Refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Serbia: A Study of Refugee Selectivity

This paper examines selectivity of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in Serbia with respect to certain demographic and socio‐economic structures. Analyses indicated that the demographic and socio‐economic characteristics of these refugees are significantly more favourable than those of other refugees in Serbia and those in the place of origin. The results show that refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who, because of war, have sought refuge in Serbia are positively selective compared to the population that moved shorter distances (i.e. within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina) for the same reason. Their educational level and participation in the Belgrade workforce, the main urban and functional centre and pole of demographic concentration, support the hypothesis that despite the forced nature of their migration, movement to Serbia as a destination rather than migration within Bosnia and Herzegovina was partly determined by economic factors in keeping with the structural characteristics of the refugees. The directions of recent refugee migrations from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia have continued the historic trend of previous migrations on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. To be specific, the centres with the highest concentrations of recent refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina are precisely those municipalities with the greatest number of persons who migrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina before 1991.