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Paper short abstract:

The paper examines how different kinds and levels of uncertainties (within and out of EU) co-exist together, ‘feed’ each other, and re/constitute the concept of Europe (or at least one of them). The paper traces the work of BiH transnational female care workers in EU countries.

Paper long abstract:

Proposed paper deals with the experiences of the Europe, from the perspective and practice of economic migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the EU. Coming from a country, where since the war of ‘90’s, over the continuing political conflict, and the difficult transition, the state of uncertainty has become almost a normalized state, the paper traces work of transnational female care givers in the Western countries.

Although in the constitution of today’s Europe, the structural inequality between West and the Rest cannot be avoided, the approach will not rely on the top-down relation between centre and the periphery only, but a nuanced exploration and interpretation of processes and discourses of Europeanization that circulate and frame people's actions, motivations, values, needs and responsibilities, affecting not only those who consider leaving BiH, but also those who stay. I want to rely not only on current EU policies regarding BiH, but on the imagination of BiH care givers of what ‘Europe’ is, what their place is within it, and how the ‘Europe’ fills the gaps within contemporary BiH, and vice versa. Relying on the critical Europeanization studies which focuses on actors and zones on the border of ‘Europe’, such as marginalized groups and Balkans, I aim to demonstrate how “these apparently peripheral actors and zones are much more important for the making of Europe than it is usually assumed.” Old and new uncertainties, and the ways of managing them are particularly good way to do it.