engleski

“We are all immigrants from somewhere…” – openness of the island communities to outsiders

Croatian islands have been areas of different migration flows from the beginning of their settlement, so despite spatial limitations and specific isolation, the population has always been exposed to various influences from outside the islands. In this paper the authors will present results of the research related to changes in the way of life of small island communities, conducted at five islands at Šibenik archipelago in spring 2011. The availability of modern technologies on the islands opens up the possibility of changes in the lifestyle of these communities. They become transnational socio-cultural systems, cultural communities linked in a new way, which change together with shifts in the directions and the types of migration of the islanders, as well as with the arrival of tourists and the (more) permanent settlement of non-islanders and/or outsiders. Although modernisation brings about certain negative changes in the mentality and in the way of conceiving the community, there is still a relatively strong feeling of closeness within islander families and communities as a whole, but at the same time the presence of the awareness that communities need to open up to non-islanders/in-migrants offers hope for the demographic survival of small islands.

Croatia; islands; communities; migration; way of life

nije evidentirano