DET FREMMEDE HJEM: Bosniske flygtninges illusioner om hjemlandet

Abstract

This article explores a range of illusions

about refugee return, both from the

perspective of political institutions and

refugees themselves. The political repatriation

discourse in Western European

host countries is based upon illusory conceptions

of people’s rootedness in specific

territories and of return as an unproblematic

re-establishment of the preflight conditions.

Whereas refugee diasporas widely share this

nostalgic celebration of the “return to the

past”, for Bosnian refugees in Denmark the

idealization of their homeland and “the myth

of return”, rather than leading to the actual

return to the country of origin, serve as a

source of meaning, hope for normality, and

community in exile. For the refugees who,

voluntarily or involuntarily, do return to

Bosnia-Hercegovina “home-coming” is an

experience of disillusionment due to various

war-related transformations of the Bosnian

society, difficult socio-economic conditions

found upon return, and discrimination and

resentment from the remaining population.

The returnees feel like strangers in their own

country, and this in turn gives rise to longing

for emigration and romanticized images of

their past refugee life abroad.