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Socio-spatial factors influencing transnationalism among Bosnian
and Herzegovinian migrants in Amsterdam and Milan
Master Thesis
Amra Salihagic
Research Master’s Urban Studies
University of Amsterdam
2 Table of Contents Master thesis……... 2 Preface ...………4 Summary ………..….…………... 5 1. Introduction …... 6 2. Theoretical framework ………..………... 12
2.1. Migrant and integration ………...……… 12
2.2. Mobility………...……..………... 14
2.3. Transnationalism ………. 16
2.4. Socio-spatial dimensions and TPSN framework ………...……….… 20
2.5. Research question and sub-questions ………. 23
3. Methodology………..……….………...… 25
3.1. Preparing for the research ………...…………...…… 25
3.2. Data collection ………..…..… 27
3.3. Results …………..………...……… 33
4. Urban contexts of Amsterdam and Milan and Bosnian migrants ……….… 35
4.1 Amsterdam ………..…………... 35
4.2 Immigration in the Netherlands ……….………..……. 36
4.3. Milan ………..… 37
4.4. Immigration in Italy ……….………... 38
4.5. General overview of Bosnain migrants ………... 39
4.6. Bosnian migrants in the Netherlands ……….……...… 41
4.7. Bosnian migrants in Italy ………..……... 42
5. Territorial mobility and distinct locality ………...…………..…………... 44
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7. Mobility and scale of economic activities ………...…... 57
8. Mobile networks and localities …....………....…. 61
9. Conclusions …………...………... 65
Bibliography………..……….……..68
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Preface
It was in the early 1980s, when I as a ten-year-old child noticed that it is not only my uncle who lives in Germany, but almost everyone I knew had someone, an acquaintance, a friend, a close family member, who lived in another European countries but my home country, Bosnia and Herzegovina (at that time Yugoslavia). Their stories, unusual food and beautiful presents would have created vivid images of the distant places in our heads. Two decades later, as an adult travelling around Europe I learned that no matter to which country or city I went, no matter how big they were and no matter what kind of place I have visited, there was no a shop, a gas station, a warehouse, a bus station, a tram, a children’s playground, a train, a shopping street that I have not heard my own language. Since I have moved to Amsterdam in 2005, I have been amazed by the fact that if I stroll one of the shopping streets in my neighborhood in the Old-West on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I could hear passersby speaking my mother tongue each twenty meters.
Back then during my childhood it was the legacy of the economic migrations in the 1960s and 1970s and the archetype could be found in most of the families in the former Yugoslavia. Today’s migrants are mainly their descendants who are crossing paths with the new wave of Yugoslavian war migrants from the 1990s, both significantly marking and shaping the demography of the European cities.
The constant encounter with the Bosnians living abroad had a great influence not only on my personal fascination by the phenomenon of migration, but also aroused my academic interest and curiosity about diversity, complexity, subjectivity, ambiguity and fuzziness of the topic.
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Summary
The purpose of my thesis is to analyze relationship between spatiality and social relations on the case of Bosnian migrants in Amsterdam and Milan. Influence of the spatial characteristics on the nature and level of presence of the migrants’ transnational orientations and activities is analyzed by limiting the research to the city level and taking into account specificities of the modern social world dealing with the complex processes such as mobility. The thesis seeks to determine types of migrants’ transnationalism created as a result of complex interactions between the humans and the space and exposed to various processes of the modern age.
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1. Introduction
As a result of thorough research of the contemporary literature on migration, three important problematics from this area of study attracted my attention.
Firstly, the fact that having various goals on their mind, migration researchers tend to study their objects of research differently, selecting both definitions of terms (such as: migrant, integration) and research methodology that best serve the objective of the research (Mendoza, 2012). This variety of defining and understanding of terms and methodology has been changing significantly under the influence of an increasingly transnational and interconnected world. What is striking about the contemporary migration is the fact that it has been shaped, influenced and changed, both theoretically and empirically, by many processes of the contemporary era, such as globalization, transnationalism and mobility. This is in line with generally acknowledged transnational paradigm (Vertovec and Cohen, 1999) that disrupted traditional notions of place and community, and consequently experiences, social interactions and community formations of the migrants. Moreover, transnationalisn has become one of the fundamental ways of understanding practices taking place across national borders, especially when speaking of migrants (Dahinden, 2010).
Secondly, various discussions around methodological nationalism in migration research came into sight over the past years. Despite decades of studying migrations, where the definition of a migrant and consequent approach to immigrant integration are correlated with nation-state conceptions (Scholten, 2011), only lately the researchers are starting to stress the need to go beyond the nation-state as the main unit of the analysis of the migration studies (Ibid, 2011). There are many reasons for this. One of them highlighted by Alexander (2003) is the attempt of the local policies to compensate for the
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limitations of the national policies. Another reason is significance of the local production and delivery of the services and resources important for the integration (Ambrosini, 2013). In addition to this, Ambrosini (Ibid, 2013) also mentions the importance of the locally developed decisions, processes and practices. Despite the recognition of the significance of the local level, migrants are still generally overlooked in global discourses on urbanization and cities, as many city and local governments still do not include migrants in their urban development planning and implementation. There is a growing tendency for migration to be considered as an urban affair and this calls for new approaches to urban governance and migration policies (World Migration Report, 2015).
Thirdly, acknowledging the importance of spatial dimensions in social sciences, and their methodological implications (Jessop, et. al. 2007) has recently been a subject of the discussions. As the authors suggest, the focus is not on the socio-spatial engagements as such, but rather on a series of distinct dimensions, including territory, place, scale and networks, each of them taken as a focal point for socio-spatial theory (Ibid, 2007). In her recent work Scheibelhofer (2010) stresses a multifold importance of the space-sensitive approach in migration study and a need to think about spatial as another dimension of the social that has to be deconstructed by migration research (Scheibelhofer, 2010).
In the light of these discussions, my focus is to understand how socio-spatial relations influence the (re)production of different types of transnationalism on the case of Bosnian migrants, a group of relatively well-integrated but yet under-researched migrants, as they appear in the cities of Milan and Amsterdam. Furthermore, by identifying the most important interconnections of socio-spatial relations the research
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seeks to find consequences of these particular relations for the transnational practices. These complex processes will be described through the dimensions of locality and mobility as suggested by Dahinden (2010). Looking at the group of migrants going through the post-settlement phase of migration, I will try to identify their specific relationships with the receiving society on the local scale (city) but in the global context and how these processes build social field and practices that link together in multiple ways their country of origin and their country of settlement (Valenta and Ramet, 2011). I build the research upon Dahinden’s (2010) proposal to look at transnational formations and to analyze migrants’ transnational practices, spaces and ways of being by taking into account mobility and locality. It is her understanding that transnational formations result from a combination of transnational mobility and locality in the sending or/and receiving country, where mobility is understood as the physical movement of people in transnational space and locality means being rooted or anchored – socially, economically or politically – in the country of immigration and/or in the sending country (Ibid, 2010). Looking at transnational formations as the effect of the combination of these two dimensions – mobility and locality – provides an interesting insights into the multiplicities of forms of migrants’ existence.
To better understand the phenomenon of transnationalism and how sets of social relations are developed at specific places (cities) I will apply the TPNS network, a set of socio-spatial dimensions suggested by Jessop et. al. (2007). Since my particular interest is in the city as place, I will focus on the dimension of space and use it as a conceptual tool to apply the concepts of locality and mobility and to dicuss different forms of the transnationalism created as a product of their interactions. Looking at the two dimensions, the research seeks to find how the interaction between the two determin the direction and the ultimate outcome of the transnationalism, position of the migrantsin
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the social world dealing with extensive and hugely contested mobility processes (Urry, 2007). Even though I will give a brief general overview of the theories, purpose of the research is not to give a precise definition or discuss in depth transnationalism itself. It will rather try to, similarly to what Franz (2003) does, identify tendencies in the socio-spatial relations that influence the way migrants develop and manifest their transnational practices.
Drawing from the literature I argue that social and spatial dimensions influence migrants’ reality in such ways that in its second phase migration is less transnational than in the first phase (i.e. recently after arrival). Despite the fact that peoples’ lives, organizations, states and global institutions are seen to be dealing with extensive and hugely contested mobility processes, this does not play important role in the transnational orientation of Bosnian migrants and their relationships with the host and home countries. The presence and influence of the mobilities needs to be acknowledged to a certain extent, but the characteristics of localities are crucial and they dominantely influence transnational practices. Based on the review of socio-spatial theories and migrant integration literature, my main focus is on the city as a place. I investigate transnationalism through four linkages between the place (locality) as a field of study and four main structuraing principles: territory, place, scale and networks as structuring principles. Limiting the discussion on a particular dimension might seem one-dimensional, but the focus is on the sequence of related dimensions (TPSN) is taken into account (Jessop et. al. 2009) and seems relevant to give a better grasp of the locality.
Social media platforms, literature, ethnography and semi-structured interviews with Bosnian migrants are used to conduct the research. The empirical analysis poses the following principal question: How do different relations of socio-spatial elements
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influence nature of transnationalism of Bosnians in the urban spaces of Amsterdam and Milan? Is the main form of their migration practices transnationalism or a higher level of orientation towards the home country? Are there some other forms of the social practices at play? The research will seek to identify and describe different forms of transnationalism influenced by particularities of the socio-spatial relations in Milan and Amsterdam.
Besides the personal fascination with the phenomenon of migration, added value of the research is in its attempt to bring together three most important recent discussions from the field of migration study and apply them throughout the comparative research. Firstly, by taking socio-spatial stand, it seeks to give a contribution to further application and development of this methodology. Secondly, by applying this methodology, it tries to give answers to some questions and reshape and rethink some general concepts and discuss them in the light of socio-spatial paradigm. Thirdly, the decision to take the migration enquiry to the city level is attempt to understand the local socio-political relations of migration. And in addition to the already mentioned values, there is a comparative component of the research which is seeking to find main similarities and differences in the two cities. The value of the comparative research lies in the three criteria established: feasibility, element of surprise and certain differences and similarities of multiple aspects of the cities. Choosing Amsterdam and Milan, two places relatively close both to each other and to Bosnia, made comparison easy to establish, at the same time choosing two different “models” of host country, a Western and a Mediterranean type that seemingly do not share similar characteristics. Choosing cases that readers do not expect would spark greater interest and debate with regard to the results of the research.
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the research. Chapter one is introductory and it briefly summarizes the main aspects and aims of the research. Chapter two in a coherent way gives an overview of main and most recent debates in the field of migration studies, describes and defines basic key terms used in the thesis. Chapter three focuses on the methodology and research design and it is subdivided in three sections. Section one outlines preparation for the research. Section two deals with the data collection. In the section three the results are discussed. Chapter four introduces the context of the research, cities of Milan and Amsterdam and gives an overview of Bosnian migrants in the two countries. In the chapters 5-8 collected data is discussed and analyzed by topics and the most important conclusions and reflections are drawn. Conclusions are made and discussed with regard to the differences between the contexts. In chapter nine I close by answering my research questions.
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2. Theoretical framework
Terms such as migrant, integration and transnationalism are analyzed within different contexts in the existing literature. Defining migrants and integration is at times a subject to controversy in both academic literature and political debates (Scholten, 2011) and there have been discussions on the subject for centuries. Transnationalism is a quite new term and studies on transnationalism increased only in the 90ies, becoming particularly important for understanding contemporary practices taking place across borders (Dahinden, 2010). This is especially important and relevant for the migrants. Another important phenomenon, to a certain extent affecting the migrants and plays significant role in the process of transnationalism is mobility. It is of a great importance to define all these terms properly and to analyze how they work before I discuss them in the context of the two case studies.
2.1 Migrant and integration
Despite the fact that the migration is a well-known phenomenon and it has been frequently researched from many aspects, it is a very complex endeavour to give a precise definition of migrant. One of the general features of the migration studies is that some terms and theories have been constantly redefined and renegotiated, and their meanings have been challenged in various contexts. In order to avoid confusion and give as precise definition of term as possible, many authors in academia embrace the multidisciplinary study approach, taking into consideration all the major standpoints: historical, sociological, demography, statistics, economy to the new technologies and modern means of communication. Indeed it is a big challenge to consider all the aspect of this complex phenomenon. For instance, the term migrant itself can be defined by different criteria, according to various categories and different methods. International
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Organization for Migration, for example, defines a migrant as: “any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of (1) the person’s legal status; (2) whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary; (3) what the causes for the movement are; or (4) what the length of the stay is (IOM, 2017). The definition here reflects a tendency to define a migrant and approach to immigrant integration in relation to nation-state conceptions (Scholten, 2011). On the contrary, there are many recent discussions around methodological nationalism in migration research. Only lately the researchers are starting to stress the need to go beyond the nation-state as the main unit of the analysis of the migration studies (Scheibelhofer, 2011). Local policies for immigrants have attracted a growing interest among scholars, as important units of the analysis in the governance of migration. Their significance, as stated by Ambrosini (2013) is in their autonomy with regard to the national policies of the host countries. Their importance relies on the fact that most of the services and resources significant for the process of integration is delivered on the local level (Ambrosini, 2013). Being strongly in favor of debates about migration and integration conducted on local level I will try to apply this on my research as it compares the two cities. It is interesting to mention in this context the example of the Netherlands, with Rotterdam that has assimilationist city policy and Amsterdam trying to shape a local identity that embraces diversity.
The discussions over migrants inevitably lead to another wider important concept - migrant integration. There is a very extensive body of literature on what could or should be understood by the term ‘integration’. Does it refer to assimilation, based around the requirement that migrants abandon their cultural identity and assume the identity of the host country in its place? Or does integration mean multiculturalism, in which both migrant and host societies retain their own identities and only limited adaptation is
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required? The EU definition of integration is close to this second approach: integration is a two-way process in which neither group need to give up their cultural identity but in which both add a shared dimension to that identity (Bijl and Verweij, 2012). Despite all these theories, there is a lack of a general agreement on how immigrant integration is to be achieved. As migrant integration draws on many broader societal values it is difficult and almost impossible to give precise definition of the integration in the first place. Similarly as with term migrant, the distinction is usually made between the social-economic, social cultural and political-legal position (Fermin, 1997). Consequently, by focusing on one or another there is a constant fear of neglecting other important aspects of the term. I ran into a similar struggle during my research project – how to define the integration is and what the main elements that determine the process are. As the purpose of the research is not to give a precise definition of the term, but to use it to understand another more complex phenomena related to migration, I adopt basic and simple definition introduced by Penninx (2003), who considers the integration as a processes that involves two parties: the immigrants, with their characteristics, efforts and adaptation, and the receiving society, with its interactions with these newcomers and their institutions (Penninx, 2003).
2.2 Mobility
A striking characteristic of our époque is that there is a changing perception of time and space due to the increased mobility. Ancient cultures have always been considering space and time as mutually dependent categories. Kant wrote about time and space as basic categories of existence, something inevitable. Highly developed and technologized culture of our contemporary world is approaching another extreme – overcoming of space and time, attempt to put everything in “this moment”, “now” and
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to ignore the space. This seems to be exactly what modern technology does – moves everything to the digital. As noted by Urry, new technologies of both transport and communications that characterize modern societies at the same time making physical movement less necessary (Urry, 2007). Mobility is not a new term. What is new is: “the scale of movement around the world, the diversity of mobility systems in play, the especial significance of the self-expanding auto mobility system and is awesome risks, the elaborate interconnections of physical movement and communications, the development of mobility domains that by-pass national societies, the significance of movement to contemporary governmentality and an increased importance of multiple mobilities for people’s social and emotional lives.” (Urry, 2007)
Urry (Ibid) claims further that the systems of the new era are becoming more complicated, contain many elements and are based upon assemblage of specialized and hidden forms of expertise. In addition to this, the systems are much more interdependent with each other and the individual journeys or pieces of communication depend upon multiple systems, all needing to function and interface effectively with each other. Over the last fifty years the systems have been dependent on computers and software.
What is interesting and relevant for the case of migrants are consequences of the novel characteristics of the mobility systems of the new era on their position. Mobility of diaspora and migrants is complex and in the contemporary world we usually talk about forced migration which means that the mobility in the places of origin is endangered by the instability of the economic, social and political crisis (Urry, 2007). In the new places, places of migration, migrants are exposed to new legal and social systems. This has consequences on their migration and capacity to stay. But the question that can be posed here is: What happens when the first phase is overcome? Does this necessarily
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lead to transnationalism? Does it lead further to return to the country of origin?
By acknowledging the complexity of the new mobilities and in line with the argument that the social world needs to be analyzed quite differently once peoples’ lives, organizations, states and global institutions are seen to be dealing with extensive and hugely contested mobility processes (Urry, 2007), I look at the socio-spatial aspects of migrants’ life through the lenses of the mobility paradigm and discuss influence of these novel characteristics of the mobility systems on their position.
Some studies explore how the synchronicity of local and long distance connectivity in migrants’ lives affects the nature of migration and the condition of being a migrant, from both an ontological and anthropological point of view (Kluzer and Hache, 2009). The prominent role of ICT in connecting people simultaneously with here and there have urged some researchers to use the term ‘connected migrants’, dismantling the common view of the migrant as subject to processes of uprooting and as a ‘detached’ person (Diminescu, 2008). This perception allows a new perspective on the synchronicity of social relations in various countries and on the implications that derive from it (Kluzer and Hache, 2009).
2.3 Transnationalism
Already mentioned in relation to the mobility and connectivity, another important and relatively novel concept that is lacking a precise definition is transnationalism. Gowricharn (2009) in one of his works gives a preview of the variety of terms related to the transnationalism, such as: transnational communities (Vertovec, 1999), transnational spaces (Faist, 2008), transnational social fields (Basch, Glick Schiller and Szanton 1994) and transnational involvement (Snel, Engbersen and Leerkes, 2006), that are used interchangeably with “transnational networks” and “cross-border activities”. Vertovec
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defines transnationalism as multiple ties and interactions linking people and institutions across the borders of nation-states (Vertovec, 1999). Transnational activities can be defined as:
"Those that take place on a recurrent basis across national borders and that require a regular and significant commitment of time by participants. Such activities may be conducted by relatively powerful actors, such as representatives of national governments and multinational corporations, or may be initiated by more modest individuals, such as immigrants and their home country kin and relations. These activities are not limited to economic enterprises, but include political, cultural and religious initiatives as well." (Portes, 1999)
This definition indicates the close relationship between transnationalism and globalization, which also refers essentially to the rapid expansion of cross-border transactions and networks in all areas of life.
Another term that we can closely relate to transnationalism is technology. For many years, international migration meant a radical detachment from one’s community of origin (Faist, 2000). Migrants were characterized as “uprooted” because their existing social ties had been cut. With the emergence of the new technologies, the situation significantly changed. The emergence of new technologies, leading to reduced communication costs and ‘rich’ communication content (in conjunction with decreased travel costs), is changing migration processes and structures. Contemporary world is structured in a way that permits individuals to engage simultaneously in more than one place. This is a useful perspective, particularly in terms of illustrating how migrants negotiate the different spaces and times they engage in. The concept of “double/triple”
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spaces in migration studies are well known and it is interesting to look into how such practices occur through public, private or semi-private or virtual spaces. New technologies have also facilitated the emergence of transnational identities, that is, individuals who view themselves as members of a national or ethnic group despite the fact that they do not live in the geographical areas associated with those nations or ethnicities (Komito, 2011).
Despite the fact that the concept suggests that boundaries between nation-states are becoming less distinct, the term has been criticized for being imprecise as the actual links of transnationals go from village to village and from family to family, rather than from nation to nation (Waldinger and Fitzerald, 2007). However, transnationalism is a very important concept that helps to understand migration phenomena. Hereby I adopt the embodied approach, suggested by some authors, where the scale of analysis is upon migrants, rather than on migration flows, and on transnationals, rather than on transnationalism (Dunn, 2010). My research is in favor of the approach that calls for the migrant experiences to be placed at the center of analysis (Faist, 2008). In addition to the defining the transnationalism, some authors find also the systematizations of the body of knowledge important. There are numerous ways to systematize the body of the knowledge on transnationalism. For the purpose of this research I adopt the way to look at the transnational practices suggested by Dahinden (2010) who proposes to analyze the transnational practices by taking into account mobility and locality. According to her, transnational formations are result of a combination of transnational mobility and the locality in the sending and receiving country, where mobility is understood as a physical movement of people and locality as a rootedness (Dahinden, 2010). Using the dimensions of mobility and locality, Dahinden identifies four different ideal types of the transnational, where the ideal types are given as abstract models for the theory building
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(Ibid, 2010). Here with a brief prewiew of the typology by Dahinden (2010): The first type is called 1) localized diasporic transnational formations and it combines low levels of transnational mobility with high level of local ties and low level of ties in the sending country; the second type is called 2) localized mobile transnational formations and is characterized by more elements of mobility, although the sedentary aspects remain highly relevant; Dahinden names her third type 3) transnational mobiles, and it concerns people who are highly mobile but have a low degree of local ties; the last ideal type 4) transnational outsiders is characterized by low transnational mobility and, at the same time, a low degree of local anchorage. The main features of the ideal types are presented
in the table 1.
Table 1. Mobility and locality in transnational formations; Dahinden (2010)
Similarly, my research will through the two dimension discuss the models in detail or to try to categorize my informants into one of the groups. It looks convenient to apply dimensions of mobility and locality suggested by Dahinden through the TPNS network, as it will be explained in the following section of this chapter.
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2.4 Socio-spatial dimensions and the TPSN framework
The prevalent ignorance of the social dimension of the spatial in the sociological migration research might be seen as an absurd, taken the obvious nature and connection of the social phenomenon of migration to the moving and migrating (Scheibelhofer, 2010). Discussions on methodological nationalism in migration research stress the importance of multi-disciplinary research, and the combination of spatiality and sociality supports this idea very much. I came to similar conclusion in my attempt to define the object of enquiry of my research. Similarly, my attempt to define the integration in part one of this chapter was led by the understanding that migrant integration goes beyond social elements, and that the spatiality also plays important role. Here I can refer to an example of a one-dimensional approach - Franz’s (2003) study of the integration of Bosnian refugees in Europe following the Balkan wars in the 1990s, where the evidence was found that with the right integration policies and labor market conditions it is possible to achieve a high level of integration among refugees within a short period of time. However, according to the findings of Franz, the integration into host societies was not only a question of participation in the labor market. Social participation and interaction, articulated in relationships with members and institutions of the surrounding society were additional critical variables of integration and Bosnians in Vienna and New York City established different networks under the impact of structural arrangement of the resettlement scheme, the society at large, the Bosnians’ refugee status and the time frame of their arrival had an impact on network formation. Bosnian women in Vienna, more so than men, adapted successfully to the host society because they pragmatically responded to the existing economic segregation and to the socio-economic demands by creating networks with Yugoslav Gastarbeiter women and Austrian citizens. In New York City, however, female Bosnian
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newcomers neither desired nor considered it necessary to create similar links to Yugoslav groups who had migrated to the USA in previous decades. Their integration occurred more along ethnic or local boundaries (Franz, 2003).
In similar way I look into the transnational practices of Bosnian migrants in Amsterdam and Milan, seeking to find context-dependent similarities and differences in the two cities. To avoid one-dimensionalism, I focus my research on spatial dimensions of social relations as suggested by Jessop et. al. (2008). Using the classification presented in their work I acknowledge importance of the spatial aspect of social relations, both their theoretical importance and specificity as well as their relations and applications throughout different fields of operations (Jessop et al 2008). Initial conceptual orientation suggested (Figure 1.) is used and deployed it in the sense that I look at the place (city) as a field of operation and analyze how it is produced through the impact of other four structuring principles: territory, place, scale and networks. By doing this one-sided and reductionist analysis is avoided.
Furthermore, I try to put the aforementioned relations into practice of migration research by taking into account mobility and locality as suggested by Dahinden (2010) According to her, transnational formations are result of a combination of transnational mobility and the locality in the sending and receiving country, where mobility is understood as a physical movement of people and locality as a rootedness (Dahinden, 2010). If we here observe transnationalism as a new field of socio-spatial relations, we can in a certain way translate the experiences of migrants into socio-spatial paradigm, where spatial is replaced by locality and social by mobility. In my research I use the idea presented by Dahinden and discuss it through the socio-spatial framework. The framework is still vague and it is ddifficult to apply it ampitricaly. However, if we
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observe the locality as a spatial spatial element form the framework, TPSN framework can be useful to better grasp the understanding of locality as place and apply it through mobility. This is shown in the Table 2, and the data collected is discussed through each relation of the dimensions from the table in the chapters 5-8. Through this theoretical framework I try to understand and explain transnational practices in Milan and Amsterdam, find similarities and differences of the two cities and how this relates to the migrants and their transnational practices. Theoretical framework is hereby used to explore how transnational practices link to these factors and how specific socio-spatial relations encourage certain possibilities for transnational action and discourage the others in the case a group of relatively well-integrated (but yet under-researched) group of migrants and find similarities and differences in the two urban contexts: Amsterdam and Milan.
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Structuring principle
Field of operation
Place (locality, city, Amsterdam/home city) Territorial mobility Territorial mobility and distinct locality Place and mobility Mobility and the sense of place
Scale and mobility Mobility and scale of economic activities
Network mobility Mobile networks and localities
Table 3: TPSN framework applied on the migrant transnationalism
2.5 Research question and subquestions
By applying this multi-dimensional framework, the research will seek to perceive and better understands migrants’ experiences and circumstances. In the light of these discussions and based of the body of the literature on socio-spatial theories, my focus will be to analyze different levels and forms transnationalism of Bosnian migrants, Research will look into how different spatial dimensions of social relations (territory, scale, place and networks) and their different combinations may play into broader dynamics of transnational practices. It is important to understand the migration and transnationalism in the sense of both mobility and locality that is usually not enough theorized and researched. This might seem as a paradox, but for migrants is equally important to develop some local ties in order to integrate, but at the same time, this is important to develop their mobility and transnational behaviors and practices towards the country/cities of origin.
The research is trying to give answer to the following question: How do different kinds of mobility influence transnational life of Bosnian migrants in urban spaces of Amsterdam and Milan? Different kinds of transnational will be identified and examined by posing the following sub question:
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1) What are the most important types of transnationalism of Bosnian migrants and in which ways are they influenced by socio-spatial relations?
2) In which way mobility influence and re-negotiate transnational behavior of Bosnian migrants in the two urban contexts?
3) Are there significant differences and similarities in Milan and Amsterdam? Based on the claim that the increased mobility has a great impact on the social world of migrants the hypothesis is derived that due to this migrants’ transnational orientations expected to be increased towards the country of origin. The research will proof that this is not the case with Bosnian migrants. It will seek to find the reasons for this in spatial factors. Both mobility and locality (place) are researched through the socio-spatial paradigm and claims on their impact on the transnational activities of migrants are developed respectively. Theoretical background on mobility is included to explain the relationship between the transnationalism and mobility paradigm (Urry, 2007). I look at the presence, practices and activities of individuals through these dimensions and their relations that create specific forms of integration in the two urban contexts. Furthermore, I try to determine the specificities on the basis of what kind of conditions (socio-spatial relations) individuals and migrant groups exist. I operationalize transnationalism by looking at the both social and spatial dimensions of the relations and identify kind of transnational orientation.
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3. Methodology
As already briefly addressed in the theoretical chapter, definition, location and selection play significant role in studying migration (Morales and Jorba, 2010). To better understand the data collection and the analysis in the research, it is important to give a preview and brief explanation of different phases and the methodological choices that were made.
3.1 Preparing for the research
In order to prepare thoroughly for the data collection, and choose appropriate methods, I tried to identify literature dealing with the similar topics. Theoretical background and a preliminary research provided a good base for an explanatory research. The nature of the topic chosen called for a study that aims to understand a phenomenon of migrants’ transnationalism (orientation to home or host country) by identifying motivations and reasons that inform their social actions. This corresponds with Weber’s (1949) definition of interpretative case studies (Thacher, 2006) and aim of my research is indeed to explain behaviors of people by identifying their motives. However, the research seeks to investigate not only the subjective views but also consequences that these subjective meanings have. To summarize, I decided to conduct the interpretive case study in order to give a contribution to the explanatory theory.
The research seeks to give a contribution through social science to normative insight in line with Weber’s (1949) version of interpretative analysis. While focusing on values, the idea is to describe the values held by migrants, rather than the way they think about the transnationalism and their attachments to home/host cities/country. Here I use
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detached third person sense, as the focus of the research is on how the world is, rather than how it ought to be (Thacher, 2006). The research is an attempt to incorporate the idea of contribution to the normative theory, and not to go beyond the existing philosophical foundations for social science practice (Ibid, 2006)
The lack of the literature focusing on Bosnian communities in particular led me to looking at the wider perspective and reviewing some studies on migrants in general, or in some other countries and use parts relevant for my own research. In the first place I refer here to the study of the social integration of first generation immigrants and refugees in the works of Valenta and integration of Bosnian migrants in Vienna and New York by Franz. The studies helped me to identify major methodological approaches to my target group. As Valenta stressed, experiences, meanings and presentations of self in everyday life are abstract concepts and in order to better understand them focus on the qualitative rather than on quantitative aspects of the phenomena are required (Valenta, 2009). Therefore the decision to use qualitative method research design was made, as a best way to provide in-depth view of the first hand experiences of migrants and professionals as well as additional information regarding the existing knowledge gaps.
Several times during my research I questioned the problematic of being “insider” and “outsider”. Obviously, as a member of the “community” that I researched I was an insider. I decided not to consider it as something that could have a negative effect on the research and to take the attitude that it can be seen as a positive for the qualitative research (Ganga and Scott, 2006), as it can provide a level of trust that is not otherwise attainable (Dwyer and Buckle, 2008). Despite the fact that this approach has been criticized for the fear of assumptions of understanding and knowledge without explaining and exploring particular experiences and beliefs (Chavez, 2008) or a risk of
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being “in-between” that can reinforce the apparent fixity of insiders, outsiders and "in-betweeners" (Ryan, 2015). I argue that being outsider does not automatically mean that he researcher is neutral and objective. And in the end, there are some other subjectivities that we can talk about during conducting a research and interviews: male-female, gay-straight, etc. Taking my position as a migrant myself, the elements of the engagements are inevitable, and reactivity or even interference seems logical during this field of study. At the same time, my personal background allows me to contribute to the study of the informants by focusing also on behavior, the ways they engaged into our conversation, non-verbal expressions and not only limiting it to their answers to my questions. Sharing the same background and language in the first place could make this possible.
3.2. Data collection
General quantitative (census) data was used to obtain general impressions about the presence and distribution of Bosnian migrants in both cities/regions, but quantitative data was mostly used throughout the research. The fieldwork was structured in four different phases and was conductedas follows:
- Preliminary literature and Web research of the presence of Bosnians (organized groups and individuals) in Amsterdam and Milan
- Contact with local groups and individuals to find potential informants for the interviews
- Conducting interviews with informants in Milan between November 2016 and February 2017
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- Conducting interviews with informants in Amsterdam between August and October 2017
Firstly I conducted the literature and web research in order to identify associations, organizations or any other organized groups and/or individuals of Bosnian and Herzegovinian origin in Milan and Amsterdam. In order to find potential informants through “formal” channels, I tried to map all of the organizations through the official documents and literature (Bosnian Diaspora Abroad, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH) and then did the online research. Google search was conducted by typing (in Amsterdam case both in Dutch and Bosnian, in Milan case both in Italian and Bosnian) “Bosnian” in combination with “organization in the Netherlands/Italy”, or “Bosnian” in combination with “migrants”. Some organizations were identified and in order to make first contacts I wrote a letter in Bosnian language, presenting myself and the research interest and asking for some basic information and an appointment. I sent it to all e-mail addresses available. During the first e-mail contact I received 16 replies (out of 39 email addresses approached) reporting “delivery to the recipient failed” and only 6 replies from people (2 of them between 2-5 months after the e-mail was sent). The response rate was low, especially in the case of Milan. Among the responses only one was an Italian connection which was not very much useful as the person was not active anymore and returned in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I also approached the Consular department of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Milan, and made an appointment. Furthermore, some private connections were used to make a contact. Finally, I joined a few social media groups: Bosnians in Italy, Bosnians in the Netherlands, Bosnians in Amsterdam and Bosnians in Milan in order to find target informants. I actively participated in groups and ona few occasions posted various questions in the groups, or
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approaching people individually. During the contact I used snow-ball technique in order to find more respondents. I asked groups/individuals to link me with other people they know. The original idea was to have as target informants both
a) Migrants professionals (individuals of Bosnian origin living in Milan/Amsterdam) who are at the same time engaged actively in work of the organizations/associations for Bosnian people and
b) Migrant individuals of Bosnian background that are not necessarily engaged in work of the Bosnian organizations but they live in Milan/Amsterdam.
Already at the early stage it was obvious that it is difficult to find any organized groups or individuals in Milan, even after I expanded the research to the whole Italy. Most of the e-mail addressed did not exist anymore or the websites were outdated. I received different e-mail delivery failure reports. The e-mail addresses seemed to be inactive or did not exist anymore and despite the fact that the addressed letter was written in Bosnian langugea the response rate was extremely low. The difficulty to find the respondents could have been a sign of the lack of the specific groups and activities in Milan. Another possible reason for this might be my limited time of stay in Milan, not sufficient to make personal connections and build the networks. In case of Amsterdam it was much easier to do so, as I already had personal connections developed over the longer period of time.
However, a guide for interviews was created based on the literature and theoretical discussions, indicators, systematized concept and broader background concept.
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Questions were created, based on the variables related to integration, transnationalism socio-spatial relations and mobility.
The origin (country of birth) and place of living were used as the main criteria to select the informants. Besides the main criteria profiles of the informants (tables 4 and 5) were chosen based on the age, gender, origin, education and ethnicity (I tried to cover as many criteria as possible in order to get a valid sample). Informants had different ethnic and class backgrounds: all three major nationalities existing in Bosnia were covered, male and female (more female than male) of different ages. Some of them were of the first generation but I also tried to cover the second generation. All of the informants had lived in the city for at least 15 years. Ages ranged from 20 to 60, but most were middle-aged or older. Most of the informants are highly educated. Minimum education for all of them is Secondary school and 12 out of 14 have completed University or Master’s. All interviews were conducted in Bosnian language and lasted between 40 and 120 minutes, most being around one hour. In both cities I had the total of 16 interviews, seven in Milan and nine in Amsterdam. Most of the people were interviewed in the cafes in the city center, some of them elsewhere, for example at home and in buildings of organizations. One of them was in consular department and it was not recorded but the detailed notes were made. Only three of them were Skype interviews (two in Milan and one in Amsterdam). The interviews were fully transcribed in the original (Bosnian) language and then coded inductively by using the concepts as categories.
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Informant Age Gender
Ethnic background Length of stay in Italy (in years) City/region of origin Education Occupation A 40 Female Orthodox/Cat holic 15
Tuzla University Adminstration
B 50 Female Orthodox 24 Doboj Secondary school Small private company owner C 30 Female Muslim 23 Sarajevo Secondary school + 2yrs University Client service
D 23 Female Muslim 16 Travnik University
Student/Work in service sector (hotel) E 26 Female Orthodox 24 Doboj University Student/Service sector (café) F 38 Male Catholic 24 Mostar University Car trade company G 44 Male Orthodox n/a
Banja Luka Master’s
Consular representative Table 4. Overview of the interviews in Milan
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Informant Age Gender
Ethnic background Length of stay in the Netherlands (in years) City/region of origin Education Occupation H 44 Male Orthodox/Ca tholic/Musli m
22 Sarajevo University Electronic
engineer
I 46 Female Muslim 17 Velika Kladusa
Secondary school Driving coach/compan y owner J 26 Female Muslim 23
Teslic University Ecomist
K 40 Female n/a 22 Sarajevo University Producer/Film industry L 41 Female Orthodox 18 Sarajevo Secondary school Artist M 38 Female Muslim 16 Bugojno Master’s Administrative Assistant N 60 Female Orthodox/Ca tholic 24 Doboj Secondary school Retired/Volunt ary work Table 5. Overview of the interviews in Amsterdam
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I used a snow-ball technique during the interviews in order to find more informants. I asked them to link me with other people they know.
As it was not possible to find any professionals during the first case study in Milan, I focused on the migrants themselves and the interviews switched to in-depth rather than the semi-structured interviews. The unexpected changes during the first phase, the first case study led to certain changes in the second phase. I had some struggles with the further strategy as well as some doubts and questions about the best strategy to deal with the problems. I decided to change the original strategy and adapt the methodology based on the profile of the informants available during the first phase. In order to avoid having uneven sets of data, I decided to focus the research on the non-professional migrants in the case of Amsterdam as well. However, I used this as valuable and relevant for the research results in the sense of explaining and understanding of the context and outlining of the differences. Furthermore, the set of data for comparison may seem small, but for this kind of research focusing on the agency of people and their experiences is it has relevance and validity and it is sufficient to illustrate and explain some of the aspects of the researched topic and support and expand theoretical framework.
3.3 Results
After reading the transcripts, and first impressions, I read them thoroughly again and labelled relevant sections and sentences (sometimes also phrases and even words) in order to conceptualize underlying patterns. The definitions spelled out in the literature review section of the concepts were used to identify them in the interview and plenty of phenomena was coded. Based on the literature on transnationalism, socio-spatial
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dimensions, TPSN networks, locality and mobility, I made decisions about the most important ones and created categories by bringing several codes together. I especially focused on the dimensions of mobility and locality, as the most important for the research, and through Dahinden’s (2010) classification of migrants made final categorization. Once the quotes categorized, they were compared with each other to see contradictions, similarities, or interesting points made. Some of the initial codes were dropped in this process as they were more general and personal and not very much relevant for the research. Only important ones were kept and grouped together. Categories were labelled and at this point I had to make some choices about the most relevant ones and how they are related (connected) to each other and how the ones from the Amsterdam are related to the ones from Milan. Connections between them and differences and similarities between the two contexts are described and presented in chapters 5-8. They represent the main results of my study. Some conclusions are made and potentially new knowledge about the world from the perspective of the participants is created and partly outlined in the last chapter of the research.
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4. Urban contexts of Amsterdam and Milan and Bosnian migrants
Before I start the detailed description and analysis of the results, I will quickly introduce the two contexts in which the research was conducted. A brief background on the economic structure, policies, welfare state and migration in the two cities is given as an entry point for the further discussion on the migration and transnationalism. Furthermore, a picture of Bosnian migrants is given through the general introduction as well as in the two specific contexts.
4.1 Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest financial centre of the Netherlands and host to numerous headquarters of national and international companies. Schiphol, the main international airport in the Netherlands, also makes Amsterdam an important retail distribution centre. According to the data from a detailed City Report from 2013, besides the predominantly based on financial and business-related services, Amsterdam is specialised in media, arts and design, ICT and telecommunications, commerce, and logistics/transport. In 2011, nearly 43,000 persons were working in Amsterdam’s financial institutions (mostly in banks) and 100,000 persons were employed in business services (consultancy, research and other business-oriented services) (Brandsen and Broersma, 2013). With more than 60,000 employees, the care sector is also important in terms of employment opportunities. In addition, more than 30,000 persons were working in education, local authorities employed ca. 30,000 persons, more than 56,000 persons were working in commerce, nearly 30,000 persons were employed in ICT, ca. 27,500 persons were working in hotels, restaurants or cafes, and more than 20,000 in
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cultural and recreational services (Ibid, 2013). Usually far more of the urban core is set aside for businesses, offices and shops, but people actually live in Amsterdam’s centre. This unusual demographic pattern originates from the Golden Age of the seventeenth century, when the commercial elite decided to set up shop in the heart of the city, giving the pattern of urban development a mixed residential and commercial character (Musterd and Salet, 2003). Moreover, Amsterdam is also an attractive and popular tourist destination. Despite this fact, it has never been taken by the tourists and people that pass through it, or turned into a museum (Ibid, 2003). The city center remains the scene where a variety of activities are going on and where a great deal of cultural and economic intercourse takes place alongside a striking amount of residential use (Ibid, 2003). The authors also stress that Amsterdam in recent decades, together with the other major world cities, has been going through accelerated urban developments outside the central city, which results in more complex relationships (Ibid, 2003). Amsterdam also has a reputation of a major center of artistic creativity, as well as of a place of some liberal freedoms reflected in its Red Light District and coffee shops. It has been going through some re-conceptualizations and changes. Over the last couple of years Amsterdam has been a model of a creative city with flexible job markets, gentrification, mixed-use neighborhoods and a global place branding.
4.2 Immigration in the Netherlands
Migrant integration in the Netherlands is according to the European Immigration Report for the Netherlands (Gropas and Ruby, 2014) characterized as quite vulnerable. Despite the fact that there is an increase of educational achievements of migrants and employment levels, there are many negative signs such as welfare state dependency,
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spatial concentration, social-cultural separation and high delinquency rates. Economic crisis affected migrants and partly decreased progress made in terms of labour market participation. However, the national debate on migration and integration should be distinguished from the local dimension of the debate (Scholten, 2013). Unlike Rotterdam with its assimilationists politics on the integration, Amsterdam has a positive attitude towards the diversity and it is often perceived as an example of the so-called Dutch multicultural model of integration. What is specific for Amsterdam is that it parallel to national developments, it developed a pluralist ‘Minorities Policy’ in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a multi-culturalism policy whose objective was the integration of minorities so that they also maintain their cultural identity (City of Amsterdam, 1982). These policies were reformulated and abandoned during the 1990s. Diversity Policy was established that involved a frame-shift from a ‘group-specific policy’ to ‘problem-oriented policies’. Amsterdam’s policies changed again, especially with the 2005 memorandum ‘We, the people of Amsterdam’ (City of Amsterdam, 2005), that made a more explicit issue connection between immigrant integration and anti-radicalization policies, focusing in particular on participation and interethnic contact as well as harder measures in the areas of crime and radicalization.
4.3 Milan
Milan is the capital of the province of Milan and the Lombardy region. As the second largest city in Italy, it has the population of 1,324,110 inhabitants. It is also the centre of the largest metropolitan area in Italy, and one of the largest in Europe. This is a vast urban zone comprising a number of Municipalities of different size, a "mega-city-region" that has a tradition of economic engine and a complex spatial division of labour
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(Ranci 2011). It has a reputation of the economic and financial capital of Italy that hosts stock exchange and the most important multinational corporations. It is the most global city in the country and one of the richest areas in Europe. After the reorganisation in the 1990s, the Municipality is administratively divided into 9 "decentralisation areas". From the political point of view, since the early 1990s, when direct election of Mayors was introduced in Italy, for two decades centre-right wing coalitions have governed the Municipality. The city experienced some mayor changes in 2011, when a centre-left coalition won the local election. Milan region has also being an important cultural and political centre for the region, but its economic role sometimes overshadows the importance in other disciplines. According to some critiques, Milan has been recently struggling to invent itself and regain the international leadership that it had once as an industrial Fordist city (Gonzalez, 2007). Milan is trying to become a global city by investing in expensive architecture, while these projects do not address needs of the local population (Ibid, 2007). According to OECD (2006) the attractiveness of Milan has suffered from striking deterioration of liveability and this is caused by congested transportation, pollution, unaffordable housing, social segregation and lack of green spaces.
4.4 Immigration in Italy
In terms of immigration, in the past 30 years Italy has become one of the most important destination countries for international migration. Italy’s hostile political discourse towards immigration in the past decade resulted in numerous legislative interventions towards new arrivals, tying residence more closely to employment, limiting the rights granted to migrants and making deportations more effective (Ambrosini, 2013). Italy
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has been going through a “brain drain” while at the same time importing menial labour. The recession reduced immigration, and had an impact on the migrants. Immigrants participation in self-employment increased, especially in most precarious types of work, most important domestic and care work, where the ambiguity of the Italian migration policy was highlighted. This kind of self-employment is tolerated by the authorities and it is exempted from the public disapproval of the irregular immigration.
Another recent trend in immigration policy is local regulations. Many city governments, especially in Northern Italy, have issued regulations introducing specific prohibitions or restrictions against immigrants (Ambrossini, 2013). Although sometimes their real target is implicit or hidden, and foreigners are not directly mentioned, the aim of the rules is very clear: to repress veils, or kebab stalls or unauthorized places of warship. The specific feature of the migration phenomenon is the high-turnover and the short stay of the immigrants. Only 25 per cent of the legal immigrants have been resident in Italy for more than 10 years and less than 50 per cent for 5 years (Benassi, Mingione, 2003).
4.5 General overview of Bosnain migrants
Migration patterns in Europe over the past three decades have been marked by east to west population flows after the Cold War, former Yugoslavian wars and the effects of economic crisis (Gropas and Triandafyllidou, 2014). High levels of migration led to diversity and demographic change across Europe. Given the numbers, Bosnian migrants are not the most significant group, however they take a great part in these demographic processes.
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Bosnian migrants are considered a well-integrated group (Valenta, 2011) sometimes even called “ white refugee elite” because of their European origin, education and level of integration (Colic and Pesker 2005). They are also represented in the media as an example of the migrants that can be used for future practices (Barslund, et. al. 2017). In Valenta and Remet (2011) several authors made link between context of reception, migrants’ individual characteristics and their experiences. This attitude has been criticized by Colic and Pesker (2005) as discriminatory according to different categorizations. Despite of having a very good reputation, this group is still vulnerable and has been experiencing stigma, discrimination and linguistic barrier (Valenta, 2011). As mentioned in Valenta, besides the integration and the related processes, it is interesting to look into the transnational practices as important characteristics of migrants and especially in terms of the policy-making (in both home and host societies) and how they can influence migrant’s orientation(s) towards home and host countries. According to the recent report on Bosnian immigrants published by Bosnian authorities around two million migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina live in 51 host countries including in some cases the second and the third generation. According to the detailed report from 2013, this number makes 50% of the total population of Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, 2014). Besides the detailed preview given by host countries, the report emphasizes main characteristics of the Bosnian diaspora, also mentioned in Valenta and Ramet (2011):
- Most of the resettled migrants around the world have solved their permanent status either by achieving citizenship in the receiving country or by resort to some other formally prescribed regulation (temporary permits, working visas or student visas); - A large number of Bosnian migrants is highly educated and large numbers of young people participate in higher education in host countries;
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- Bosnian migrants are very well integrated, which is especially evident on the case of children and they actively participate in job market;
- Once segmented and organized on the basis of the ethnic or religious belonging, there is a recent trend of organizing based on the branch, gender or age (for example organized groups of women, young people) in specialized organizations cooperating with the organizations and institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the data of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period between 1998 and 2013, 61,752 people renounced citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to be able to obtain the citizenship of another state, most of them of Germany and Austria (Ministarstvo civilnih poslova BiH, 2013).
4.6 Bosnian migrants in the Netherlands
25,440 Bosnian migrants live in the Netherlands, only 2,370 out of them are not in possession of the Dutch passport (Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, 2014). The Netherlands pays more than five million dollar per year for aged pensions and reintegration pensions in Bosnia, and according to this data we can come to a conclusion that a great number of Bosnians has returned to their country of origin. However, over the past few years the scheme has undergone some changes and the age of the beneficiaries had changed from 45 to 55. Bosnian citizens can obtain the citizenship of the Netherlands through the naturalization process after living uninterruptedly in the Netherlands for at least five years with a valid residence permit and passing a civil integration examination and Dutch language test.
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4.7 Bosnian migrants in Italy
The approximate number of Bosnians in Italy is around 40,000 and between 2001 and 2011 more than 14,000 immigrated to Italy. Most of the Bosnians is distributed in districts: Veneto, Lombardy, Friuli, Lazio, Emilia Romagna and Piedmont. Most of the migrants of Bosnian origin still do not have Italian citizenship and their status in Italy is based on a permanent and a temporary working permit. Italy has a family model of the Citizenship act according to which it is difficult for immigrants and their descendants to gain the citizenship. The conditions are: legal residence at the territory of Italy at least 10 years, possession of the residence permit, one year course of the Italian language, European history and culture and Italian law, pay taxes regularly, have enough financial resources. The citizenship Law of Italy does not explicitly says if it is needed to renounce the citizenship, so it is very likely that persons from BiH keep both citizenships. BH migrants mainly work in the production, building sector, sales and hotels and restaurants. The percentage of unemployment of the BH citizens in Italy is quite high – 10%, which is more than average for Italy - 7, 8% (Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, 2014).
So, in terms of transnationalism, Bosnians are a very interesting group because of their educational background and European origin, and the detailed analysis of some structural factors influencing their transnational behaviors will be given in the following chapters.
In my research I use term migrant and intentionally avoid to use term diaspora as it is very contradictory and vaguely defined. It is used to define various groups of immigrants in different contexts. Many authors consider approach in the conceptualization of diaspora too broad (Brubaker, 2005), some even considering it to
