Guest: Teodora Jovanović, Institute of Ethnography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Duration: ~18 minutes
This episode features a conversation with anthropologist and activist Teodora Jovanović, whose work focuses on migration, borders, religion, and engaged anthropology. Drawing on her dual experience as a researcher and grassroots participant, Jovanović reflects on the evolution of migrant solidarity practices in Serbia from 2015 onwards.
She recounts her involvement in Miksalište, a key refugee center in Belgrade’s Savamala district during and after the 2015–2016 migration arrivals. Initially, these solidarity spaces emerged as grassroots humanitarian responses, run by local and international volunteers who provided food, clothing, medical care, and social support. Over time, these initiatives underwent rapid professionalization, transforming from informal volunteer groups into registered NGOs seeking donor funding. Major international organizations (UN Women, Oxfam, Save the Children, DRC) began funding local partners, bringing in salaries, project frameworks, and accountability structures—but also changing the ethos of solidarity work.
The discussion then traces how the Serbian state gradually centralized control over migration management. The Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, originally created in the 1990s to manage displacement from the Yugoslav wars, became the main state authority running all official asylum and reception centers. While NGOs continued to operate inside these camps, they increasingly filled gaps the state left open (education, psychosocial support, workshops).
Jovanović highlights how funding regimes shaped the field: early emergency EU aid funds supported international NGOs, but later EU-linked programs (notably the MADAD Fund) prioritized empowering state institutions and consolidating Serbia’s role as an EU “buffer zone.” As access to these funds tightened, many NGOs shut down or withdrew, and the state extended its monopoly over refugee assistance and resources.
Through the life cycle of the Miksalište center—from a spontaneous volunteer initiative to an NGO hub and finally to a state-run facility – Jovanović illustrates broader transformations in the humanitarian landscape: the institutionalization, depoliticization, and bureaucratization of what began as a grassroots movement.
The conversation closes with reflections on camp dynamics, local–international hierarchies, and the shifting balance between grassroots activism and state control in Serbia’s migration governance.
More information can be found on:
- Jovanović, Teodora. “Forced (Im) Mobilities En Route:‘Justified’Violence of the Border Regime in Balkans.” ГласникЕтнографскогинститутаСАНУ 69.2 (2021): 433-455.
- Jovanović, Teodora. “Transformations of Humanitarian Aid and Response Modes to Migration Movements. A Case Study of the Miksalište Center in Belgrade.” movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies 5.1 (2020): 125-147.
- Jovanović, Teodora, Katarina Mitrović, and Ildiko Erdei. “Moving while waiting for the future: Mobility and education in Šid, Serbia.” Journal of Borderlands Studies 38.2 (2023): 229-246.