Post-1990 migration biographies of Slovaks from Vojvodina: A time-geographic perspective

Migrants’ life history, whose life-paths were affected by significant political and social events, is one of the academic research interest in human geography, social science, and humanities. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how the time geography could be used as an approach to identify individuals’ behavioural patterns. Data were collected from a small sample of Slovaks from Vojvodina (n=34) and subsequently analysed in relation to certain situations in time and space (place). Semi-structured interviews and time-space records were used in constructing 3D life-paths and life chart. Using time geography approach we provide a certain amount of information enabling generation of a broader picture of person’s life to identify social, economic and behavioural aspects (including motivation to migrate) affected in some cases by war conflicts in former Yugoslavia, in others by post-war subsequent political, legal, social and economic changes. The findings of the research show that this kind of „the life-path schemes“ helps describe a detailed life situation from one time period to another, where geographical sites serve as important „stations“ for Slovaks from Vojvodina who decided to spend a longer period in Slovakia or to settle down in a new homeland.