Diaspora in the Limbo of Socialist Yugoslavia Foreign Affairs

Abstract

The main objective of the study is to analyze the relationship between Yugoslavia’s diaspora policy and foreign affairs throughout the period of its existence from 1945 to 1991. The analysis is based on a comparative view of the evolution of diaspora policy and foreign affairs, in stages determined by key years in which the diaspora policy was redefined. Through a scrutiny of the interaction between institutions in those jurisdictions the expatriates resided, and the highest state authorities the main thesis is put forward. Accordingly, Yugoslavia’s foreign affairs and diaspora policies were never integrated, nor systematically synchronised. Foreign affairs were not interested in this kind of collaboration, while they did not see diaspora as an important actor in international relations, particularly when the main focus was put on the Non-Aligned Movement. This led to tensions between the services and institutions dedicated to working with emigrants and the foreign affairs institutions.