Why were people coming to Berlin? Personal networks in the discourse of Bosniak migrants

Based on fieldwork (2016-2018), this paper provides the discourse analysis of the interviews with people of Bosniak ethnicity originating from Serbia and Bosnia, currently living in Berlin. The paper investigates the role of personal networks - meaning primary and extended family, friends, co-ethnics, etc. - in supporting the Bosniak migrants in the period from the Bosnian war 1992-1995 until today. By using content analysis, the thematic inventory embedded in the transcribed utterances is extracted and commented upon. It is argued that these utterances and the themes around which discourse was built shed new light on the role of personal networks in migration. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 178010: Jezik, folklor, migracije na Balkanu]