Xenophobia in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Study on Socioeconomic and Geographical Factors Influencing Xenophobia Among Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina Nowadays

Abstract

This sociological research in the field of conflict studies aims to answer the following research question: To what extent do socioeconomic and geographical factors influence xenophobia among Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina nowadays? I investigated 6 factors: religion, nationalism, education, income, someone’s place of living and close interethnic contact. A quantitative method with online questionnaires was used. Respondents were gathered trough a snowball method. The data was analyzed in SPSS using multiple regression analysis. It can firstly be concluded that the more religious someone is, the more xenophobic they are, because they are more nationalistic. Secondly, the lower educated someone is, the more xenophobic they are. No significant results were found on income being a factor. Lastly, respondents living in villages were more xenophobic than respondents living in cities, because they have less close interethnic contact. Moreover, the descriptive statistics show that even though xenophobia among Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina is still present, the levels of xenophobia in Bosnia are not as high as expected to be found. Hopefully this study can contribute to policy decreasing xenophobia among the main ethnic groups in the country, and thus prevent another conflict to happen.