Volume 19, Issue 3-5, September 2015
THE MYTH OF RETURN: BOSNIAN REFUGEES AND THE PERCEPTION OF “HOME”
Authors: Ondřej Žíla
Abstract: The presented paper deals with the phenomenon of the so-called myth of return in the case of Bosnian refugees and their different perception of “home.” The main goal of the paper is to answer the question if it was possible to renew the original concept of “home” in the context of the postwar situation and, more precisely, to delve into the question of how their desire to return “home” (i.e. the so-called myth of return) changed as a result of the prolonging time the refugees lived in a different place. At the same time, the paper analyses the differences in the perception of “home” among the particular constituent nations, explores how members of different age categories differently perceive “home,” and last but not least, it focuses on the change of perception of “home” as a result of the social conflict between urban and countryside refugees. The perception of “home” is likewise researched from the point of view of a refugee in a host country, i.e. the role of the diaspora in the return of the refugees is also reflected.
Keywords: refugees, repatriation, myth of return, perception of home, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Article info: 130-145
Received: May 19, 2015 | Revised: August 10, 2015 | Accepted: September 1, 2015