Chicago is no longer a Serbian city: More and more people are avoiding to call themselves Serbs

It is not a secret that a lot of Serbs live outside the borders of their country, so the certain number of them found their ideal place in the USA. According to the estimates from 2005, more than a million of them said that they are Serbs in the USA. It is a tradition that the largest number of them lives in Chicago, but it is presumed that it's not the case anymore.

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According to the last census from 2011, there are around 50.000 Serbs in Chicago area, and there were around 300.000 in mid '70.

That could be seen in a large number of church complexes, like the church of St. Simeon in the east part of Chicago, and monastery New Gracanica in the little city Third Lake.

The first Serb arrived in Chicago in 1872, Ivan Vucetic. The first organization in Chicago "Obilic" was formed in 1878. First Serbian parade was held in 1893 on Michigan Avenue.

Mihajlo Pupin lived in Chicago. 40.000 to 60.000 Serbs lived in Chicago in 1930, and the number today returned to that one from the beginning of XX century. 

That significantly disturbed the members of the Serbian community in the USA.

Foto: Tanjug/Zoran Mirković

- All these Serbian fairytales are now destroyed because the official statistics showed that Serbs are a small minority in America and that they are disappearing in this enormous country of 307 million residents.

The bad American approach to the national census is to be blamed, and then the Serbian need to hide in the American society - said Dr. Miroslav Bozinovic for "Vecernje Novosti", a political analyst from Detroit and the owner of the website "Serbijana".

Namely, according to the last census, the national origin was determined by the question "what language are you using in your home"? 360.000 people declared themselves as Serbs.

Foto: Tanjug/AP

There was no such question in Census in 2011, and the possibility was introduced so our people could write that they are "Serbs" under the "Others" section on the initiative by Congress of Serbian Unity.

- Serbs who were not informed declared themselves as "Caucasian of European origins", and not as Serbs. Other nations are better organized, like for example, Germans, 50 million of them, 17 million Irish men, and 18 million Italians. Around 19 million people declared themselves as Americans, and 109 million citizens didn't declare themselves - said Dr. Bozinovic.

(Telegraf.co.uk)