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Everyday Integration Experiences and Challenges of Refugees in Croatia

Inclusion and integration into a new, host society present a great challenge for immigrants, particularly in dealing with everyday situations. These processes are even more difficult when there are significant cultural differences between the country of origin and receiving country. According to Penninx, integration – as a process of becoming an accepted part of society, implies interactions between immigrants and their host (receiving) society which occur within three distinct dimensions: legal-political, socio- economic, and cultural-religious. In this paper these interactions are analysed using the example of asylum beneficiaries in Croatia. The analyses are based on the data collected within the extensive qualitative research with main goal to determine the challenges of integrating refugees into Croatian society at the level of local communities (in socio-spatial 30 units – towns and counties). A total of 168 interviews and four focus groups were conducted with 227 participants – representatives of different stakeholders in the process of refugee integration, including 25 interviews with persons granted asylum. In this paper, we focus on the data obtained by the interviewed asylees/refugees and their perception of challenges they have been facing upon their arrival to Croatia. Within the conducted interviews, the emphasis was put on different dimensions of integration based on the estimation of community capacities for accommodation and early integration, social welfare and health care, language learning, education, and employment. To address relations with different stakeholders in the integration process, the relations between refugees and representatives of institutions as well as local residents were analysed. The results indicated that almost all of the interviewed asylum beneficiaries highlighted the positive experiences they had with the acceptance in local communities, noting, however, that it took a while for them to feel accepted by their neighbours. Only three interlocutors reported having negative experiences upon their arrival in the community, consisting mainly of unpleasant verbal comments. Persons granted asylum generally do not see any major cultural barriers to their life in Croatia, but in their view, the integration system is not well organised and includes some contradictions.

integration ; refugees ; local community level ; Croatia

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