2008-09-01

Here come the brides

Somebody must have published this story as a joke. Right?

Update: No, somebody really proposed this. Check the comments below for a link to the quick rejection of the idea by the ministry where the fellow is employed (and to which he was proposed by SPS). For more on the fascinating biography of Željko Vasilević, have a look at today's Danas.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Someone regrets saying something:

http://balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/12788/

2/9/08 08:51
Anonymous said...

Actually, I'm not sure why you seem so surprised; here in Croatia at least, proposals like this do pop up every few years - although not normally made by any governmental or public officials. Rather, the on-call demographers (sometimes university professors) alarmed by declining birth rates propose some kind of program to facilitate the immigration (they stop short of saying 'importing') of (almost always) Ukrainian women and encourage their settlement in largely depopulated areas with a surfeit of bachelors. My guess is they believe Ukrainian women will somehow be easily assimilated into the dominant Croatian culture...

4/9/08 09:21
Eric Gordy said...

I guess the fertility theme is not so surprising, since that is afairly standard part of nationalist rhetoric. And now you've told me that trafficking as a solution is not new to the region. There is one way I think this fellow has expanded the discourse, though -- by bringing in ethnic stereotypes as to what place is likely to export the most productive women.

4/9/08 10:32
Anonymous said...

our friend Rada did some research for her dissertation on an organization in Serbia - Seoski Prag - that actually brought some Ukranian women to meet the local momci. (They blamed their lack of prospects on those selfish village girls who had left for the city - obviously.) The little get-together wasn't the hit they had expected. But their reasoning was even more fascinating: through such marriages, Ukraine would become kin and thus would be obliged to come to Serbia's aid in case of... whatever.

here's the reference: Rada Drezgic, "International Matchmaking: Ukrainian Brides for Serbian Men." In: Gender Relations in South Eastern Europe : Historical Perspectives on Womanhood and Manhood in 19th and 20th Century (Studies on South East Europe). Jovanovic, Miroslav and Naumovic, Slobodan eds. LitVerlag, 2004.

6/9/08 20:55
Anonymous said...

Canada and USA are based on this kind of "immigration" and I am not exactly sure why you find this so out of ordinary? I immigrated in Canada as a refugee and was conducted to many health exams; if I didn't meet all their criteria I would be rejected for "not-meeting refugee status". Hypocrisy and double standards of western "democracies" are more and more amazing and amusing.

14/9/08 20:11
Anonymous said...

I had to pay these test and airfare to Canada out of my pocket, naturally. But I was lucky, weren't recently cases in UK where potential refugees had to pay sexual services to government officials?
I guess that kind of "civilized" behavior is not worth blogging!

14/9/08 20:18

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