Emigration Policies and Nation-building in Interwar Yugoslavia

Abstract

This article analyses the connection between emigration policies and nationalism in interwar Yugoslavia (1918–1941). It argues that Yugoslav policymakers used emigration as a means of nation-building. On the one hand, the Yugoslav state pursued long-distance nation-building by aiming to create a ‘Yugoslav diaspora’ out of the hundreds of thousands of overseas emigrants of South Slavic extraction who had left territories that in 1918 became part of Yugoslavia. On the other hand, the state pursued an ethnically differentiated exit policy. To this end, the emigration of minorities was supported, particularly in the case of non-Slavic Muslims, while the emigration of so-called ‘national’ elements was restricted. In order to assess the efficacy of these policies, the article also looks at the legal and institutional framework within which migration policies were carried out. It concludes that, while the policies’ effects did not correspond with policymakers’ intentions, emigration policy nevertheless provides an original perspective on nation-building in interwar Yugoslavia.