“Twas Always Known as the Bloody Frontier”: Rumors, Memories, and Bosnian Identity in the Migrant CrisisDorian Juric, University of OttawaResearch Grant, 2020 This project uses detailed interviews, ethnographic data, participant observation, archival materials, and various antagonistic examples of folklore (songs, jokes, rumors, conspiracy theories, and more) to better understand nativist responses to an overwhelming influx of migrants in the northwestern Krajina region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There was a large inpouring of Middle Eastern, African, Asian, and other migrants between 2018 and 2021 that overwhelmed the region’s resources and prompted a range of responses from the local population. I sought to understand the crisis from the resident perspective; to contextualize the historical, cultural, and social valences that were used to justify antagonistic actions taken against the migrants; and to couch that understanding in local frames of identity. From November 2021 to March 2022, I conducted extensive background research into the crisis, followed antimigrant groups on social media and conducted virtual interviews with some active members of those groups. Between April and November of 2022, I conducted ethnographic research, participant observation, and in-person interviews in the Bosnian city of Bihać and the wider Krajina region, as well as archival research in two folklore and ethnology archives, one in Bihać and one in Zagreb, Croatia. The research produced seventy-eight informative interviews and a range of other data regarding the crisis timeline and how locals responded to and understood the event. Early waves of migrants were readily tolerated and accepted, but once the numbers increased exponentially and perpetrators of crimes appeared among the migrants’ ranks, Bosnians turned antagonistic. Sluggish and inadequate responses from the central government exacerbated the issue and a large contingent of Bihać began to protest the impromptu migrant camp that had been established in the city center, demanding that the migrants be moved beyond city limits. Money from the European Union was finally used to answer these demands. Antagonistic actors used this success as a platform to try to pivot into political positions, though they were largely unsuccessful. I sought to understand the crisis from the resident perspective; to contextualize the historical, cultural, and social valences that were used to justify antagonistic actions taken against the migrants; and to couch that understanding in local frames of identity. I was able to interview a wide range of locals, including many who were instrumental in organizing the protests. Some of the interesting and startling findings of the research included the extent of the local and national networks that antimigrant organizers created. These included unofficial task forces organized to investigate migrant behavior, track their movements, and to share information from within aid organizations. Another notable aspect was the micro-economies that immediately arose when the migrants arrived. Locals rented rooms to wealthier migrants, took payment for accepting wire transfers for them, bought excess humanitarian goods from them, smuggled them across the European border, and more. These entanglements made for constant surprises in resident/migrant relations. Vehement xenophobes and racists often proved to be deeply socially entangled with migrants with whom they frequently bonded on a personal level. Conversely, many ostensible supporters working in migrant camps and with aid groups often proved to be highly critical of migrants and used their positions to inform nativist organizers. There were prominent “moral entrepreneurs” who tried to solidify their positions through social and other virtual media, by fostering moral panic and shaming locals into taking antagonistic positions. Their claims were backed by conspiracy theories about migrant “sleeper cells” used by Serbian and Croatian politicians to destabilize the Muslim regions of Bosnia. These theories tapped into widespread fears among the Muslim population who still carry the trauma of the wars in the 1990s and the genocide enacted upon their conationals. The fact that the rhetoric mirrored some of the “dog whistle” language that is notable among similar Western ideologues is informative. So too is the use of various social tactics by many locals to deflect and deflate the xenophobia of their peers and humanize the migrants.
