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Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Canada.ca Services Departments Français Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada Refugee Claims Refugee Appeals Admissibility Hearings Detention Reviews HomeImmigrationResearch Appeals Program Responses to Information Requests National Responses to Information Requests Documentation Packages Recent Research Responses to Information Requests (RIR) respond to focused Requests for Information that are submitted to the Research Directorate in the course of the Responses to refugee protection determination process. The database contains a seven-year Information Requests archive of English and French RIRs. Earlier RIRs may be found on the UNHCR's Refworld website. Please note that some RIRs have attachments which are not electronically accessible. To obtain a PDF copy of an RIR attachment, please email the Knowledge and Information Management Unit. 5 February 2013 HRV104109.E Croatia: Situation and treatment of persons of mixed ethnicity, people in mixed marriages and ethnic Croatians from other areas of former Yugoslavia; availability of state protection Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Ottawa 1. Situation and Treatment of Persons of Mixed Ethnicity and People in Mixed Marriages Information on the situation and treatment of persons of mixed ethnicity was scarce among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. Sources indicate that some ethnic tensions remain in Croatia since the armed conflicts (UN 3 Sept. 2010) of the 1990s (Lecturer 21 Nov. 2012; Matejcic 2009). In particular, ethnic Croats and ethnic Serbs fought against each other from 1991 to 1995 (Lecturer 21 Nov. 2012) as Croatia sought to establish its independence from Yugoslavia (MRG 2003, 4). In correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, a lecturer in politics at the University of Sheffield in the UK who is a specialist on the former Yugoslavia as well as on reconciliation and ethnic conflict and who makes fieldtrips to the region, stated that mixed marriages in Croatia "are still very rare" (21 Nov. 2012). In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, a representative of the Center for Peace Studies (CMS), who specializes in peace building, public policy and inter-ethnic relations, indicated that Croats in mixed marriages with individuals from Eastern Europe and elsewhere are generally seen negatively in Croatian society, although she added that mixed marriages between Croats and individuals from Western Europe may be seen positively (15 Nov. 2012). Corroborating information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. The CMS is a Zagreb-based NGO, which promotes social change and non- violence through education, research and activism (HRHN n.d.). A 2009 report on Croatia by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination indicates that returnees, including ethnic Croats who lived in areas under Serbian control during the conflicts, and people in mixed marriages can face discrimination in employment and obstacles in recovering agricultural land (12 Mar. 2009, para. 29). According to the CMS representative, there are cases of mistreatment and discrimination towards people in mixed marriages and of mixed ethnicity, although it tends to be "hidden" (CMS 15 Nov. 2012). She explained that tensions may be increased by certain events; as an example she noted that something like a football game could have a polarising effect and create strains in the community (ibid). The representative added that while there isn't any violence "in the street," there have been cases of violence, including fights and deaths, which principally happen in areas where people know each other, but did not provide examples (ibid.). According to the representative, police will not generally treat these incidents as being ethnically based, but will rather present them as being due to some other factors, or will underreport such incidents (ibid.). She explained that in her view, this was because of efforts to meet EU requirements to reduce ethnic conflict prior to Croatia's accession (ibid.). Corroboration of the above information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/Eng/ResRec/RirRdi/Pages/index.aspx?doc=454383&pls=1[4/3/2018 4:40:46 PM] Responses to Information Requests - Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1.1. Segregated Schools According to an article on the website of the Nansen Dialogue Centre Osijek (NDC Osijeck), a Croatian NGO which works to build "an "inclusive and functional multi-ethnic community" (NDC Osijek n.d), minority students in multicultural areas generally access their right to being educated in their own language by being schooled separately from the majority (ibid, 12 Nov. 2010). The website of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of Croatia indicates that members of national minorities have a constitutionally guaranteed right to be educated in their own language and script, which may be obtained through different models and frameworks, including classes in the language and script of the national minority, bilingual classes, or through special classes, such as summer school or winter classes, as well as special programs to integrate Roma schoolchildren into the school system (n.d.). The NDC Osijeck article states that in practice students belonging to different groups may be divided into separate "shifts" or use different parts of the same building, including separate entrances and actively avoid each other (12 Nov. 2010). The NDC Osijeck article notes: In such a system no one is satisfied because such education does not create a sane foundation for the normal development of a community, city and region. Dividedness negatively affects the children from the two largest ethnic groups (Croats and Serbs), and has a further negative effect on the children from mixed marriages, children of other nationalities, their parents and the future of the community as a whole. (ibid.) The article adds: Unfortunately, the reality is that these groups are forced to choose one of these two sides and thus deny their own group or unique identity. This situation just encourages social exclusion and social segregation. (ibid,) 1.2. Mixed Marriages Between Ethnic Croats and Serbs and Mixed Croat and Serb Ethnicity The representative of the CMS stated that ethnic Croats in mixed marriages with ethnic Serbs or individuals of mixed Croat and Serb ethnicity were seen in a particularly negative light as a consequence of the conflict of the 1990s (15 Nov. 2012). In a March 2006 interview with the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the Head of Mission of the Croatian office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe stated that "Serbs and Croats do not want mixed marriages, they frequent separate Croat and Serb cafes, restaurants and clubs" (IDMC 1 Sept. 2009, 64). However, the representative of CMS noted that as there aren't any physical differences between ethnic Serbs and ethnic Croats, individuals in such marriages or such mixed ethnicity are not generally identifiable if seen on the street, unlike individuals who have more visible differences such as darker skin (CMS 15 Nov. 2012). On the other hand, she noted that in villages and smaller cities, where people are more familiar with each other, those in mixed marriages or of mixed ethnicity are recognized more easily (ibid.). According to the representative, smaller communities also tend to be more "old-fashioned" (ibid.). In addition, she stated that although Croatia is supposed to be secular, the Catholic Church plays a large role in the country and is more influential in smaller communities (ibid.). According to her, the Catholic Church tends to play a "dividing role" between Catholic ethnic Croats and other groups (ibid.). Corroboration of this information could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. A 2009 article produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence and published by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network examines the impact of the conflicts of the 1990s on mixed marriages in two formerly ethnically diverse towns in Bosnia and Croatia which were severely affected by the violence (Matejcic 2009). The author states that in Vukovar, the Croatian town examined in the article, located near the Serbian border, and where there used to be "a high degree of inter-ethnic mingling," mixed marriages are now rare (ibid). A December 2011 article by the Paris-based newspaper Le Monde similarly indicates that mixed marriages, which were common in Vukovar before the conflicts, have become a rare occurrence (28 Dec. 2011.) Nonetheless, a November 2011 Reuters article, which also describes the town as having been "ethnically mixed" before the conflicts, quotes a resident as stating that interethnic marriages were happening again (18 Nov. 2011). According to a journal article examining mixed identity during violent conflict, 34 percent of all marriages in Vukovar were interethnic in the 1990s, prior to the war (Hartley Mar. 2010, 230). The article prepared for the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence also indicates that mixed marriages between Croats and Serbs constituted 5 percent of marriages in the town in 1998, 1.5 percent in 2003 and 8 percent in 2008 (Matejcic 2009). According to the article prepared for the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence, mixed marriages are "stigmatised