“We are not Just the Border of Croatia; This is the Border of the European Union … ” The Croatian Borderland as “Double Periphery”

Abstract

This article addresses the double-layered border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is simultaneously a nation-state and an external EU border and recently became a hotspot for irregular migration crossings. Based on social anthropological research in the region, the article explores the perspectives of the local population in the Croatian border region and asks how local inhabitants reflect on the changing qualities of their border and their positionings towards the EU, the Croatian center, neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina and migrants from the local South. It argues that the entanglements of the national and EU orders create a local “grey zone” in which various border drawing and border transgression processes take place simultaneously. It shows that this border has hardened, not only for irregular migrants from the global South, but also for the local inhabitants of the border area. At the same time, especially the younger local inhabitants grasp the new mobility possibilities associated with the EU accession of Croatia and take up work in other EU countries. This resultsin a double peripheralization of the region – by the nation state as much as by the EU border regime – and the disintegration and decline of the local community.

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