TraFFF

Few places in Europe are shaped by migration like the former Yugoslavia. Zooming in on Serbia and Kosovo, this project explores social effects of migration and return on origin societies. The project’s main research question is: which strategies did migrants and their families develop by exploiting the multi-faceted resources gained by migration? Focusing on entrepreneurial activities, it relates migrant agency to social status, state policies, family and kinship, gender, as well as value and political orientations. The team of researchers strives to explain the empirical puzzle of persistent homeland-oriented (economic, social, and emotional) migrant investments despite corruption and economic stagnation. Thus, the project deconstructs visions of development by exploring their ideological framings. It provides a comparison in time, tracing transformations in migrant behavior since the 1960s. Finally, it cuts across the rural-urban divide comparing areas with different family models and distinctive migration and remitting patterns. The project will apply a mixed method approach that relies on a broad scope of sources, including ethnography, interviews, household surveys, census data, as well as archival documents, newspapers, and policy papers.

• Coordination:  Prof. Dr. Ulf Brunnbauer, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), Regensburg, Germany
• PD Dr. Carolin Leutloff-Grandits, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany
• Nvard Loryan / Dr. Raimund Jehle, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, Budapest, Hungary
• Prof. Assoc. Dr. Drini Imami, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania
• Dr. Iliriana Miftari, University of Prishtina, Kosovo
• Suzana Djordjevic Milosevic, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia
• DGAP Project „Returnee Networks and Migrant Reintegration“

• Leibniz Association (Leibniz Competition), Germany