or another relatively small place, where one feels safe.

Similarly, if the city or town is expressed as the place where the returnees feel at home other cities or towns in BiH are excluded. Amir was expelled as a non-Serb from Prijedor together with his family. He found refuge in Turkey and returned to Prijedor with his Turkish wife and their two children. Although he is a minority returnee in the RS, he prefers this status to moving to another city where he would be part of the ethnic majority.

Author: You would not consider moving to Sarajevo or somewhere else?

Amir: I don't know. I had a job offer in Sarajevo, but I politely thanked the people. I mean I was very thankful, but I simply don't feel like I belong in Sarajevo. Of course, Sarajevo is the capital of my country, but it is also a big city and the reason I came back was to be here, close to nature.

Although Sanela, who was born and raised in Banja Luka now lives in Sarajevo, she still feels most at home in her native Banja Luka, a city from which she was expelled as a non-Serb in 1992.

Sanela: Actually, I feel much more at home in Banja Luka than anywhere else. Although, even there…. Although, the feeling I have there is strange, very strange. I mean, I spent 10 days or close to 2 weeks in Banja Luka. I guess that this was the longest I had stayed in Banja Luka in recent times. Usually, I go there for 2 or 3 days. I was born and raised in Banja Luka. I lived there for 11 years. Let's say I am walking down a street and I think to myself, my aunt used to live there. That is where my grandmother had her hair done. Over there is where I went to school. Now, when I go there and tell people about how things used to be in Banja Luka it could easily seem that I have gone mad. I mean, I have no proof that any of these things actually existed, that these people lived here and how it really used to be.

Author: As if it never happened?

Sanela: Yes! And I now look at this school and remember the playground where I used to play as a child, but it all seems as part of a dream. It is no longer there.

In addition to security, Boccagni (2017) adds *familiarity* to be the second "basic attribute" (p. 7) of home:

(2) Familiarity: both in an emotional sense, pointing to intimacy and comfort, and in a cognitive one, standing for orientation in space, stability, routine, continuity or even permanence–all implicit expectations that are not easy to reconcile with increasingly mobile life courses. The frequent connections between home and notions such as household, kinship, or neighborhood are telling of the centrality of this factor (p. 7)

For both Sanela and Amir, their native cities and towns (Banja Luka and Prijedor, respectively) are home to them, not necessarily because they feel safer in the place from which they were once forcefully expelled, but because these *places* are more *familiar* to them. Banja Luka and Prijedor are more familiar to them than is Sarajevo, although they are part of the ethnic majority in Sarajevo and, because of ethnic cleansing campaigns of the 1992–95 war, are now ethnic minorities in Republika Srpska. This point is further illustrated when examining the dividing lines drawn by internal displacement.

Not feeling at home in cities and towns of BiH, outside one's own birthplace is also the result of internal displacement. Bakir is Badema's father, who returned from Germany to Srebrenica together with his wife and fve daughters. He is critical of fellow Bosniaks who prefer living in Bosniak-majority areas of the Federation of BiH (such as Vogošća or Tuzla) instead of returning to their native Srebrenica.

Bakir is critical of Bosniak women who have not returned to Srebrenica to the point of accusing them of "continuing with Mladić's genocide," as their failure to return to Republika Srpska has solidifed results of ethnic cleansing campaigns against non-Serbs. Interestingly, he uses the same standard to judge the Serbs, who have voluntarily (see Armakolas, 2007 for further clarifcation) left Sarajevo and moved to Republika Srpska so that they could be part of an ethnic majority. To a large extent, the fndings of Armakolas (2007) echo what Bakir seems to say about the "displaced sense of place" (p. 89) of Sarajevan Serbs who now live in rural parts of Republika Srpska.

On the other hand, the constant invocation by Sarajevan Serbs of their former urban identity can be seen as an attempt to create a boundary between themselves and the local population. Among young people this is usually expressed through complaints about the backwardness of local people, their lack of style, or their funny preferences when it comes to entertainment. Socializing, going out and dating mostly with 'their own' people is one consequence of this. A hesitant acceptance or denial of locality, of local culture and people, maintains a dis-placed sense of place. (Armakolas, 2007, p. 89)

1 "Mladić" refers to General Ratko Mladić, Chief of General Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and a convicted war criminal, found guilty by the ICTY for committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

2 "these women"refers to Bosniak women who, after surviving the genocide in Srebrenica, continued to live in Bosniak-majority areas in the FBiH.

Although the case of Bosniak returnees to Republika Srpska and Bosnian Serb returnees to the Federation of BiH cannot be directly compared because of the radically different nature of their initial departure, what can be observed is an interplay of both security and familiarity, as the defning characteristics of home.

Regardless of whether the returnee is part of the ethnic majority, the native town provides a feeling of home. As a Croat from Jajce, Marija did not feel at home in the Croat-dominated parts of Mostar, which she perceives as overly nationalistic.

Marija feels at home in her native town of Jajce, which is more ethnically mixed, while she distinctly did not feel at home as part of an ethnic majority, while she was a student in Mostar. A description of events leading up to the Croatian National Congress of 2000 provided by Grandits (2007) could serve as contextual background to Marija's experiences:

With the help of the media under its control, the HDZ tried to discredit non-HDZ Croat candidates by revealing 'true' details of their pasts, such as their failure to observe the Catholic faith or to join the HVO during the war, their readiness to cooperate with non-Croat parties, or their own fnancial misdeeds. Epithets such as 'communists', 'traitors' and 'Judases' were systematically sprayed on opposition campaign posters (Grandits, 2007, p. 117).

Both Marija's story and Grandits (2007) analysis of ethnic loyalty and political factionalism among BiH Croats go beyond the often simplifying and reductive thinking based on ethnic allegiances alone.

To complicate the "Bosnian mosaic" (Bougarel et al., 2007) besides the various dimensions of inter-ethnic confict, the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina also had an episode of Bosniak intra-ethnic fghting. As Ramet explains:

Clashes between Serbs and non-Serbs in Bosnia actually began in August 1991, but it was not until the following April that the Serbian assault on Bosnia-Herzegovina began in earnest. By October, if not before, the Croatian army was engaging in collaborative behavior with Serbian forces…The war eventually became a four sided confict, with Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats, Bosnian forces loyal to the elected government of Alija Izetbegović and forces loyal to Fikret Abdić, self-declared head of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, variously fghting or in collaboration with each other (Ramet, 2002, p. 573).

Fikret Abdić's declaration of "autonomy" of an area of North Western Bosnia centered in the town of Velika Kladuša resulted in bitter clashes between his supporters and the Fifth Corpus of the BiH Army, loyal to the elected government of Alija Izetbegović in Sarajevo. Elmir grew up in Velika Kladuša; lived and worked in Germany; returned to BiH and now divides his time between Sarajevo and Velika Kladuša. I asked him whether he feels more at home in Sarajevo or his birthplace.

Although Elmir was initially hesitant to discuss Velika Kladuša as his "home" with full awareness of the painful history of the "Autonomy Movement," he later retreated to "feeling best in Kladuša," as the place of greatest familiarity, if for no other reason, the immutable fact of his ancestors being buried there.

The entire region of the former Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists, is referred to as home in almost the same number of occasions as the current state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. When I asked Hrvoje about why he considers all the former Yugoslavia to make him feel at home, he emphasized the similarities between people of various ethnicities living in the region.

Hrvoje: Well, I think this is all about our genetic makeup. Yes, I guess there is nothing else but our genetics. Although we might think we are so different in the Balkans and even though some countries, like Slovenia and Croatia, might consider themselves to be outside of the Balkans, still, this geographic area is one whole–a natural bridge. All the former Yugoslavia is included and as much as we consider ourselves to differ from each other, in fact, we are all very similar.

Similarly, Gavrilo sees more similarities between people of diverse ethnicities in the region, contrasting them to people he encountered while living abroad.

Gavrilo: It is about all the peoples inhabiting the Balkans. I will just give you one example.  Every third car will stop to pick you up.  You could stand there for an entire week and nobody would bother to stop (laughter).

While similarities between the various ethnicities of the former Yugoslavia certainly exist, those same similarities are also present in the current state of BiH, so turning to whether the state of BiH is felt as home by different ethnicities and the challenges this notion presents seems to be more relevant.

#### *5.1.4 State Territory as Place: Is it Possible to "Feel at Home" on the Entire BiH State Territory?*

The idea of "feeling at home" on the entire territory of a deeply divided state with an intensely traumatic recent history comes with several different challenges for all BiH citizens, including the returnees. In fact, only a very few of the returnees talked without reservation about feeling at home in all different parts Bosnia and Herzegovina, while most problematized the notion from different angles. Damir is a Bosniak from Sanski Most and one of a few returnees who say that they feel equally at home in different parts of BiH.

Damir: This means that I do not have a feeling that somebody would give me dirty looks or would make insulting remarks, regardless of where I might be, regardless of any ethnic divisions: I could be in Pale or Mostar, I don't experience any problems. I simply do not care about any of the ethnic barriers.

Author: Do you feel "at home", having coffee in Foča,3 for example?

Damir: Yes, I feel 'rahat4 ' (laughter).

Gavrilo, a Serb from Nevesinje, also feels at home in different parts of BiH, regardless of the various ethnic divisions. I asked him whether he feels "at home" in BiH and he answered positively and enthusiastically!

Gavrilo: Yes! I feel that way all over the country, throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The general challenge of feeling "at home" in public spaces, and particularly a relatively large space, such as the territory of a state, poses the question of how can "a special relationship with place" (Boccagni, 2017, p. 89) be established? As Boccagni (2017) suggests: "The political, here, lies in the unequally distributed potential to attach a sense of *security*, familiarity and control to outer living environments such as streets, parks, shops, "hangout" and recreational facilities and so forth; and possibly, in the most radical sense, to claim a place as one's own home" (p. 89). Damir and Gavrilo are the two rare cases of returnees who say they feel equally "at home" in different parts of BiH, while the more typical response is that in BiH it is close to impossible to attach security, familiarity and control to areas of the country which have been "cleansed" of one's ethnic kin with constant reminders of recent history, such as open and public celebrations of convicted war criminals.5

3Foča is a town in Eastern Bosnia, now located in Republika Srpska. The town was almost entirely "ethnically cleansed" from its Bosniak inhabitants during the 1992–95 war.

4Damir seems to have purposively used the Turkish-origin word "rahat," meaning "peaceful and comfortable" to talk about his imagined experience of having coffee in Foča.

5For most recent examples, see Delauney, G. (2016, March 24). Mixed reaction to Radovan Karadzic verdict in Bosnia. *BBC News*. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/worldeurope-35897367 discussing billboards erected throughout Republika Srpska with pictures of Radovan Karadžić entitled "Serbian Hero"in reaction to the ICTY verdict declaring him guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and convicting him to lifetime imprisonment.

The main reason it is diffcult for citizens of different ethnicities to "feel at home" on the entire territory of BiH comes as a direct result of the war. Alma lives in Vrace, a Sarajevo neighborhood close to the inter-entity border with Republika Srpska. Although the area she describes is practically in her neighborhood, it has changed because of ethnic cleansing to where she, as a non-Serb, does not feel at home while walking around.

Alma: I mean, I could not say that I feel at home in all parts of BiH. I defnitely could not say that. I look at Bosnia and Herzegovina like scattered pieces of a colorful kaleidoscope. I love the individual pieces, but I cannot really think of it as one whole country. Well, since we are divided in two…I cross the hill to go to East Sarajevo, where I have my dear friends and I walk down a street called Serbian Heroes Street (Ulica srpskih heroja), or another one called St. Vitus Day6 Street (Vidovdanska ulica).

Author: How do you feel as you walk down these streets?

Alma: Very strange, because after all aren't we in Bosnia and Herzegovina? The names of these streets are more Serb-sounding than the names of streets in Belgrade.

Alma's experience of "not feeling at home" while walking around public spaces in East Sarajevo7 has a signifcant background in public policies of exclusion (Palmberger, 2012) practiced in various parts of BiH, at various intensities. Palmberger (2012) focuses on the renaming of public spaces such as city streets, parks, squares, airports and in entire towns in the Croat-dominated West Mostar, but fnds similar tendencies throughout BiH. The goal of postwar "national screening" (Palmberger, 2012, p. 3) of street names is twofold:

First it eradicates the old name and thereby aims to "de-commemorate" the event/person/ place that was previously remembered and in a second step, by renaming, it establishes a new commemorative space (Azaryahu, 1997). In the case of West Mostar, the decommemoration concerns the socialist past while the new commemorative space is dedicated to Croat national history.

Palmberger's analysis concerns specifcally the Croat-dominated West Mostar, but her conclusions analogously extend to Serb-dominated or Bosniak-dominated areas

6St. Vitus Day is a Serbian religious and national holiday and an important date in Serbian national history.

7East Sarajevo comprises suburban municipalities of Sarajevo (East Ilidža, East New Sarajevo, East Old Town, RS section of Pale, RS section of Sokolac and Trnovo), now located in Republika Srpska. East Sarajevo is the offcial capital of Republika Srpska, although its administrative center is in Banja Luka. East Sarajevo was previously called Serb Sarajevo (*Srpsko Sarajevo*), but the name was changed due to a decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As Feldman (2005) observes, the Constitutional Court of BiH had found that the National Assembly of Republika Srpska had "renamed various cities and towns in the territory of RS in that presented them as having an exclusively Serb identity, violated the constitutional rights of the other two constituent peoples of BiH to collective equality and the right of all citizens to be free of discrimination, taken together with the right of refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes of origin and the right of all citizens to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of the state" (p. 649).

of BiH. She concludes that the renaming of streets in West Mostar to make them more Croat-sounding is "a policy of exclusion that unequivocally signals the non-Croat population that this part of the city is no longer their home" (p. 24).

Feeling at home in all of BiH is also challenging as an indirect result of the war. Undoubtedly, the majority Bosniak areas of BiH have also changed with some of these changes happening directly after the war8 and some happening because of globalization and increasing global migratory fows. Siniša, a Serb from Trebinje was made not to feel at home in Sarajevo, while he was visiting with his wife.

Author: Do you feel that way [feel "at home"] in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Siniša: Well, I can say that I do, more or less, although I don't really feel at home in some places in the country. Aaam, I think I can understand that other people might have similar feelings in different environments. Perhaps if somebody is surrounded by Serb people in the center of Serbdom and even though we Serbs are a hospitable people and always welcoming, still I could understand that somebody who is not Serb could feel a bit strange. We congregate around our churches and have our customs. I felt a bit like that the other day in Sarajevo. I could even show you a photo I took.

We were sitting in a café and at one moment we noticed that everybody around us was Arab or Middle Eastern. All the women were wearing black burkas. Although I respect everybody this scene was completely foreign to me. I mean if we were in an Arab country, I would expect it, but not here [in Sarajevo]. I did not feel threatened or scared, but I just felt totally foreign. I felt like a foreigner, a foreigner.

Author: You did not feel at home?

Siniša: At that moment I did not. My wife and I took a selfe in that café so that we could remember the scene with covered women everywhere around us. It looked like we were in the Emirates. I don't mean to denigrate anybody, it's just that I felt so strange in that situation.

Siniša was describing his experience of visiting the Sarajevo City Center, the biggest shopping mall in BiH, fnanced by Saudi investors with an approximate cost of EURO 57 million.9 This building in downtown Sarajevo is part of ongoing real estate investment projects throughout BiH, such as the controversial "Buroj Ozone"

8See Robinson et al. (2001) on the work of an administrative commission appointed by the Sarajevo Canton government directly after the war to rename streets and other public spaces in Sarajevo. Also, see Robinson and Pobrić (2006) for an analysis of the protests in Sarajevo at the SDA proposal to change the name of Sarajevo's main street from Marshall Tito to Alija Izetbegović street. Due to these city-wide demonstrations and a decision of the OHR, the main street in Sarajevo is still called Marshall Tito's street (*Ulica Maršala Tita*).

9 von der Brelie, H. (2018, April 27). Foreign infuence taking over Bosnia and Herzegovina? *Euronews*. Retrieved from https://www.euronews.com/2018/04/26/insiders-foreign-infuencetaking-over-bosnia-and-herzegovina

mountain resort, funded by investors from Saudia Arabia and other Gulf States.10 In an interview11 for a Sarajevo-based news portal, Professor Esad Duraković, a renowned scholar of Arabic studies at the University of Sarajevo, expressed concern, criticizing the BiH authorities' encouragement of such investment projects as they could "hurt the delicate religious balance in Bosnia." His greatest concern was regarding the possibility for additional fueling of Bosnian Serb ambitions for secession as "they will not want to live in 'Muslimstan.'" (Depo.ba, 2016) In Boccagni's (2017) theoretical construct of home as being determined by security, familiarity and control, the case of Arab real estate purchases in BiH are primarily endangering the elements of familiarity and control. The investment projects are bringing with them cultural, social and religious practices, which are almost equally unfamiliar to either Bosniaks, Croats or Serbs, while the local population, be they Serb, Croat, or Bosniak does not feel that they control the process. Ultimately, the "hurt delicate religious balance," could lead to a *security* threat.

Closely connected to feeling at home in all of BiH are the contrasting perceptions returnees have of BiH as a state, ranging from an impassioned opinion characterizing the BiH state as a national home to a disengaged stance relativizing its importance. When I asked Arif about the continued statehood of BiH, he felt strongly and directly connected it to his own physical existence and the national survival of the Bosniak people.

Arif: What would have happened if the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina did not survive as a state during the war? What would have happened to all the Bosnian and Herzegovinian people? Some would be buried in mass grave sites, while others would be scattered all around the world. Within a 100 years they would all assimilate and cease to exist as a people.

While some participants view the continued statehood of BiH to be a matter of their own physical existence, others are much more nonchalant. Lejla, also a Bosniak and a yoga teacher, is emotionally indifferent towards the state of BiH and does not view it as her home. Instead, she chooses India, as her "spiritual home".

Lejla: As far as considering the state as my home, I have no such feelings for Bosnia and Herzegovina. I need to be honest about this. Actually, I do have some similar feelings for India, which I consider to be my spiritual home.

Relating the concept of home to the homeland, nation, and national identity has been studied widely (see MacPherson, 2004; Barrington et al., 2003). For MacPherson (2004) home is the "cornerstone of national identity" (p. 92) and Barrington et al. (2003) underline the importance of territoriality, understood as

10For details see: Sito-Sucic, D. (2016, August 21). Gulf tourism frenzy in Bosnia delights business, polarizes locals. *Reuters*. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bosnia-arabsinvestment/gulf-tourism-frenzy-in-bosnia-delights-business-polarizes-locals-idUSKCN10W08L

11See Depo.ba. (2016, August 11). *Esad Duraković: Arab settlements in BiH are part of a project endangering the state's survival*. Retrieved from https://novi.ba/clanak/86224/esad-durakovicnaseljavanje-arapa-u-bih-je-projekat-koji-ugrozava-opstanak-drzave

home and homeland, for the development of national identity. Arif's views might be theorized within an established and strong relationship between home, homeland and national identity. On the other hand, Lejla's view could be placed within a general criticism of confating the concepts of home, nation, homeland and fnally the state, as the confation leads to the production of the "neurotic citizen" (Isin, 2004) whose stable home is placed in service of the homeland and "homeland security." To a large extent, the second view is consistent with criticism of conceptualizing the state as home and as "domopolitics" (Walters, 2004).

#### **5.2 Disentangling Belonging**

#### *5.2.1 Relational Belonging and Neighborliness*

Relational belonging often supersedes ethnic belonging among the returnees. Selim, a Bosniak returnee to Banja Luka fnds a greater sense of belonging with his prewar neighbors, other Serb residents of Banja Luka, than with members of his own ethnicity from other parts of BiH.

Selim: I felt wonderful when I came back. I could not believe how nicely everybody treated me. Of course, this was true for people who were born and raised in Banja Luka. The butchers who committed all the war crimes were not from this city. They came from outside. They were outsiders.

Author: When you came back, could you recognize anybody from wartime?

Selim: No! No! I could not recognize one Serb who did some evil to me. Not even one. Although, you need to realize the horrors that Banja Luka went through. But, if you look at the Serbs, the local Serbs had terrible problems from those Serbs who came here from Knin. They had terrible problems.

Author: What kind of problems?

Selim: All kinds of problems. They have completely different mentalities. For example, guests of all different nationalities come to my restaurant, but the Knin Serbs and the local Serbs simply cannot stand each other. There is so much animosity between them.

Author: Do Knin Serbs live here?

Selim: Sure. They are around here too. The Serbs who grew up with me and who went to school with me tell me about the problems they have had with them. They have no common ground. Their mentalities are completely different, while the mentalities of the Bosniak from Banja Luka and the Serbs from Banja Luka are much closer together. The same is true for me. I will always fnd ways to talk to a Serb from Banja Luka easier than to a Bosniak from Sarajevo.

Building and fostering relational belonging is essential to the returnees' sense of wellbeing. Nusret, a Bosniak returnee to Prijedor, relies on his neighbors Serbs and Bosniaks in Prijedor for support and assistance, not looking to authorities in Sarajevo for protection.

Nusret: We created a local community for ourselves here. That is what we did and believe me, my neighbor, who takes care of just two cows and feeds his family in that way is more important to me than the president of the country. Believe me that this is how it is.

Mahir compares his wellbeing in Sarajevo, where he found relational belonging among his friends, to his relative social isolation abroad.

Mahir: Yesterday, I was going to a movie screening at the Sarajevo Film Festival with friends from America, Israel, France, Croatia, literally from all over….from Switzerland. There were seven or eight of us together and we were walking through the city together. While walking from the National Theater to the Hotel "Europe", I said hello to 15 or 16 people. That could never, ever have happen to me in either Brussels or Budapest. I felt wonderful. I felt like I was a part of something.

There exist a number of scholarly works (see for example Sorabji, 2008; Helms, 2010; Henig, 2012) examining relational belonging or neighborliness (*komšiluk*) in BiH and giving it centrality in formulating explanations of social relations—past and present. In *How Generations Remember: Conficting Histories and Shared Memories in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Monika Palmberger presents a succinct understanding of relational belonging in BiH (Palmberger, 2016):

A central discourse about people's coexistence (*suživot*) is the concept of *komšiluk* (neighbourliness). If people speak about komšiluk when narrating the past, they are usually referring to the good pre-war neighbourliness. Even if Sorabji (2008) rightly reminds us that the concept of komšiluk cannot be reduced to cross-ethno-national relations, in discourses about the past it is usually referred to in this meaning. Komšiluk is then a way to express what was and what no longer is, and to emphasise today's corrupt relations between Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. Pre-war komšiluk is narrated as the art of being neighbourly regardless of national affliation (although the Roma are usually excluded in this discourse), meaning neighbours who help each other out (for example, during illness) but who also celebrate festivities together and share daily practices, such as drinking coffee with one another (see Helms, 2010; Stefansson, 2010).

Although, as Palmberger (2016) explains, the concept of neighbourliness is much more associated with discourses of BiH's pre-war past, the stories of Selim, Nusret and Mahir seem to suggest that some remnant of the good *komšiluk* is also a part of the BiH present.

#### *5.2.2 Ethnic Belonging: Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, and "Others"*

Although ethnic belonging is declared among all three ethnic groups, it is more pronounced with the Serbs and Croats than with the Bosniak. Although Vlado rejected declaring himself as part of any ethnic group within the demographic information section of the interview, also asking me to categorize him as a "nomad" and an "extraterrestrial", soon within the in-depth part our conversation, he openly discussed his relation with his ethnic group, the Serbs.

Hrvoje, a Bosnian Croat, discusses his ethnic belonging as a dual citizen of Croatia and BiH.

Hrvoje: You see, whenever I am abroad, I never declare myself as a Croat or a citizen of Croatia, regardless of the fact that I travel with my Croatian passport and that all my business dealings are related to the Croatian passport. However, my Croatian passport includes my address in Sarajevo and states Sarajevo as my city of birth. What this means is that I have not given up anything and I do not want to give up on anything, because this place [Bosnia and Herzegovina] is mine too. This is the place where I was born and where I live. Also, within our family we always thought of ourselves as Croat. It has always been like that with us.

Although a majority of the participants were in some way associated with Islam as a religion and some self-identify as Bosniak, not even one provided any sort of elaboration of his or her Bosniak ethnic belonging. Instead of the returnees' discussion of Bosniak ethnic belonging, see for example Helms (2013) for a succinct explanation of differences between the terms Bosnian, Bosniak (also spelled as Bosniac) and Muslim.

#### *5.2.3 Religious Belonging: Monotheistic Traditions with Fluidity and Change*

Although the returnees acknowledge the diffculties of developing strong civic belonging in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many of them insist on its importance and contrast it to religious and ethnic belonging. Both Alija and Nervan are most closely associated with the Bosnian Muslims in terms of religious belonging and the Bosniak in ethnic terms, but they both express their preference for civic belonging.

As was discussed previously, a number of returnees expressed their civic belonging, however, several points need to be emphasized. First, the returnees expressing Bosnian-Herzegovinian civic belonging are mostly in some way associated either with the Bosniak ethnicity or with Muslim religious belonging, which is consistent with claims made by Helms (2013). Second, civic belonging is always contrasted to ethnic and religious belonging.

Religious belonging in some cases takes precedence over ethnic belonging. From a religious perspective, Bakir rejects the ethnic categorization because he feels it severs him off from other Muslims. Religious belonging is most important to him, so he rejects the ethnic category of Bosniak.

Bakir: BiH citizenship is important to me as a religious person. I am Muslim, a Bosnian Muslim. I am not Bosniak.

Salih favors religious belonging over ethnic categorization because he feels that this division would strengthen civic belonging in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this respect, emphasis would be placed on a shared civic BiH belonging, with three distinct religions.

Salih: Why are there Serbs and Croats in this country? They did not used to exist here. This was a country inhabited by three religions: Orthodox, Catholic, and Muslim.

12The term Alija uses is "*narod*," which is rather diffcult to translate directly into English. To a large extent, I share Palmberger's ambivalence (see Palmberger, 2012; Palmberger, 2016) when translating *narod* as either people or nation, since the term is used to describe group identities, alternatively: 'nation' or 'national identity,' as well as 'ethnicity' or 'ethnic identity'.

In contrasting Bakir's and Salih's views another aspect of the ethnic-religious-civic triad is revealed. For Bakir, his religious belonging (Muslim) takes precedence over ethnic belonging (Bosniak), as ethnic belonging is not encouraged by the universality of Islam as a faith. For Salih, the most important type of belonging is civic (Bosnian and Herzegovian), followed by religious belonging (Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox) with disdain towards ethnic belonging (Bosniak, Croat and Serb) as ethnic allegiances weaken BiH as a state.

The differences between Muslim religious, Bosniak ethnic, and BiH civic belonging are most visible in relation to Turkey, as a host state. Both Amir and Nervan consider themselves to be BiH citizens frst, thus rejecting ethnic categorization. Also, both Amir and Nervan declare Islam to be their religion. Amir, who considers himself a moderate Muslim felt a sense of religious belonging while he lived in Turkey.

Amir: I feel as a foreigner anywhere outside BiH. This is a simple fact. However, while I was in Turkey, I did not feel different in terms of my religion. I would sometimes go to Friday prayers and this was acceptable behavior in Turkey. If I were in some Western country, I would probably be labeled an Islamic terrorist or something like that. In Turkey I did not feel any of that.

Nervan problematizes both the Bosniak ethnic belonging and the tendencies to Islamize it in Turkey.

Nervan: OK, this was supposed to be an association of Bosnian students and it was later translated to Turkish as Bosniak students, *Genc Bosnaklar Dernegi (GBD).*13 So, it was not translated as Bosnalilar, but instead as Bosnaklar. For example, why did they have Bayram celebrations? I mean, how could you have a Bayram celebration and expect Croats or Serbs to attend? Also, how could you put together the Bosniak who pray fve times a day and those who don't care at all about religion? Personally, I would come to a Bayram celebration and I would not drink, although normally I drink alcohol. I came to one such celebration organized by GBD and I was shocked to see that men were sitting separate from women! That was never the case in Bosnia. We never used to segregate males and females in that way. This was horrible, just horrible.

Due to the Ottoman historical legacy in the Balkans, the most nuanced perspectives on both being Muslim as a religious belonging and on being Bosniak as an ethnic belonging are probably offered by returnees from Turkey. In providing explanations on how the Ottoman historical legacy has been interpreted in Balkan national historiographies, Schad (2015) turns to the analysis presented by Fikret Adanır, who concludes that the post WWII historiographies of the Ottoman Balkans are dominated by the "national view on history" (Schad, 2015, p. 9), according to which the

13*Genc Bosnaklar Dernegi* is an association of Bosniak-origin students studying at universities in Turkey.

"Ottoman past is generally perceived as a dark chapter, as the "Turkish yoke", responsible for the Balkans' backwardness and underdevelopment" (p. 9). As a result, the popular perception of Turkishness in the Balkans becomes fueled by the "notion of the Turk and Islam as the threatening Other" (Jezernik, 2010 as cited in Schad, 2015, p. 9). Obviously, such stereotypical images of Turks, Turkishness, Islam and the Ottoman legacy have the most signifcant ramifcations for the Bosniak in BiH, as the notions Bosniak, Bosnian and Muslim, within Serbian nationalist mythology is often simply confated as "Turk," (see Boose, 2002). Thus, I would argue that the returnees from Turkey who identify as either Bosniak, Bosnian or Muslim had a unique opportunity of rediscovery of both how the generalized national Balkan historiographies have formed their views of their own ethnic, civic or religious belonging, and how these stereotypical notions are contrasted to their lived experience of study, life and work in the present-day Turkish Republic.

Levels of religiosity among returnees of all three major religious denominations in BiH vary from practicing and devout to culturally observant to non-observant. For some returnees, the general level of religiosity is too low in BiH, while others believe that the secular system is under-threat because of an ever-increasing infuence of religion. Both Mehmed and Sanela are Muslim, with varying degrees of religiosity. Mehmed feels like he does not belong to the overly secular establishment in BiH.

Author: You also feel that way in BiH?

Mehmed: Yes, in BiH. There are lots of people in BiH who do not practice the religion. For example, there are some people who observe the Friday prayers, but many of them do not. The same is true for fasting during Ramadan. I always need to ask my boss, who is not a practicing Muslim, for permission to attend Friday prayers. I mean, this is diffcult for me. My brother, he lives in Qatar and there, Friday is not a working day.

Sanela, albeit nominally Muslim, does not consider religion to be a part of her life and disagrees with the role of religion, namely Islam, in BiH public life.

Sanela: When I frst came I remember being shocked by how religious people are here. I do not remember it being that way before the war. I left BiH when I was 11 years old, but still I was mature enough to remember…When I frst came back this was a huge shock to me. I felt like I did not belong because everywhere I turn I would see religious practice: in politics, in the media and in each aspect of daily life. It makes me feel like I do not belong. This country is going in the wrong direction, where religion has become so public, too much of a public issue. Religion should be something private!

To situate the debate on secularism in BiH, it is important to note that religious belonging is set against a historical legacy of communism, offcially discouraging religious practice. Gavrilo, an Orthodox Christian, who considers his faith to be the most important part of his life, is resentful of the communist legacy.

Gavrilo: Nothing makes me happier than seeing a person practicing his or her religion, regardless which religion. This person upholds moral norms and understands the difference between good and evil. This person will not harm me, because no religion propagates evil-doing. The greatest evil was in this atheism, communism! That was the greatest of all evils. The people one needs to fear the most are those who do not believe in anything.

Hrvoje a Catholic Christian presents a different view of the communist legacy in relation to religious belonging. He believes that Yugoslav communism allowed ample space for religious practice, while the current emphasis on religious freedom in actuality promotes the politicization of religious belonging.

Hrvoje: I always proudly say that, ethnically, we are Croats and that our religion is Catholicism and all the rest of it. I mean, my father was a member of the Communist Party and I was also a member of the Communist Party, but my mother used to go to church every Sunday. There was no problem with that. In the past, only true believers used to go to church or the mosque, but nowadays, they go to win political favors. All of this modern church and mosque going is just hypocrisy. I don't go and I will not go, because I cannot stand the surrounding hypocrites. I cannot stand their hypocrisy.

Finally, to conclude the discussion on differing levels of religiosity among the returnees, it can be observed that because of either infuences at home or abroad, religious belonging among the returnees is fuid and changing, between different religions and within one religion. After spending a considerable number of years in

a religiously monolithic environment in Serbia and Montenegro, Anastasija, an Orthodox Christian, discovered that her sense of religious belonging lies in the mixing of religious traditions, as in her native Mostar.

Anastasija: I remember it was summer, hot, windows were wide open and after a day spent with my friends, family, neighbors, I was lying on my bed summing up all the events of the day. All of sudden, the sound of the ezan, the hoca calling to prayer! That was the sound of belonging for me, the sound of my city. My building is right next to the mosque and for me this was the sound of familiarity. The hocas were not screaming at 100 dB as they do now. When I heard that ezan, I thought to myself–this is where I was born and raised. I lived here.

When Amir left BiH for Turkey, he was a practicing Muslim, however, his attitude towards the role of Islam in his life changed considerably after returning from Turkey.

Amir's experience of a decreased level of religiosity after living in Turkey could seem counter-intuitive, however it does not come as a surprise to a reader informed on how the Ottoman legacy has been portrayed within national Balkan historiographies and the stark difference of actual life in the Turkish Republic.

#### *5.2.4 Linguistic Belonging: Do We Speak a Common Language?*

Linguistic belonging is essential to the returnees and has been one of the main features of their life abroad. Alija discusses the importance of using the Bosnian language at home with his family members, while living in Holland.

Alija: Yes! We expressed our ethnic belonging even while we lived in Holland. At home we always used our language. Our parents insisted on this point, mainly because they did not want us to forget and they wanted us to keep our sense of belonging. My sister and I continued to speak our language to each other.

Adnan, whose wife is Turkish, values the importance of keeping both Turkish and Bosnian alive in their home. His wife also speaks Bosnian, and they used to speak Bosnian at home while they lived in Istanbul. Now that he has returned with his family to BiH, they speak Turkish at home so that the children could retain their bilingualism.

Adnan: Aaah, I don't have such prejudices about language use at home. At home we mainly use Turkish. I speak to my wife in Turkish because I don't want to forget the language and also for the children to keep it up, too. By living here [in Bosnia], the children use Bosnian all the time. I consider it an advantage that they are bilingual. Now, I usually speak to the children in Bosnian. I speak to my wife in Turkish. They speak Turkish between each other and they speak Bosnian and English with their friends.

Linguistic belonging is among the most important sub-categories under the general umbrella of cultural belonging (Buonfno & Thomson, 2007), as it can instill a communal sense between people, who "not only merely understand what you say but also what you *mean*" (Ignatieff, 1994, p. 7, emphasis added). This is true for the returnees, such as Alija and Adnan, particularly while they were living in the host state. During the time they lived in the host state, the common language, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian14 was an important anchor of belonging, which felt as an "element of intimacy" (hooks, 2009, p. 24 as cited in Antonsich, 2010, p. 648). However, as Antonsich (2010) asserts, aside from providing a safe feeling inherent in placebelongingness, language can and is often used in the politics of belonging to separate "us" from "them". This certainly is how language is used in BiH.

Although linguistic belonging is essential to the returnees, even naming the language(s) of BiH is problematic.  He is ambivalent about naming the "mother tongue".

Naming the common language either Bosnian, Serbian or Croatian and how the language is used in all offcial correspondence is a highly politicized issue with an assortment of consequences from the somewhat comical, but costly "translations" of identical texts (see Pisker, 2018) to the more severe examples, such as practices

14According to the *Declaration on the Common Language*, Bosnian, Croatia, Montenegrin and Serbian are a common language with four different names, but without signifcant linguistic differences to distinguish them as separate languages. The basis of the *Declaration* was *Language and Nationalism*, the scholarly work of the Croatian linguist Snježana Kordić, as well as four academic conferences held during 2016 in Split, Sarajevo, Belgrade and Podgorica. Since May 2017, linguists, journalists, academics and thousands of citizens across the former Yugoslavia signed the Declaration (Ilić, 2017). The full text of the *Declaration on the Common Language* can be retrieved from http://jezicinacionalizmi.com/deklaracija/

of direct segregation in education. The most extreme example of using language as the politics of belonging to separate "us" from "them" (Antonsich, 2010) in BiH comes as "two schools under one roof." This phenomenon refers to schools in several ethnically mixed Bosniak-Croat towns and cities in FBiH where students of both ethnicities attend the same school, but are ethnically segregated in classes using different languages (Bosnian and Croatian) and different educational curricula. The phenomenon has been characterized as the "most visible example of discrimination in education" by a recently published OSCE report, used to "justify practices that enforce the segregation of students based on ethno-national affliation" (BiH Report of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur as cited in OSCE, 2018, p. 5). Similar types of linguistic-based discrimination are also practiced in Republika Srpska. Amir, a non-Serb minority returnee to Prijedor, discusses the political signifcance of labeling the Bosnian language in schools of Republika Srpska.

Amir does not identify as Bosniak (rejecting ethnic belonging), although he is Muslim (accepting religious belonging). His preferred self-identifcation is the civic belonging of Bosnian-Herzegovinian and he insists on calling his native language Bosnian, however, the RS authorities do not recognize the Bosnian language in offcial education. Instead, the term "language of the Bosniak people" is used in transcripts. The explanation given by Serb authorities in the RS for the disputed name of the language is the "perfdious attempt by ethnic Bosniaks to impose their language as the dominant one in Bosnia" (Pisker, 2018).

#### *5.2.5 Landscape Belonging—An Emotional Attachment to the Natural Environment*

Regardless of ethnic background, the returnees discussed their emotional attachment to the natural environment of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Siniša discussed his love for the general geographical terrain of the Balkan region.

Siniša: When I look around myself, I can just say how much I love these mountains, these rivers, forests, and the entire environment. I feel a great sense of belonging to this geography.

15 "Mr. Mile" refers to Milorad Dodik, the current President of Republika Srpska.

Bakir is more specifc in his elaboration of toponyms in his native Srebrenica and the surrounding hills.

Bakir: Srebrenica has many frst and last names. Each tiny spot around Srebrenica has its own name. If you wish, I could list some of them. For example, there is Black trash, Eye water, White water, Živko's hill, Gamber's place, Lamiz's hill….Gamber and Lamiz, these are Bogomil names. There is Golden water, Jovo's hill…There is also Slaughter stream, yes that is its exact name! It is also sometimes called Slaughtered stream. There is a legend of how a man was slaughtered at the top of the stream, which is how it was named. Even the land registry lists it under this name— Slaughtered stream.

For Amir, the natural environment is part of his family history, flled with memories of times spent together with family members.

Amir: Everything here reminds me of my history: the fruit trees I planted with my father before the war. There is a cherry tree over there and an apple tree in the other corner. Our house was destroyed during the war, but at least the trees remained. My father and I cut these trees together, we pruned them and took care of them.

Landscape belonging is often expressed as a preference of country living compared to city life and as attachment to land. Badema explains her belonging to the natural environment of Srebrenica through her love for the landscape.

For Gavrilo, the thought of somebody else tilling his land in Nevesinje was unbearable to the extent of motivating his return to BiH.

Gavrilo: I don't know. I will tell you of a dream I had, better say a nightmare. I woke up in anguish, covered in sweat as I dreamt that somebody else was tilling my land. That was an incredible feeling. I woke up in terror. I stood out of bed and went for a walk outside, just to calm myself down. It was horrendous how I felt. This happened while I was still in Italy. Memories of working the land together with my grandfather fooded my psyche followed by the smell of earth in springtime. That is when I decided: 'I can't go on like this. I am going back.'

I found striking parallels between the stories of Gavrilo, Badema, Siniša, Bakir and Amir, who discussed their sense of belonging to the landscape of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the narratives of home of exiled Cypriots in the work of Taylor (2009). Throughout data analysis regarding home and belonging care was taken to treat these two concepts separately, to maximize explanatory power and increase analytical rigor. Here, Taylor (2009) discusses the natural environment of Cyprus as "home," while Gavrilo's, Badema's, Siniša's, Bakir's and Amir's refections are conceptualized as "landscape belonging." To sort out any possible confusion between the two perspectives and create a basis for comparison, *emotional attachment to the natural environment* is stressed as the common denominator in both cases. As Taylor (2009) notes,

In the Cypriot context, home is not just seen as the house but also the felds, orchards, farmland, and cemetery where ancestors are buried (Zetter, 1998: 309). Originating largely in rural communities, Cypriots have a relationship to the material home, which goes beyond the economic value of crops and rather determines the colour, taste and smell of home. The close relationship with the land brought about by working on it, being surrounded by it and being sustained by its produce means that material aspects of home feature strongly in Cypriot refugee narratives (p. 16).

Taylor (2009) is also clear in distinguishing between fnding home and safety in materiality beyond the physical house, which I refer to here as landscape belonging and its *misuse* expressed in ethno-nationalist discourses equating "soil" and "nation."

#### *5.2.6 Economic Belonging—Having a Stake in the Domestic Economy*

Preferring domestically produced goods over imports is a channel for the returnees to show economic belonging. Senad from Sarajevo actively participates in the "*Buy Domestic*" campaigns making a point of transcending ethnic boundaries by favoring a product from Banja Luka over a foreign-produced good.

Author: How do you justify it being an economic decision?

Senad: If you want to make long-term gains, which would be visible through higher standards of production and stronger local production, you need to make an investment. Perhaps we will pay a slightly higher price for similar quality, but we will invest in those long-term gains. Also, it is a question of belonging.

Draško from Derventa discusses the same subject from a slightly different angle. He also believes that buying domestically produced goods stimulates the economy, but, interestingly, he frst turns to a good produced in Banja Luka and secondly gives an example from Sarajevo.

Economic belonging is also expressed in the returnees' willingness and conscientiousness as taxpayers. When I asked Mahir about how he feels when paying his taxes, he was enthusiastic and discussed tax payments in terms of civic duty.

Mahir: I feel fne about it. I feel fne paying taxes. Any time I have coffee in a café, I ask for the receipt, just to make sure that taxes are paid. I am one of those people who would rather have the waiter spit in their drink than allow him to sell the drink paying no taxes on it. So, I always ask for the receipt. Any time I spend, let's say 80 KM on a night out, I think to myself 'this is great, at least some 10–12 KM went to the state budget.

After leaving a successful career in Switzerland, Husein started manufacturing shirts in Maglaj. His business plan was set by conditions particular to his native town. His economic decisions were based on and constrained by what he could do in Maglaj. The decision to start his own business was determined by what was feasible in this place.

Husein: At that time, I was in a dilemma of what I could do? What could be the frst step I could take to help the local population, my friends, my local community and to fnd my happiness in doing so? My conclusion was that, unfortunately, the least proftable, cheapest branch of the textile industry, in prior existence in the area of Doboj, Maglaj, Tešanj and Žepče, would still be the best feld for me to start my business.

Whether it is making consumer choices based on factors other than the price/quality ratio, starting a business adapted to the needs of the local economy, or tax payments that refect one's sense of civic duty, economic embeddedness is recognized within the literature as important in order "to make a person feel that s/he *has a stake* in the future of the place where s/he lives" (Jayaweera and Choudhury 2008, 107; Sporton and Valentine 2007, 12–13 as cited in Antonsich, 2010, p. 648, emphasis added).

#### *5.2.7 Civic Belonging: Can Citizenship Be the Main Expression of an Individual's Identity in BiH?*

Although returnees often discuss their civic belonging and talk about themselves primarily as citizens of BiH, their civic belonging is defned mostly *in relation* to their own ethnic belonging. Anastasija discusses being a Bosnian and Herzegovinian, but also points out that ethnically she is a Serb.

Anastasija: The young man who came to us from the Census Bureau was shocked when we declared ourselves as Bosnian and Herzegovinian, because he knew we were Serbs. Let's say 10 years ago, I actually believed that this change towards a civic option could actually happen, but now…For example, when the BiH soccer team plays against any other country and particularly when they play against Serbia, nobody here believes me I cheer for BiH. Nobody would believe me, that I, as a Serb, support the team of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Similarly, Gavrilo expresses his civic belonging to BiH, but quickly moves to his ethnic belonging of being a Serb.

In the demographic part of the interview, Marija, a dual citizen of BiH and Croatia, self-identifed as a Bosnian Croat. She championed her civic, BiH, belonging in the in-depth part of our conversation.

Marija: As for the question of ethnic belonging, unlike many others, I consider myself frst and foremost a citizen of BiH. I am Bosnian, because I was born here.

As the perspectives of Anastasija, Gavrilo and Marija show, civic belonging also exists among returnees, who ethnically align themselves with either the Serbs or Croats, however, civic belonging is almost always expressed *in relation* to their ethnic belonging. Keeping in mind the description of Bosnian-Herzegovinian provided in Helms (2013), Anastasija's, Gavrilo's and Marija's BiH civic

belonging falls either into the category of "geographic area," "affliation to a multiethnic polity, support for the existence of the state, non- or anti-nationalist orientation" (p. 35).

Civic belonging is also defned in relation to the ethnic belonging of others. Sanela declares herself as a Bosnian and Herzegovinian, and is frustrated with the nationalism of others, whether Bosniak, Croat, or Serb.

As was already discussed, civic belonging is noticeably more pronounced with returnees, who might reject Bosniak ethnic categorization, but have some, even just cultural identifcation with Islam. Sanela's perspective on civic belonging includes a frustration with nationalism and a strong pro-BiH state attitude.

The returnees who self-identify primarily as Bosnian and Herzegovinian, thus rejecting ethnic categories discussed the importance of building and developing civic belonging, however, many others questioned its sustainability. Siniša is doubtful about the development of a strong sense of civic belonging in BiH.

Siniša: I mean ordinary people, such as myself, my friends, business associates, and others, we simply don't make these kinds of distinctions. We don't make these [ethnic] distinctions between people, but when you watch the news or read the newspapers, although I try to stay away from all of that as much as possible, still you can notice that there really is no realistic togetherness in this country. I guess all ethnic groups in BiH have strong roots within their own traditions.

Alma, who works with children, tries to instill a sense of civic belonging in her kindergarten's educational activities discussed the challenges of singing the national anthem with the children, as it, due to political disagreements, does not have any lyrics. Instead, Alma teaches a commercial song, popular in the former Yugoslavia, called "My Country.16"

Alma: In the kindergarten, we work so hard with the children on this point. That is why I told you that we sang "My country" with them. We also went to the National Museum to see the tombstones (stećak). Recently, there was an exhibit by Nasiha Kapidžić-Hadžić and the girls were fascinated by her poetry. We had a gentleman from the National Archives visit us to explain to the children how newspapers were made 100 years ago. We also teach the children about our folklore, folkloric traditions of all ethnicities.

In her efforts as a kindergarten educator, Alma is trying to facilitate what Kolstø (2006) calls "learning national identity." As he explains:

Like any other identity, national identity has to be learnt. Important instruments in any learning process are various kinds of audiovisual aids, and so also in the school of national identity construction. That is why national symbols fags, coats of arms, national anthems play such a crucial role in nation building and nation-maintenance. (p. 676)

According to Kolstø (2006) learning national identity is systematically conducted in states around the world, however, two examples stand apart as "particularly explicit strategies for patriotism-training by means of national symbols" (p. 676). The frst such example comes from a statement published by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party in 1996 entitled 'Teach the General Public and Especially the Young to Love the National Flag. A second example he gives is the National Anthem' Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, conducted in schools throughout the U.S. every morning during the entire school year. Viewed from this perspective, how can Alma's efforts at "teaching national identity" succeed when all she has at her disposal as "audiovisual aids" (Kolstø, 2006, p. 676) are a national anthem with no lyrics, a fag with no endogenous signifcance, or a commercial song originally written for a country that no longer exists?

16The song "My Country" is a patriotic song written and performed in the mid 1970s, with lyrics discussing the love one feels for one's country and its natural beauties. The lyrics are neutral in the sense that there is no direct mention of the name of *the* country, so in that sense it could be repurposed. Originally, it was devoted to the Yugoslav guest workers (gastarbaiter) leaving Yugoslavia as labor migrants. The song was performed by the *Ambassadors*, a popular Sarajevo-based band. It was also one of Josip Broz Tito's favorite songs, often performed at offcial state ceremonies in Yugoslavia.

#### **5.3 Outsiders Here and Outsiders There: Boundary Making and the Politics of Belonging**

With the returnees, the process of boundary-making, focused on creating lines of separation between an "us" and a "them" (Crowley, 1999; Yuval-Davis, 2006), runs parallel in both the host and home states. To construct clear dividing lines between place-belongingness and the politics of belonging expressed through processes of boundary-making is to view the former as stemming from the individual internally, while the latter as placed upon the individual externally. Mas Giralt (2015) effectively summarizes the difference, where place-belongingness relates to "personal emotions of feeling in place" (p. 4) and the politics of belonging provide answers to whether society, formally or informally, perceives the person as "being in place" (p. 4). The common requirements of belonging formulated by the politics of belonging are different at home from those abroad, but these requirements exist in both spaces and my study participants are often left outside of the "us" category both at home and abroad. As data analysis reveals, the returnees are often left feeling as "outsiders here and outsiders there" along differently set boundaries, but nevertheless outside.

#### *5.3.1 Boundary Making at Home*

The dominant boundary the returnees feel in BiH is the boundary of ethnicity, however, also noticeable are intra-ethnic boundaries, either based on a legacy of intraethnic confict or on regional differences. When discussing ethnic boundaries, participants in my study, like many other citizens of BiH often kept referring back to ethnic relations within Yugoslavia. For Elvis, ethnic boundaries in Yugoslav Prijedor were simply non-existent, while they are heavily present within the current situation.

Elvis: Yes, yes. I discovered this in Prijedor. I'll repeat it here, Prijedor is the city of my birth, where I was raised and where people, my fellow citizens, used to know me and my family. What happens to me now when walking down a street, out of the thousand people I encounter, perhaps I'll recognize four or fve familiar faces. It seems as the rest of the population landed here from space. You just feel like an outsider. You go to the police station, the municipality, social security offce, the bank, or any other institution and you don't know anybody working there. Prijedor is a small town, and in the past, everybody knew each other. Now, this is not the case. How can somebody from Bosansko Grahovo, who came to live here after the war, understand our way of life, what we had before the war? He can't! The only thing this person sees is your ethnicity and nothing else. Your frst and last name.

Other participants, like Hrvoje, although nostalgic for much less obvious ethnic boundaries in the former Yugoslavia, acknowledge their implicit existence.

Hrvoje: Although, even in our previous system, the education facilities knew about this issue. It was not public, but still some distinctions were made. If you go back in time and look at, for example, how elementary school functions were allotted, you will see who was the class president…who was the minute taker and who was the class hygienist. You will notice a pattern across classes and see that there are three different groups. The students did not know about this, but the school administrators took this into account and you could see that the Croats, Muslims, Roma or some other groups had to be represented. Again, I would like to emphasize that this was not done publicly, as it is in our current system. That is a major difference.

Elvis, a Bosniak citizen of prewar Prijedor, feels othered and excluded from belonging to the Serb-dominated postwar Prijedor, while a Serb from the rural area of Bosansko Grahovo is included. Elvis is nostalgic for the Yugoslav times of "brotherhood and unity" when ethnic boundaries did not seem to exist, while Hrvoje is more skeptical of the Yugoslav past. Elmir was born and raised in Velika Kladuša, the center of Fikret Abdić's "Autonomy Movement" and the site of major intra-Bosniak confict between the forces loyal to Abdić and those allied with Alija Izetbegović, headquartered in Sarajevo during the 1992–95 war. Elmir now lives with his wife and children in Sarajevo, while the rest of his family remained in Velika Kladuša. I asked him about his sense of belonging to either Sarajevo or Velika Kladuša.

Author: You said that you have many friends in Velika Kladuša.

Elmir: Yes!

Author: Are their opinions divided regarding autonomy?

Elmir: Well, what can we say about that? Twenty years have passed and these topics have faded for most people.  No, no, this is not a problem anymore. It used to be, up until some 5 or 6 years ago. Not anymore. This is in the past. I mean if somebody lost a close family member or friend during the confict, of course they feel rage and resentment towards the current political setup. But, this is true for all groups throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. We have no alternative but to live together. The economy connects all of us.

Regional differences also produce intra-ethnic boundaries. Marija, a Croat from Jajce in the Bosnian part of BiH, did not feel the existence of intra-ethnic boundaries while she lived in Germany, but felt them in Mostar among other Croats in BiH.

Ethnic boundaries in BiH are also strongly felt by the returnees. As can be expected, ethnic boundaries have, as Bougarel et al. (2007) contend, become "more pervasive and rigid after war and ethnic cleansing" (p. 20). However, in examining the full complexities of BiH society, it is necessary to move "beyond ethnicity" (Bougarel et al., 2007).

Depending on the circumstances, war related categories can undermine, override, reinforce, or complicate ethno-national identifcations, even rendering them all but irrelevant (Bougarel et al., 2007, p. 21)

The intra-ethnic boundaries based on memory of intra-ethnic confict and regional differences are both examples that "complicate ethno-national identifcations," while the boundaries set by internal displacement not only serve as additional illustrations of intra-ethnic divisions but also as deepening the "long-standing confict between the urban, marked by 'culture' and 'Europeanness', and the rural associated with 'non-culture' and 'backwardness' (Bougarel et al., 2007, p. 22)

One of the strongest boundaries for the returnees is the boundary set by internal displacement. Going back to the time he and his family were forcefully expelled from their home in Foča, together with other non-Serb residents, Admir has felt the boundary of displacement, whether at home or abroad.