Diasporas are often imagined as impermeable communities. Yet the boundaries of the Serbian diaspora in the United States were surprisingly porous to certain outsiders, such as Ruth Mitchell, who routinely dressed as a Chetnik to address Serbian immigrants. Mitchell’s act of ethnic crossover, this paper argues, fits into a broader pattern of ethnic outsiders joining Serbian organizations in the United States. Four case studies besides Ruth Mitchell are discussed: Eleanor Calhoun, Johann Blose, Charles DeHarrack, and Frank Melford. Diplomats acted as gatekeepers to these Serbophiles, limiting access to emigrant social and political networks as they saw fit—but only rarely was the Serbophiles’ ethnic background a factor.
Keywords: Serbian Diaspora, Serbophilia, United States, Yugoslavia, Ruth Mitchell

Diasporas are often imagined as impermeable communities. Yet the boundaries of the Serbian diaspora in the United States were surprisingly porous to certain outsiders, such as Ruth Mitchell, who routinely dressed as a Chetnik to address Serbian immigrants. Mitchell’s act of ethnic crossover, this paper argues, fits into a broader pattern of ethnic outsiders joining Serbian organizations in the United States. Four case studies besides Ruth Mitchell are discussed: Eleanor Calhoun, Johann Blose, Charles DeHarrack, and Frank Melford. Diplomats acted as gatekeepers to these Serbophiles, limiting access to emigrant social and political networks as they saw fit—but only rarely was the Serbophiles’ ethnic background a factor.
Keywords: Serbian Diaspora, Serbophilia, United States, Yugoslavia, Ruth Mitchell

This article offers four migration narratives from three states—Brazil, Argentina, andChile—including biographic approaches and group identities, cultural nostalgiaand nationalist resentment. The divergent trajectories of the Dalmatian businesstycoons Nicolás Mihanovich in Argentina and Pascual Baburizza in Chile, thecelebration of inter-ethnic Austrian-ness in Ijuí (Brazil) vs. the symbolic constructionof a “second Poland” by Polish immigrants in Paraná (Brazil) seek to open differentwindows into the highly complex panorama of Austrian-Hungarian emigration to Latin America. Although approximately 300,000 Habsburg subjects sought theretheir new homeland, the topic remains underresearched.
KEYWORDS: Habsburg Empire, South America, nationalism, supranational identity

This article offers four migration narratives from three states—Brazil, Argentina, andChile—including biographic approaches and group identities, cultural nostalgiaand nationalist resentment. The divergent trajectories of the Dalmatian businesstycoons Nicolás Mihanovich in Argentina and Pascual Baburizza in Chile, thecelebration of inter-ethnic Austrian-ness in Ijuí (Brazil) vs. the symbolic constructionof a “second Poland” by Polish immigrants in Paraná (Brazil) seek to open differentwindows into the highly complex panorama of Austrian-Hungarian emigration to Latin America. Although approximately 300,000 Habsburg subjects sought theretheir new homeland, the topic remains underresearched.
KEYWORDS: Habsburg Empire, South America, nationalism, supranational identity

Austria-Hungary’s leaders were highly interventionist in their response to trans-Atlantic migration, eager to maintain loyalty among their diaspora in America. This article explores the very active role that the Austro-Hungarian government—especially the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office—played in overseeing migrantloyalty in the United States from 1902 until World War I, examining both itssuccesses and the protests it inspired. Intervention followed migrants overseas:the government integrated itself into the migration bureaucracy and attempted tointegrate the home government into migrants’ American lives through the press,churches, and cultural events. Several of Austria-Hungary’s efforts to maintain theloyalty of its migrating citizens backfired, sparking protest.
KEYWORDS: migration, Austria-Hungary, American Action, Pan-Slavism

Austria-Hungary’s leaders were highly interventionist in their response to trans-Atlantic migration, eager to maintain loyalty among their diaspora in America. This article explores the very active role that the Austro-Hungarian government—especially the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office—played in overseeing migrantloyalty in the United States from 1902 until World War I, examining both itssuccesses and the protests it inspired. Intervention followed migrants overseas:the government integrated itself into the migration bureaucracy and attempted tointegrate the home government into migrants’ American lives through the press,churches, and cultural events. Several of Austria-Hungary’s efforts to maintain theloyalty of its migrating citizens backfired, sparking protest.
KEYWORDS: migration, Austria-Hungary, American Action, Pan-Slavism

Neither migrants nor minorities always behave the way their governmentswant them to. This reality is a lesson that Yugoslavia, in both its embodiments,frequently made—amplified by the fact that both the interwar kingdom and thepost-war communist regime pursued ambitious nation-building projects. Theseprojects addressed not only the domestic population but also emigrants comingfrom its territory. In a region where minority issues and migration intersected incomplex ways, such projects could go only wrong, one might have predicted. Andthey often did when policymakers and local bureaucrats struggled with inherentlycontradictory agendas.

Neither migrants nor minorities always behave the way their governmentswant them to. This reality is a lesson that Yugoslavia, in both its embodiments,frequently made—amplified by the fact that both the interwar kingdom and thepost-war communist regime pursued ambitious nation-building projects. Theseprojects addressed not only the domestic population but also emigrants comingfrom its territory. In a region where minority issues and migration intersected incomplex ways, such projects could go only wrong, one might have predicted. Andthey often did when policymakers and local bureaucrats struggled with inherentlycontradictory agendas.

Book Review is published on SLO pages.

Book Review is published on SLO pages.