In 1991, Snežana Žabić lost her homeland and most of her family’s book and record collection during the Yugoslav Wars that had been sparked by Slobodan Milošević’s relentless pursuit of power. She ...became a teenage refugee, forced to flee Croatia and the atrocities of war that had leveled her hometown of Vukovar. She and her family remained refugees in Serbia until NATO bombed Belgrade in 1999. After witnessing the first nights of NATO’s bombing, Žabić took flight again. She moved from country to country, city to city, finally settling in Chicago. She realized — reluctantly, because she didn’t want to relive the past — that she had to write about what had happened, what she had left behind, and what she had lost. Broken Records is the story of this loss, told with unflinching honesty, free of sentimentality or sensationalism. For the very first time, we learn how it felt to be first a regular teenager during the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing wars, and then a 30-something adult, perennially troubled by one’s uprooted existence. Broken Records is not a neat narrative but a bit of everything — part bildungsroman, part memoir, part political poetry, part personal pop culture compendium. And while Žabić represents a Yugoslav diasporan subject, her book also belongs to an international generation whose formative years straddle the Cold War and the global reconfiguration of wealth and power, whose lives were spent shifting from the vinyl/analog era to the cyber/digital era. This generation knows that when they were told about history ending, they were told a lie..
In The Muslim-Croat Civil War in Central Bosnia, 1992–1994 Charles R. Shrader offers the first full-scale military history of a crucial conflict in Bosnia between two former allies. When the ...Bosnian Serbs and their Serbian allies attacked Bosnia-Herzegovina in March, 1992, the Bosnian Croats and Muslims collaborated to defend themselves. As Serbian pressure increased and it became clear that the West would not intervene, the two allies began to stake out their own claims.
Drawing on testimony and exhibits from cases presented before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Shrader describes the organization and tactical doctrine of the Croatian Defense Forces and the Muslim-led Army of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of the two sides in such fields as communications, training, and logistics. He assesses not only the problems of command and control in the newly formed armies, but also the impact of criminal activity, the mujahedeen, and the intervention of peacekeeping forces.
What looked to many like aggression by the Bosnian Croats, Shrader views as the adoption of an “ active defense, ” a doctrine embraced by U. S. forces, against a predatory Muslim force. He believes UN and European observes rushed to judgment regarding the aggressive intent of the Croatian command. Far from being the attackers, Shrader concludes, the Bosnian Croats in Central Bosnia were clearly outnumbered, outgunned, and on the defensive. Surrounded by superior Muslim forces, they barely held out in their enclaves in the Lasva Valley until a cease-fire was achieved in February 1994.
Although Shrader’s work is a detailed, meticulous, analysis by a neutral expert, not everyone will find his conclusions comfortable. But every serious student of the conflict in Bosnia will have to take his history into account. Enhanced by maps, useful appendices, and a glossary, this should become the standard work on military operations in Central Bosnia and a useful case study of internal warfare and ethnic conflict.
Milan Panic tells of his attempt to oust Slobodan Milosevic and his battle with the U.S. State Department in an effort to bring peace to the Balkans during the Yugoslav Wars. A young cycling champion ...who fought Nazi occupation in Yugoslavia, Panic defected after WWII to start a new life in the United States. But his greatest challenge lay ahead.
Studies show a high level of mental health problems among refugee children and adults. This study aimed to examine psychiatric disorders among refugee children in early adulthood. A total of 15,264 ...young adult refugees, who obtained residence permission January 1, 1993 to December 31, 2010, were matched 1:6 on age and sex with 99,313 Danish-born children. Rate ratios (RR) of having a first-time in- or outpatient hospital diagnosis with an affective (F30-39), psychotic (F29-30), neurotic (F40-48), or any psychiatric disorder (F00-99) according to ICD-10 were computed. Refugees had higher RRs of psychotic (RR: 1.81, 95%CI: 1.41-2.32) and nervous (RR: 1.28, 95% CI: 1.14-1.43) disorders compared with Danish-born children. The RRs of having an affective disorder among refugees was 0.74 (95% CI: 0.60-0.90) compared with Danish-born children. Sex, geographical origin, migrant status, household income, age at residence permission, and accompanied/unaccompanied arrival predicted psychiatric contacts among refugees. A focus on both prevention and treatment in vulnerable groups is needed.
Being an immigrant in a high-income country is a risk factor for severe mental ill health. Studies on mental ill health among immigrants have found significant differences in mental health outcome ...between immigrants from high income countries and low-income countries. Being an asylum seeker or a refugee is also associated with mental ill health. This study aimed to assess if there is a difference in mental ill health problems between male and female refugee and non-refugee immigrants from six low-income countries in Sweden.
A cross-sectional, population-based study design was used comparing refugees with non-refugees. The study size was determined by the number of persons in Sweden fulfilling the inclusion criteria at the time of the study during 2006.
Mental ill health, as measured with the proxy variable psychotropic drugs purchased. Refugee/Non-refugee: Sweden grants asylum to refugees according to the Geneva Convention and those with a well-grounded fear of death penalty, torture or who need protection due to an internal or external armed conflict or an environmental disaster. The non-refugees were all family members of those granted asylum in Sweden. Covariates: Gender and origin. Potential confounders: Age, marital status, education and duration of stay in Sweden. Background variables were analysed using chi square tests. The association between outcome, exposure and possible confounders was analysed using logistic regression analyses. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for potential confounders.
The study population comprised 43,168 refugees and non-refugees, of whom 20,940 (48.5%) were women and 24,403 (56.5%) were refugees. Gender, age, origin, marital status and education were all associated with the outcome. For female, but not male, refugees there was a significantly higher likelihood of purchasing psychotropic drugs than non-refugees (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.15-1.40).
Female refugees from low-income countries seem to be a risk group among immigrant women from low-income countries, whereas male refugees had the same risk patterns as non-refugee immigrants from low-income countries. This underlines the need for training of clinicians in order to focus on pre-migration stress and the asylum process, among female newcomers.
The Social Construction of Man, the State, and War is the fist book on conflict in the former Yugoslavia to look seriously at the issue of ethnic identity, rather than treating it as a given, an ...unquestionable variable. Combining detailed analysis with a close reading of historical narratives, documentary evidence, and first-hand interviews conducted in the former Yugoslavia, Wilmer sheds new light on how ethnic identity is constructed, and what that means for the future of peace and sovereignty throughout the world.
Franke Wilmer is Associate Professor of Political Science at Montana State University, and serves on the editorial board of International Studies Quarterly .
This paper explores the effects of 'visible difference' on employment outcomes of three recently arrived refugee groups: ex-Yugoslavs, black Africans, and people from the Middle East. The paper draws ...on data collected through a survey (150 questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews conducted by bilingual interviewers) of refugees who settled in Western Australia over the past decade. Results indicate different outcomes for respondents from the three backgrounds despite similar levels of human capital and similar length of residence. Our evidence supports a 'political economy of labour migration' interpretation for the differential outcomes, based on both structural and interpersonal racism, rather than a neo-classical explanation which holds that the job market is 'blind to ethnicity'. Despite high unemployment and loss of occupational status, predominantly highly educated refugees were relatively satisfied with their lives in Australia. References. Adapted from the source document.
This study investigated the relationship between coping style, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and quality of life in traumatized refugees (N = 335). Participants had resettled in the ...Netherlands on average 13 years prior and were referred to a Dutch clinic for the treatment of posttraumatic psychopathology resulting from persecution, war, and violence. The majority (85%) of the research sample met diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Path analysis suggested a model in which PTSD symptoms (β = −.61, p < .001), social support seeking (β = .12, p < .05), and emotion‐focused coping (β = .13, p < .01) have a direct effect on quality of life. The role of avoidant and problem‐focused coping could be interpreted in 2 ways. Either these coping styles are influenced by PTSD severity and have no effect on quality of life, or these coping styles influence PTSD severity and therefore have an indirect effect on quality of life. Intervention strategies aimed at modifying coping strategies and decreasing PTSD symptoms could be important in improving the quality of life of traumatized refugees.
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