Rebuilding home on “hot ground”: spiritual obligation and the decision to return to Srebrenica

This study examines why displaced persons return to post-genocide Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina despite material hardship and insecurity. Drawing on interviews with returnees and non-returnees, the analysis challenges “sedentary” policy frameworks that view return as the restoration of pre-war life. Findings reveal a fundamental bifurcation: returnees are driven by a spiritual imperative to reclaim “hot ground”—sites of trauma and sacred obligation—while non–returnees prioritize the “cool ground” of material security. Yet non-returnees maintain active connections through annual cemetery visits, property stewardship, and postponed plans for return. This indicates that “home” is reconstructed through a dynamic negotiation of temporal obligations—a retrospective duty to honor ancestral legacy and a prospective duty to ensure the material viability of the living. Consequently, policy must move beyond rigid demographic metrics to support “symbolic sustainability”—validating diverse strategies displaced persons employ to maintain enduring political and spiritual connections to the homeland.