Tuesday, June 25, 2013
2.21 (Binnengasthuis)
In the post-communist republics of the former Yugoslavia, key international priorities have been progressively shifting away from post-war peacekeeping missions to economic reconstruction and development. Concerns over post-socialist democratization are thus gradually being replaced by those of market performance and efforts to foster innovation and generate international investment. In Croatia, a young generation of highly skilled researchers and entrepreneurial diaspora Croats are being targeted for large-scale ‘strategic innovation’ and skills-based partnerships including incentivized programs variously referred to as ‘Homeland Connectivity’ and ‘Research Cooperability’. Coupled with these initiatives, is an aggressive non-territorial Croatian citizenship strategy, initiated in 1991, that has increasingly naturalized (ethnic) diaspora Croats in its citizenship laws. Through grants and strategic partnerships with international NGOs, industry, academic institutions, government ministries, ‘expert expatriates’ are increasingly recruited to return to the homeland to bring their experience, education and training to contribute to Croatia’s development.
This paper explores the current Croatian embrace of ‘strategic innovation’ initiatives and incentivized (ethnic) citizenship, aimed at engaging diaspora experts to become internationally competitive in business, science and technology in anticipation of their entry into the European Union in July 2013. What are the implications of the reconfiguration of citizenship regimes that are increasingly privileging ethnic diasporas? Furthermore, what are the consequences of the intensification of ethnically-based citizenship rights, here diaspora-focused, ethnically exclusive criteria, for thinking about new citizenship regimes in Europe?
