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JOMEC Journal Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies JOMEC Journal Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies Published by Cardiff University Press ‘Schatzi’: Making Meaning of Diaspora Dafina Paca Cardiff University Email: [email protected] Keywords diaspora Kosovo identity homeland discourse belonging exclusion Abstract Diasporas have been widely studied since the late 1980s, especially focusing on identity, reception and integration in host societies. However, research exploring the relationship of diasporas with their homelands and, in particular, how homelands view and think about their diasporas is still developing. This article explores the discursive construction and representation of the Kosovo Albanian Diaspora by homeland Kosovo Albanians by critically engaging with responses to thirteen semi-structured interviews with Kosovan Albanians in Kosovo. The discourse of the ‘Schatzi’ is examined as a stereotype employed in narratives about diasporic Kosovo Albanian identity in relation to the homeland. The article demonstrates that dominant discourses of ‘othering’ surrounding migration, identity, cultural difference and national narratives of belonging and exclusion are not exclusive to host country contexts – suggesting that we must explore outside the normative paradigms of studying diaspora within host societies. Contributor Note Dafina Paca is currently in the final stages of completing her PhD thesis at Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Her research explores the discursive construction of diasporic identity by Kosovo Albanians in Kosovo and the UK. Citation Paca, Dafina (2015), ‘Schatzi: meaning making of diaspora’, JOMEC Journal 7, ‘The Meaning of Migration’, ed. Kerry Moore. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18573/j.2015.10005 https://publications.cardiffuniversitypress.org/index.php/JOMEC @JOMECjournal Introduction Kosovo and the Balkans drew much For the first time, I knew who I was. attention during the 1990s predom- For the first time, I felt as if I had inantly due to the nature of the conflict been simultaneously exploded in and the ethnic cleansing that ensued. the gaze, in the violent gaze of the Studies of the Kosovo Albanian Diaspora, other, and at the same time, especially in the UK, have steadily recomposed as another emerged since the 1990s, but the (Fanon 1967: 118) number remains low and limited, mainly focusing on Kosovo Albanians as Diaspora and identity studies continue to immigrants or ‘new migrants’ (Vathi occupy a central role in social science 2013). Some important work has and cultural studies discussions around emerged, which explores Kosovo increasingly politicised issues, such as Albanian identity and integration nation, immigration and immigrants, (Kostovicova and Prestreshi 2003; Vathi migration, asylum, borders and exile. 2013). However diaspora research, While current studies have extensively especially that originating from Kosovo, explored diaspora’s nostalgia for the predominantly focuses on policy, homeland and relationship with the host remittances, homeland development and society (Safran 1991; Clifford 1994; brain drain projects (FID 2009; USAID Cohen 2001; Tsagarousianou 2004), 2010; UNDP 2012; Xharra and Waehlisch literature exploring how the homeland 2012; KAS 2013). As Levitt and Glick constructs the diaspora is still lacking. Schiller (2004) state: ‘Diaspora’ is a contested and unstable Our analytical lens must necessarily term. As Braziel and Mannur (2003) note, broaden and deepen because its etymological origins are in the Greek migrants are often embedded in term diasperien, from dia, ‘across’, and multi-layered, multi-sited trans- sperien, ‘to sow or scatter seeds’. national social fields, encompassing However, although this meaning is fairly those who move and those who stay mainstream in the contemporary behind. (1003) context, its use is also problematic – suggesting clearly demarcated geo- This article shifts the focus to examine graphic territories, national identity, and the cultural relations of Kosovan belonging and dislocation from fixed Albanian diaspora, and the meaning of nation-states, territories, or countries. diaspora for those who remain in the Such definitions may not allow for homeland as well as migrants diaspora as a self-ascription or a state of themselves. By analysing the use of the consciousness and/or social form subverted German word ‘Schatzi’ by (Sökefeld 2006; Vertovec 1997), and risk homeland Kosovo Albanians to construct falling within the same outdated and constitute the Kosovo Diaspora, I paradigms that referred to ‘race’ and explore how diaspora discourse is ethnicity (Sökefeld 2006; Anthias 1998; shaped - not only by relationships 2001). As such, experiences of the between the individual or community in diaspora/ric, outside a territoriality of the host country, but also through some kind, and, moreover, the homeland discourses about diaspora. relationships that homelands have with their diaspora have largely been ignored. 1 https://publications.cardiffuniversitypress.org/index.php/JOMEC @JOMECjournal Methodology relation to time and place of migration, highlighting that diaspora identity This article presents findings from construction is not only about looking analysis of thirteen semi-structured in- back to the homeland, but also about depth interviews with Kosovo Albanians the gaze of the homeland towards the in Kosovo. The interviews were diaspora. conducted during fieldwork in Kosovo between September and October 2012 I conducted my interviews in relatively and via Skype between January and July relaxed and flexible environments, which 2013. Out of the thirteen interviews enabled me to deal with unanticipated conducted, nine were with members of turns in the conversation and provided civil society – mainly those working in the opportunity for feedback and NGOs, media and philanthropic clarification of ambiguous points. I also organisations. Two interviews were chose to employ in-depth semi- conducted with Ministry of Diaspora structured interviews because I wanted officials, one with a government minister, to collect data from individuals involved and one with the leader of an opposition in civil society with significant social party. capital, and who are likely to have influence in shaping discourses about By using a critical discourse analytical diaspora. The approach also enabled me approach (CDA) to analyse my empirical to explore how the meaning of Kosovan data (Wodak 1997), my aim is not to Albanian diasporic identity is cons- search out what people ‘truly’ mean or tructed, both through relating personal feel, but rather, from a social experience and other kinds of story constructivist perspective, to investigate about the diaspora. As Seidman (2006) how certain positions and ideas about puts it: Kosovan diasporic identity are constructed as ‘truth’ within the texts Stories are a way of knowing. In under analysis, and to what effect they order to give the details of their may operate as discourse. (Fairclough experience a beginning, middle, 1995; Coupland et al. 1999; Jørgensen and end, people must reflect on and Phillips 2009; Wodak et al. 2009). their experience. It is this process The approach assumes that there is a of selecting constitutive details of material and productive dimension to experience, reflecting on them, discourse, which constitutes identities giving them order, and thereby and social groups (Hall 1996; Wodak et making sense of them that makes al. 2009), and enables the creation of telling stories a meaning-making knowledge in society (Weedon 1987). experience. (7) CDA is ‘critical' in the sense that it aims to reveal the role of discursive practice in The analysis is divided into three the maintenance of the social world, sections. The first section, entitled ‘The including those social relations that Urban and Rural Divide’, explores the involve unequal relations of power discursive construction of the (Jørgensen and Phillips 2009). In my ‘gastarbeiters’ – guest workers – and analysis, therefore, I highlight the political exiles. This is followed by rhetorical and discursive strategies used analysis of the discursive construction to construct and reconstruct the and representation of the Kosovo diaspora Kosovo Albanians as ‘other’ in Albanians from Germany, Switzerland, 2 https://publications.cardiffuniversitypress.org/index.php/JOMEC @JOMECjournal Austria and the Nordic countries as The periods of migration from Kosovo ‘Schatzi’. This word stems from a can be historically traced and divided subversion of the German word Schatz, into four distinct phases: those who which literally translates into English as migrated from the 1940s to the 1960s ‘treasure’. The word is used in German due to the brutal Aleksandar Ranković slang as the equivalent of the English security policy (Bieber and Daskalovski words sweetheart or darling. However, in 2003; Blumi 2003), those who migrated Kosovo ‘Schatzi’ carries a very specific from 1963 to the end of the 1970s connotation, around which a stereo- (Bernhard 2012), and those who started typical discourse is articulated about the to migrate from the 1980s to the early Kosovo Diaspora as a particular social, 1990s - before visas were introduced by cultural and economic group. In the final western countries for Yugoslav nationals section, a range of issues and (although illegal migration continued), perceptions about diaspora returning to and finally between 1998 and 1999 Kosovo is explored, especially with during the Kosovo War (Kostovicova and respect to how they are strongly Prestreshi
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