BOSNIAN REFUGEE LIFE IN AMERICA

Bosnian Refugee Life in America

Table of Contents

Topic Selection3

Research Questions for Literature Review4

Literature Review4

History4

Modern Era6

Significant Immigration Waves8

Settlement Patterns10

Traditions, Customs, and Beliefs13

Interactions with other Ethnic Groups14

Politics and Government15

Action Research Plan16

Research Question for Action Research Project16

Instrumentation16

Procedures16

Validity and Reliabiltiy17

Background Information17

Purpose of the Action Research Plan18

Research Question of the Action Research Project19

Hypothesis20

Research Design and Sample20

Results21

Former Life and Displacement21

Interpretation of Results23

Ethnical Considerations23

Adjustment and Adaptation25

Economic Adaptation26

Social and Psychological Adaptation28

Services are Mostly Good30

Application and Conclusion33

Conclusion35

References38

Bosnian Refugee Life in America

Topic Selection

The heart and core of this paper presents the results of my study of a Bosnian refugee community in America. I have a personal interest in refugee life as I have seen several miserable families during war period in Bosnia. A region of upstate New York has been host to a large contingent of refugees, most recently from the former Yugoslavia. Because of the existence of a refugee resettlement center supported by the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Service (LIRS) nationally, this area has one of the highest densities of refugee populations in the United States.

The study addressed the site of resettlement of 8759 refugees between 1979 and 1999, with nearly 3500 Bosnian refugees coming between 1993 and 1999. From an annual total of 79 refugees from Bosnia in 1993, there was a peak of 1145 arriving during 1997, and a decline to 501 in 1999. Refugees from Bosnia currently entering the United

States are joining family members under the auspices of a reunification program; their numbers will therefore probably continue to dwindle. We became interested in the psychological, socio-cultural and economic adaptations of the Bosnian refugees to this community and the strategies they have used for successful adjustment.

Research Questions for Literature Review

Q1: What is the historic background of bosnian refugee problem?

Q2: How one can define this problem of bonian refugees in this modern era?

Q3: How these bosnian refugees has developed and mixed in modern american society?

Q4: How american people has observed these bosnian refugees as immigrants?

Q5: Specify the settlement patterns of these bosnian refugees in modern american society?

Literature Review

History

In the first few centuries A.D., the Roman Empire held Bosnia. After the empire disintegrated, various powers sought control of the land. Slavs were living in Bosnia by the seventh century, and by the tenth century they had an independent state. In the ninth century, the two kingdoms of Serbia and Croatia were established.

Bosnia briefly lost its independence to Hungary in the twelfth century, but regained it around 1180. It prospered and expanded under three especially powerful rulers: Ban Kulin, who reigned from 1180 to 1204; Ban Stephen Kotromanic, who ruled from 1322 to 1353; and King Stephen Tvrtko, who reigned from 1353 to 1391. After Tvrtko's death, internal struggles weakened the nation. The neighboring Ottoman Turks were becoming increasingly aggressive, and they conquered Bosnia in 1463. For more than 400 years, Bosnia was an important province of the Ottoman Empire. Islam was the official religion, though non-Muslim faiths were allowed. Indeed, in the Ottoman era many Jews came from Spain, where they faced persecution or death at the hands ...