ABSTRACT
Eleven returnees from the Slovene Primorska present only a small share of people who emigrated from Slovenia after the war and later returned. Despite the fact that the presented stories differ from one another, a mutual fate of life in “two homelands” unites them.

Of the emigrated Slovenes, mainly elder people return to the homeland that wish to spend the Autumn of their lives in their native places and among local people. Reintegration into Slovene society is not easy. The people who after emigrating from their homeland did not preserve contacts with it, sense after returning home alienation, as they do not find what they have left. In such cases, the returnees must start a new life, but many are no more capable of doing so. Not so few people and even families returned to their homeland and soon went back disappointed, as they were not up to changes and new circumstances. Few persisted and re-established a new life in Slovenia.

The returnees have decided for returning to their homeland on the basis of previous information, which their relatives from the homeland or acquaintances from abroad mediated to them; the majority visited the homeland before final decision. The changes and progress in the development of Slovenia have additionally persuaded them to return. Despite the mentioned, many a surprise was waiting form them after the return; everyday life revealed the differences between the social systems they were familiar with abroad, and the one they had to confront at home.

Are Slovene emigrants returning to the homeland today? The situation has not essentially changed in comparison with the period before 1991. Life conditions in Slovenia have improved but the potential returnees need be offered more than just satisfactory living conditions, which they in the majority of cases already have in the country of their momentary residence. It is absurd to expect they would return to the homeland because of mere nostalgia. I could agree with Marina Lukšič-Hacin who claims that the fact “that in all these years no active state policy can be sensed, which would actually encourage returning home. That is valid for all varieties of emigration and returning home, including the brain drain” (2002, p. 189), contributes to such a small share of Slovene returnees.

Because of the economic crisis in Argentina, recently many descendants of Argentinean Slovenes are returning to the homeland. Yet we cannot speak of returnees in those cases of “returning” but of merely immigrating. Those people are predominantly descendants of Slovene emigrants who have preserved in the frame of the Argentinean community the perception of belonging to the Slovene nation.

For a conclusion, I would add an interesting thought by Marina Lukšič-Hacin (2002, pp. 189-190) who is asking herself whether the contemplation on encouraging returning is of any sense at all in regard of directions of global development of the present world. According to her, “the old fashion of consideration on returnees is obsolete”; thus it would be more appropriate to consider about including Slovenes abroad in important sociological, humanistic, naturalistic and economic projects with the help of modern technology.

Ksenija Batič, student of ethnology at the Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana).

ABSTRACT
Eleven returnees from the Slovene Primorska present only a small share of people who emigrated from Slovenia after the war and later returned. Despite the fact that the presented stories differ from one another, a mutual fate of life in “two homelands” unites them.

Of the emigrated Slovenes, mainly elder people return to the homeland that wish to spend the Autumn of their lives in their native places and among local people. Reintegration into Slovene society is not easy. The people who after emigrating from their homeland did not preserve contacts with it, sense after returning home alienation, as they do not find what they have left. In such cases, the returnees must start a new life, but many are no more capable of doing so. Not so few people and even families returned to their homeland and soon went back disappointed, as they were not up to changes and new circumstances. Few persisted and re-established a new life in Slovenia.

The returnees have decided for returning to their homeland on the basis of previous information, which their relatives from the homeland or acquaintances from abroad mediated to them; the majority visited the homeland before final decision. The changes and progress in the development of Slovenia have additionally persuaded them to return. Despite the mentioned, many a surprise was waiting form them after the return; everyday life revealed the differences between the social systems they were familiar with abroad, and the one they had to confront at home.

Are Slovene emigrants returning to the homeland today? The situation has not essentially changed in comparison with the period before 1991. Life conditions in Slovenia have improved but the potential returnees need be offered more than just satisfactory living conditions, which they in the majority of cases already have in the country of their momentary residence. It is absurd to expect they would return to the homeland because of mere nostalgia. I could agree with Marina Lukšič-Hacin who claims that the fact “that in all these years no active state policy can be sensed, which would actually encourage returning home. That is valid for all varieties of emigration and returning home, including the brain drain” (2002, p. 189), contributes to such a small share of Slovene returnees.

Because of the economic crisis in Argentina, recently many descendants of Argentinean Slovenes are returning to the homeland. Yet we cannot speak of returnees in those cases of “returning” but of merely immigrating. Those people are predominantly descendants of Slovene emigrants who have preserved in the frame of the Argentinean community the perception of belonging to the Slovene nation.

For a conclusion, I would add an interesting thought by Marina Lukšič-Hacin (2002, pp. 189-190) who is asking herself whether the contemplation on encouraging returning is of any sense at all in regard of directions of global development of the present world. According to her, “the old fashion of consideration on returnees is obsolete”; thus it would be more appropriate to consider about including Slovenes abroad in important sociological, humanistic, naturalistic and economic projects with the help of modern technology.

Ksenija Batič, student of ethnology at the Faculty of Arts (University of Ljubljana).

ABSTRACT
The author deals with the development of multicultural relations in Australia after World War II, which various racisms and the right wing anti multiculture activity opposed. The revival of Australian ethnocentrism obstructed the actual rise of multiculture, which the author noticed already in 1989 when leaving Australia. An increasing gulf was occurring between the principal declarativeness and the actual life in the spirit of multiculture. The author made parallels between the fate of black coloured population in the U.S.A. and the European integrational processes. On the one side, there is the rhetoric, and actual relations on the other side that are far from the principles of multiculturalism. He is pointing out the harmfulness of national and language discrimination, which leads to destruction of a nation or a national community, and consequently to dilapidation of morals and the system of values, and to self-destructive dispositions. The author considers preserving of nationality, culture and language the most important social tasks, in the fields of emigration and immigration as well. Preserving language and ethnic identity definitely is not some maintaining of obsolete social circumstances as some anthropological and sociological schools want to present; such preserving bases on the fact that every human carries in oneself genetic elements of one’s development.

Jurij Zalokar is doctor and psychiatrist.

ABSTRACT
The author deals with the development of multicultural relations in Australia after World War II, which various racisms and the right wing anti multiculture activity opposed. The revival of Australian ethnocentrism obstructed the actual rise of multiculture, which the author noticed already in 1989 when leaving Australia. An increasing gulf was occurring between the principal declarativeness and the actual life in the spirit of multiculture. The author made parallels between the fate of black coloured population in the U.S.A. and the European integrational processes. On the one side, there is the rhetoric, and actual relations on the other side that are far from the principles of multiculturalism. He is pointing out the harmfulness of national and language discrimination, which leads to destruction of a nation or a national community, and consequently to dilapidation of morals and the system of values, and to self-destructive dispositions. The author considers preserving of nationality, culture and language the most important social tasks, in the fields of emigration and immigration as well. Preserving language and ethnic identity definitely is not some maintaining of obsolete social circumstances as some anthropological and sociological schools want to present; such preserving bases on the fact that every human carries in oneself genetic elements of one’s development.

Jurij Zalokar is doctor and psychiatrist.

ABSTRACT
The aim of this report is to characterise Polish immigration in the province of Buenos Aires, specially in the localities of La Plata, Berisso and Ensenada, by analysing bibliographic and documental information about the group, and the applicability of a socio-cultural enquiry which results are loaded into a data base created as a part of the project called “socio-cultural mapping of immigrants and their descendants settled in the province of Buenos Aires (with the exception of Spaniards and Italians) ” which is being developed at the La Plata National University.

The majority of the large countries of the world has accepted and still accepts a high percentage of immigrants and foreign residents: the heterogeneity is an integrand and interactive part of each society. The "personal identity" has ceased being simple. Everyone can compose it combining heterogeneous elements of different areas of the culture. Since their cultural contact, migratory movements have promoted in our country a new form to generate and to express the identity.

In Argentina, research about immigration has traditionally been made fundamentally upon two majorities: Spanish and Italian. There were few specific anthropological studies concerning small and medium groups of immigrants (Capeverdeans, Polish, Greek, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, etc.).

As a result of our experience in the field of anthropology, working with some of these groups and their descendants, we became aware of the need of a tool which allows, in a flexible way, to recognise the profile which characterises the studied communities and those which will be studied in the future. Without such a tool, it would be difficult to characterise the modifications which were produced and still take place as a consequence of the cultural change and the intercultural contact.

ABSTRACT
The aim of this report is to characterise Polish immigration in the province of Buenos Aires, specially in the localities of La Plata, Berisso and Ensenada, by analysing bibliographic and documental information about the group, and the applicability of a socio-cultural enquiry which results are loaded into a data base created as a part of the project called “socio-cultural mapping of immigrants and their descendants settled in the province of Buenos Aires (with the exception of Spaniards and Italians) ” which is being developed at the La Plata National University.

The majority of the large countries of the world has accepted and still accepts a high percentage of immigrants and foreign residents: the heterogeneity is an integrand and interactive part of each society. The "personal identity" has ceased being simple. Everyone can compose it combining heterogeneous elements of different areas of the culture. Since their cultural contact, migratory movements have promoted in our country a new form to generate and to express the identity.

In Argentina, research about immigration has traditionally been made fundamentally upon two majorities: Spanish and Italian. There were few specific anthropological studies concerning small and medium groups of immigrants (Capeverdeans, Polish, Greek, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, etc.).

As a result of our experience in the field of anthropology, working with some of these groups and their descendants, we became aware of the need of a tool which allows, in a flexible way, to recognise the profile which characterises the studied communities and those which will be studied in the future. Without such a tool, it would be difficult to characterise the modifications which were produced and still take place as a consequence of the cultural change and the intercultural contact.

ABSTRACT
Among the immigration countries of the world is Argentina, which took in millions of European migrants. In the late 19th Century and thereafter this country offered economic promise, thanks to fertile lands appropriate for growing cereal crops and raising beef cattle, for export. In response to a labor shortage, successive Argentine governments encouraged the arrival of immigrant groups to populate the vast interior. While the Argentine economy looked very promising, the Slovenian population suffered the political and economic consequences of the First World War. So the search for new horizons was a response to political oppression and unbearable poverty and social marginality. The largest flows of these immigrants were recorded between 1923 and 1928. Thereafter the number began to decline because the worldwide economic crisis and the resulting mass unemployment put a stop to migratory flows.

The integration process into Argentine society was very difficult. The unknown language, the very different customs, and the unavoidable need to start again from scratch were burdens that weighed heavily on the lives of the new arrivals. Though most Slovenians came from rural backgrounds, the majority of them settled in Buenos Aires, which had become the great magnet because it offered the broadest range of employment opportunities.

In response to the difficulties of the first stage of integration into Argentine society, stemming from the environmental and cultural differences, it was of the utmost importance for the members of the "collectivity" to have these channels for maintaining friendship and solidarity, in the form of cultural and mutual aid societies. This was a basically social organization, which held festivities and sporting events that helped cement the ties among the immigrants, in addition to providing assistance to members of the community in times of trouble. They made it possible to conserve a certain unity and cohesion among the residents of Slovenian origin, establish social relations within the community, and thereby preserve some aspects of their age-old cultural identity.

ABSTRACT
Among the immigration countries of the world is Argentina, which took in millions of European migrants. In the late 19th Century and thereafter this country offered economic promise, thanks to fertile lands appropriate for growing cereal crops and raising beef cattle, for export. In response to a labor shortage, successive Argentine governments encouraged the arrival of immigrant groups to populate the vast interior. While the Argentine economy looked very promising, the Slovenian population suffered the political and economic consequences of the First World War. So the search for new horizons was a response to political oppression and unbearable poverty and social marginality. The largest flows of these immigrants were recorded between 1923 and 1928. Thereafter the number began to decline because the worldwide economic crisis and the resulting mass unemployment put a stop to migratory flows.

The integration process into Argentine society was very difficult. The unknown language, the very different customs, and the unavoidable need to start again from scratch were burdens that weighed heavily on the lives of the new arrivals. Though most Slovenians came from rural backgrounds, the majority of them settled in Buenos Aires, which had become the great magnet because it offered the broadest range of employment opportunities.

In response to the difficulties of the first stage of integration into Argentine society, stemming from the environmental and cultural differences, it was of the utmost importance for the members of the "collectivity" to have these channels for maintaining friendship and solidarity, in the form of cultural and mutual aid societies. This was a basically social organization, which held festivities and sporting events that helped cement the ties among the immigrants, in addition to providing assistance to members of the community in times of trouble. They made it possible to conserve a certain unity and cohesion among the residents of Slovenian origin, establish social relations within the community, and thereby preserve some aspects of their age-old cultural identity.

ABSTRACT
The Art school of the Slovenska kulturna akcija, which was active between 1995 and 1960 in Buenos Aires presents one of the three attempts to establish art education among Slovene emigrants all over the world. Differently from the other two, which were projects if individual artists, the mentioned is a collective emigrant project based on the model of European art colleges. The founders of the school, particularly the SKA leadership, wished to preserve the continuity of Slovene art tradition and indirectly influence through art on cultural and especially ethnic perception of Slovene emigrants. The outlines of activity of the school and of the position of art within the frame of the SKA are given on the basis of publications in the SKA gazette – GLAS Slovenske kulturne akcije, individual narrations of students, notes by Marijan Marolt, and other sources.

Acknowledged artists were giving lessons at the SKA art school: the painters Bara Remec and Milan Volovšek, sculptor France Ahčin, and art historian Marijan Marolt who were all active members of the SKA fine arts section. The first and the only generation of students of the art school counted eight people. They have organised four annual exhibitions and cooperated several times in artistic equipping of the SKA book editions. In 1960, six students concluded the school of which only one actively creates and exhibits while the rest dropped artistic design. They mostly made for related knowledge such as art history, architecture, art crafts, and similar.

The school was active only five years and the teachers educated only one generation of artists. After that time, the school no more had financial and moral support of the community. We can only guess why. Was it about a conservative attitude of the community or perhaps political aversion to modern art, which because of its universal language and its increasing modelling after non-Slovene motifs could no longer be the tool for manipulation?

Half of the teachers left after a few years and what started as a common enthusiastic project of the SKA fine arts section later reduced to persistent, almost stubborn, idealistic and hard work of one person, Bara Remec. Marijan Remec too persisted with his art history lessons until the end although to his opinion the school became Bara Remec’s school. The sole remain of the initial enthusiasm for asserting Slovene art abroad is the still active SKA fine arts section. Its members organize art exhibitions, report in the SKA newsletters on art events from the world, and help the younger generation of artists in their assertion.

Kristina Toplak, ethnologist, cultural anthropologist and Professor of art history, Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The Art school of the Slovenska kulturna akcija, which was active between 1995 and 1960 in Buenos Aires presents one of the three attempts to establish art education among Slovene emigrants all over the world. Differently from the other two, which were projects if individual artists, the mentioned is a collective emigrant project based on the model of European art colleges. The founders of the school, particularly the SKA leadership, wished to preserve the continuity of Slovene art tradition and indirectly influence through art on cultural and especially ethnic perception of Slovene emigrants. The outlines of activity of the school and of the position of art within the frame of the SKA are given on the basis of publications in the SKA gazette – GLAS Slovenske kulturne akcije, individual narrations of students, notes by Marijan Marolt, and other sources.

Acknowledged artists were giving lessons at the SKA art school: the painters Bara Remec and Milan Volovšek, sculptor France Ahčin, and art historian Marijan Marolt who were all active members of the SKA fine arts section. The first and the only generation of students of the art school counted eight people. They have organised four annual exhibitions and cooperated several times in artistic equipping of the SKA book editions. In 1960, six students concluded the school of which only one actively creates and exhibits while the rest dropped artistic design. They mostly made for related knowledge such as art history, architecture, art crafts, and similar.

The school was active only five years and the teachers educated only one generation of artists. After that time, the school no more had financial and moral support of the community. We can only guess why. Was it about a conservative attitude of the community or perhaps political aversion to modern art, which because of its universal language and its increasing modelling after non-Slovene motifs could no longer be the tool for manipulation?

Half of the teachers left after a few years and what started as a common enthusiastic project of the SKA fine arts section later reduced to persistent, almost stubborn, idealistic and hard work of one person, Bara Remec. Marijan Remec too persisted with his art history lessons until the end although to his opinion the school became Bara Remec’s school. The sole remain of the initial enthusiasm for asserting Slovene art abroad is the still active SKA fine arts section. Its members organize art exhibitions, report in the SKA newsletters on art events from the world, and help the younger generation of artists in their assertion.

Kristina Toplak, ethnologist, cultural anthropologist and Professor of art history, Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana.