Historical Journal, Vol. 75 No. 1, 2022.
Original scientific paper
Croatian Federation of Sweden in 1980s – a story of an improbable success
Wollfy Krašić
Abstract
The paper describes some aspects of the activity of the largest organization of Croatian immigrants in Sweden – Federation of Croatian Cultural, Sports, and Religious Societies in Sweden, colloquially Croatian Federation (Savez hrvatskih kulturnih, športskih i vjerskih društava u Švedskoj or colloquially in Croatian Hrvatski savez – HS) until the 1991 creation of a sovereign Croatian state. More specifically, the paper analyses reasons behind the establishment of the HS and its conflicts with the Yugoslav-Swedish Federation, colloquially Yugoslav Federation (Jugoslovensko-švedska zajednica or colloquially in Croatian Jugoslavenski savez – JS), efforts to integrate Croatian immigrants into Swedish society and to present Croatian cultural tradition, the struggle for the right to use the Croatian literary language and for keeping Yugoslavia out of complementary schooling of Croatian children. Also, the paper describes methods used to defend members of HS from the repression of the Yugoslav communist regime and to inform Swedish public opinion about human rights violations in Croatia. The actions of HS are analyzed in the context of activities of the Croatian political emigration in the period 1945–1990 and its struggle for an independent and democratic Croatian state.
Keywords
Croatian émigrés; labor migrants; Sweden; Croatian Federation; communist Yugoslavia; integration
Hrčak ID:
285300
URI
Publication date:
9.11.2022.
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