Bosnian Americans are Americans whose ancestry can be traced to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The vast majority of Bosnian Americans emigrated to the United States during and after the Bosnian war which lasted from 1992-1995. Nevertheless, a large number of Bosnians emigrated to the United States as early as the 19th century.
History [edit]
The Bosnian Community in the USA has a long and distinguished history dating back more than one hundred years. One of the first Bosnian arrivals to any country in the New World was to the United States, and is estimated to have been around the 1860s. According to Embassy estimates there are some 98,766 people of Bosnian origin living in the United States. The traditional centers of residence and culture for people from Bosnia and Herzegovina are situated on the East Coast (Atlanta, Jacksonville, New York and Nashville), in Mid-West (St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit) and on the West Coast.
The United States has numerous Bosnian cultural, sport and religious associations. Bosnian language newspapers and other periodicals are published in many states; the largest in the United States is the St. Louis based Bosnian-American Newspaper Sabah.
Settlements and Communities [edit]
The first Bosnians settled in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, joining other immigrants seeking better opportunities and better lives. As the former Yugoslavia continued to find its identity as a nation over the last century, the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina sought stability and new beginnings in the city of Chicago many intending to return to their homeland. Today as many as 70,000 Bosnians and their descendants live in the Chicago area, representing different faiths, backgrounds, and motivations for making America their new home.
The largest Bosnian American communities in the US are found in St. Louis (Bevo Mill's "Little Bosnia"); followed by Chicago, Illinois; Jacksonville, Florida; Grand Rapids, Michigan; New York City; Los Angeles along with the rest of Southern California (Pasadena) and the Metropolitan areas of Texas. Historically, Bosnians formed substantial populations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia, Connecticut, Louisiana and Michigan.
Bosnians were early leaders in the establishment of Chicago's Muslim community. In 1906, they established Džemijetul Hajrije (The Benevolent Society) of Illinois to preserve the community's religious and national traditions as well as to provide mutual assistance for funerals and illness. The organization established chapters in Gary, Indiana, in 1913 and Butte, Montana, in 1916 and is the oldest existing Muslim organization in the United States. The suburban city of Northbrook, Illinois is thought to have the largest Bosnian community in the USA and they scatter across Chicagoland. Bosnian communities can be found in Philadelphia and New Jersey with phenomenal high growth in Utah primarily in Salt Lake City with adjacent Provo and Ogden settled there since the end of the Bosnian War in the 1990s.
Other large communities are found in Atlanta; Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cleveland, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; Fresno, California; Houston, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Minnesota; Kansas City; Las Vegas, Nevada; Little Rock, Arkansas; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Oklahoma City; Orlando, Florida; Phoenix; Portland, Oregon; Riverside, California and San Bernardino, California; Sacramento, California; San Antonio, Texas; San Jose; Seattle; Tampa; Utica, New York; Washington, D.C. Northern Virginia; Hampton Roads; Brooklyn, New York; Astoria, Queens and Syracuse, New York.
Sizable numbers can be found in Kentucky, Maine, and West Virginia. A majority of Bosnians have settled in Memphis, Tennessee; Nashville, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Manchester, New Hampshire; Bowling Green, Kentucky; Charleston, West Virginia; Portland, Maine; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa and Des Moines, Iowa in the 1990s. Another Bosnian community is in Rhode Island.
In 2001 the Bosnian community established the first Bosnian-American television channel, Bostel. Among other cultural institutions that made cultural contributions to diverse American culture is an annual Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival in New York now in its 11th year.
A Bosnian neighborhood is located in Hartford's South End, also known as the Bosnian Square.
Organizations [edit]
Famous Bosnian Americans [edit]
Literature [edit]
Politics [edit]
Sports [edit]
- Armin Mrkanovic, boxer
- Adnan Hodzic, basketball player
- Amer Delić, professional tennis player
- Nedim Nišić, olympic swimmer
- Goran Suton, basketball player
- Boris Bandov, soccer player
- Vedad Ibišević, soccer player
- Sanel Borić, soccer player
- Siniša Ubiparipović, soccer player
- Refik Kozić, soccer player
- Perica Marošević, soccer player
- Esad Komić, soccer player
- Joe Raduka, soccer player
- Henry Domercant, basketball player
- Emsad Zahirovic, soccer player
- Baggio Husidic, soccer player
- Hajrudin Saračević, soccer player
- Damir Krupalija, basketball player
References [edit]
See also [edit]
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1 Poles came to the United States legally as Austrians, Germans or Prussians as well as Russians throughout the 19th century, because from 1772-1795 till 1918, all Polish lands had been partitioned between imperial Austria, Prussia (a protoplast of Germany) and Russia until Poland regained its sovereignty at the end of World War One. The country's borders were consolidated in 1922/1923.
2 Russia is a transcontinental country in eastern Europe and northern Asia. Although most of its territory is in Asia (78%), mostly its post-colonial territories added to European Russia, vast majority of its population (80%) lives in European Russia, therefore Russia as a whole is included as a European country.
3 Yugoslav Americans are the American people from the former Yugoslavia, formed by most of current countries of the Balkans.
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