The interface between discourse and biography

How socio-political discourses influence the biographies of Serbian immigrants in Switzerland

Abstract

This article focuses on the question as to how socio-political discourses influence the biographies of immigrants generally and of Serbian immigrants in Switzerland in particular. In the last three decades, immigrants from the for- mer Yugoslavia and its successor republics were among the least popular immigrant groups in Switzerland. They had a reputation for being ‘aggressive’, ‘criminal’, ‘primitive’ and ‘incompatible with Swiss culture’. How do Serbian immigrants cope with this image in their own biographies, and how does it affect their sense of belonging to their respective countries of immigration and emigration? In answering these questions, the author draws on narrative interviews with ethnic Serbs living in the Basel region, which were conducted between 2011 and 2013 for a doctoral thesis.