Diaspora

The Politics of Return, Inequality and Citizenship in the Post-Yugoslav Space

Biljana Đorđević

This study shows how particular politics of return are often a result of negotiations among political actors within citizenship constellations – a term first used by Rainer Bauböck to denote structures in which individuals’ statuses are dependent on individuals’ being concurrently connected to several political entities. For instance, host states are interested in reducing economic burdens that displaced populations put on their shoulders and, if they are powerful enough, they can impose return to countries of origin by way of conditioning it with state recognition, financial assistance, accession to international organizations, visa free regime etc.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Papers Series and is available for download here.

Updated on: 11 September 2013

Twenty years after: The Amendments and Modifications to the Law on Croatian Citizenship

Viktor Koska

The amendments still did not manage to overcome certain limitations of the previous text of the law. Even following the amendments, the entitlements for facilitated naturalization based on ethnic membership may still be in breach of the non-discrimination principle of the European Convention on Nationality, while certain legal practitioners criticize the law on the grounds that it is technically poorly written which leaves opportunities for arbitrary interpretations of certain sections of the law.

When in 1991 Croatia enacted its law on Croatian citizenship, probably not even its biggest advocates expected that it would (with only minor amendments) regulate the Croatian citizenship regime for the next twenty years.

Updated on: 4 March 2013

Serbian Citizenship: The Recent Developments

Marko Milenkovic

Over the past two years there have been more than a few interesting legal and political developments regarding the Serbian citizenship regime. Firstly, there were a number of acts adopted that are important for the regime. Secondly, citizenship itself and related issues remain at the forefront of the dispute between Serbia and the province of Kosovo over its status as an independent state.

The citizenship regime in Serbia has gone through a series of changes in the past twenty years that reflect the shifting political and ethnic landscape in the former Yugoslavia.

Updated on: 4 February 2013

Towards Post-Territorial Citizenship?

Francesco Ragazzi

Today citizenship is largely distributed amongst the ‘diaspora’, ministries and governmental agencies are dedicated to relations with co-ethnics abroad (who are often their citizens) and citizens abroad are increasingly included in votes for parliamentary and presidential elections. But this has not always been the case.

“The [June] elections were historical because Macedonians living abroad were given a chance to vote for a candidate to represent them, and also because they were conducted without one incident,” said Pavle Sazdov, who was elected in June and appointed as MP to represent Macedonia’s diaspora,

Updated on: 9 November 2011

New Diaspora Politics in Serbia and Croatia

Updated version

The issue of defining the rights of those in diaspora is (again) under discussion in Croatia and Serbia.

States are expected to be responsible for the well-being of the citizens on a variety of levels, even when they are outside the borders of the state e.g. if they have problems when visiting another country.

Updated on: 26 October 2011

Reinventing the state: (e)migration and citizenship in Albania

Gëzim Krasniqi

Albania’s rocky path to democracy, marked by state weakness and deep political polarisation, which ultimately led to the almost-total state collapse in 1997, prevented the country from reforming and reconstructing its legal constitutional order, including citizenship legislation.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Paper Series and is available for download here.

Updated on: 29 March 2011

CITSEE Research Project