Timeline: 2002-2006
Head of the Project: Saša BOŽIĆ
Researchers: Ante LAUŠIĆ, Silva MEŽNARIĆ, Jelena ZLATKOVIĆ WINTER
Junior Researchers: Simona KUTI, Rebeka MESARIĆ ŽABČIĆ, Dubravka MLINARIĆ, Marina PERIĆ-KASELJ
Technical Stuff: Vladimira MARIĆ
The project will explore the emergence and development of Croatian migrant communities within the relevant social-political context of receiving societies in Western Europe, the Americas, and Australia and transnational institutions. It is assumed that Croatian migrant communities influence the activities and identities of Croats, their integration into receiving societies; they are associated with migrants’ relationship towards naturalization, assimilation, and return. Communities determine the formation of new Croatian minorities within the European Union countries; hence, they influence the relationship between Croatia and European Union. Social, political, and cultural differences among communities within Western Europe and overseas are of particular interest for the project. The goals of the research are: 1. Describe Croatian migrant communities within the context of contemporary migration flows and multiculturalism. 2. Give statistical data about Croatian citizens residing in the countries of Western Europe and overseas, estimate their number and spatial distribution. 3. Define structure and patterns of communities’ organization; how they develop, reproduce and imagine themselves. 4. Explore differences among them in receiving countries determined by these countries’ different models of political belonging; define and explain differences between Croatian communities related to time and mode of their emergence and distance from the country of origin. Association between reproduction, communication, networking, and development of Croatian communities with dimensions of socio-cultural and professional origin of members and their status within receiving society would be assumed. It is expected that association between various dimensions will be demonstrated and the significance of particular dimensions determined. Typology of migrant communities will be made; furthermore, the research would result with the basic proposals of relevant policies related to both Croatian migrant communities and institutions of receiving societies. The reliability and validity of data obtained would be assessed by the transparency and access to the research protocols and data files. The possible impact of the research is given by its innovative nature: firstly, Croatian migrant communities would be compared in different frameworks of reception, and secondly, first evidence about the forms of activities of migrant communities within the context of transnational institutions would be displayed.