Copyright by Gregory Scott Brown 2004 the Dissertation Committee for Gregory Scott Brown Certifies That This Is the Approved Version of the Following Dissertation
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Copyright by Gregory Scott Brown 2004 The Dissertation Committee for Gregory Scott Brown Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Coping with Long-distance Nationalism: Inter-ethnic Conflict in a Diaspora Context Committee: Gary P. Freeman, Supervisor John Higley Zoltan Barany Alan Kessler Ross Terrill Coping with Long-distance Nationalism: Inter-ethnic Conflict in a Diaspora Context by Gregory Scott Brown, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2004 Dedication To Dale Acknowledgements Many people helped me finish this dissertation and deserve thanks. My advisor, Gary Freeman, provided guidance, encouragement, and a helpful prod now and again. I owe him a special debt for his generous support and patience. Special thanks are also due John Higley who provided personal and institutional support throughout the process—even when he had neither the time nor obligation to do so. I also thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Ross Terrill, Alan Kessler, and Zoltan Barany. Each of them offered sound advice and counsel during my fieldwork and the writing phase of this project. I also benefited greatly from numerous funding programs; including, the Edward A. Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies, the Australian and New Zealand Studies Association of North America, and various funding sources in the Department of Government, UT-Austin. My fieldwork was also facilitated by generous support from the Australian Centre at Melbourne University and the Parliamentary Internship/Public Policy program at the Australian National University. I also thank four Australian-based scholars—Robert Birrell, James Jupp, Katherine Betts, and Kate Darian- Smith—for their special consideration. v Finally, I offer heartfelt thanks to friends and family members who, each in their own way, added something to my effort and never stopped believing in me: Perry and Shirley Brown, Chris Brown, Tia Barth, Alison Forkner, Michael Brown, Rob Fergus, Bert Hoopes, the three-year-olds from Sunday School, Fred Cady, Rhonda Evans Case, Bobby Parks, Mason Barlow, and Chris Grady. Last, but never least, I owe more than I can ever repay to Dale, Jeremy, Gabriel, and Solomon for keeping me trained on the present and for reminding me to not take myself or my work too seriously. vi Coping with Long-distance Nationalism: Inter-ethnic Conflict in a Diaspora Context Publication No._____________ Gregory Scott Brown, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2004 Supervisor: Gary P. Freeman How does the politics of one country play out in other countries through the presence and agency of migrants and their descendents? And how do countries of high immigration cope with conflicts between ethnic or migrant communities when those conflicts originate, or are strongly fueled by, homeland conflicts? This dissertation explores these questions through close study of the Croat and Serb diasporas in Australia and the United States in the 1990s. The answers to these questions hinge on the politics of migrant homelands and the types of opportunities that host countries provide to diaspora communities. The chief empirical finding is that conditions ripe for producing Croat-Serb conflict in host countries failed to do so. Why did diaspora groups rein themselves in? The short answer is that host state institutions matter, but that those host state policies usually championed by Australian and American politicians and academics, and vii formed to manage inter-ethnic conflict—such as multiculturalism and direct policymaker intervention—had a negligible effect in the Croat and Serb communities. Instead, ethnic elites credit liberal political cultures, self-policing, and self-imposed segregation as the prime controls of inter-ethnic tension. viii Table of Contents List of Figures....................................................................................................xii Chapter 1: Diaspora Politics and Inter-ethnic Relations........................................1 The Puzzle ..................................................................................................1 Wars, Rumors of Wars, and Non-wars................................................4 A Diaspora Politics Primer ..........................................................................9 Diaspora Politics in Migration and Settlement Literature ..................12 Diaspora Politics and Foreign Policy ................................................14 Homeland Challenges and Concerns.................................................15 Host Country Challenges and Concerns ............................................18 Conflicted Loyalties? ................................................................................25 Strategies for Conflict Management ..........................................................31 Background for the Story ..........................................................................33 Recapitulation...................................................................................35 Roadmap for the Study .....................................................................36 Chapter 2: Why Some Dogs Don’t Bark.............................................................38 The Cases..................................................................................................38 The Method and Caveats...................................................................41 Fieldwork .........................................................................................43 The Argument ...........................................................................................46 Why Inter-diasporic Conflict?...........................................................46 Why Not Inter-diasporic Conflict?....................................................50 The Unwitting Control of Inter-Diasporic Conflict............................52 Not Your Average Inter-ethnic Conflict............................................54 Multiculturalism and Cultural Space? ...............................................58 The Answer Part A: The Double-edged Sword of Participation.........60 ix The Answer Part B: Self-Policing and Segregation ...........................62 Argument Recap........................................................................................63 Chapter Summary and a Look Ahead ........................................................65 Chapter 3: Long-distance Enmities.....................................................................66 Australia: A Nursery of Nationalism?........................................................66 Australia’s Croats......................................................................................69 Post-war Intra-diaspora Troubles ......................................................71 Australian Reactions to Intra-diaspora Activities...............................72 Croats as Public Enemy?...................................................................78 A Generational Shift? .......................................................................80 Homeland Calling.............................................................................82 Home and Back Again......................................................................87 Australia’s Serbs .......................................................................................89 Forgotten Brothers or Serbia’s Little Helpers? ..................................94 Creating New-Old Serbian Identities.................................................95 Moving Beyond Pariah Status.........................................................100 Chapter 4: Australia’s Informal Success...........................................................103 Channeling Diaspora Politics...................................................................103 Ethno-National Confrontation .................................................................108 Extremist and Illegal Activities.......................................................109 Institutional Utility ..................................................................................113 Policymaking, Participation, and Incentives....................................114 Finding Federal Friends ..................................................................115 The Official Story: External Controls and Successful Policy....................116 Multiculturalism and Cultural Space...............................................120 The Real Story ........................................................................................127 Fear and Loathing...........................................................................127 Cooperation, or Agreeing to Disagree .............................................132 x Internal Controls: Self-Policing.......................................................133 Internal Controls: Self-Segregation .................................................135 Chapter 5: Self-limiting Conflict in the United States.......................................137 The New American Context for Ethno-national Promotion......................139 Institutional Channeling American Style.........................................141 Croats and Serbs Engage the American System .......................................144 Early Diffusion of Discontent to the United States ..........................147