I ovdi i ondi, i gori i doli. Poimanje doma, domovine i zavičaja kod hrvatskih iseljenika, povratnika i transmigranata
Authors: Ščukanec Aleksandra ,   Odsjek za germanistiku, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Published: July 2024

The aim of this article is to present one aspect discussed by informants from three different studies on Croatian (trans)migrants and returnees: a study of recent generations of Croatian immigrants in Austria, of (trans)migrants from Žumberak and of Croatian descendants from overseas countries. At the centre of attention is the issue of return connected and intertwined with the multi-layered notions of home, homeland and native country. The corpus for this article is based on the excerpts of language biographies, i.e., narrative interviews (Franceschini, 2001; Nekvapil, 2004; Barth, 2004; Piškorec, 2007) collected and conducted during the abovementioned (field) studies of various Croatian communities abroad. In order to illustrate the topic in question, several language biographies of transmigrants from Žumberak (2013–2015) and Croatian immigrants in Austria (2016 and 2017), as well as language biographies of informants with Croatian background (from 2019) born abroad who decided to move to Croatia permanently were taken into consideration. A short overview of the methodology used in the research, an overview of Croatian migration, and a corpus description are followed by an analysis of chosen language biographies, i.e. narrative interviews. The corpus was analysed using primarily language biographical methods in line with Franceschini’s definition of language biographies with slight modifications since the language biographies from the corpus were obtained both as interviews and in written form, mostly as “extensions” of the interviews and additional information. In the interviews, which lasted from 45 minutes to more than three hours, the informants discussed various (autobiographical) domains and aspects, especially regarding their family and growing up, school and education, workplace, experiences in their new or second homeland, connection(s) with Croatia, possibilities of returning to Croatia, etc. It is important to mention that the underlying thoughts and attitudes on language and identity can be found in almost all discussed aspects. The qualitative part of the study on Croats in Austria includes narrative interviews with 10 female and 11 male informants. The youngest one was 14, and the oldest one was 65 years old. The study was conducted in 2016 and 2017, primarily in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck. The informants are members of the first and second generations of Croats in Austria. Most of them came to Austria in the 1990s, but some of them have been there only for several years and could be considered the newest migrant wave after Croatia’s accession to the EU. The corpus of narrative interviews with informants from Žumberak is comprised of 28 interviews with 10 female and 18 male informants. The oldest one was 84, and the youngest one was 21 years old. This field research was conducted between the spring of 2013 and the summer of 2015. Most informants were born in Žumberak, three in Germany, one in Samobor, and one in Zagreb, Karlovac and Windsor in Canada. The majority of informants were working or are still living and working in Germany, three of them in Switzerland, four in Canada, and one female informant is still living in the USA. When analysing this group of informants, it should be pointed out that they are not tied only to the European but also to the overseas countries. Moreover, Žumberak is also exposed to the so-called inner migrations, i.e. migrations from Žumberak to larger centres and towns within Croatia, which also plays a role when discussing the issues of home and return. From the third corpus, five interviews with one female and four male informants from Australia, the USA, Venezuela and Canada were analysed. The first interviews were conducted in September 2019, but due to the pandemic, the research could be continued only in 2021. In the analysis of the selected (parts of) interviews, informants were divided into several categories based on their relation to homeland and return. In the first and third categories, the informants from two groups, those from the Žumberak corpus (Ž) and the Austrian corpus (A), can be found; in the second category, only from the corpus Ž, and in the fourth, only from the corpus A. The informants from overseas countries are placed into a separate category (P) since their stories and narratives significantly differ from those of the informants from the other four categories. It should be pointed out that the analysis in this paper presents only one possible categorisation with the aim of gaining a better overview of the topic. These and similar categorisation attempts might be very vague since some of the informants may be categorised into more than one category. The informants from the first category consider Croatia their only homeland. They were born in Croatia and left their home when they were in their twenties, which suggests that they spent their childhood and early adulthood in Croatia and then left “temporarily,” mostly for economic reasons, but they are still living there. They all talk about returning as pensioners, but those who are already retired and who formally returned to Croatia still spend several months every year abroad because their children, grandchildren and friends are there. In the second category, there are informants who also consider Croatia their homeland, but at the same time point out their closeness to their other home abroad. Some even claim that they feel more like strangers in Croatia. This is meant to show that the notion of homeland bears a strong emotional value, at least for the informants of Croatian descent from the conducted studies, and that everyday life and reality are another dimension. The third category includes informants who would say that Croatia was their homeland, but in their second homeland, they feel at home and do not have illusions regarding return. In this research, there were only a few such examples, but such attitudes are very realistic, especially when taking into consideration the data on the number of people who permanently return to Croatia. These studies also show that all the informants from the corpus A, who expressed similar opinions were members of the younger or so-called middle generation and were born in areas and regions that are now almost abandoned since most of the population moved to bigger (urban) centres or went abroad. In the corpus Ž, such attitudes were to be found in middle or older generations. These informants point out that Žumberak is a completely different world today, and they find it impossible to get used to it. Thus, the potential return would be possible only to towns and cities. In the course of this research, we noticed that more educated informants reflect on home and the topics discussed in this paper differently and that these play a very significant role in their lives (and their interviews) since they obviously have been thinking about them and reminiscing about them for a long time. These informants are in the fourth category and consider Austria their real and proper home. The fifth category includes five informants of Croatian origin from overseas countries, one of whom was born in Croatia. Whereas the two older informants talk about homeland in the context of country or land and often connect everything to politics, the younger informants consider themselves cosmopolites. Croatia is their homeland where they feel secure and, in a certain way, free, but their home is in various places where they feel good. The results of the analysis of the small sample chosen for this article confirm the initial hypothesis and demonstrate that some informants do have very similar views on the discussed topic and that they tend to describe two localities very similarly but also show that the idea and perception of the abovementioned notions and concepts tend to change regarding circumstances of migration and their “return.” Although it is impossible to generalise, especially since the corpus P is not completed and the third research is still ongoing, there are certain patterns that indicate that the views and attitudes on the topics discussed in this paper are influenced by the age of informants, in some cases by the level of their education, but, as already stated, mostly by the circumstances under which they and their family left or returned.