A Country within a City

The Bosnian people were subject to ethnic cleansing lasting from April 6th, 1992 - December 14th, 1995. This genocidal war deeply scarred the people and culture within not only Bosnia but all of former Yugoslavia as well.

The remnants of the country post-war weren't hopeful. Many Bosnians looked at the future as a bleak, dark one. This is what led to the scattering of the ethnic Bosnian Muslims all across Europe and of course St.Louis.

Almost in the middle of the country, heavily declining in population, and caught within a nationwide manufacturing slump, it is safe to label a late 90s St.Louis as a dying city. Furthermore, The Public Purpose in 2000 quoted that

"Over the past five years, St. Louis has obtained only three percent of the new private sector jobs created in the metropolitan area. Just to retain its share of metropolitan jobs would have required St. Louis to add four times that amount."

St.Louis as a city needed more people to help revive the city. The introduction of foreigners was a great opportunity to capitalize on rejuvenating the city. Moreover, typical in immigrant cultures, the word of mouth is a very powerful thing. Once small pockets of Bosnians set foot on St.Louis, their brothers, sisters, cousins, etc all followed. This is common in cultures due to the feeling of ethnocentrism and a desire to be surrounded by familiarity. This is why enormous waves of Bosnians came to St.Louis in the late 90s through the early 2000s.

It is established that St.Louis was a city in decline during the 90s. However, the question begs, have the efforts and implementation of the Bosnian immigrants really helped the city?

Looking at the statistics at the surface level, St.Louis has grown and excelled in the past 22 years at a very steady rate. But, to pin this success on one certain ethnic group is preposterous without analysis, as the rise of St.Louis could be attributed to a multitude of factors. Therefore, this idea must be studied and statistically inferred. This is the key of the whole article, this is the research question. How has the Bosnian community impacted St.Louis and what does the future look like for the city of St.Louis in correlation with Bosnian immigrants? This is manageable through maps that are made using integrated data and shapefiles from the GIS Open Data website for St.Louis. One of the key pillars of the community in St.Louis is the small family-owned businesses, essentially everything revolves around the areas in which these businesses operate.

Throughout the expansion of the Bosnian community in St.Louis, numerous individuals have started independent companies or businesses within the St.Louis area. Furthermore, the former Yugoslavs tend to have a affinity for trucking companies, restaurants, and Mosques/Masjids.

In this map, the businesses of Bosnian origin worth noting are labeled. It is possible to zoom in and view labels not seen in the current extent. This is important to study for a multitude of reasons. Especially, when the Bosnian refugees first came, most available housing and jobs were in the city, i.e Northern/East St.Louis. Bevo Mill eventually become so engulfed with the community it garnered the name "Little Bosnia". This is vital to bring up because those areas generally make sufficiently less income in comparison to the rest of the city. It is crucial to point out the fact that the Bosnian community managed to heavily restore the culture and prosperity in some of these parts, largely due to their businesses.

Another reason why this data is important is to recognize the pattern of saturation in terms of the placement of the businesses. Although Bosnians first settled in lower-income areas, they managed to shift the community slowly to the south. Notice, that the saturation of businesses gradually increases towards as the map goes south.

Using the legend for this map, it is important to analyze the data given to see the way income and wealth are distributed throughout the St.Louis area. This is a necessity to familiarize oneself with the areas of St.Louis in order to move on to the next crucial point. Generally, it is evident that more urban areas in the north have less income and gradually increase the south you go.

Taking the data and what can be gathered from the first two maps, this map contains all the businesses in correlation with the wealth data. It is also possible to zoom in order to view labels in this one as well. In addition, the businesses are labeled with icons representative of what they do. The main reason the data is combined is to show a noticeable correlation in the gradual saturation of businesses toward the south with the area wealth increasing.

It is evident that the Bosnian community as a whole has been able to make drastic changes to their lives and changed the outlook of the city. It can be inferred that wherever the Bosnian businesses are, there are also a large amount of Bosnians. This is due to the ethnocentrism and feeling of familiarity mentioned previously. The fact that areas with higher wealth, are very saturated with Bosnian businesses and people as a whole, shows that in a way they have helped the city develop in recent years. The wealth distribution tends to get higher eventually reaching less than or equal to 75,575 in south county. Which is a massive accomplishment for the community in a foreign country.

Of course, the growth of St.Louis and the income divide are due to a number of factors that are unrelated to Bosnians. One major factor is that St.Louis remains one of the most segregated cities in the USA. However, as mentioned previously Bosnians were clumped into these low-income segregated areas as well. As they migrated slowly to the south, the increase in general wealth is in part a consequence of their community thriving. Of course, some businesses and families remained in the urban areas, but these are outliers. At this point in the current outlook of St.Louis, the Mehlville/Lemay area is more "Little Bosnia" than Bevo Mill.

Blake Hamilton of the International Institute of St Louis, one of a handful of officially recognised refugee resettlement organisations in the US, has gone on record to address these developments and effects on St.Louis, as follows

"Immigration and refugee-welcoming has, in a big way, been able to turn around hollowed-out urban cores, including in St Louis...The Bosnians rented apartments and bought homes in southern St Louis, an area that had fallen on hard times. They took jobs as in construction and opened shops and restaurants...The Bosnians had skills that met the gaps that we had in the '90s,...There was cheap housing available, jobs that paid the bills and a budding community."

All this data shows the most notable and well-known establishments in the St.Louis area. Among these businesses, most of them have maintained long-term relevance and consistent services to the people. Which, speaks to the general culture and moral values of the Bosnian community to maintain successful standing within a foreign environment.

Both of these two metrics showcase data that suggests and concludes with the idea that the Bosnian community has played a part in the St.Louis community. The evidence that St.Louis was a city in decline in the 1990s is concreted with the first graph from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is also not due to US recessions as the graph suggests. Once again, the rise from 2000 throughout the 2010s is not only attributed to Bosnians however, they are clearly a factor in the expansion/growth of St.Louis. The second graph also shows increases all around but Saint Louis City is second most. Another indicator of the role that Bosnians have played.

To answer the second part of the research question, we must again look at the cultural aspects that the Bosnian communities have brought to St.Louis. The future is bright for St.Louis. The implementation of Bosnian refugees has also led to their integration of them into society. Furthermore, the Bosnian community has expanded and grown their families within the borders of a land foreign to them. As the younger generations grew, different ideas and opportunities entered the horizon.

Acting as a bridge, the younger generation of Bosnians have influenced and spearheaded numerous projects that help to connect Americans and Bosnians alike. For example, the St.Louis Islamic Center Nur Mosque has been collaborating with local churches to help educate and get rid of common misconceptions about Islam. BBC reported the following,

"They're part of St Louis's community of Bosnian immigrants - one of the true modern success stories of refugee integration into US society. They can both identify with victims of Islamophobia and yet not bear the brunt of its pain.....Eldin Susa recently visited several Christian churches to discuss what his mosque - and Islam - is all about....To foster understanding, he visits Christian churches in the area - which has seen an influx of Bosnians moving to the neighborhood for larger homes and better schools (the local public school system, which Susa's children attend, is roughly 20% Bosnian)."

These events and efforts have also been highlighted by Blake Hamilton, noting that these efforts will not only help St.Louis in the context of Bosnians but it will also welcome immigrants from more countries. Eventually, leading to more expansion and hopefully development of the city. He said as follows for BBC,

"The Bosnian community has been great in terms of community outreach - and the volunteer organizations that have grown from them, kind of organically," Hamilton says. We can point to the success of the Bosnian community, and how they've integrated into the fabric here. We have very high hopes that the new refugees can follow that same path."

This is just one example of many of how the Bosnian community expresses passion and shows that the future is bright for St.Louis. They are putting in an effort and trying to develop a sense of culture in a city that was considered to be dying 22 years ago. The Yugoslav Muslims have completely changed the narrative, developing it to be a positive and hopeful future that was never seen before for St.Louis.

Many cities have restored their communities after declining within the USA. St.Louis shares many typical and unique aspects in its revival as these other cities. No city however shares the immense amount of integration and cultural shift as St.Louis. It is very clear that the St.Louis area has improved drastically over the past 22 years and it is impossible that all of that is attributed to Bosnians. However, using GIS analysis from the data, we can say that due to the outputs from the wealth distribution in correlation with businesses Bosnians have had a solid amount of impact in restoring the city. The migration from a low-income area to become more saturated in the south, shows the impact of the change the Bosnians have had in their niches. Furthermore, the saturation of Bosnian Businesses consistently leads to higher wealth areas, including reaching $75,575 in the most saturation area is cohesive with this concept.

The second part of the research question is backed up by the data we gathered from the data plus the evidence given by local experts. Moreover, we saw numerous testaments as to how the future of St.Louis will continue to thrive, with a portion of the efforts being from the Bosnian community. Considering the negative tone that The Public Purpose, spoke about St.Louis in 2000. The effect and the way the future is looked up to has never been more hopeful and positive in St.Louis. Hopefully, the younger generations of Bosnians will continue developing the culture within the city and continue expanding businesses, helping change the economic, social, and political aspects of St.Louis in a positive light.