The current development programs of the European Union, the V4 and the wider Danube region also include a comprehensive assessment of the relations of and the relevant strategies towards the six countries of the Western Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania) in prospect for EU membership. The convergence of the Western Balkans towards Europe, the effective implementation of economic and political reforms, the conflict transformation, the stabilization of the region and the promotion of democratic development are fundamental interests of the EU. The integration of the Western Balkans takes place in a highly politicized environment, and the enlargement prospects of the region are discussed among the challenges of the 2014 “Non” to enlargement, the migration crisis culminating in 2015 but requiring permanent action since then, the changing post-Brexit legal framework and the economic policy response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Against the backdrop of a post-conflict mnemonic space as ab nihilo, new expressions of remembering become the primary sources of empirical knowledge, the subversive idiom in which Western Balkan communities, including diaspora, can relive and reclaim memories, redefine narratives of reconciliation, and reconstitute identities. In fact, since the end of the 1990s’ Balkan wars, Balkan diaspora research has become a scholarly discipline of its own in many ways and sets a standard in terms of evaluating the breadth of knowledge on the politics of remembrance, the representation of trauma, reconciliation, and identity. The research is designed to bring a broad synthesis of sources and methods to bear on the understanding of displacement from the Balkans since the late 20th. One objective of the analysis is to map and explore the diversity of (post)migratory trends and challenges such as translocalism, mobile citizenship, diaspora tourism, restorative Yugonostalgia, transgenerational trauma and cultural homelessness. A second objective is to consider what pertinent interpretations and analyses have recently been offered by interdisciplinary scholarship in order to explain how identity-politics can be defined in terms of remembrance and reconciliation, and how do they influence both collective and individual narratives? To this end, the research is constitutive of the problems and themes of the nature of historical causality, the use and abuse of memory, and of how different narratives and representational forms – for example, first-person testimony, fiction, photo-documentaries, and journalistic accounts – yield different versions or perceptions of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Migrations have been a fundamental element in the history of the Balkans, even more so after its destructive wars and refugee crises throughout the 1990s. Migration involves the massive regular and irregular movement of people across borders, and is informed by larger global economic, political, and social forces. Based on the classic Safranian understanding (1991), diaspora is a term used to describe the dispersion of populations across borders and the construction of an identity as a distinct community, in many cases invoking connections to a real or imagined homeland. Within this context, the research brings these different but interrelated concepts into dialogue with each other by investigating their trends and challenges. It allows for a systematic exploration of categories of migrants, and the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions of the movement and transnational settlement of peoples. It also includes an analysis of concrete cases and processes, mainly from the realm of the St. Louis Bosnian diaspora in the U.S. This is to confirm that while migration and diasporas have existed throughout history, in our globalized age, communities that maintain transnational connections with their homelands have experienced shifting paradigms. 2018 IOM survey on BiH diaspora, for example, reminds us that the key drivers of migration from BiH have changed from the push factors, during the 1990s, to pull factors. Therefore, the following questions are warranted: How do migrants, as transnationals, build new solidarities in receiving countries? In what ways do migrants maintain connections with communities in their country of origin? How can migrant identity be culturally (re-)defined in diaspora in relation to the homeland? What can we learn from listening to migrants’ testimonies, and how can they impact on some of the assumptions by policy makers? How can diaspora be an engine of development in homeland?