Abstract
This chapter introduces Bosnian programme refugees in Ireland and their migration journey. It describes the initial reception in Ireland, their subsequent experiences and position today. The chapter introduces new concept of post-refugee transnationalism to explain their current experiences and engagements. It outlines theoretical premises of the book and its main argument by using racial states theory, Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and governmentality and theories of transnationalism.
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Notes
- 1.
Bosnia refers to on all occasions to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian refers to on all occasions to Bosnian and Herzegovian.
- 2.
UNHCR, 2019 ‘Figures at glance’ https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html.
- 3.
I use Bosnian refugees and Bosnian migrants interchangeably in the book. When I use the term Bosnian migrants, I refer to forced migration, meaning Bosnian forced migrants/refugees.
- 4.
- 5.
This method of providing support was largely borrowed from the ‘contract’ model that has been developing in the Scandinavian countries, where there is a contract between the refugee and the government, involving the government providing a tailored package of language and vocational training for a refugee, within a fixed time frame (usually 18 months), in return for the refugee agreeing to participate in the integration process (O’Neill 2001).
- 6.
As explained to me by one member of the Refugee Agency who was dealing with the Bosnian refugees at the time, family clusters were chosen on the basis of friendliness. The staff in Cherry Orchard observed the Bosnian families while there and chose to resettle families who were most communicative and friendly towards each other together (personal communication, 23 January 2009).
- 7.
The decision to allow Bosnians to apply for citizenship after three years of residence was an ad hoc decision made in the speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs David Andrews, and confirmed three years later by the Minister of Justice, Nora Owen (personal communication, 23 January 2009).
- 8.
John O’Neill was Chief Executive of the Refugee Agency, Department of Foreign Affairs, from 1994 to 2000, and the Chairperson of the Management Committee of the Bosnian Community Development Project.
- 9.
The National Training and Employment Authority.
- 10.
Integra was the Employment Initiative, supported by the European Social Fund via the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, whose central aim was combating social exclusion, discrimination and racism through integrated, locally based and participative approaches www.iol.ie/employment/integra.
- 11.
The Community Development Unit which runs the Community Development Programme moved from being part of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs to being part of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
- 12.
This realisation was reached by a group consisting of the members of the Refugee Agency, the Department of Education and Access Ireland. Subsequently, the same group formed the management committee of the Bosnian Community Development Project.
- 13.
The Bosnian community’s participation in the decision making process proved to be more complex than initially contemplated.
- 14.
The cases relate to the number of individuals and/or families who have contacted the Bosnian Community Development Project in order to assist them with: (1) the translations of documents, (2) accessing social welfare and health board, (3) getting help with visa/naturalisation process and/or (4) getting in touch with the Bosnian embassy.
- 15.
While lack of funding is given as an official reason for closing down the project, a person who was involved in the project at the time said that the funding for the continuation of the project was available; however, the management committee decided that the project was not doing what was expected and it was better to close it down.
- 16.
2005 was the first year during which the need for organising charter flights to Bosnia was highlighted as one of the main objectives of the Bosnian Community Development Project. However, the project had been involved in organising flights since the year 2000 (BCDP 2005).
- 17.
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Halilovic-Pastuovic, M. (2020). Bosnian Story: An Introduction. In: Bosnian Post-Refugee Transnationalism. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39564-3_1
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