Bosnian Organizations in Germany: The Limits of Contributions to Post-War Recovery

Abstract

This paper explores the perspectives of Bosnian organizations in Germany on the institutional and structural conditions for transnational engagement in post-war recovery processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Its point of departure is the empirical finding that Bosnian organizations in Germany are not intensively and regularly involved in transnational activities directed toward Bosnia, despite a continued emotional attachment to the origin country and an estimated strong capacity for such engagement among the Bosnian population in Germany. The paper argues that this situation can in large part be explained by taking an actor-centered perspective and analyzing Bosnian organizations’ perceptions of the structural conditions created by the Bosnian authorities. The empirical data have been obtained from an explorative research on Bosnian organizations in Germany, which studied how Bosnians in Germany organize and what types of transnational activities oriented toward the settlement and origin country they pursue. First, the paper introduces a distinction between capacity and willingness of migrants and their organizations to engage in the origin country and outlines why this distinction is important in the context of conflict-generated migrants’ involvement in a post-conflict setting. Second, it identifies the limited efforts the Bosnian government has made so far to mobilize its population abroad and discusses why there is such reluctance to develop a diaspora strategy. Third, the paper presents the perspectives of Bosnian organizations in Germany on the conditions for transnational engagement in post-war recovery processes in the origin-country, including opinions on the Bosnian government and the relationship with the local population in Bosnia. The empirical findings presented in this paper suggest that the researched organizations’ perception of the unfavorable Bosnian context severely decreases their willingness to transnationally engage in origin-country developments. Thus, the structural constraints in the origin country and the way how they are perceived by the researched organizations form crucial limits to stronger transnational engagement in post-war recovery processes.