Migracijske i etničke teme (Jun 2001)
Institution and War Migrants: Perceptions of Activities and Implemented Contacts (the Brod-Posavina County)
Abstract
The paper analyses the role and importance of institutions, associations and organisations in the life of war migrants (returnees and immigrants) in the post-war period. The research involved was undertaken in a part of the western area of the Brod-Posavina County (the communes Gornji Bogićevci, Dragalić, Okučani, Stara Gradiška). The questionnaire method was applied and a total of 180 war migrants were surveyed. A group of 60 respondents was queried from each of three relevant and recognisable groupings: refugees-immigrants, retumee-Croats, returnee-Serbs. The statistical relevance of the results was tested by the χ2 test. Contacts with institutions pertained to the local level, whereas perceptions of the activities of institutions, apart from the local level, pertained also to the national and international levels. Analysis of respondents' answers showed that seeking aid from institutions was still practised by most of them. Although respondents indicated diverse reasons for visiting institutions, humanitarian aid was still their most frequent motivation. Among other reasons for visiting institutions active on the local level, seeking legal and other council, requests for various attestations and employment seeking should be noted. It is significant that very few respondents mentioned complaints (against their neighbours, the Croatian government, etc.) as a reason for visiting institutions. The frequency with which responds went to institutions varied from once a week to once a month and only a very small number of respondents never visited institutions. Of the three groupings, institutions were least visited by returnee-Croats, who were in a better existential position than the other two groupings. In evaluating the activities of Croatian authorities in aiding war migrants most respondents answered that they were neither salisfied nor dissatisfied with them: Local authorities and the Croatian government were indicated as the main culprits of ineffective aid work. A significant number of respondents (returnee-Croats, refugees-immigrants) felt that the problems facing the Croatian state were a justified reason for ineffective aid. The activities of international institutions were not sufficiently known to respondents. A large part of those that had some notion of international aid felt that it was insufficient. The research results indicated that employment and creativity has not yet reached a sufficient level in the post-war period and that most war migrants are still part of the dependent population. The activities of institutions, regardless of their shortcomings and the dissatisfaction of people needing them, are still important for war migrants, both on a practical and on a symbolic level. Renovation and reconstruction serves to bring members of this population out of a cliental status, bringing them more and more into a citizen status, equal in rights to other Croatian citizens.
