“The Balkans” have always unsettled the collective
emigration is present throughout the Balkans, leading many
subconscious of Western Europeans. Since the collapse of the
citizens (not politicians!) towards increased solidarity with
Ottoman Empire, the region has been seen as a flashpoint—
refugees from the Middle East. And everything will come down
from the splitting of Macedonia into Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria,
to this: making legal migrants out of those who have been
and Albania, to the collapse of former Yugoslavia and the
humiliated, who have fled their homes, and allowing them to
“Third Balkan War.”
travel between their home and guest countries in order to
There is disagreement over where the Balkans even start
contribute to the reconstruction and peace of both their old
and end—consider that the “Great Balkan” mountain range
and new home countries through money transfers, know-how,
begins in western Turkmenistan! In one of her stories, the
and the transfer of knowledge. But as long as we don’t establish
Croatian author Slavenka Drakulić described the Balkans as
legal immigration opportunities for non-Europeans, illegal
a phenomenon that becomes more obscure the closer one
immigration will not cease.
nears it.
The multi-perspective reports gathered here point in the
However, the associations that are stirred up by the Balkans
right direction. In them we discover the life stories of bold
are almost exclusively negative: the Balkan Wars, Balkan
young people who gather and exchange their first European
conflicts, Balkan-isation, etc.— and added to that, of course,
experiences on the Balkans route wishing to contribute to the
is the Western Balkans route! As a result, the Balkans have
creation of a peaceful and prosperous Europe. The Allianz
become synonymous with danger and uncontrollable chaos
Cultural Foundation has repeatedly supported cafébabel’s
for Western Europeans. But the current “Geopolitics of the
journalistic projects in the Balkans in the past, bringing the
Feet,” as Historian Karl Schlögel called it during one of our
former Yugoslavian countries closer together in discussion
conferences, will thoroughly change the cartography of Europe
and strengthening civil society. Maybe one day, thanks to
and the composition of our societies.
cafébabel, the Balkans will become a synonym for Europe’s
If we compare Europe, which is currently splitting itself into
social laboratory.
pieces, with countries such as Jordan or Lebanon, where every third or fourth citizen has become a refugee, then to refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, or Iraq, the region must still seem praiseworthy.
Michael M. Thoss Director of Allianz Kulturstiftung
Partially within the EU and partially without, the Balkans currently serve as a real test for Europe, given the newly erected border fences and checkpoints. However, a democratically agreed-upon refugee policy, which would be transformed into a European migration policy, could give the region a new identity. The memory of their own history of 9