The Emotional Dimension of BiH Citizenship

The argument presented in my study is that the motivation to return to a post-conflict society, like Bosnia and Herzegovina, given a viable alternative of livelihood and successful integration abroad is primarily emotional. This premise makes the returnees particularly sensitive to the emotional experience of citizenship and therefore, their understanding of “citizenship as feeling” is expected to be particularly pronounced, nuanced and diversified. In addition, most of the participants are dual citizens, and as such, they are in a position to compare their emotional experiences, or lack thereof, of both home and host state citizenships. Emotional citizenship relies heavily on citizenship as practice (Wood, 2013), that is on the daily experience of citizenship (Nyers, 2007), so for analytical purposes, the concept of “emotional citizenship” is defined as the area of intersection between the daily experience of citizenship and an emotional response. Some examples of the daily experiences of citizenship discussed with the returnees include remembering events from BiH’s recent past and the 1992–95 war; experiencing commemorations of genocide and war atrocities, seeing the BiH flag or hearing the BiH national anthem; using the BiH passport at border controls; attempting to resolve an administrative issue; voting; or paying taxes to the BiH government. The overarching research questions this chapter aims to answer are: What understanding do return migrants have of the ‘emotional dimension of BiH citizenship’? Which specific emotions do they associate with citizenship?