The term “Belgradization” (Beogradizacija) exists for a couple of decades now and is a pejorative way of saying that of all the places in Serbia, only Belgrade is developing, while all the other towns and villages are slowly dying. Not only economically – Belgrade is the only place in Serbia with a relatively constant number of citizens. All the other places have hundreds or even thousands of inhabitants less every year, because people either move to Belgrade or abroad. It is a normal process in developing countries I believe – we are a country neither too developed to have people moving in searching for a better life, nor an underdeveloped country to have a natural increase of population. Government has been pushing a campaign for more babies to be born, but that’s another (silly) topic.
Only this year some 50 thousand people moved from various towns and villages in Serbia to Belgrade looking for a better life. The strange this is that, while Belgraders brag about their traditional hospitality, this migration trend is frowned upon – usually because of the notion that the newcomers will change the city in a way that the indigenous peoples won’t like. It has been like this for ever since I remember, and the newcomers were always the ones to blame for everything, from bringing turbo folk from the countryside to the city, over dirty streets that were clean before they got here, all the way to public transportation that became too crowded and too smelly because of the “dirty peasants”. The truth is, all cities in the world change. Turbo folk wouldn’t be here if the “real belgraders” hadn’t started listening to it, and the streets and public transport depend mostly on economy, which is in a lousy shape right now.
This resentment towards incomers goes only for Serbs who moved from other parts of Serbia, while for some reason the foreigners who moved from abroad are indeed always welcomed with great hospitality. Number of foreigners who moved and stayed in Belgrade is although greater every year, still pretty small and Belgrade is still pretty homogeneous nation-wise.
Do you consider yourself a newcomer to Belgrade, or are you one of the “old Belgraders”?
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Well, after 15 years of living here I respond to “where are you from?” with “Belgrade” without hesitation, but technically, I am a “local immigrant” from the north of Vojvodina.
However, I must say I was never faced with any sort of discrimination, and from my experience one is far less likely to if one is polite, well behaved, a good urban neighbor, and, of course, not having a detectable accent also helps a smidge.
I feel it’s always the ‘peasants’ and their urban variants who have a problem with ppl coming to BGD.
I’m a newcomer, most of the time I pay respect to old Belgraders who know stories about old Belgrade in early days between two wars etc.
I dislike ”(new) born Belgraders” meaning those that were in fact born in Belgrade, although their parents were newcomers. I do not like the fact that they are not fair towards present newcomers, while they are not fair to their country side heritage also.
All countries have “rate of urbanization”. Check out CIA Factbook, for Serbia it is 0.5% and it’s not just the Belgrade in question. People from villages are going to small towns, people from small towns are coming to Belgrade and so on. It’s common everywhere.
And it’s up to us to adapt to it. For people to accept that it’s completely normal, and for government to adapt infrastructure in larger towns, especially Belgade to adapt for increased amount of population.
I don’t believe that Belgrade is an accurate representation of Serbia or its people.
People in Belgrade are bitter and not very friendly or helpful.
Most people wont give you the time of day.
Its a pretentious place where most guys dream about being a football star or Mafia gangster, and most females dress like tarts, act like princesses and dream of marrying a rich guy (or a football star or Mafia gangster)