Bosnia and Herzegovina: Follow-up to BOS38361.E of 31 January 2002 on the situation of persons in ethnically mixed marriages (March 2002)
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 7 June 2002 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | BOS39453.E |
| Reference | 2 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Follow-up to BOS38361.E of 31 January 2002 on the situation of persons in ethnically mixed marriages (March 2002), 7 June 2002, BOS39453.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4be1530.html [accessed 28 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Following are excerpts from correspondence dated 4 March 2002 from a field researcher with the Advocacy Project, a Washington DC-based organization conducting grassroots human rights campaigns in various countries world-wide. After living in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo and Tuzla) between 1997 and 1999, the field researcher, who speaks Bosnian/Serbo-Croatian fluently, has been studying the question of refugee returns in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Advocacy Project. The following comments represent his own observations.
Inter-ethnic marriages were up to 30% of those performed in Bosnia before the war [1992 (Bosnian Institute n.d.)]. My impression is that they are all but non-existent after the war [1995 (ibid.)], except perhaps in Tuzla ...
In the pre-war period there were mixed marriages in all directions: Serb/Croat, Serb/Muslim, Croat/Muslim, and Serb/Muslim. They took place in the cities and towns.
...
Before the war, such marriages were hardly even considered the object of comment; now, they are rare and not well-received. Having a mixed marriage has been a criterion of acceptability for immigration, at least to the United States, because of the difficulties the couple can endure at home. I have heard stories of people who were persecuted in the army, in the war, and at work during the war because of being in a mixed marriage. That situation has ended, but one must be rather well-connected or self-sufficient today to be able to survive economically in Bosnia. I am aware of one Muslim man married to a Serb woman in Muslim-controlled Visoko. The man has suffered greatly in an economic sense as a self-employed professional who has lacked for clients. The woman had to struggle for several years to regain her pre-war employment. I am also aware of a couple of Serb men in the Republika Srpska who married Muslim women, and these women stayed with them throughout the war. Today they do not have serious problems; it would be otherwise if they were Muslim men trying to live in those areas.
Many mixed marriages broke up during the war, with some exception in Tuzla and Sarajevo.
This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Advocacy Project [Washington, DC]. 4 March 2002. Correspondence from a field researcher.
Bosnian Institute [London]. n.d. "About Bosnia."
