Political and Civic Transnational Engagement of Bosnians Living in Norway: Political participation, participation in organisations and belonging

Abstract

This thesis looks at the Bosnian group living in Norway 30 years after their first arrival in 1993 and attempts to enlighten the question of “To what extent are Bosnians in Norway engaged politically and civically in the Norwegian and Bosnian society?”. Data is gathered through interviews with seven individual informants, who are first-generation immigrant refugees in Norway; as well as informants who acted as representatives for the four organisations the Islamic Community Bosnia and Herzegovina in Norway, Mercy, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Association in Norway and Stecak in the Spring of 2023. The findings in this analysis show that Bosnians are a transnational diaspora, through their dual citizenship and ties to Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the group I interviewed have low participation in Bosnian elections, in contrast to Norwegian election where they have high participation. There is little membership in Bosnian organisations in Norway, but some membership in overreaching organisations (explained further in thesis). The informants are connected to Bosnia and visit the country yearly. Most persons have properties in both Norway and Bosnia. The organisations I spoke with do not seem to be a forum of political participation, other than representing the interests of their members and attempting to raise democratic participation at Bosnian and Norwegian elections. These findings cannot be generalised for the group overall due to a small number of participants but might act as a supplementary to further quantitative research on this topic.