Paper short abstract:

The paper will examine what Europe means to asylum seekers retained in Croatia, comparing their narratives with discourse analysis of local newspapers’ articles that, mostly anecdotally, describe how Croatians, “new EUropeans”, look at new neighbours in their local communities: asylum seekers.

Paper long abstract:

On July 1st 2013 Croatia became a member of the European Union (EU), which also meant that the EU got new external borders, with countries of, what is in EU jargon called, "Western Balkans": Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. EU membership brought a new meaning to Croatia; it is now a country that is more than before attractive to illegal migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, as an entry point to EU richer countries. Goal of this paper is to analyse meaning of Europe to asylum seekers that entered in this new border EU member state and temporary live in the Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers in Zagreb. Methodologies used in the research will be asylum seekers' oral narratives derived from field interviews, and analysis of discourses created by Croatian media, depicting asylum seekers' life in Zagreb, on one hand, and, on the other hand, perceptions that Croatians have regarding new "foreigners" in their neighbourhood. That would shed a light into how people at new margins of the European Union live ("implement") one of core stipulations of the EU Treaty: "The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities." Proposed title of the paper originates from a local newspapers' article which describes, in an anecdotal manner, "newcomers" and how they are seen by local inhabitants of Zagreb, in vicinity of the asylum seekers' detention centre.