The impact of migration crisis on local communities in Serbia and the possibilities for integration of the migrant population

Sa？etak This paper brings the results of the research of the citizens, representatives of civil sector and representatives of local authorities in seven Serbian municipalities (northern and southern), focusing on the statements and attitudes towards migrant population and possibilities of their integration in the case of their permanent settlement in Serbia. The main criterum for choosing respondents from specific municipalities was that they belong to local communities affected by the latest “migration crisis”, i.d. that they were at the so called ‘’Balkan route”. The main research method was group interview within focus groups. In this paper, the focus of the analysis is on the following dimensions: general attitudes towards migrants, differences in perceptions of migrants, perceptions of differences among migrants, cultural, social and economic integration of migrant population and perceptions of development potentials of migrant settlement in Serbia. We were specifically interested to explore differences between respondents on two dimensions: southern vs. northern municipalities and citizens vs. representatives of local authorities and administration