ABSTRACT
The article proceeds from the main research question about the effects of EU integration and cross border cooperation initiatives on the border region of Slovene Istria as a whole and Italian ethnic community in particular in terms of its socio-economic and cultural activity and identity issue. The authoress tries to expose the historical review of the cross border cooperation between Slovenia and Italy prior to the EU programmes and afterwards and the activity of the Italian ethnic community in the latter. Within the framework of the former Yugoslavia from the 1960s on and especially with the increasing openness of political borders, the political, economic and geographical position of Slovenia had been growing stronger: first in the framework of the Alps-Adriatic Working Community in the context of Central Europe, then in the context of the Central European Initiative, and finally within the European space as a whole (European Union). On the methodological basis of in-depth interviews conducted among members of the Italian ethnic community in Slovenia (Slovene Istria) and among members of the majority population in the period between August 2005 and May 2006 it can be suggested that the following three general consequences have been the most noteworthy from the 1990s to date: the division of the Italian ethnic community between two independent and autonomous states (Slovenia and Croatia), complicated further by the fact that only one of the two states became an EU member in 2004;economic weakness and dependence of the Italian community on government subsidies;European integration and cross-border cooperation opportunities. Finally, the article concludes with the perceptions of different ethnic, regional and national identities on the case under study within the broader European space with regard to the cross border cooperation incentives.

ABSTRACT
The article proceeds from the main research question about the effects of EU integration and cross border cooperation initiatives on the border region of Slovene Istria as a whole and Italian ethnic community in particular in terms of its socio-economic and cultural activity and identity issue. The authoress tries to expose the historical review of the cross border cooperation between Slovenia and Italy prior to the EU programmes and afterwards and the activity of the Italian ethnic community in the latter. Within the framework of the former Yugoslavia from the 1960s on and especially with the increasing openness of political borders, the political, economic and geographical position of Slovenia had been growing stronger: first in the framework of the Alps-Adriatic Working Community in the context of Central Europe, then in the context of the Central European Initiative, and finally within the European space as a whole (European Union). On the methodological basis of in-depth interviews conducted among members of the Italian ethnic community in Slovenia (Slovene Istria) and among members of the majority population in the period between August 2005 and May 2006 it can be suggested that the following three general consequences have been the most noteworthy from the 1990s to date: the division of the Italian ethnic community between two independent and autonomous states (Slovenia and Croatia), complicated further by the fact that only one of the two states became an EU member in 2004;economic weakness and dependence of the Italian community on government subsidies;European integration and cross-border cooperation opportunities. Finally, the article concludes with the perceptions of different ethnic, regional and national identities on the case under study within the broader European space with regard to the cross border cooperation incentives.

ABSTRACT
Marie Prisland came to the United States in 1906 as a fifteen year old girl. In 1926 she founded Slovenian Women’s Union of America and was its national president for twenty years. In 1929 she created a magazine Zarja - The Dawn, which became the official publication of the Women’s Union and to which she contributed regularly. She was active in different Slovenian-American organizations and wrote for many newspapers and magazines in Slovenia and America throughout her life. She strived for the preservation of Slovenian culture and tradition but also for the progress and development of Slovenian communities. The text shows how strong was her determination to help Slovenian migrant women in the United States to obtain the position of authority and respect. As much as she wished to preserve the traditional gender roles, she believed that only a changed, respected Slovenian woman with authority could become a part of the history of Slovenians in the States and in the homeland.

ABSTRACT
Marie Prisland came to the United States in 1906 as a fifteen year old girl. In 1926 she founded Slovenian Women’s Union of America and was its national president for twenty years. In 1929 she created a magazine Zarja - The Dawn, which became the official publication of the Women’s Union and to which she contributed regularly. She was active in different Slovenian-American organizations and wrote for many newspapers and magazines in Slovenia and America throughout her life. She strived for the preservation of Slovenian culture and tradition but also for the progress and development of Slovenian communities. The text shows how strong was her determination to help Slovenian migrant women in the United States to obtain the position of authority and respect. As much as she wished to preserve the traditional gender roles, she believed that only a changed, respected Slovenian woman with authority could become a part of the history of Slovenians in the States and in the homeland.

ABSTRACT
In this contribution, I attempt with the help of a comparison of statistical data to ascertain some possible influences on the dynamics of literary publishing and newspaper activity of three Slovene immigrant groups, the pre-war Slovene immigrants in the USA, pre-war Slovene immigrants in Argentina, and after-war Slovene immigrants in Argentina. The choice of communities I discuss within the frame of this comparison includes on the one side at least partly the collective (cross covering) historical period of Slovene immigration in two different states, and on the other, two different historical periods of Slovene immigration in one state, which facilitates the ascertaining of eventual presence of certain influences, and the eliminating of possibilities of some other impacts. The many-years trends of rise and fall of values shown in Pictures 3-5, indicate a characteristic parable of the dynamics of the immigrant community cultural life. In comparing ratios between absolute values, supplemented with data on the extent and time span of the mass immigration wave with the treated communities (Tables 1-3), we are confronted with some distinctive deviations that cannot be explained merely by the influence of basic aspects of cultural life in emigration (particularly the size, territorial concentration, regeneration of the community with new coming immigrants, immigration “service” of the majority of community, and general conditions for individual activities in a given space and time), but they also indicate indisputably the influence of secondary factors (Picture 2). With the second belletristic book production pinnacle of the pre-war immigrant community in the USA (1976-80), the degree of integration in the culture of the new homeland country is undoubtedly evident. We are speaking of mainly literary book publications of the second generation of Slovene immigrants in the USA, which were published mostly by the authors, and partly by some publishing houses of the American mainstream. Just as much clearly expressed in the absolute peak of belletristic book production of the after-war immigrant community in Argentina (1991-1996) is the influence of integration in the culture of the source country. The most belletristic books by the post-war Slovene emigrants in Argentina and of their descendants that were published in Slovenia were issued in the years 1991-1996 when the integration of the Slovene emigrant literature in the primary culture and literary science was at its peak. Those very works (without reprints) present as much as 73 percent of belletristic books of the after-war immigrant community in Argentina in the mentioned period.

ABSTRACT
In this contribution, I attempt with the help of a comparison of statistical data to ascertain some possible influences on the dynamics of literary publishing and newspaper activity of three Slovene immigrant groups, the pre-war Slovene immigrants in the USA, pre-war Slovene immigrants in Argentina, and after-war Slovene immigrants in Argentina. The choice of communities I discuss within the frame of this comparison includes on the one side at least partly the collective (cross covering) historical period of Slovene immigration in two different states, and on the other, two different historical periods of Slovene immigration in one state, which facilitates the ascertaining of eventual presence of certain influences, and the eliminating of possibilities of some other impacts. The many-years trends of rise and fall of values shown in Pictures 3-5, indicate a characteristic parable of the dynamics of the immigrant community cultural life. In comparing ratios between absolute values, supplemented with data on the extent and time span of the mass immigration wave with the treated communities (Tables 1-3), we are confronted with some distinctive deviations that cannot be explained merely by the influence of basic aspects of cultural life in emigration (particularly the size, territorial concentration, regeneration of the community with new coming immigrants, immigration “service” of the majority of community, and general conditions for individual activities in a given space and time), but they also indicate indisputably the influence of secondary factors (Picture 2). With the second belletristic book production pinnacle of the pre-war immigrant community in the USA (1976-80), the degree of integration in the culture of the new homeland country is undoubtedly evident. We are speaking of mainly literary book publications of the second generation of Slovene immigrants in the USA, which were published mostly by the authors, and partly by some publishing houses of the American mainstream. Just as much clearly expressed in the absolute peak of belletristic book production of the after-war immigrant community in Argentina (1991-1996) is the influence of integration in the culture of the source country. The most belletristic books by the post-war Slovene emigrants in Argentina and of their descendants that were published in Slovenia were issued in the years 1991-1996 when the integration of the Slovene emigrant literature in the primary culture and literary science was at its peak. Those very works (without reprints) present as much as 73 percent of belletristic books of the after-war immigrant community in Argentina in the mentioned period.

ABSTRACT
In Europe, the normative regulation of migration circumstances and protection of (foreign) labour force on national and international levels is not an invention from the period after World War II or even modernity, it has been known through the entire 20th century. Already before World War II, employment abroad was regulated by bilateral agreements between states. Yugoslavia as well concluded several such agreements, among other with Germany where a large number of Slovenes worked and lived in the period between the two world wars. After World War II, the European states had to dig out from under the ruins the relations and cooperation in different fields; one of them was definitely the regulation of (migration) circumstances and protection for the workers who left for work to other countries.
The purpose of the article is to answer the questions regarding the status and protection of workers (Slovenes) that included themselves after World War II as Yugoslavs in the international labour market, more precisely of those that went to work in the Federal Republic of Germany (in continuation FRG). What were the circumstances Slovenes were entering by going for the so-called temporary work to the FRG? What were the normative conditions the FRG set for foreign workers? Were our people as Yugoslavs protected in any way whatsoever from the side of their own state? What was the relation between Yugoslavia and the FRG on inter-state, bilateral levels in regard of regulation of conditions and protection of citizens at work in the FRG? What was the position of workers abroad regarding the position workers on domestic labour market had? Have the syndicates, as organizations, of which mission was the very protection of workers’ rights, performed their work on international level as well? Were workers, coming to work in the FRG, treated as people with all dimensions of everyday life or were they reduced by the FRG migration policy to merely workers – as well on the normative level as in everyday life? How were the normative agreements carried out in practice? A review of the international conventions and inter-state agreements Yugoslavia signed, indicates that the state was intensively engaged in care for the protection if its citizens that were entering the international labour market. In the past, syndicalistic efforts and their connections on international level gave a significant contribution in this field. The FRG as well took care on normative level (bilaterally) for the rights of foreign workers employed on its grounds. Besides the state’s engagement, German syndicates, humanitarian organisations, regional or commune structures were as well involved in the protection and advocacy rights, whereat we should not forget that with the implementation of legislation into practice, significant differences occurred between individual federal provinces of the FRG. An analysis of concrete relations into which our workers were entering, indicates that their position was connected with the interstate relations. In accordance with the regulation of those was their position in the socially/culturally stratified German society. According to the perceptions Slovenes living in the FRG express, they are esteemed and do not experience discrimination. We cannot affirm the same for numerous populations of immigrants that came to the FRG from “more undesired environments”. Especially in the time of economic crises, for example in the eighties, foreign workers were subjected to heavy conditions, exploitation, insecurity, of which the work Čisto na dnu (1985) is about. The most exposed population were the (unemployed) non-qualified workers from states that did not have contracts with the FRG on protection of their workers. An analysis of circumstances in the FRG compared to the situation in other European states in which foreign workers found themselves exhibits their ambivalence. On the one hand, they had the benefit of a regulated work situation, the FRG was all along considered a state where it was from the aspect of work conditions and rights relatively well taken care of foreign workers. On the other hand, they found themselves in a space without rights, for they were treated merely as workers at temporary work abroad and as workers only. In a way, the individual was reduced from the human being to a worker who will work until the system needs him/her and after that return to where he came from. Thus, the FRG is on the other hand placed among states where little was done for the integration of the immigrants or that was even being systematically obviated. Just think of the years-lasting law on naturalisation, which the FRG changed only under “pressures” of changes in the EU policy. Similar is valid for other factors that were to establish multicultural conditions for the immigrants who are at present day set in the forefront of the EU integration policy.

ABSTRACT
In Europe, the normative regulation of migration circumstances and protection of (foreign) labour force on national and international levels is not an invention from the period after World War II or even modernity, it has been known through the entire 20th century. Already before World War II, employment abroad was regulated by bilateral agreements between states. Yugoslavia as well concluded several such agreements, among other with Germany where a large number of Slovenes worked and lived in the period between the two world wars. After World War II, the European states had to dig out from under the ruins the relations and cooperation in different fields; one of them was definitely the regulation of (migration) circumstances and protection for the workers who left for work to other countries.
The purpose of the article is to answer the questions regarding the status and protection of workers (Slovenes) that included themselves after World War II as Yugoslavs in the international labour market, more precisely of those that went to work in the Federal Republic of Germany (in continuation FRG). What were the circumstances Slovenes were entering by going for the so-called temporary work to the FRG? What were the normative conditions the FRG set for foreign workers? Were our people as Yugoslavs protected in any way whatsoever from the side of their own state? What was the relation between Yugoslavia and the FRG on inter-state, bilateral levels in regard of regulation of conditions and protection of citizens at work in the FRG? What was the position of workers abroad regarding the position workers on domestic labour market had? Have the syndicates, as organizations, of which mission was the very protection of workers’ rights, performed their work on international level as well? Were workers, coming to work in the FRG, treated as people with all dimensions of everyday life or were they reduced by the FRG migration policy to merely workers – as well on the normative level as in everyday life? How were the normative agreements carried out in practice? A review of the international conventions and inter-state agreements Yugoslavia signed, indicates that the state was intensively engaged in care for the protection if its citizens that were entering the international labour market. In the past, syndicalistic efforts and their connections on international level gave a significant contribution in this field. The FRG as well took care on normative level (bilaterally) for the rights of foreign workers employed on its grounds. Besides the state’s engagement, German syndicates, humanitarian organisations, regional or commune structures were as well involved in the protection and advocacy rights, whereat we should not forget that with the implementation of legislation into practice, significant differences occurred between individual federal provinces of the FRG. An analysis of concrete relations into which our workers were entering, indicates that their position was connected with the interstate relations. In accordance with the regulation of those was their position in the socially/culturally stratified German society. According to the perceptions Slovenes living in the FRG express, they are esteemed and do not experience discrimination. We cannot affirm the same for numerous populations of immigrants that came to the FRG from “more undesired environments”. Especially in the time of economic crises, for example in the eighties, foreign workers were subjected to heavy conditions, exploitation, insecurity, of which the work Čisto na dnu (1985) is about. The most exposed population were the (unemployed) non-qualified workers from states that did not have contracts with the FRG on protection of their workers. An analysis of circumstances in the FRG compared to the situation in other European states in which foreign workers found themselves exhibits their ambivalence. On the one hand, they had the benefit of a regulated work situation, the FRG was all along considered a state where it was from the aspect of work conditions and rights relatively well taken care of foreign workers. On the other hand, they found themselves in a space without rights, for they were treated merely as workers at temporary work abroad and as workers only. In a way, the individual was reduced from the human being to a worker who will work until the system needs him/her and after that return to where he came from. Thus, the FRG is on the other hand placed among states where little was done for the integration of the immigrants or that was even being systematically obviated. Just think of the years-lasting law on naturalisation, which the FRG changed only under “pressures” of changes in the EU policy. Similar is valid for other factors that were to establish multicultural conditions for the immigrants who are at present day set in the forefront of the EU integration policy.

ABSTRACT
Janez Evangelist Krek (1865-1917), a Catholic priest, politician, sociologist and journalist, was at the turn of the 19th century significantly present in the then Austrian and Slovene public. His activity was torn between Ljubljana, the then informal capital of Slovenes and of the province of Carniola, and Vienna. Krek had a strong social sense for peasants and workers and was opposer of the capitalist system. As a Catholic, he was adverse to liberalism and social democracy, and was himself the founder of Christian socialism on Slovene ground. He was the propagator of cooperative societies on Slovene territory. In 1899, when Krek was already member of the Vienna parliament, he went as a Catholic missionary to visit Slovene immigrants in Porurje (river Ruhr basin) and Westphalia in Germany. He sent in a good month time 20 letters about his contacts, experiences and deliberations in Germany, which were published in the Catholic newspaper Slovenec in Ljubljana. The letters became known as Westphalian letters and presented a sort of discovery of Slovene emigration to Germany, which was in the shadow of the then mass emigration of Slovenes to the United States of America. The letters reveal Krek’s deliberations on the role of migrations on Slovene territory; he compares economic, social, religious, cultural and other relations, that is, similarities and differences between the Slovene space and Germany. Krek rebuked the underdevelopment in the field of modernisation of work and life on Slovene ground, which was according to Krek a consequence of the Viennese politics. He was an ingenious penman and orator. People liked to read his texts and to listen to him. Krek was among the first to deal with migration problematic from theoretical and practical aspects. In the Austrian parliament, he advocated for the acceptance of the migration law (1905) that would regulate the sphere, particularly in view of protection of Austrian emigrants travelling and in new environments. The act was not adopted until the disintegration of the Habsburg monarchy (1918). Krek considered migration issues social ones. He set out the image of Slovene emigrants who were not desperate, weary, spiritless, but young full of hope for a better living, ready for hard yet well-paid work. Krek points out their education that was not merely elementary, which was a consequence of quality Austrian schools. In the spirit of that time, Krek as a Catholic priest reconciled himself with the fact that emigration was a permanent phenomenon that could not be stopped; however, the departure to new environments could be alleviated. The Rafaelova družba (Rafael’s society) in Ljubljana (*1907) established by the German model, was more or less successful in doing that. I can conclude that the Catholic Church in Slovenia was most aware of the emigration problematic and that it was active in the meaning of improvement of the conditions for emigrants on their way and abroad. Less interest for the emigrants was expressed by the liberals, even less by the socialists. The first were concerned in capital, to the second, in spirit of internationalism, the entire world was the homeland.

ABSTRACT
Janez Evangelist Krek (1865-1917), a Catholic priest, politician, sociologist and journalist, was at the turn of the 19th century significantly present in the then Austrian and Slovene public. His activity was torn between Ljubljana, the then informal capital of Slovenes and of the province of Carniola, and Vienna. Krek had a strong social sense for peasants and workers and was opposer of the capitalist system. As a Catholic, he was adverse to liberalism and social democracy, and was himself the founder of Christian socialism on Slovene ground. He was the propagator of cooperative societies on Slovene territory. In 1899, when Krek was already member of the Vienna parliament, he went as a Catholic missionary to visit Slovene immigrants in Porurje (river Ruhr basin) and Westphalia in Germany. He sent in a good month time 20 letters about his contacts, experiences and deliberations in Germany, which were published in the Catholic newspaper Slovenec in Ljubljana. The letters became known as Westphalian letters and presented a sort of discovery of Slovene emigration to Germany, which was in the shadow of the then mass emigration of Slovenes to the United States of America. The letters reveal Krek’s deliberations on the role of migrations on Slovene territory; he compares economic, social, religious, cultural and other relations, that is, similarities and differences between the Slovene space and Germany. Krek rebuked the underdevelopment in the field of modernisation of work and life on Slovene ground, which was according to Krek a consequence of the Viennese politics. He was an ingenious penman and orator. People liked to read his texts and to listen to him. Krek was among the first to deal with migration problematic from theoretical and practical aspects. In the Austrian parliament, he advocated for the acceptance of the migration law (1905) that would regulate the sphere, particularly in view of protection of Austrian emigrants travelling and in new environments. The act was not adopted until the disintegration of the Habsburg monarchy (1918). Krek considered migration issues social ones. He set out the image of Slovene emigrants who were not desperate, weary, spiritless, but young full of hope for a better living, ready for hard yet well-paid work. Krek points out their education that was not merely elementary, which was a consequence of quality Austrian schools. In the spirit of that time, Krek as a Catholic priest reconciled himself with the fact that emigration was a permanent phenomenon that could not be stopped; however, the departure to new environments could be alleviated. The Rafaelova družba (Rafael’s society) in Ljubljana (*1907) established by the German model, was more or less successful in doing that. I can conclude that the Catholic Church in Slovenia was most aware of the emigration problematic and that it was active in the meaning of improvement of the conditions for emigrants on their way and abroad. Less interest for the emigrants was expressed by the liberals, even less by the socialists. The first were concerned in capital, to the second, in spirit of internationalism, the entire world was the homeland.