Serbian Americans

Early Serbian Migrations

Until the 1940s, most Serbian immigrants did not come from Serbia, but from other Balkan regions. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Serbs settled throughout the United States in places like Bisbee, Arizona; Chicago; Cleveland; Gary, Indiana; Milwaukee; Pittsburgh; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Steelton, Pennsylvania. These Serbs looked for unskilled work in heavy industries. Men made up a vast majority of this migration. Serbian professional men, including priests, doctors, lawyers, and business owners, also constituted a small portion of this immigration. The Serbian women who did come typically worked as unskilled laborers in people's homes, sweatshops, and meatpacking plants. Early Serbian settlers in the United States created local communities by establishing churches, businesses, and cultural associations. Cleveland exemplified the route through which local Serbian community-building took place. The first Serbs settled there in 1893, and many more came after 1900. While finding jobs in local steel mills, they established themselves in Cleveland's urban neighborhoods. In the early 1900s, about 1,000 Serbs lived there. St. Sava Lodge, created in 1904 by Cleveland Serbs, supported its members by providing various benefits.

Cold War Migrations

During the Great Depression and World War II, Serbian American communities stayed relatively stable in size. After the war, Serbia and other regions that sent Serbs to the United States became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a communist dictatorship. With the growth, maturation, and death of the Cold War, displaced Serbs and political and war refugees left their native country. Most of the Serbs who [Page 1916]arrived in the United States in this migration were educated and middle or upper class. They were also older and included many more were women than earlier contingents.

Many Serbian displaced persons and political and war refugees maintained strong ties to their homeland, hoping to shape its future. These relatively new arrivals published magazines that spoke out staunchly against communism. This anti-communism created a schism among Serbian Orthodox followers in the United States. Serbs in Washington, D.C., for example, split into two separate churches. The native-born faction did not concern itself with Balkan politics or anti-communism, whereas the recent immigrants and refugees hoped to effect change in their homeland. This split replicated itself in many Serbian Orthodox parishes throughout the United States.

Post-Communist Migration

After communist Yugoslavia devolved into bloody chaos in the 1990s, many Serbs escaped with their lives. These wars resulted in mass killings and genocide in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, among other regions. With its established Serbian institutions, Chicago became a major recipient of Serbs. These wars also were the cause of hate crimes and firebombings in places like Chicago, where Balkan enemies, such as Serbs and Bosniaks (formerly known as Bosnian Muslims), lived.

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