REFUGEES' PERCEPTION
OF THEIR SITUATION: THE CASE OF CROATIAN REFUGEES IN SLOVENIA
Polič*, M., Bauman", A., Bukinac", 1., Rajh", V. & Ušeničnik*, B.
ABSTRACT
The recent war in Croatia has caused more than 500.000 people to leave their homes, some 30.000 of them left for Slovenia. In the interval of two months two groups of them were questioned about their perception of their situation as refugees, about the war, its causes and when and how it will end. The differences between refugees living with families, and in refugee's centres were also examined. While the whole situation was in general highly stressful (more for the refugees in centres) for them, and full of problems (uncertainty, lack of information about their relatives, material problems etc.), they evaluated their current position and relations with Slovenian people as positive. Concerning relations between Serbia and Croatia, their picture was strictly black and white.
Wars in general cause great disruptions in the lives of the involved civilian population, and quite often displace a lot of people far from their homes, for a shorter or longer period of time, sometimes even for ever. Unfortunately the disintegration of Yugoslavia, based on unsolved political and national relations, and on the background of hard economic crisis, produced the war which is, according to its consequences on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, in a way even more destructive then the World War II. The former Yugoslav Army supported by a great number of Serbian paramilitary troops has caused the death and suffering of thousands, simply because they were Croatians or Moslems, or even Serbs who didn't want to join them. A number of towns and villages in Croatia were completely demolished, and about 500.000 of their citizens were forced to evacuate them, often without anything but the clothes on their backs. Some 30.0(X) ended their escape in Slovenia, either at the homes of their relatives or in refugee centres. Of these half children, about a
* Department of Psychology, University of Ljubljana, Aškrčeva 12,61000 Ljuubljana, Slovenia ** Civil Defence Agency of Slovenia, Kardeljeva pi. 26,61000 Ljuubljana, Slovenia
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quarter are women and many are elderly. In the last 50 years Slovenia has not been confronted with such a situation. Before there were evacuations of smaller extent, caused by natural or other disasters, and for only a temporary time.Despite of relative inexperience, responsible agencies in Slovenia effectively dealt with this problem. Their work is without doubt reflected in the answers of our examines, though our main aim was to find out how refugees perceive their situation as refugees in particular, and its background (war, political situation) in general.
METHOD
Subjects: Only the persons that had recognised refugee status were included in the research. In the first part of the research, conducted in October 1991, 138 refugees were included (75 from refugee centres and 63 from families). The second part was conducted in December 1991 and it included 60 refugees from centres and 60 from families. All examines were older than 18 years, 203 were female and 55 male. They were of all levels of education, though secondary prevailed. Some data about their being in Slovenia are given in Table 1.
TABLE 1: Duration of being a refugee and of time spent at particular place (in days)
OCTOBER DECEMBER
	BEING A REFUGEE	AT THIS PLACE	BEING A REFUGEE	AT THIS PLACE
	Mean    SD	Mean    SD	Mean     SD	Mean         SD
IN CENTRES WITH FAMILIES	20.81    20.31 38.70    24.25	7.82     5.17 33.75   21.97	64.20     28.47 86.83      37.62	48.08         16.79 76.67         36.29
All subjects were selected at random basis. Refugees who lived with families of their relatives, had been there almost from the very beginning, while the refugees in centres more often changed their place of living. The reason for differences (beside the ones caused by different times of investigations) lay mainly in the fact, that the refugees with relatives in Slovenia knew where to escape to, while the others were more uncertain about their situation. We must also mention that more than a half of all them, did not receive any financial support from Croatia (salaries, pension). Refugee centres were in that time mainly in B-category hotels.
Material: The same questionary of the mixed type (mainly closed type questions) was used in both parts of the research, though slightly changed the second time. Questions refer to demographic data, reasons for escape, assessments of their position, feeling, relations with domestic population, contacts with home, military situation in Croatia etc. Beside this general questionary, in October session Spielberger's STAI X-I (measure of state anxiety) was used, while in December Impact of Event Scale (Horowitz et al., 1979) was added.
Procedure: Investigation was conducted in October and December 1991. Anonymity was guaranteed to all subjects. While refugees in centres were questioned in groups, those who lived with families, were questioned individually, approximately a week later.
rerigees' percbtc)n of dhbr situation flHBHHHBBHHMBM^
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Reasons that led them to leave their homes were undoubtedly dangereous life conditions, determined by war operation, and subjective perception of them. All subjects were from places where war operation of different intensity took place. These, highly strong situational pressures, showed themselves also in relative homogeneity of answers of different groups (age, sex, education etc.). Refugees, that found shelter at their relatives, left their homes at arelatively smaller threat, though in general they left when their place was attacked, when kiUing and destruction began. The majority simply thought, that their life was in danger, and as they mentionedmain reasons for their escape were: care for their children and family members, destruction and killing, fear etc. and only rarely lack of food and water. The reasons for escape to Slovenia in particular were: relatives or friends living in Slovenia, proximity, affinity of Slovenia and Croatia and/or example of others from their neighbourhood.
Horvath-Lindberg and Miserez (1991) believed, that often, refugees are not only physically uprooted, but also emotionally and psychologically scarred by their experiences before, during or after their flight. This was evident also in our case. Both, state anxiety and subjective influences of traumatic experiences, were high over average values (Table 2).
TABLE 2: Scores on STAI X-I and lES for all groups of refugees
_OCTOBER DECEMBER_
_STAI X-1_lES     STAI X-1_lES_
Mean     SD        Mean    SD Mean   SD        Mean    SD
IN CENTRES 60.78     10.17 55.04    14.57     47.33    6.12
WITH FAMILIES    58.72     11.04 53.64    11.88     42.44    7.96
It is therefore understandable, that they assessed on semantic differential scales their own feelings as generally more negative (Figure 1). The only exception is friendship, perhaps directed mainly to their fellow-people. This could be supported by the fact that they evaluated their relationships to them as the same (more than 50 %) or even better as before (more than 30%).
Different aspects of Slovenians' relationships to them, were estimated very positive (Figure 2), what is perhaps on one side due to their dependence on them, and on the other side, the result of contrast between earlier hostile circumstances and current situation. During the second investigation, relationship was estimated as less positive. "Honey-moon" was evidently over.
Refugee centres were placed mainly in hotels (usually B category), with 2 to 5 persons in a room, and families placed together. Placement in general was estimated as positive, more so for the persons placed in homes of their relatives or friends. Perhaps this environment was more familiar and friendly to them. The majority of all examines (over 60%) would organise refugee staying in a similar way as it was in Slovenia. Staying in Slovenia, even in worse conditions, was preferred to returning to the peaceful places of Croatia. Main problems cited by examines were, that they had nothing to do, lack of information about their relatives and lack of money. Sufficient and current information about relatives and home, as well as about the situation in Croatia were very important for their wellbeing. This was especially urgent because of the great dynamics of the whole situation. The great majority got their information through TV and radio Croatia (their home station).
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FIGURE 1: Assessment of Own Feelings
1.5    2    2.5    3    3.5    4
AVERAGE ESTIMATIONS 1 and 5 ¦ very, 2 in 4 ¦ a great deal, 3 ¦ average
Safe
Know What To Do
Be In Command Of Situation
Centres (October) Families (October) —^ Centres (December) Families (December)
Independent Feel Good
Not^Apflry       , {
FIGURE 2: Assessments of Slovenians' relationships to refugees
Cold
Insincere   h
Incomprehension
Disrespect
Bad
Unsociable
&—^
Warm
Sincere
Centres (October) Families (October) Centres (December)
Families (December)
Good
Sociable
3.5        4       4.5        5
AVERAGE ESTIMATIONS 1 and 5 ¦ very, 3 • average
rerx^es- perception of their situation •¦|
49
FIGURE 3: Assessment of Accomodation
Bad
Dirty Unorganized   -Bad Sanitation Limited Bad Food Not Enough Food Wet
Without Privacy Noisy
3      3.5      4     4.5      5 AVERAGE ESTIMATION
1 and 5 ¦ very, 3 - average
Good
Clean
Organized
Good Sanitation
Centres (October)
Families (October)
Centres (December)
Families (December) Enough Food
Dry
With Privacy Quiet
FIGURE 4: How to End the War
PERCENT
60 50 40
30 20 10 0
Armed Resistance   Peace Activities   Diplomatic activity Searching for Ally
ACTIVITY
I    I Centres (October) mi] Centres (December)
Families (October) Families (December)
50
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FIGURE 5: Assessment of Influence of Different Factors on Croatian Situation
FACTOR Politics of Foreign Slovenian Politics Croatian Nation Croatian Government Croatian Opposition Serbian Nation Serbs in Croatia Serbian Government Unsolved Nat.Quest. Disputable Borders Economic Problems Jugoslav Army,
-3
-2
-1 0 1
AVERAGE ESTIMATIONS
Centres (December)
Families (December)
extremely negative extremely positive
At the the time of investigation, they were rather pessimistic about the end of the war. Over 70% from the October group, and over 50% in December group thought, that the war could last for a long time. It would end either with the defeat of the Serbian side or by the intervention of European Community. So thought the great majority of them. Only a minority thought that the war could come to an end through peaceful missions and agreements. With regard to the fate of earlier agreements this was understandable.
The Yugoslav Army, chetnicks, Serbia and personally Miloshevich were the ma- i jor negative factors responsible for the situation in Croatia in October. In a lesser de- \ gree they mentioned positive factors (Croatian Army, Croatian government and peo- j pie). In December, the .pl72attitudes were still polarised. They could not distinguish between people and government of the same nation. Everything Croatian was positive, and all Serbian negative (similar estimations and high correlations between ! them). They developed black and white subjective view of the situation.
On the free association test answers, connected with the emotions of fear, dread and sorrow prevailed over the hostile answers, reflecting the situation of refugees (civil, women, older people), and their prevailing emotions.
Only some data concerning refugees is presented here. The picture is typical of suffering and despair, and of a simplified view of the world on one side, and of a great importance of social support and relevant help on the other. Unfortunately, the ; story is not yet over. While, the majority of refugees from Croatia have already re- ' turned to their country, the war crossed the borders of Bosnia. There is even more death and destruction, and many more refugees. Only in Slovenia the figure has reached the number of about 63.000. The continuum of destruction is evidently progressing. The question is, who will stop it?
REFUGEES' PERCEfTlON OF THEIR STIUATONj
TABLE 3: Frequencies of words that come to refugees minds when they thought about war in Croatia (October 1991)
Refugees in centres_f
Death, dread, tragedy,
evil, sorrow, God help us,
fear, blood 23
Frenzy, stupidity,
absurdity, shit, 12
Chetnicks, massacre, revenge,
band, Serbs, kill Serbs,
violence, anger 9
Peace, end of the war,
freedom 6
My grandchildren, my home 2
Refugees at families_f
Dread, fear, despair, death,
blood, sorrow, 20
Madness, stupidity,
savagery 4
Chetnicks, Serbian JA, anger,
violence, revenge, hostility,
chetnicks'dung 12
Peace, end of the war,
freedom 23
Home 1
References
Horowitz, M., Wilner, N. & Alvarez, W., Impact of Event Scale: A Measure of Subjective Stress, Psychosomatic Medicine, 1979, 41, 3, 209-218
Horvath-Lindberg, J. & Miserez, D., Working with Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Geneva: League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 1991
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