Uncertainties of Border-Making and Family-Making: The Repatriation of Minors after the Great War

• In Event: Crossing Borders/Border Crossings: Im/Mobility in the Post-Ottoman Balkans

Abstract

This paper analyzes the repatriation of children in the post-1918 Balkans to foreground uncertainty as the underlying postwar condition. In 1919, as peace treaties were being negotiated, emerging legal and administrative frameworks clashed with a chaotic postwar reality in which families sought security and stability after multiple consecutive wars in the Balkans since 1912. Definitions and practices of citizenship, nationality, marriage, guardianship, and adulthood were in flux, throwing wrenches into the rebuilding of nations and families. Focusing on one young woman torn between Bulgaria and Greece, this paper shows how families tried to make the best decisions for themselves and their children even as uncertainty reigned supreme.

Author

• Theodora Dragostinova, Ohio State U