The Construction of National Identity and its Challenges in Post-Yugoslav Censuses

878 Social Science Quarterly
heritage have also achieved a greater sense of agency (Rodríguez, 2000:40). Thus, following
extensive consultations during the 1990s, the concept of mixed racial origin returned to
the U.S. census in 2000. The census bureau did not introduce a single multiracial category,
but rather allowed individuals to choose several racial identities (Nobles, 2000:82). Since
then, the group of citizens with a multiracial background became the largest growing group
(Shih and Sanchez, 2009:40).
This follows a broader trend that allows for the identification with multiple racial
identities. Similar trends began in Canada in 1996, and most Latin American countries
have taken a more fluid understanding of ethnicity or race that is based less on absolute
categories, and instead on degrees (Nobles, 2000:86–87).
Rather than forming a new, distinct identity, multiracial identities are a highlighted
variable. They are contingent on social, spatial, and cultural experiences, and subject to
switching and individual changes (Rockquemore, Brunsma, and Delgado, 2009:20–22).
These insights gained from multiracial identities in the United States have not been transferred
into other multiethnic contexts that are often presumed to be more static. However,
studies of Yugoslav identity identify similar features (Sekulic, Massey, and Hodson, 1994;
Isailović, 2011)
The debates over multiracial identity also have elicited distinction between racial identities
(i.e., self-identification, racial identification by others) and racial categorization, the
chosen identity based on a particular context, including census (Rockquemore, 2009:27–
28). This triad of identities applies also to national identities and can easily be understood
outside the context of multiracial identity. Applying it to the post-Yugoslav context, an
individual with a Serb father and a Croat mother (the two nations that are most represented
in mixed marriages) living in Belgrade would most likely be identified by fellow
citizens as a Serb, considering the small numbers of Croats in Belgrade. However, she might
self-identify as having no distinct national identity, and, instead, identify as European. In
terms of the census, she might opt for the category of Serb, but when going to the Croatian
embassy to apply for a Croatian passport to facilitate traveling, she would present herself as
a Croat. Such multiple and contextual identifications, identities, and categories are in fact
commonplace in the post-Yugoslav context.
Contestation
Beyond the changing categories and underlying conceptions, recent scholarship has
also increasingly acknowledged and studied the process of categorization as a debate and
contest between state bureaucracies and social actors, like minority groups, parties, NGOs,
or ethnic entrepreneurs. As Melissa Nobles notes, “the [census] bureau is a gatekeeper to
particular groups and can be used, but also be the result of pressure from social movements”
(2000:20).
Rather than just the expression of state power or imposition, the categories are a reflection
of the understanding of identity categories by policymakers, and, often, society at large.
In particular, in democratic pluralist societies, this process matters. This has been well
illustrated by the debates occurring prior to the 2000 U.S. census, including the rejection
of multiracial categories by civil rights organizations such as the NACCP (Anderson
and Fienberg, 1999:173). As Nobles notes, “movement leaders use the census to create
identities as much as to energize preexisting identities, yet securing a new census category
and galvanizing self-conscious group of people . . . ” (2000:130).
The focus of research on censuses in recent decades has been the United States, the post-
Soviet states, and the postcolonial states. The emphasis placed on the United States is partly