If they hadn't emigrated, she'd have been sent back to Bosnia. It's called voluntary repatriation. I don't think something you're told to do can be voluntary, and you can't really be repatriated to a place where half the original population is missing. It's a new place, you're not returning to it, you're going there for the first time.

Aleksandar om sin mor i tysk-bosniske Saša Stanišićs roman How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, som kom på norsk i 2009. Stanišić omtales også i denne fine artikel, og han kan træffes på Lillehammer.