Former Child Refugees and Belonging

This book is based on a qualitative study of immigrants´ collective identifications and the ways in which belonging and othering are expressed in their narrative discourse.

The main material comes from in-depth interviews with former child refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, residing in Norway. The individuals’ representations of belonging are examined in light of the violent conflict that lead to their migration, their personal immigration experiences and their time growing up and residing in Norway.


Dragana Kovacevic Bielicki is a social researcher, who holds a PhD in Migration, Nationalism and Cultural Studies from the University of Oslo (2016). She previously received degrees in Philosophy from the University of Belgrade (2006) and Nationalism Studies from Central European University in Budapest (2008). The author currently resides in Oslo.

Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture (IFSK), Series B: 164



Contents

Acknowledgements
1 Introduction to the study
1.1 Former child refugees in focus
1.1.1 Introduction to methodological approach
1.1.2 Research background: Nationalist mobilization and the break-up of Yugoslavia
1.1.3 Research context: Norway and immigration
1.2 Approaching relevant concepts
1.2.1 Approaching identity
1.2.2 Boundary and groups construction
1.2.3 Constructing belonging
1.2.4 Approaching discourse and narrative
1.3 Identifications as stories about “ourselves” and “others”

2 Methods of approach
2.1 Procedure, sources and actors
2.1.1 Participants in the study
2.1.2 Additional data: “Online” fieldwork, media, and literature
2.2 Analyzing discourse and observing practice

3 Introduction to the field. Norwegian society and
the former Yugoslav “diaspora” in Norway
3.1 Imaginaries of Norway and “Norwegianness”
3.1.1 Norwegian national identity in the modern age of migration
3.1.2 Immigrants and access to Norwegianness
3.1.3 Integration and assimilation
3.1.4 Being “more or less” of an immigrant
3.2 Networking, socializing and some transnational practices of people from the former Yugoslavia in Norway
3.2.1 Transnational belonging, groups and networks
3.3 Conclusion

4 Living the life of a transmigrant – migration, transnational connections, and belonging
4.1 Stories about arrival and reception
4.2 Returning where “we” come from
4.3 Living, networking, socializing
4.3.1 Personal relationships
4.3.2 Transmigrant practices, interests, and engagements as indications of belonging
4.3.3 Media, social, and political issues and engagements
4.4 Conclusion

5 Negotiating identifications. The self, us, and others
5.1 Former child refugees and identity-labels: choices and ascriptions
5.1.1 Negotiating individuality and collectivity
5.1.2 Origin and ethno-national groupness
5.1.3 Available groups and choices for migrants
5.2 Constructing boundaries
5.2.1 Inclusion and exclusion: Contextual “us” and “them”
5.2.2 “Our people” in Norway
5.2.3 Drawing additional lines: commonalities and divisions
5.3 Group images, relations and positions in society
5.3.1 Inter-group relations, “here and there,” “now and before”
5.4 Discourses on memory and history
5.4.1 What “really” happened? “Our” suffering and “their” fault
5.5 Conclusion

6 Homes and homelands – belonging, long-distance nationalism and relation to “here” and “there”
6.1 Belonging and dilemmas of “coming from”
6.1.1 Homes and homelands
6.1.2 Between the two worlds
6.2 Views on societies, cultures, and relations “here” and “there”
6.2.1 “Us” and “them” “back home”
6.2.2 “Us” and Norway, and “us” in Norway
6.3 Summary

7 The conclusion
7.1 Reproduction of the ruptured self
7.1.1 Young migrants, self and the society
7.2 The salience of ethno-nationality and other conclusions
7.3 Contributions to the field(s) of research

Bibliography
ISBN 978-82-7099-906-4, 323 pp., hardcover
Format: 17x24 cm, weight 0,8 kg, year of publication 2017, language: English