ENGAGING WITH THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN AND ITS PAST AMONGST SECOND-GENERATION YOUTH OF BOSNIAN DESCENT IN SWITZERLAND
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ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
ENGAGING WITH THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN AND ITS
PAST AMONGST SECOND-GENERATION YOUTH OF
BOSNIAN DESCENT IN SWITZERLAND
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova
ZHAW Soziale Arbeit, Institut für Vielfalt und gesellschaftliche Teilhabe
E-Mail: dilyara.suleymanovamueller@zhaw.ch
URL: https://www.zhaw.ch/de/ueber-uns/person/suly/
Zitationsvorschlag:
Müller-Suleymanova, Dilyara (2020): Engaging with the Country of Origin and Its Past
amongst Second-Generation Youth of Bosnian Descent in Switzerland. In: Gesellschaft
– Individuum – Sozialisation (GISo). Zeitschrift für Sozialisationsforschung, 1 (2). DOI:
10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3
Link zum Artikel:
https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3
Dieses Werk ist lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung – Weitergabe unter gleichen
Bedingungen 4.0 International Lizenz.ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
ENGAGING WITH THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN AND ITS
PAST AMONGST SECOND-GENERATION YOUTH OF
BOSNIAN DESCENT IN SWITZERLAND
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova
Abstract: Based on the analysis of narrative-biographic interviews, this paper explores the ways in which
second-generation youth of Bosnian descent in Switzerland explore, relate to, and engage with the past
of their origin country and with the conflict-induced history of their parents’ migration. It examines how the
legacies of the homeland conflict exert an impact on the lives of succeeding generations in the diaspora
and how young people deal with and transform those legacies in the contexts of their current lives and
prospects.
Keywords: diaspora, second generation, memory, nostalgia, Bosnia, conflict in ex-Yugoslavia
1. INTRODUCTION political past of their country of origin and what
repercussions this past can have on their own
And once you begin to seek your own answers, lives. This analysis is based on a biography of a
you realize it’s not that easy. You try to answer young woman of Bosnian descent who migrated
certain questions; you ask more and you get even to Switzerland as a small child due to the war in
more questions. And this goes on and on. And I Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992–1995).
had to do that all by myself.
The study of the second generation has been the
The above quote by a young Swiss-Bosnian focus of migration and transnationalism studies
woman whom I interviewed for my research il- for several years now. One of the primary re-
lustrates some important aspects of the ways in search issues is the level of socio-economic inte-
which children of migrants begin to engage with gration of migrant youth in the so-called “host
their families’ experiences of forced migration society” as well as transnational practices of the
and explore the political past of their country of second generation (Levitt/Waters 2006;
origin. 1 The quote expresses their desire to seek Wessendorf 2010; Haikkola 2011; Crul et al.
own answers to questions about the past rather 2012; Richter/Nollert 2014). 2 The old paradigm
than merely pursuing their family’s opinions and of “cultural assimilation” or “acculturation”, which
demonstrates the active role they want to take in presupposes that migrants and their descend-
this process. This quote represents many other ants would distance themselves from their coun-
experiences of dealing with a violent past in the try of origin and its culture towards the societal
country of origin that I encountered among young culture of the dominant society and thus to a sin-
people of Bosnian descent in Switzerland whom gle, clear-cut identity with growing socio-eco-
I interviewed for my research. nomic integration, is being increasingly criticized
by researchers (Levitt 2009; Riegel/Geisen
In this article, I examine how young people of the 2009; Weiss et al. 2014; Bolzman et al. 2017).
so-called “second generation” (i.e. children of mi-
grants) confront, address, and engage with the
1
I would like to thank the two autonomous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions as well as the
funding agencies (Swiss National Science Foundation and Landis & Gyr Stiftung) for the financial support of the rese-
arch on which this paper is based.
2
While the term “host society” is widely used for the first generation that migrated, this term, in my view, is less
applicable for the second and subsequent generations since they were born or socialized in this society and in that
sense cannot be regarded as “migrants.”
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 1ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
Second-generation youth continue to have mul- own lives and played out in various forms in their
tiple identities and affiliations and do not, with in- biographical trajectories.
creasing social mobility, distance themselves
from the culture of their parents. In this regard, The biography of the young woman that I focus
there has been a particular increase in interest in on in this paper was selected to illustrate how
the question of how young people from migrant young people can develop their own interpreta-
backgrounds engage with their families’ histories tions of the past, which are critical towards the
of migration and “integration” and the ways in representations of the past that are dominant in
which these are being re-appropriated by youth the ethno-national community in which their
as a valuable resource in their own lives (Juhasz families are embedded. This young woman de-
2009; Bloch 2018; Drnovšek Zorko 2020). veloped an alternative articulation of her migrant
identity by calling herself a “Yugoslav” and en-
This paper aims to contribute to this research gaging with a Yugoslav past. She was part of a
agenda by examining the ways in which young small group of cases with similar pro-Yugoslav
people whose parents migrated from violence- orientations that crystallized during the research
affected contexts interpret, address, and engage process. Her example serves to illustrate how di-
with the problematic past of their families and vergent visions and interpretations of the past
countries of origin. It is about the modes in which and alternative articulations of belonging could
experiences of conflict, violence, and forced dis- emerge and the biographical experiences that
placement are communicated within families, contributed to this. While this biography repre-
and it is also about the ways in which children sents a specific case and an idiosyncratic experi-
engage with these memories and transform ence, in comparison with other life-stories, it
them. The focus is on young people whose par- enables to illustrate a number of important com-
ents migrated from Bosnia-Herzegovina (hence- mon themes and patterns that emerged from the
forth referred to in the paper as Bosnia), a country overall analysis of interviews. In particular, her
that experienced high levels of violence during example serves to proof that more attention must
the Yugoslav disintegration wars at the begin- be given to the experiences of youths within the
ning of the 1990s (Bieber 2006). Not all of the current contexts of their lives, particularly within
interviewees’ families have been affected directly their peer relationships and social circles, for un-
by the war in Bosnia. While some came to Swit- derstanding young people’s ways of relating and
zerland directly as refugees, others migrated engaging with the past.
prior to the war or at its outset and largely wit-
nessed the events from afar, which nevertheless The current paper is based on data from an on-
has not been any less traumatizing. 3 Most mem- going qualitative study, conducted mainly in the
bers of the second generation, whom I inter- German-speaking part of Switzerland from 2019
viewed, do not have any experiences or to 2020. 4 The main type of data consists of life
memories of the war, either because they were story interviews with young people of Bosnian
too young at the time or were born after its end. descent. 5 Thus far, 20 biographical interviews
In all of the interviews, however, the Bosnian have been conducted (some of which involved
War was mentioned without any prompting or several sessions) with young people from various
mention of the issue by the researcher, which at- ethnic backgrounds. 6 The majority of interview-
tests to the significance of this historical event for ees were between 20 and 30 years of age, with
the youth’s narrations of the past. Moreover, this the exception of the youngest, who was 18, and
violent history has had repercussions on their
3
Most frequently, the migration paths in my interview sample were a combination of labor migration and family reuni-
fication, accelerated or provoked by the outbreak of war in Bosnia.
4
This is an ongoing project which has been financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Landis & Gyr
Stiftung.
5
The interviewees were either born in Switzerland or migrated to Switzerland as small children. All interviews were
conducted in Swiss German.
6
Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats, and mixed origin.
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 2ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
the oldest, who was 34. These life story inter- 2. MEMORY, PAST, AND MIGRATION
views were complemented by participant obser-
vations conducted during various diasporic One of the central ways in which young people
events, commemorations, and community learn about the historical experiences of their
events (some of which were spent in the com- families as well as the larger communities in
pany of interviewees) as well as semi-structured which they are embedded consists of sharing
interviews with experts and representatives from memories and stories about the past, which are
migrant associations. While ethnographic data is told and retold within the family (Ber-
less central to this paper, it was nevertheless cru- taux/Thompson 1993; Erll 2011; Maček 2018).
cial for reconstructing the entire context of the The topic of intergenerational transmission has
ex-Yugoslav diaspora in Switzerland and for been addressed from a wide variety of discipli-
contextualizing concrete life-stories. The partici- nary perspectives, including sociology, anthro-
pants were recruited through personal networks pology, cultural studies, and psychology. This
using the snowball sampling technique; at the overview does not aim to provide a full review of
same time, the widest variety of access points the existing literature but rather discusses re-
was ensured to provide a diversity of profiles in search that is particularly relevant for the study of
terms of socio-economic background, profes- memory in the context of conflict-induced migra-
sional and educational qualifications, and degree tion.
of involvement in migrant associations.
There is a variety of modes in which experiences
The use of biographical-narrative approaches in and memories can be transmitted to following
studies on migration and transnationalism has generations, but not all of them are verbal and
expanded in recent years (Apitzsch/Siouti 2007; narrative in nature (Argenti/Schramm 2010; Ki-
Eastmond 2007; Mey 2017). Such approaches dron 2009; Maček 2017). Specifically, traumatic
enable researchers to trace how engagement experiences and contested pasts are not readily
with particular issues (e.g. one’s own migration discussed and often silenced (Rosenthal 2005;
past, sense of belonging, and more) unfolds in Kidron 2009). Experiences of extreme violence
the course of one’s biography and is influenced are especially difficult to verbalize and talk about.
by specific biographical events and turns. They There is often, then, a tacit agreement between
facilitate the exploration of how a person’s indi- parents and children not to discuss these issues
vidual life course is embedded in larger historical, (Wiseman et al. 2006; Bloch 2018). In her an-
social, and political structures and frameworks thropological study on the transmission of mem-
and how individuals interpret and make sense of ories of the Holocaust, Kidron revealed that
their own biographical experiences but also their parents or grandparents never discussed their
families or larger collectivities (Rosenthal 2005). experiences of the Holocaust with their children
Life stories are always a particular, time-specific explicitly. Rather, their memories were transmit-
reconstruction of biographical events and indi- ted in non-verbal, silent ways, such as material
viduals can continually reinterpret their lives in objects (e.g. tattoos), tacit interactions, or embod-
the context in which they experience them ied memories (Kidron 2009).
(Apitzsch/Siouti 2007).
A number of studies has also drawn attention to
In the following section, I outline some relevant the significance of gender and family dynamics in
debates in the field of memory, past, and migra- processes of intergenerational transmission
tion. Then, I provide an overview of the history of (Leydesdorff et al. 2007; Eastmond 2016). Dif-
ex-Yugoslav migration to Switzerland and pre- ferent family members have different ways of
sent the life story of Esma, the protagonist of the addressing the past and some are more open in
biographical case study. I conclude with a critical talking about the past then others. For example,
discussion of her case in relation to questions some of my interviewees have mentioned that
raised in this paper. they speak about the past with their mothers
more often than with their fathers. They ex-
plained this saying that male family members do
not want to touch upon emotional issues in the
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 3ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
past and show weakness in front of their chil- them to make sense of their pasts, their present
dren. At the same time, parents often want to and possible futures” on the part of youth (ibid.).
safeguard their children from negative stories While highlighting differences in the ways in
(e.g. about interpersonal violence and hostilities), which the examined communities have evalu-
thus imposing certain moral constraints on the ated their pre-migration past, the study also re-
stories told (Sorabji 2006; Maček 2018). This vealed some common themes. One of the key
pedagogical-moral ingredient in the relationship themes referenced by the younger generation
between parents and children can affect “what” was the loss of their parents’ socio-economic
and “how” is communicated about the past and status as a result of migration, which compelled
thus must be taken more seriously in memory them to succeed and advance in life in order to
studies. make up for this loss of status, and the difficulties
that their parents had to endure (Bloch 2018). In-
Experiences of migration, flight, and forced dis- deed, to account for such feelings of moral duty
placement exert an additional impact on the dy- and responsibility and to remember the suffering
namics of remembrance and intergenerational experienced by their families and communities
transmission (Glynn/Kleist 2012; Lacroix/Fid- could trigger young people’s involvement in var-
dian-Qasmiyeh 2013; Palmberger/Tošić 2016). ious political, social, and humanitarian issues,
Migration is connected with an urgent need to sometimes in their country of origin (Baser 2013;
settle and rebuild one’s life in new circumstances Hess/Korf 2014; Blachnicka-Ciacek 2018). 7
and is often accompanied by prolonged periods
of precarity and uncertainties regarding resi- For the study of young people’s engagement
dence status (Eastmond 2007). The pressures of with the past (including the analysis of the fol-
achieving economic security and the normaliza- lowing case study), the theoretical and method-
tion of life in the migration context can thus have ological elaborations of biographical studies are
profound effects on the ways in which people of particular importance. The biographical ap-
address past experiences. As Eastmond and proach highlights that engagement with the past
Selimovic (2012, 522) have argued for the post- is not constant and depends on particular bio-
conflict Bosnian context, “silence as a means of graphical experiences (Rosenthal 2006;
not addressing painful issues of the past has Apitzsch/Siouti 2007). Thus, particular biograph-
been both part of a struggle to normalise life and ical milestones, periods of transition, and the
in itself a normalizing discourse”. search for identity in adolescence can trigger
young people’s interest in family histories and
Studies that address young people’s memories their pre- and post-migration pasts.
and perceptions of the past emphasize that inter-
generational transmission is a dynamic and mul- One of the main theoretical points of biographic-
tidirectional process and not a one-way, vertical narrative analysis is the mutually constitutive re-
relationship (Bertaux/Thompson 1993; Welzer lationship between past, present, and future
2010; Chaieb/Schwarz 2015; Palmberger (Rosenthal 2006). The narrators’ present situa-
2016). The younger generations do not passively tions and circumstances define how they re-
receive stories of the past but rather reframe and member, present, and interpret their individual
reinterpret them “through the lens of life course, pasts. As Rosenthal argues, “points of interpre-
age and gender” (Bloch 2018, 648). Moreover, tation” in the course of a life lead to a reinterpre-
young people can exert impact on their parents tation of the past and present (as well as the
(i.e. the first generation) by compelling them to future) and new remembered pasts arise at each
engage more with the past. In a study on second- point (ibid., 6). These new remembered pasts can
generation youth from refugee backgrounds and provide access to new dimensions of memory:
their perceptions of family narratives, gaps, and “[I]n the process of recalling an experience, for
silences, Bloch wrote that there was “an interest, example, shadings are clarified; details are
almost a hunger for the narratives that can help added; refinements bring new voices, sounds,
7
Among the interviewees in my study, many have been engaged in humanitarian work in Bosnia and related this work
to their own refugee backgrounds.
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 4ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
and visions” (Moustakas 1994, 72, cited in migration from ex-Yugoslavia to Switzerland. Af-
Rosenthal 2006). Thus, processes of personal ter these events, migration movement from the
transformation undergone by the individual are region significantly decreased but did not cease
also inextricably intertwined with changing entirely; it has continued up to the present day
meanings of the past. due to political and economic instability (ibid.).
3. THE BOSNIAN DIASPORA IN SWITZER- The war in Bosnia and the ensuing Dayton
LAND Agreement separated the country into ethnically
defined entities, preventing any political pro-
The dissolution of Yugoslavia and the resulting cesses and developments from taking place
wars have had a devastating effect on the Bal- (Bieber 2006). A reproduction of these conflict
kans, leading to a series of lasting social, political, lines is also observable in Switzerland. The pre-
and economic consequences (Bieber 2006). The viously united “Yugoslav diaspora” was divided
Yugoslav disintegration wars caused large along ethno-national lines after the war (Dahin-
waves of migration from the region, leading to den/Moret 2008; Behloul 2016). Serbs and Cro-
the formation of ex-Yugoslav, including Bosnian, ats from Bosnia joined existing ethno-religious
diasporas in various regions of the world, partic- Serbian and Croatian organizations linked to the
ularly Western Europe (Valenta/Ramet 2011; respective states of Serbia and Croatia, while
Halilovich 2013). In Switzerland, migrant popu- Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) established their
lations from the republics of ex-Yugoslavia con- own ethno-religious organizations: the so-called
stitute one of the largest and one of the most džemats, which significantly grew in number
visible diasporas in terms of public and media at- with the outbreak of the war (Behloul 2016). 9 As
tention. 8 The first significant migration wave the only organizations that foster links with Bos-
from the region comprised labor migration from nia as such, they nevertheless have a very prob-
the 1960s to the 1980s, which brought mainly lematic relationship with Bosnia as a state. 10
male workers from Yugoslavia to Switzerland Each ethnic group maintains its own community
(Boskovska 2000; Dahinden 2009). There were life and cultivates its own ethno-national narra-
various migrant Yugoslav organizations in Swit- tives; this is mainly done with the support of af-
zerland, including sport clubs, cultural organiza- filiated states, which for example sponsor
tions, and professional communities, which had additional “homeland language and culture”
direct ties to the Yugoslav state (Dahinden/Moret courses for school-aged children in Switzer-
2008). The economic and political crisis in Yugo- land. 11
slavia at the end of 1980s, which culminated in
the Yugoslav disintegration wars, provoked the While divided on the level of associations, mi-
next major migration wave. Due to the Bosnian grants from ex-Yugoslavia share many common
War, over 20,000 Bosnian refugees received features as members of a migrant population liv-
asylum in Switzerland and another large wave of ing in Switzerland. In addition to a common lan-
refugees migrated through family reunification guage, culture, and food habits, they also
processes (Iseni et al. 2014). The Kosovo War experience discrimination at the hands of the
(1999–2000) provoked another major wave of Swiss majority, which perceive them as a ho-
mogenous group. The pejorative term “Yugo” is
8
It is estimated that around 400,000 people of ex-Yugoslav origin live in Switzerland, excluding those who are natu-
ralized and Swiss citizens. Currently, it is estimated that approximately 60,000 Bosnians live in Switzerland (Iseni et
al. 2014). However, this number is but an estimate, since many Bosnians prefer to take up citizenship in another post-
Yugoslav country (e.g. Croatia, which is part of the EU). Thus, they may be included in official statistics as Croatian or
Serbian citizens (ibid.).
9
“Bosniak” is a commonly used name for the Bosnian Muslim population in post-war Bosnia. Some of these associa-
tions were established at the end of the 1980s, but the majority was established in the 1990s (Behloul 2016).
10
It is very telling that the organization of the national day of Bosnian statehood in Switzerland (28 November) solely
takes place on the initiative of the Bosniak-run migrant associations, without any involvement from the diplomatic
representation of Bosnia.
11
These classes are titled Heimatliche Sprache und Kultur in German.
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 5ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
used to label and other this population in every- 4. ESMA’S STORY
day life and public discourses, despite the fact
that a large proportion of migrants from ex-Yu- 4.1 Growing up as the Child of Bosnian Migrants
goslavia have been naturalized as Swiss citizens
(Iseni et al. 2014). The rates of naturalization are Esma is a 32-year-old woman of Bosnian origin.
higher among the second generation who were She appears to be well-connected in the ex-Yu-
born or raised in Switzerland. However, exclu- goslav diaspora in Switzerland and has been ac-
sionary attitudes towards them are still common- tive in various spaces related to migrant culture
place. 12 in the country. Esma spent her early childhood
years in a small town in a central region of Bosnia
While second-generation Bosnians who grew where she enjoyed a stable and secure life with
up in Switzerland do have a sense of belonging her mother and siblings; however, her father was
to Bosnia, it is often a fragmented and diffuse re- absent most of the time. As a seasonal worker in
lationship. They mainly know the country from Switzerland, he sometimes returned to Bosnia
holiday visits, their parents and other family with Western goods and sought-after Swiss
members’ stories, and various diaspora activities sweets. This relatively prosperous life abruptly
in which they have taken part. Although few of ended in early 1992 with the outbreak of war in
my interviewees were regularly active in migrant Bosnia. Esma’s mother decided to flee with the
associations, almost all of them had participated children, the youngest being only one month old,
in such activities at some point in their lives, to join their father in Switzerland. Esma does not
whether they were in the form of language have many memories of the flight, except that
courses, religious lessons, folk dance groups, or there were “barricades everywhere” and that the
community events. Encouraging young people to journey “took a very long time”.
participate in these activities is intended to help
them learn about the culture and history of their When they arrived in Switzerland, the entire
country of origin. However, apart from the com- family settled in a small apartment that Esma’s
memoration of the genocide in Srebrenica, which father was renting while working at a Swiss in-
is regularly organized by a Bosniak organization dustrial enterprise. Esma entered primary school
in Switzerland, there are few commemorative ac- and was socialized into Swiss reality. However,
tivities related to the past of Bosnia, whether they this relocation to a new context was accompa-
nied by a distressing involvement in events in the
concern the Bosnian War or Yugoslav history. 13
homeland for the entire family. While physically
Still, references to the recent past and present of
removed from Bosnia, the war was still present
Bosnia can be found in the narratives of young
in the daily lives of the family, as Esma describes
people and these events are also discussed epi-
in the following passage: 15
sodically in their families. As may be expected,
the ways in which young people are involved in
The news was always present. During the war,
issues related to the past are diverse; some youth
CNN was on all the time at our place. And I re-
are very invested, while others maintain their dis-
member my mother trying to receive Radio Free
tance or exhibit apparent disinterest. 14
Europe at night. And I don’t know which fre-
quency that was, but she was always searching
for it and, once she had found it, she let it play,
but there was such a bad connection and there
was always this “krss-krss” noise. I knew that my
12
One of the issues is discrimination on the job market based on their surnames, which often end in -ič (Fibbi et al.
2015).
13
In fact, with a limited reach, since the event to commemorate the genocide in Srebrenica is organized solely in the
French-speaking part of Switzerland.
14
Sometimes, such divergent attitudes may be found within the same family, among siblings.
15
This is an English translation. All interviews were conducted in Swiss German.
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 6ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
parents were constantly looking for sources of in- communication with their parents’ desire to pro-
formation about what was happening there. tect the children from negative information.
However, they rarely talked about it with us. […]
But also when my father lost his nephews or his Esma’s biography also demonstrates how mi-
brother-in-law, he never talked to us about it... It grant families were influenced by the war despite
was just like that, I just knew. My parents were being physically removed from it. Esma’s mother
always on edge. I remember that when we came – and, later, her father – became increasingly re-
to Switzerland, the company of my father was ligious, a fact that Esma connects directly with
cutting jobs because there was a crisis in the in- the war:
dustry and my father was afraid: “Ok, now I have
my family here with me, there is a war going on I was alone with my mother and she developed
and I might lose my job!” My parents were something close to a religious psychosis. “All this
stressed out. But did they talk to us about it? Not is happening to us Muslims”, she said as the first
really. 16 massacres were taking place, “all this is happen-
ing to us Muslims because we haven’t been
Esma’s description of how her family communi- faithful to God, because we have betrayed God.
cated about the war in Bosnia echoes state- And now he is punishing us because we were
ments from many other interviews in my study. not good Muslims during the communist time.”
Parents rarely talked with their children about And I believed all that; that really gave me work
what was happening in their homeland, including to do.
the loss of family members or friends. They
simply stated the fact that an uncle or a grandfa- The violent conflict in Bosnia gave rise to various
ther had died, without going into detail about religious narratives and interpretations of the
how it had happened. Thus, one of the other in- war. Thus, among Bosnian Muslims, there was a
terviewees discovered only later that her grand- heightened sense of victimhood as Muslims
father had been held in a concentration camp and (Bringa 1995; Eastmond 2016). In Bosnia itself
was appalled by her parents’ silence over this as well as in the Bosnian diaspora, there was a
fact for many years. trend towards a growing religiosity in the after-
math of the war (Eastmond 1998;
As this quote vividly illustrates, the distress that Valenta/Ramet 2011; Bougarel 2017). For one,
families experienced at the time was provoked religious involvement was a way to cope with the
not only by events in the homeland but also by difficulties and traumatic experiences of violence
the precarity and constant uncertainty surround- and displacement. This is also how Esma inter-
ing their residence status, including the possibil- preted her family’s growing religiosity: “My
ity of having to return to their war-torn country or mother became very religious after the war. She
losing their jobs and not being able to earn found a source of spiritual strength in religion
enough money to provide for their families. Even whilst addressing this whole situation.”
the interviewees who had no memories of that
time due to their young age speak with a sense In addition, migrant infrastructure (which was
of emotional involvement about what their fami- mainly of a religious character) became particu-
lies went through in those first years of settling in larly relevant for Bosnians in the diaspora. The
Switzerland. This preoccupation with the daily džemats not only became centers of religious life
challenges of establishing a life in new settings but also migrant community life. They were sites
may be one of the reasons for the sparse com- of orientation in which incoming migrants could
munication about what was occurring in the obtain assistance on various matters, from find-
homeland. At the same time, many parents were ing a job to addressing Swiss bureaucracy (Beh-
insecure and perplexed by how to explain the sit- loul 2016). At the same time, they were
uation. My interviewees connected this sparse important as spaces for retaining links to the
16
Throughout the citations, pauses are transcribed as …, omissions as […].
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 7ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
country of origin and its culture, especially for While Esma was forced to confront and tackle
children. these rigid ethno-national divisions, her everyday
life in Switzerland was a different reality. She
Esma’s family was likewise integrated in the local grew up in a hybrid, (post)-migrant reality in
Bosnian Muslim community. They regularly vis- which young people belonging to the so-called
ited the džemat and, as a child, Esma had to at- second generation (Secondos in Swiss German)
tend religious courses. However, Esma looks defined themselves in different terms than their
back on her involvement in these activities with parents and formed alliances based on other cat-
skepticism. In the interview, she said that she egories than ethnicity (Juhasz/Mey 2003; Allen-
“had to attend the courses,” emphasizing that bach 2011). These youths found themselves in
this was rather her parents’ wish than her own. similar socio-economic positions and educational
She was not particularly motivated to study and tracks and often shared a common migrant ado-
was extremely bored at the time. The manner in lescent culture (Oester et al. 2008; Mey/Rorato
which she now interprets this period of her life is 2010). Esma met her Serbian boyfriend after
closely linked to her present views and to her completing secondary school and entering voca-
particular biographical experiences. tional training. Thus, she pursued a professional
path similar to that of many other second-gener-
One of the precursors of what became one of the ation youth in her social circle. Quite naturally,
major turning points in Esma’s biography was these circumstances led to her partnership with
when she started dating a young man – not just a Serbian young man, as they both occupied a
any young man, but one of Serbian origin. She common ground shaped by their cultural and so-
describes this period of her life as follows: cio-economic backgrounds.
... and then I fell in love with a young Serb The conflict with her family provoked by this re-
[laughs]. And that was a scandal! My parents did lationship became a turning point in Esma’s biog-
not want to accept that, so I moved out. But I had raphy after which she moved out of her parents’
always wanted that… For my parents, this was house and started an emancipated life. Gradually,
terrible because the war had made them nation- she began to diverge from the Bosniak commu-
alists, defensive nationalists. And the war had nity ideologically and, from what she viewed as
made them say that you could trust neither Serbs conservatism, traditionalism, and its narrow in-
nor Croats, and you were to mix with them by no terpretations of the past:
means. That was an outright no-go, and I com-
pletely turned it around. And particularly as a When circles are as conservative and as moral-
Muslim girl! A Christian! I think, they would have izing as that, there is much space for a double
had difficulties with a Swiss guy too, but much standard. That has always annoyed me. So I’ve
less so. There had really been this war, which had always distanced myself from nationalism in
happened... general, no matter which one. I’ve been able to
distance myself quite well and I try to keep doing
This episode illustrates the repercussions that that… It took me a long time, but somehow, at a
the legacies of a political conflict can have on the point in my life, I was done with religion. I came
lives of young people, such as Esma. The war ce- to the conclusion that if God is so strict, I will seek
mented ethno-national boundaries and divided my own way.
people, not only through separate migrant asso-
ciations but also on the interpersonal level. Some Currently, Esma positions herself in opposition to
of my interviewees recalled that families from dif- an organized religious life. While she does not
ferent sides stopped visiting and speaking to distance herself from the Bosniak community so-
each other; others recounted arguments they cially (her mother is still an active member of
had had with children from the “other” side in kin- džemat), she distances herself from nationalist
dergarten or primary school. Polarization and de- sentiments and interpretations of the past that
fensive rhetoric on all sides of the conflict still dominate in the diaspora community of ex-
affected families in the diaspora. Yugoslavs in Switzerland. After all, so Esma,
these sentiments were responsible for the war
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 8ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
and her family’s need to flee. In the following, I meanings of belonging as the child of Yugoslav
will illuminate how she came to relate differently migrants in Switzerland. Several times during the
to the past of her country of origin and developed interview, she repeated that listening to Yugoslav
alternative articulations of belonging through the rock and watching videos of rock concerts from
ideology of Yugoslavism. the 1970s and 80s on YouTube with its liberal,
modern, Western-like atmosphere was “healing”
4.2 Coming to Terms with the Past through Yu- and had given her self-confidence. Through “Yu-
goslav Legacy rock,” she discovered that the cultural legacy of
Yugoslavia was one to be proud of and could
The silences or gaps in knowledge about the dis- challenge common Swiss perceptions of Yugo-
tressful times that her family went through dur- slavia as an underdeveloped and exotic “other.” 18
ing the war in Bosnia did not preoccupy Esma as
a child or a teenager – the quest for information Studying at university became an important
arose later in life. After parting ways with her crossroads for Esma; along with learning about
Serbian boyfriend, she decided to fulfil her long- the history of the region in more depth, she also
standing wish to study history. She said that she encountered other second-generation youths of
wanted to seek her own answers about what ex-Yugoslav origin who shared her musical
happened in the history of her country of origin. tastes and her positive attitude towards Yugosla-
via and its legacy. It was within this circle of like-
After completing an additional qualification, minded peers that she further developed and
Esma was able to start her university studies in cultivated what she called a “Yugo-nostalgic at-
history. At the same time, she became more in- titude.” Many of these young people met and got
volved in music, which had been an important to know each other through the Yu-rock scene,
part of her life and an essential aspect for ad- which organized concerts or regularly played Yu-
dressing questions of identity and belonging. She rock in bars. This diasporic space differentiated
had been interested in music from the Balkan re- itself from other ex-Yugoslav migrant associa-
gion; however, she did not share many of her tions by bringing together youths from all ethnic
Bosnian friends’ fascination with “turbo-folk” 17 backgrounds and being “nationality-blind”.
and was instead more drawn to rock and alter-
native music: In cultivating these Yugo-nostalgic attitudes,
Esma was able to draw on her family’s memories,
And I’ve always loved music. I began discovering such as stories that her mother had told about
Yugoslav music in my youth. And I realized that her grandfather (who had been a partisan during
we have great music, great rock, and for me, en- the Second World War) or her uncle (who was
gaging with this music was part of finding an himself a fan of Yugoslav rock music). She was
identity… Of course, we were labelled “Yugo” and inspired by her mother who was both a devout
I did feel that. But to discover that we have such Muslim and a Tito fan, and who made an album
great music was a little bit healing. To know that with pictures of him after his death. 19 For Esma,
already back in the 1970s and 80s, we had this such images from the past served as powerful il-
great rock music means we were not so bad, lustrations of the inclusiveness of the Yugoslav
right? We are also worth something! We also project in which being Muslim and pro-Tito were
have created something which is great! And this not mutually exclusive.
was healing for my own identity, it helped to dis-
cover, to establish a positive sense of belonging. However, these Yugo-nostalgic attitudes were
not only based on Esma’s representations of the
Thus, engaging with Yugoslav rock was for Esma Yugoslav past. They were rather a product of her
inextricably linked with the need to find positive
17
Turbo-folk is a popular musical genre throughout the ex-Yugoslav region which combines traditional Balkan musical
elements with pop, rap, and other contemporary musical styles (Archer 2012).
18
Yugoslav rock (or Yu-rock) was one of Yugoslavia’s major cultural exports and received worldwide recognition. For
more on Yu-Rock, see for example Pogačar 2008; Stankovič 2001.
19
Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1953–1980).
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 9ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
own manner of dealing with the violent post-Yu- spective from which she looks back onto her per-
goslavian past and engaging with the current sit- sonal past and the history of her family and of
uation in the region critically: Bosnia, her country of origin. This particular nar-
ration and interpretation of the past is subject to
And it seems to me, I am a Yugo-Nostalgic be- change as Esma moves forward in life and gath-
cause I simply cannot... cannot overcome it. It’s ers new experiences and insights. This particular
like this... I always say, nations are founded and interpretation also emerges from the dialogue
nations decay. That is a normal process in history. that she engages in with those whom she tells
It just hurts that it came to an end so violently. and retells her life story (Eastmond 2007). Thus,
That is what I cannot cope with; that is why I it is a very specific, individual, and subjective pic-
grieve. And also because everything that came ture, which at the same time – particularly in con-
later is much worse than Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia versation with other interviews – provides insight
wasn’t great, it wasn’t perfect, there were many into the entire range of issues regarding memory,
problems, but it was still better than all that we intergenerational transmission, and representa-
have now. tions of the past in the context of diaspora and
migration.
For Esma, the Yugoslav project and a way of
thinking outside ethno-nationalist categories Esma was not directly and explicitly informed
suggested an alternative vision to the destructive about her family’s migration experiences and po-
forces of ethno-nationalism that have shaped the litical events in the homeland. It was rather a
past and the present in the region. At the same somewhere in-between communication and si-
time, the ideals of social justice and a distinct lence with emotionally charged atmosphere, dis-
form of socialism that Yugoslavia had been pur- tress, and overheard conversations as the main
suing, a more humane form, in her eyes, than the means of learning about the past. Political devel-
Soviet Union, made the Yugoslav project worth opments in the homeland and experiences of mi-
identifying with. Esma said that she does not ide- gration had further impacts on Esma’s family in
alize Yugoslavia’s past and she is aware of the that they became more religious and turned to-
negative aspects of that time. Rather, her fasci- wards their own ethnic community – a phenom-
nation with Yugoslavia has been based on the enon that has also been documented in the post-
need for an ideal – a utopia that made it possible conflict, ex-Yugoslav diaspora in other places
to imagine a different, better future for Bosnia: (Eastmond 1998; Huttunen 2005). The violent
conflict triggered an increasing social distance
… But it could really be such a beautiful country. It among people from the same country who had
was big. It followed its own political course. Tito different ethno-national backgrounds. For Esma,
and Stalin were in conflict with one another and this meant that her family could not approve of
Yugoslavia walked its own socialist path. They her dating a Serbian man; as a result, she moved
tried. And all these are such elements... they cre- out of her parents’ house, starting her process of
ate nostalgia because… I somehow need some emancipation from the family as well as from the
kind of ideal to orient myself in life. And this col- Bosnian migrant community and its narratives.
lective, this anti-nationalist, this... yes, com-
munist, but actually the social thought behind the Gaps in knowledge about the political history of
communism... is just such a utopia that never be- their country of origin have a variety of further im-
came real, and yet it is a beautiful dream. And this plications for second-generation youth. Esma’s
dream, I’d still like to hold on to it somehow. case shows that, while she grew up with conflict
narratives that were intended to socialize distrust
5. THE “OLD” AND THE “NEW” PASTS IN THE towards “others,” she was able to develop a crit-
LIVES OF THE SECOND GENERATION ical gaze towards these narratives and formulate
her own view of the past.
Esma’s life story was narrated at a particular mo-
ment in her life and in the particular context of a How did the “new” Yugoslav past emerge as a
research interview. It represents her current per- relevant point of reference for Esma? On the one
hand, there were family memories and stories
Dilyara Müller-Suleymanova – DOI: https://doi.org/10.26043/GISo.2020.2.3 Seite 10ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SOZIALISATIONSFORSCHUNG
about Yugoslavia, which later served as mne- books, documentaries, the stories of other family
monic resources for her personal and emotional members, and, increasingly, digital media (e.g.
engagement with this history. On the other hand, videos on platforms such as YouTube). They also
the discovery of the Yugoslav rock music which ask their parents or grandparents pushing them
conveyed an image of the country as modern, lib- to confront and reinterpret their past making this
eral, and Western-oriented, has been an essen- process a multidirectional one. The biographical
tial experience. Biographically, it took place at a approach further reveals how interest in and
particular point in Esma’s life, when she was in scrutinization of the past is a dynamic process;
the process of searching for belonging and ac- this interest emerges at certain points in an indi-
ceptance in society as a child of Yugoslav mi- vidual’s life, then fades away and is replaced by
grants. She deepened this engagement during other, more pressing life challenges. For this re-
her time as a university student where she could working of the past, experiences that young peo-
explore in depth the political history and ideas of ple gain throughout their life trajectories are of
the Yugoslav period. University was equally im- utmost importance. Thus, for Esma – as for a
portant because she socialized in a group of like- large number of other interviewees – her preoc-
minded peers there – second-generation youth cupation with the past was intertwined with the
like her with positive attitudes towards Yugoslav processes of finding belonging and recognition in
legacy. Thus, Esma did neither live and cultivate a society where she was perceived as a member
these Yugo-nostalgic attitudes within her family of the stigmatized group, the “Yugos.”
nor in Bosnia itself (during holiday visits, for ex-
ample) but in Switzerland in the circle of like- Further, what Esma’s and other cases in my sam-
minded young people of migrant background. ple show is that the political legacies of the
Thus, Esma’s experiences and her social life in homeland conflict – such as the Yugoslav disin-
Switzerland played an essential role in the for- tegration wars – have an impact on the lives of
mation of her Yugo-nostalgic attitudes. young people in the diaspora. It is one of the im-
portant constraints that these young people must
6. CONCLUSION address and cope with in their lives. While they
rarely reproduce the conflict dynamics them-
Esma’s case exemplifies various aspects of selves, they are embedded in and move within
young people’s engagement with the past that I spaces and contexts in which conflict is still a
encountered in my research on this topic. It illus- structuring force. There are families in which a re-
trates how the legacies of the past impact the lationship with someone from the “other” side is
lives of following generations and the ways in not accepted; and there are diasporic spaces in
which young people address, reinterpret, and which ethno-nationally oriented ideologies and
transform these legacies in the contexts of their narratives are continually reproduced.
current lives and prospects.
At the same time, these ideologies and narratives
As Esma’s story and other cases in my sample are always filtered and perceived through the
have shown, knowledge about the past is not context of the youths’ current life situations and
passed from parents to children in a straightfor- the milieus in which they move. Esma’s case
ward and unidirectional manner. Rather, there is shows the importance of peer circles or particular
a variety of forms and modes of transmission in youth scenes for the ways in which young people
which narratives, stories, and conversational engage with the past. Alternative information
fragments overlap with material objects, emo- can be shared within these peer circles; as a re-
tions, body language, and other non-verbal sult, a critical and distanced stance towards nar-
means. ratives dominant in the own community can
evolve. This was the case for Esma as well as for
Young people later seek to fill in possible silences, other interviewees with pro-Yugoslav outlooks in
gaps, and elisions in their knowledge about the my research, all of whom have developed a criti-
past. They do so by revisiting emotionally mean- cal opinion towards their families and ethnic
ingful family memories but also by referring to communities’ visions of the past and present of
various other sources of information such as their homelands.
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