Serb diaspora

Serb diaspora (Serbian: Српска дијаспора, romanized: Srpska dijaspora), traditionally termed Срби у расејању / Srbi u rasejanju (lit. "Serbs in dispersion" or "scattered Serbs"), consists of ethnic Serb people and their descendants living outside Serbia and its neighboring countries. Recent estimates indicate that about 1.6 million ethnic Serbs and their descendants live abroad, predominantly in Europe and, to a much lesser extent, overseas (primarily in North America and Oceania).

Serbs in the countries bordering Serbia, commonly termed Срби у Региону / Srbi u Rеgionu (lit. "Serbs in the Region"), are not regarded as part of the Serb diaspora, since they constitute autochthonous communities that have the legal status of recognized ethnic minorities or, in case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the constituent peoples.

Serb emigration from their historical autochthonous regions in the Balkans has occurred in several distinct and massive waves over the past century and a half.

The first major wave began in the late 19th century and continued until the outbreak of the World War II. It was almost entirely economic in character and drew people from the poorest and most inaccessible regions: Herzegovina, Montenegro, Lika, Dalmatian Hinterland.^[1] Thousands of young men, and later entire families, left for the United States, attracted by jobs in the steel mills of Pennsylvania, the coal mines of West Virginia and Illinois, and the factories of Chicago and Cleveland. Many originally intended to earn money and return home, the famous "American letters" full of dollars financed the building of stone houses across the Dinaric highlands, but a large proportion ended up staying permanently and forming the first enduring Serb communities in North America.

The second wave was much smaller but politically sharp. It took place immediately after the World War II, when the victory of Yugoslav Partisan forces forced tens of thousands of defeated soldiers to flee the new communist Yugoslavia. Members of the royalist Chetnik movement, collaborators from the Nedić regime, crossed the borders into Austria and Italy. From the displaced-persons camps in Austria and Italy they were resettled, mostly in the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, and, to a lesser degree, the United Kingdom and France.^[2] Although the total number is usually estimated at 50,000 to 80,000, this "old political emigration" remained fiercely anti-communist and dominated organized diaspora life for decades.

By far the largest wave was the exodus that began in the mid-1960s and lasted until the late 1980s. This generation of diaspora is collectively known as gastarbajteri, after German gastarbeiter ("guest worker"), since most of the emigrants headed for German-speaking countries. After Yugoslavia signed bilateral labour-recruitment agreements with West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, hundreds of thousands of workers went abroad as "guest workers". Ethnic Serbs formed a significant portion of the Yugoslav migrant stream, though official statistics recorded them simply as "Yugoslavs". Most came from rural Serbian regions with high unemployment and strong traditions of seasonal labor migration. Recruitment offices in Belgrade, Niš, and Kragujevac processed thousands of young men, often with only primary education, promising two-year contracts in auto plants, steelworks, and construction.^[3] They concentrated in industrial corridors: the Ruhr, Baden-Württemberg, and Bavaria. Workers lived in factory dormitories, wages were modest by German standards but transformative back home: a worker earning 1,200 DM monthly could send 600-800 DM to Serbia, enough to build a house in a village within a few years. The phrase (Idem u Nemačku da zaradim za kuću - "I'm going to Germany to earn for a house") became a refrain in Serbian villages.^[4] Over the entire period, an estimated 350,000 to 450,000 ethnic Serbs (including family members who later joined them) lived and worked in German-speaking countries, with smaller but still significant communities in France and Sweden.

The fourth wave, during the 1990s, was the most dramatic. The breakup of Yugoslavia and the subsequent Yugoslav Wars drove hundreds of thousands of Serbs from their homes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the same time, the rump Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) suffered hyperinflation, international sanctions, economic collapse, and finally the NATO bombing of 1999. During that single decade an estimated 300,000 people, disproportionately young and educated, left Serbia.^[5][6] Many headed to Canada, Australia, and the traditional European destinations, but new countries such as Norway, Denmark, and even New Zealand, also appeared on the map of Serb emigration. This period saw the first massive "brain drain" - doctors, engineers, and university professors who have never returned.

Emigration did not stop with the democratic transition during the early 2000s; a fifth wave has continued ever since. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States, and Canada remain the main destinations, but countries such as the Netherlands and Slovenia, have become popular in recent years.

The descendants of the early economic migrants, the post-World War II war political exiles, the gastarbeiters, the 1990s war refugees, and the 21st-century brain-drain generation now form communities across every continent.

• Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region