Which Side Are You On? Integration of Two Conflicting Ethnic Identities in Children from Serbo-Croatian Mixed Marriages

Abstract

Children from Serbian-Croatian mixed marriages face challenges reconciling two potentially conflicting ethnic identities due to implicit and explicit tensions between these two ethnic communities. This article explores the process of reconciling these ethnic identities, focusing on the respondents' narratives about growing up in a Serbian-Croatian mixed marriage. Our sample consisted of 5 male and 3 female respondents born during the 90s, which were marked by brutal conflicts between Serbia and Croatia. The results show that the participants went through the process of forming a coherent ethnic identity, which was marked by distancing from the dominant Serbian influence, and the majority of them opted for a specific identity position: cosmopolitan, Yugoslav, Serbo-Croatian, and a more integral form of the dominant Serbian identity.

Keywords

• mixed marriages
• ethnic identity
• Serbo-Croatian conflicts
• identity integration

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