On 16th of December 2025, a panel discussion titled “10 Years Since the Long Summer of Migration” was held at the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb, within the exhibition space Z/zemlja. The event marked a decade since the developments that profoundly shaped migration policies, social relations, and public discourse in Croatia and the wider region.
Organized by the Centre for Peace Studies, the panel opened with a discussion on the emergence and closure of the Balkan Route, field experiences from 2015 in the areas of Bapska and Tovarnik, as well as in the official reception camps in Opatovac and Slavonski Brod. The discussion also addressed the political and social shifts that followed as early as 2016, with particular attention given to changes in public discourse, in which refugees came to be labeled as “illegal migrants.”
The panel also addressed the role of the academic community in migration research, emphasizing the responsibility of researchers to critically examine migration policies, document human rights violations, and produce knowledge that is socially relevant and accountable to the communities they study and work with. Participants highlighted the growing restrictions on civil society organizations, the introduction of violent pushback practices at borders, and the death of Madina Hussiny, alongside related cases that have been brought before the European Court of Human Rights. The discussion further explored the everyday structural barriers, racism, and violence faced by refugees and new migrant workers in Croatia, as well as the upcoming implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was noted as likely to further restrict access to asylum and deepen existing inequalities.
The panel brought together researchers and activists Lucija Mulalić, Marijana Hameršak, Romana Pozniak, Suzana Rendulić, Ana Dana Beroš, Selma Banich, Sara Kekuš, and IRMO’s Emina Bužinkić, PhD.
