Description
Book SynopsisReflecting on three decades of post-conflict recovery in the Balkans, this incisive book investigates the long-term effects of war displacement on women across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo.
Selma Porobić and Brad K. Blitz draw upon four different research streams produced by a large, cross-national, and multidisciplinary team of contributors to compare the experiences of different categories of war-uprooted and/or women forced migrants. Providing a gender-inclusive focus on psychosocial wellbeing, chapters consider the long-term impacts of complex trauma on internally displaced persons, returnees, and refugees throughout the whole cycle of displacement, return, and reintegration. Uncovering alarming risk and protective factors linked to protracted political and socioeconomic instability in the region, the book ultimately offers lessons for a wider post-war recovery framework that prioritises women’s agency, psychosocial health, and trans-generational recovery.
Featuring interdisciplinary, cross-country, and multi-methods research, this insightful book will prove an invaluable resource to students and scholars of psychology, sociology, migration, gender, and human rights law. Its critical assessment of durable solutions for displaced populations will also benefit practitioners focused on peace building, humanitarianism, and development.
Trade Review‘Forced Migration, Gender and Wellbeing
is a brave and much-needed study of the long term effects of the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992. In the intervening years there are no longer any refugees, only unresolved traumatic experiences, problems of identity and self esteem and issues with gender equality. This is a much-needed work on understanding how the lived experience of violence and displacement impacted the wellbeing of men and women alike in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Serbia.’ -- Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford, UK
‘The 1990s wars of Yugoslav succession have resulted in enormous human casualties and millions of displaced people. There are many general studies of this conflict, but we still lack in-depth knowledge on the gender dimension of forced migration. This comprehensive, -- innovative, and empirically meticulous study successfully fills this analytical gap.’– Siniša Malešević, University College Dublin, Ireland
Table of ContentsContents: Preface xii 1 Introduction to Forced Migration, Gender and Wellbeing 1 Selma Porobić and Brad K. Blitz 2 The role of socio-demographic and mental health factors among women forced migrants in post-Yugoslav states 22 Anela Hasanagić, Siniša Volarević and Enver Gashi 3 Life histories of ethnic violence, displacement and recovery among women in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia 62 Selma Porobić and Gordana Balaban 4 Ethnography of everyday life among female forced migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia 87 Selma Porobić, Stef Jansen, Nina Bosankić and Ljiljana Đajić 5 Impact of social protection and psychosocial provision on integration of displaced women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo 143 Jagoda Petrović, Danica Ćirić, Seb Bytyci and Driton Zequiri 6 Caught on the Balkan route: refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia 182 Ivana Ljuština and Min Ji Kim 7 Conclusion to Forced Migration, Gender and Wellbeing 196 Selma Porobić and Brad K. Blitz Epilogue 212 References 216 Index 232
