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Women and migrations in Croatia: from marginal subjects (“White Widows”) to contemporary migrants in the EU

The presentation is based on the results of the ethnographic research conducted by the author in the period between 2005 and 2013. The multi-sited ethnography research started in the mountainous region (Lika) with a tradition of emigration. In the first half of the 20th century, young men migrated as part of temporary economic migrations (to the USA and Canada). Women would remain at home and live in extended familiesruga. Some of the men would not return for decades. The local community called their wives “white widows”. In mid-20th century people migrated from rural areas into cities. The author focuses her research on several families who moved to one city and its area. In the socialist period, migrant workers or “gastarbeiter”, mostly men, from nearly every family moved to Germany. Since the women were living their lives in nuclear families, they took over the paternal role, as well. After the 1990s, in post-war Croatia, many companies failed and unemployment was on the rise due to social and economic changes. Due to the feminization of labour and the feminization of migration into the EU, as well as due to the current economic crisis, unemployed women from these families, leave their families for several months to work in EU. Narrations on their individual experiences and daily lives through all types of migrations, uncover, among other things, the creation and maintenance of transnational social networks and (temporary?) changes in established family life patterns. The paper also uses demographic statistical data and media discourse analysis.

women migrants; Croatia

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