Human Security in a Weak State in the Balkans: Globalization and Transnational Networks

This chapter and the following Chapter 5 are interconnected as they both discuss Albanian diaspora mobilizations. This chapter lays out political dynamics in the Albanian transnational social field and presents the profiles of the four types of diaspora entrepreneurs that operate within it. Incomplete nation-building and state-building processes have left Albanians scattered throughout the Balkans since the early twentieth century, where they currently live as either majorities or minorities. Weak state capacities of Kosovo alongside those of adjacent fragile states, as well as problematic treatment of Albanians where they are minorities, most notably North Macedonia and Serbia, have created dynamics conducive for Albanians to emigrate from the region and mobilize in the diaspora. Kosovo’s independence was a goal not simply for Albanians from Kosovo but was widespread among other diaspora Albanians until the 2008 independence. Albanians socialized with each other in the diaspora, irrespective of their original homeland, thereby forging bonds and seeking Kosovo’s statehood through a transnational social field perspective. More recently, another field-wide idea has emerged, of an ‘Albanian space’ formed through the EU integration of Balkan states with Albanian populations. This chapter presents data on migration in the Albanian field, in the Balkans and globally, and specifies the individual profiles of Albanian diaspora entrepreneurs.

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LGBT Rights in Bosnia: The Challenge of Nationalism in the Context of Europeanization

Nationalities Papers ◽

10.1017/nps.2019.65 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 768-790

Author(s):

Safia Swimelar

Keyword(s):

Public Discourse ◽

National Identities ◽

Lgbt Rights ◽

Weak State ◽

State Identity ◽

The Public ◽

The Balkans ◽

The Past ◽

Domestic Constraints ◽

Bisexual And Transgender

AbstractNationalism has been one of the domestic constraints to progress on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, especially in the Balkans that are dealing with multiple postwar transition realities. Ethno-nationalist challenges, often influenced by religion, have been significant in Bosnia-Herzegovina given weak state identity and democracy, competing institutionalized ethno-national identities, and slow Europeanization. Through the lenses of gendered nationalism, the societal security dilemma, and political homophobia, this article analyzes how the politics and discourse of LGBT rights during the past decade in Bosnia reveal tensions between competing and multiple identities and narratives—European, multiethnic, ethno-nationalist, and religious—using the violent response to the 2008 Queer Sarajevo Festival as a key illustration. However, in the past decade, LGBT rights have progressed and antigay backlash to LGBT visibility (in addition to stronger external leverage and other factors) has resulted in stronger activism and change. The public discourse and response to the announcement of Bosnia’s first Pride Parade represents another turning point in LGBT visibility that seems to reveal that ethno-nationalist challenges may be lessening as LGBT rights norms gain strength.

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Editorial: Migration and Human Security in the Balkans

MIGRATION LETTERS ◽

10.33182/ml.v4i2.213 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 95-102 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Apostolos Papadopoulos

Keyword(s):

Human Security ◽

The Balkans ◽

The Past ◽

Migration Flows

Over the past decades, migration flows worldwide and particularly Europe-wide have been growing considerably. Since the 1970s there is a move towards restricting migratory flows coupled with continued migration pressures which led to an increase of immigrants who are considered unwanted or bogus. This caused internal inconsistencies in older destination countries which questioned the presence of immigrants already resident in them, but also inaugurated a contradiction due to the continuation of immigration flows (Geddes, 2003).

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The Invisibility Bargain

10.1093/oso/9780197538692.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jeffrey D. Pugh

Keyword(s):

Human Security ◽

Institutional Innovation ◽

National Politics ◽

Weak State ◽

Innovative Strategies ◽

Dense Networks ◽

Mass Migration ◽

False Dichotomy ◽

State And Society ◽

Peripheral Areas

In an era of mass migration and restrictive responses, this book seeks to understand how migrants negotiate their place in the receiving society and adapt innovative strategies to integrate, participate, and access protection. Their acceptance is often contingent on the expectation that they contribute economically to the host country while remaining politically and socially invisible. These unwritten expectations, which this book calls the “invisibility bargain,” produce a precarious status in which migrants’ visible differences or overt political demands on the state may be met with a hostile backlash from the host society. In this context, governance networks of state and nonstate actors form an institutional web that can provide access to rights, resources, and protection for migrants through informal channels that avoid a negative backlash against visible political activism. This book examines Ecuador, the largest recipient of refugees in Latin America, asking how it has achieved migrant human security gains despite weak state presence in peripheral areas. The key finding is that localities with more dense networks composed of more diverse actors tend to produce greater human security for migrants and their neighbors. The argument has implications beyond Ecuador for migrant-receiving countries around the world. The book challenges the conventional understanding of migration and security, providing a fresh approach to the negotiation of authority between state and society. Its nuanced account of informal pathways to human security dismantles the false dichotomy between international and national politics, and it exposes the micropolitics of institutional innovation.

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