IMMIGRANTS AND HOMELAND Bibliotheca ZBORNICI, Book 20 Copyright © 2003. Institute of Social Sciences IVO PILAR, Zagreb CIP – Katalogizacija u publikaciji Nacionalna i sveu~ili{na knji`nica, Zagreb UDK 325.14(100)(063) UDK 325.25(=163.42)(063) IMMIGRANTS and homeland / editors Vlado [aki}, Howard Duncan, Marin Sopta. – Zagreb : Institut dru{tvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar, 2003. – (Biblioteka Zbornici ; 20) Prema uredni~koj bilje{ci knjiga sadr`i radove sa me|unarodne konferencije “Immigrants and Homeland”, odr`ane 2002. godine u Dubrovniku. ISBN 953-6666-31-6 1. [aki}, Vlado 2. Duncan, Howard 3. Sopta, Marin I. Imigranti – – Svijet – – Zbornik II. Hrvati – – Emigranti – – Zbornik 431110171 ISBN 953-6666-31-6 IMMIGRANTS AND HOMELAND Editors: Vlado [aki} Howard Duncan Marin Sopta Zagreb, 2003. EDITORIAL NOTE Papers in this Anthology were presented at the Interna- tional Conference entitled “Immigrants and Homeland” held from May 9–12, 2002 in Dubrovnik. The conference was organized by the Institute of So- cial Sciences Ivo Pilar, Metropolis and the Croatian Centre for Strategic Research. Editors 5 I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Vlado [aki} Overview on Contemporary Migration Processes ............................................................ 11 Demetrios G. Papademetriou Dubrovnik Conference Paper ................................................................................................ 17 Marin Sopta Return to the Homeland: the Building of a State ......................................................... 23 II. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES Irena Omelaniuk The Socio-economic Effects of Diaspora Return. The IOM Experience ....................... 31 Peter Schatzer Returning Home to Build the State ................................................................................... 43 Rex Brynen Diaspora Populations and Security Issues in Host Countries ...................................... 63 III. NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES CROATIA Mate Me{trovi} American Foreign Policy and the Croat Struggle for Freedom ................................... 83 Branko Salaj Critical Reflections About Relations Between Homeland and Diaspora .................. 93 Ivan ^izmi} Croatian Diaspora’s Representation in Parliament: Affirmative or Negative? ...... 103 Stipe Hrka} Financial Support from Diaspora ....................................................................................... 111 CANADA Roy Norton The Changing Faces of Canada: Newly-immigrated Ethnic Minorities and the Canadian Foreign Policy-making Process, 1984–1993 ............................................ 127 Daphne Winland Session – Diasporic Influence on Host Country Domestic Political Activity: Croatians in Canada or Croatian-Canadians? ............................................................... 143 ISRAEL Gustavo S. Mesch Perceptions of Discrimination and the Voting Patterns of Immigrants from the FSU in Israel .................................................................................................................... 157 Shmuel Adler Training and Retraining Programs in Israel .................................................................. 177 MEXICO Juan Hernández Mexico’s Diaspora and its Democratic Transition .......................................................... 195 Mario Riestra Venegas Migration and Development ................................................................................................ 207 Omar de la Torre, Julie Weise The Financial Contribution of Mexico’s Diaspora and Relevant Government Policies ........................................................................................................................................ 215 PORTUGAL Fernando Nunes Integration or Return? Towards an Effective Emigration Policy and Practice for a Neglected Diaspora: The Case of the Portuguese Emigrants .............................. 229 Howard Duncan Closing Remarks ...................................................................................................................... 257 I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Vlado [AKI] Director Institute of Social Sciences “Ivo Pilar”, Croatia OVERVIEW ON CONTEMPORARY MIGRATION PROCESSES The continued growth of international migrations is one of the fundamental challenges for worldwide social, politi- cal and economic systems today. It is well known, that more than a hundred million immigrants, refugees with asylum and immigrant workers live outside their native countries. This number is expected to grow even faster in the twenty-first century than in the twentieth. This process is mostly caused by poverty, wars, political persecutions, ecological catastrophes, and the like. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the subject of mi- gration is at the very centre of international discussions about our planet’s future. The specific reason for this is that the main migratory directions are from third-world countries towards industrial and post-industrial societies. In other words, from a cultural perspective, from coun- tries with more developed collectivist cultures towards countries with more developed individualist cultures. However, for some time, attention has not been paid to cultural differences between immigrant societies and mi- grant minorities in comparison to political and economic aspects. Cultural studies only began to receive greater at- tention when it became clear that intercultural differences were among the main causes of interethnic tensions that often threaten with major consequences and that inter- cultural tolerance is a necessary precondition for future in- tegration processes. Nowadays, the social and cultural as- pects of migration seize the same amount of attention as political and economic ones. As a social psychologist, I will take this opportunity to say something more about this subject. For migrants, international migrations constitute the main episode in their lives since migration implies a trans- fer of individuals or groups of people from one geograph- ical location and cultural milieu to another. This shift touches all aspects of a migrant’s life and according to sci- entific understanding, it causes changes in socioeconomic 13 Vlado [aki} Overview on Contemporary statuses, social networks, as well as greater or less accultur- Migration Processes ation among immigrants. Migrants, in their experience are linked by different social contexts – that from which they came and the one they came to, in a way that makes the best adaptation possible. In their encounter with a new culture, the quality of their adjustment mostly depends on personal characteris- tics like age, sex, the level of education gained in their ori- gin society, and their migrant status (as immigrant worker or a refugee), and is also related to changes of socioeco- nomic status, social networks, sense of belonging and eth- nic identity. At national levels, there are large differences in rela- tions towards migrants. In Europe, for instance, although there are common standards for migrants, prepared within the European Union, national policies towards migrants often differ considerably. Namely, their integration poli- cies span from the French model of cultural assimilation on one end of the continuum towards the Swedish multi- cultural model on the other. Therefore, discussions lately about drawing together different models from the largest immigration and emigration countries are very developed and necessary in the context of globalization and integra- tion processes. A specific question that I wish to address, which is important for understanding the modern structure of mi- gration processes and patterns, is what motivates people to migrate. According to social psychology, migration moti- vation is based on three groups of factors. The first group consists of pulling/attraction factors which are related to industrial countries’ needs for a la- bour force from underdeveloped countries. For example, this motivated five million Mexicans to emigrate to the USA and thirty million people from Southeastern Europe and North Africa to Northern Europe during the 1950s and 1960s. The second group consists of pushing/repressing fac- tors, which are related to better living conditions for large numbers of unemployed people from emigration coun- tries, especially in jobs that do not require special skills and are not favoured by inhabitants of immigration coun- tries. Therefore, immigrant workers are mostly employed in sectors of building, agriculture and tourism. However, highly educated migrant groups can also be motivated by this factor when they find themselves caught up in a pro- cess known as “brain-drain”. The third group refers to the already existing social 14 networks of emigrated relatives and friends who help new Vlado [aki} migrants or whole migrant families to migrate legally or il- Overview on Contemporary legally. Most often, this involves middle-aged persons who Migration Processes are inhumanely exploited due to language barriers and in- sufficient education in their new environments. Concisely, the analysis of motivation factors reveals that not all migrants voluntarily change their places of liv- ing. Some have been displaced, some have escaped, and not all of them are equally accepted in receiving countries. Likewise, some migrant groups enjoy special protection in some countries, while others are not welcome and the re- ceiving societies express prejudice and discriminate them. Let us mention some propositions from the so-called con- tact hypothesis in order to lessen hostilities between mi- grant groups and groups