Foreword

This is the fourth issue of the publication Dve domovini / Two Homelands (the first was published in 1990, the second, a double issue, in 1992), which is still not a journal in the true sense of the word as - despite having legally settled status (1992) - the financer still refuses to recognize the publication’s nature as that of a periodical, scientific journal. This is also the cause for the late publication of the 1993 issue. Despite the initial difficulties, we still have not lost hope of stabilizing the financing and, thus, of regular publication of the sole Slovene scientific journal on the issues of Slovene emigration and emigration in general, a periodical uniting writers from various scientific disciplines, both from home as well as abroad. This publication places emphasis on contributions from a scientific conference on the theme of »Achievements and Plans in the Research of Slovene Emigration in Scientific Disciplines« held on May 26, 1992, at the Institute for Slovene Emigration Studies of the Center for Scientific Research of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana. Participants included experts from Croatia and Italy, and at the meeting an assessment of work carried out to date was made and ideas on future work sketched out. The conferences were conceived as annual working meetings having increasingly narrow topics and an ever wider circle of participants (including colleagues from abroad).

The plans for the future: settling the status of the periodical, regular publication and ensuring an increasing presence of the journal among specialists on the issue of emigration, both at home and abroad. We are making efforts to have the discussions published in foreign languages as well (while all have an abstract in one foreign language and an English synopsis). In this way we Dve domovini Two Homelands wish to pass on the results of our studies to those abroad, while simultaneously receiving as extensive a database as possible on the results of research obtained by other research centers and individuals through this exchange. The first three issues of Dve domovini/Two Homelands contributed to forging closer ties with certain migration centers throughout the world. With the help of the periodical we have established quite a few personal ties with researchers abroad and have institutionalized in Slovenia one of the possible elements of unification for researchers focusing on emigration issues from the most varied scientific disciplines. The list of those participating in all four issues of our journal is proof of this. And as a final point, I invite you to participate through treatises, articles, reports, critical thoughts, book reviews, and other contributions. The journal is also open to polemical contributions. May this publication become a link between those of us who study, from the perspective of diverse scientific branches, Slovene emigration and migration movements in general.