Description
The transborder ethnic communities – communities who reside just outside the state to which they claim ethnic belonging – more often than not seek their kin-state to pursue policies that could make the border between them obsolete. In many cases, such policies are successful, especially when the kin-state extends the citizenship policies to include the transborder ethnic communities into its citizenry. However, strengthening the border, as demonstrated between Croatia and the Croat community in Herzegovina amid the introduction of Schengen, paints more complex insights.
Building on the interview and focus group data collected in expectation of the Schengen border introduction, this paper evaluates the encounters and experiences of local communities with the border. Even if they have privileged access to Croatia and the border, members of the transborder ethnic community, especially the young and those residing in the vicinity, still understand it through the prism of distance. Moreover, they advance claims that link to a) security concerns imported from Croatia, vis-a-vis non-Croat and non-Schengen migrants, b) their feeling of inferiority concerning Croatia, and c) inequalities the citizenship, most explicitly illustrated at the border, generated within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
