Migracijske i etničke teme (Jun 2000)
Neighbourship and Friendship among Returnees and Immigrants in the Pre-War, Wartime and Post-War Social Setting of the Brod-Posavina County
Abstract
Serbian military aggression against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina resulted in the destruction of much material property: factories, schools, churches and other such items. However, the most tragic effects of the war events involved the killing of people, the suffering of civilians and the collapse of social structures. In this regard, in ethnically mixed areas, most threatened were the primary social groups (neighbour and friendship bonds) that are a condicio sine qua non for the formation and endurance of local communities. In so much as this occurred, it is possible to explicitly and unequivocally state that the war practically destroyed all the local communities in the occupied and later liberated areas of the Brod-Posavina county. Therefore, the process of return of war migrants and the (re)formation of local communities brings us to question of how actors in this process (refugees-immigrants, returnees-Croats, returnees-Serbs) experience and imagine the possibility of establishing coexistence, and to what degree and in which way does their own behaviour influence the mentioned process. Do significant differences exist in the responses and behaviour among people of different age, sex and level of education? What are the prospects in regard to neighbourship and friendship in local communities? What are the values that might bring together war migrants in the mentioned area? At any rate, it is well known that without a minimum level of conformism and consensus to draw people together, coexistence is impossible. How is it possible to renew what has broken down, as well as the destroyed individual assets, especially neighbourship and friendship? The basic assumption in this paper stems from the author’s belief that coexistence and cooperation between all groups in the western part of the Brod-Posavina county is possible only if primary social relationships – especially neighbourship and friendship – are renewed. Three groups of war migrants were queried: refugees-immigrants, returnees-Croats and returnees-Serbs. A comparison was made of their attitudes in regard to neighbourship and friendship between Croats and Serbs in the pre-war, wartime and post-war periods. Their responses indicated a favourable or mostly favourable level of social interaction between Croats and Serbs in the pre-war period. Amiable coexistence was a very much value in parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even during the war, although there was different and also aggressive behaviour among friends and neighbours of the other ethnicity (Croats or Serbs), primary social interaction continued to function at least in small segments. Friends, somewhat more often than neighbours, protected persons of the other ethnicity during the war. Primary social relationships were not destroyed even during the worst war periods. It would be expected that this would be an alleviating factor during the post-war (re)construction of primary social structures. Yet the post-war situation is burdened with problems. Apart from material and financial difficulties, the most grievous ones are psychological. Memories of the war, of the dead and wounded, aggravate communication or make it impossible. Nevertheless, despite even this, difficult circumstances, communication between the three groups of respondents (especially between Croats and Serbs) exists, at least in a nuclear form. Thus, if favourable macro-circumstances prevail (primarily a democratic state policy), one can expect a gradual, although slow, regeneration of primary relationship networks in the local community.
