Facing Fear and Responding with Courage: Understanding How Fear Constitutes the “Emotional Citizenship” of Voluntary Returnees to Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper examines the case of voluntary return migration to a post-conflict society, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), where the returnee freely chooses to go back despite having a viable alternative of livelihood and a well-integrated social presence abroad. The initial claim of the paper is that the motivation for this type of return is primarily emotional. Although the much researched (Brown, 2014) “patriotic love” is certainly part of returnees’ emotional landscape, other emotions play an equal, and sometimes a more important role. Arguing that fear is a key emotion constituting returnees’ daily experience of BiH citizenship, the paper identifies three dimensions of fear: ethnic discrimination, economic uncertainty and abuse of political power. Returnees’ continued life and work in the home state represent an act of remarkable courage, the success of which does not occur because of the state structure envisioned by the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) that comprises the current BiH Constitution, but in spite of the obstacles it creates. The argument is based on a thematic analysis of 35 in-depth interviews conducted with members of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian diaspora/transmigrants, who have voluntarily decided to return and settle in BiH.