Serbian diaspora
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are currently 4.5 to 5.5 million Serbs in diaspora throughout the world (those that are not constitutional peoples; like in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina in this case). The Serb diaspora (commonly known as the Serbian diaspora) was the consequence of either voluntary departure, coercion and/or forced migrations or expulsions that occurred in six big waves:
- To the west and north, caused mostly by the Ottoman Turks.
- To the east (Czechoslovakia, Russia, Ukraine and across the former USSR from World War I and World War II, to until the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe by the early-1990s).
- To the USA for economic reasons, but Serbians also migrated to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South America (esp. Chile and Argentina, also see Montenegrins in Argentina).
- During wartime, particularly World War II and post-war political migration, predominantly into overseas countries (large waves of Serbian and other Yugoslavians into the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
- Going abroad for temporary work as "guest workers" and "resident aliens" who stayed in their new homelands during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s (to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), however some Serbians returned to Yugoslavia in the 1980s.
- Escaping from the uncertain situation (1991-1995) caused by the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the renewal of vicious ethnic conflicts and civil war, as well as by the disastrous economic crises, which largely affected the educated or skilled labor forces (i.e. "brain drain"), increasingly migrated to Western Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand.
The existence of the centuries-old Serb or Serbian diaspora in countries such as Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine, is the result of historical circumstances – the migrations to the North and the East, due to the Turkish conquests of the Balkans and as a result of politics, especially when the Communist Party came into power, but even more when the communist state of Yugoslavia collapsed into inter-ethnic conflict, resulting in mass expulsions of people from certain regions as refugees of war. Although some members of the Serbian diaspora do not speak the Serbian language nor observe Christianity (some Serbians are Jews, Slavic Muslims, Protestants, Roman Catholics, Eastern Rite Catholics, and atheists who don't practice religion) or members of the overseas dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church, they are still traditionally regarded as Serbs or Serbians other than Yugoslavs.
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[edit] Regions with significant Serb populations
United States1,800,479 (2005)
Bosnia and Herzegovina 1,784,530 (2006)
Canada 758,540 (2007)
Germany 706,067 (2007)
Australia 205,895 (2006)
Croatia 201,631 (2006)
Montenegro 201,414 (2007)
Austria 195,365 (2006)
Switzerland 194,977 (2006)
France 100.000-180.000
United Kingdom 100,000 (2005 est.)
Sweden 100,000 (2007)
Netherlands 90,000-102,500
Italy 94,070 (2006)
Slovenia 48,964 (2004)
Republic of Macedonia 35,939 (2002)
Poland 34,890 (2001)
Denmark 2,000 (2001)
Romania 22,518 (2002)
United Arab Emirates 15,000 (2007)
Norway 12,500 (2006)
Hungary 7,350
Spain 4,392 (2006)
Russia 4,156 (2002)
Czech Republic 1,801 (2001)
New Zealand 753
Slovakia 434 (2001)
[edit] Serb diaspora in Australia
[edit] Serbs in the United Kingdom
[edit] Serb diaspora in the United States
- George Fisher
- Nikola Tesla
- Rod Blagojevich (Governor of Illinois)
- Mitchell Melich (Utah State Senate)
- George Voinovich (US Senator - Ohio)
- Helen Delich Bentley (Former Maryland Congresswoman)
- Melissa Bean (US Congresswoman - Illinois)
- Rose Ann Vuich (First woman elected to California Senate)
[edit] Serb-American war veterans
- Serbian-American volunteers (1917)
- Serb Chetniks Rescue U.S. Pilots during WWII
- Louis Cukela (Major USMC)
- Mitchell Paige (Colonel USMC)
- Lance Sijan (Captain USAF)
- Butch Verich (Commander USN)
- Mele "Mel" Vojvodich (Major General USAF)
[edit] Serb diaspora organizations
- Serbian Unity Congress [1]
- Serbian National Defense Council of America [2] (founded by Mihailo Pupin in 1914)
- Serbian Council of Great Britain [3]
- Serbian World Congress [4]
[edit] External links
- Srbi u svetu Jedinstvena baza podataka o Srbima i srpskim organizacijama širom sveta
- Serb Diaspora Youtube Channel
- Ministry for Diaspora Republic of Serbia
- All Serbs of the World by V. Grečić and M. Lopušina
- Serb World USA
- Congressional Serbian Caucus in the United States Congress
- SBS Radio Information on Serbian community in Australia.
- Tesla Forum of Western Australia Inc.
- Australian Serbian Student Association
- Serbs in Arizona
- Serbs in Los Angeles
