21 / 2005
Marjan Drnovšek
THE EMIGRATION OF THE GOTTSCHEER GERMANS TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAABSTRACT
The Gottscheer Germans (Kočevarji) lived as a linguistic island in the south east part of the present Slovenia for more than six hundred years, that is until their forced migration (1941/42) and afterwards withdrawal and extradition from Yugoslavia after 1945. From the 15th century on, they were known as peddlers; they also included themselves in mass emigration to the United States of America after the year 1880. One of the questions of emigration is in Slovenia appurtenance to the language of intercourse that Austrian censuses from the years 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1920 state. In 1890, 18.622 persons in the Gottschee region declared for German language as language of intercourse (of those, 1.210 in the town of Kočevje), and 1.587 for Slovene language (of those, only 103 persons in the town of Kočevje). Solely in the court circuit of Kočevje, 14.301 persons lived in 1890 who spoke German, and 4.895 persons who spoke Slovene. Therefore: as much as 72% of the population of the court district of Kočevje belonged to German language as language of intercourse. Alltogether 639 persons emigrated from that district in the years 1892 and 1893, which does not mean few in regard of early time of emigration. Two cases: in 1890, 526 persons of Slovene language and 409 persons of German language lived in the community Draga (Suchen), and 76 persons emigrated in the years 1892 and 1893; in the community Koprivnik (Nesselthal) where 1.738 persons of German language and only 115 persons of Slovene language lived in the same period, 50 persons left for the United States of America. From the entire district of Kočevje (consisting of court circuits of Kočevje, Ribnica and Velike Lašče), in the years 1892-1913 (by partly missing data), 76.195 persons emigrated form the province of Carniola, of those as many as 17.566 from the region of the Kočevje district, that is, almost a quarter (23,05%). In short, the Kočevje region stood out by number of emigrants among who the Gottschee Germans were strongly present. In the mentioned emigration wave from the district of Kočevje, there were in 1892 as many as 31,25% women, a year later 24,65% (according to American data, 81,6% men immigrated to the USA in the years 1898-1914 and only 18,4% women of the so-called “Slovene and Croatian race”). For the period 1892-1913, the Kočevje emigration wave consisted of as many as 64,77% of single young men and women. In the years 1892 and 1893, at the most daily agrarian workers left, following were maids, landowners, cottagers etc. The majority had no property. Shortly, young people and those with no means were the majority of emigrants in that early period of emigrating from the present Slovenia. Undoubtedly, the emigration wave of the Gottschee men and women presents in the time of mass emigration to the USA a significant share in the so-called Slovene emigration wave, which we must pay regard to in researching this phenomena on Slovene territory.
21 / 2005
Marjan Drnovšek
THE EMIGRATION OF THE GOTTSCHEER GERMANS TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAABSTRACT
The Gottscheer Germans (Kočevarji) lived as a linguistic island in the south east part of the present Slovenia for more than six hundred years, that is until their forced migration (1941/42) and afterwards withdrawal and extradition from Yugoslavia after 1945. From the 15th century on, they were known as peddlers; they also included themselves in mass emigration to the United States of America after the year 1880. One of the questions of emigration is in Slovenia appurtenance to the language of intercourse that Austrian censuses from the years 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1920 state. In 1890, 18.622 persons in the Gottschee region declared for German language as language of intercourse (of those, 1.210 in the town of Kočevje), and 1.587 for Slovene language (of those, only 103 persons in the town of Kočevje). Solely in the court circuit of Kočevje, 14.301 persons lived in 1890 who spoke German, and 4.895 persons who spoke Slovene. Therefore: as much as 72% of the population of the court district of Kočevje belonged to German language as language of intercourse. Alltogether 639 persons emigrated from that district in the years 1892 and 1893, which does not mean few in regard of early time of emigration. Two cases: in 1890, 526 persons of Slovene language and 409 persons of German language lived in the community Draga (Suchen), and 76 persons emigrated in the years 1892 and 1893; in the community Koprivnik (Nesselthal) where 1.738 persons of German language and only 115 persons of Slovene language lived in the same period, 50 persons left for the United States of America. From the entire district of Kočevje (consisting of court circuits of Kočevje, Ribnica and Velike Lašče), in the years 1892-1913 (by partly missing data), 76.195 persons emigrated form the province of Carniola, of those as many as 17.566 from the region of the Kočevje district, that is, almost a quarter (23,05%). In short, the Kočevje region stood out by number of emigrants among who the Gottschee Germans were strongly present. In the mentioned emigration wave from the district of Kočevje, there were in 1892 as many as 31,25% women, a year later 24,65% (according to American data, 81,6% men immigrated to the USA in the years 1898-1914 and only 18,4% women of the so-called “Slovene and Croatian race”). For the period 1892-1913, the Kočevje emigration wave consisted of as many as 64,77% of single young men and women. In the years 1892 and 1893, at the most daily agrarian workers left, following were maids, landowners, cottagers etc. The majority had no property. Shortly, young people and those with no means were the majority of emigrants in that early period of emigrating from the present Slovenia. Undoubtedly, the emigration wave of the Gottschee men and women presents in the time of mass emigration to the USA a significant share in the so-called Slovene emigration wave, which we must pay regard to in researching this phenomena on Slovene territory.
20 / 2004
Ksenija Vesenjak
SLOVENES IN AUSTRALIAN TASMANIAABSTRACT
Already the first scientific definition of culture as cited by Godina (1998: 84), “culture is a complex entirety, which contains knowledge, religion, art, morality, laws, customs and any other capacities and habits a human acquires as member of the society” (Tylor 1994/1871: 1), emphasizes besides learned habits and social character of culture, its transferability, transitiveness in diachronic and synchronic perspectives. The element of transitiveness is common to all later definitions of culture. In the article Slovenes in Tasmania, which is a summary of my diploma titled Ohranjanje etnične identitete Slovencev na avstralski Tasmaniji (Preserving ethnic identity of Slovenes in Australian Tasmania), I deal with the very problem of transferring and preserving culture in the sense of preservation of ethnic identity of Slovenes in Tasmania. In order to collect ethnographic material, I decided for fieldwork among Slovenes in Tasmania. From November 14th to December 19th 2002, I interviewed 32 informants and recorded 20 radio cassettes or 26.5 hours of material. After my return, the material was of fundamental significance as it directed the processing of data and the choosing of theories. Thus, my analysis began with answers and not with questions; facts defined theories and not vice versa. In the article, I focused on the ethnographic part of my diploma work. I have summed up the findings on life of Slovene emigrants in Tasmania in individual chapters and subchapters. The first pages thus give a short survey on migrations to Tasmania, and the present ethnic structure of the inhabitants. Follow a series of facts such as number, age, place of birth, place of residence, and duration of staying in Tasmania, education, work, marital status, and family life. The last part is issues that demand a more thorough analysis: the reason for coming to Tasmania, its experiencing then and today, language, knowledge of English language and learning, use of Slovene language then and today, transfer of Slovene language to children, names of children, mutual socializing and expressing appurtenance on community level, expressing appurtenance on personal level, contacts with Slovenia, comprehension of home – Slovenia or Australia.
In studying cases as mine, a compromise is logical between what should be ideal to research, and what is realistically feasible and still scientifically correct. Because of extensiveness of matter, I did not deal in particular with the history of migrations in Australia and Tasmania. Data on present ethnic structure in Tasmania are also merely informative. As well, I did not deal with surveying of emigration from Slovene ethnic space. I also know that if we wanted to study the entire process of transfer of Slovene culture on the one side and inclusion in Australian culture on the other, we should include in the research at least their descendants, that is, the second generation. It would be interesting to include in the research the “returnees” – those who have after a many-years stay in Tasmania returned to Slovenia. A comparison between different generations of emigrants was not carried out as the generation in Tasmania is by age relatively homogeneous.
The interviews have been recorded in as much as possible a relaxed atmosphere in their homes. There because I could observe their lodgings (that is – whether I would find something that would prove a Slovene lives there). Usually, the interviews that were on average over 50 minutes long were performed along some Slovene food and drink, listening to the music; it was their choice to show me what they wanted to. As a rule, I was in contact with my informants for at least a few days. My concluding thoughts I can summarize the following: the basic condition for a diachronic and synchronic transfer of a certain culture is the physical existence of its representatives. On the basis of data acquired during fieldwork in Tasmania I can summarize that because of relative old age of the informants and no influx of new emigrants to this insular state in the last ten years, there will be no Slovenes in Australian Tasmania in less than 50 years. For that reason too, the present article and the diploma work are one among rare but not sole records on a group of Slovenes in Tasmania.
20 / 2004
Ksenija Vesenjak
SLOVENES IN AUSTRALIAN TASMANIAABSTRACT
Already the first scientific definition of culture as cited by Godina (1998: 84), “culture is a complex entirety, which contains knowledge, religion, art, morality, laws, customs and any other capacities and habits a human acquires as member of the society” (Tylor 1994/1871: 1), emphasizes besides learned habits and social character of culture, its transferability, transitiveness in diachronic and synchronic perspectives. The element of transitiveness is common to all later definitions of culture. In the article Slovenes in Tasmania, which is a summary of my diploma titled Ohranjanje etnične identitete Slovencev na avstralski Tasmaniji (Preserving ethnic identity of Slovenes in Australian Tasmania), I deal with the very problem of transferring and preserving culture in the sense of preservation of ethnic identity of Slovenes in Tasmania. In order to collect ethnographic material, I decided for fieldwork among Slovenes in Tasmania. From November 14th to December 19th 2002, I interviewed 32 informants and recorded 20 radio cassettes or 26.5 hours of material. After my return, the material was of fundamental significance as it directed the processing of data and the choosing of theories. Thus, my analysis began with answers and not with questions; facts defined theories and not vice versa. In the article, I focused on the ethnographic part of my diploma work. I have summed up the findings on life of Slovene emigrants in Tasmania in individual chapters and subchapters. The first pages thus give a short survey on migrations to Tasmania, and the present ethnic structure of the inhabitants. Follow a series of facts such as number, age, place of birth, place of residence, and duration of staying in Tasmania, education, work, marital status, and family life. The last part is issues that demand a more thorough analysis: the reason for coming to Tasmania, its experiencing then and today, language, knowledge of English language and learning, use of Slovene language then and today, transfer of Slovene language to children, names of children, mutual socializing and expressing appurtenance on community level, expressing appurtenance on personal level, contacts with Slovenia, comprehension of home – Slovenia or Australia.
In studying cases as mine, a compromise is logical between what should be ideal to research, and what is realistically feasible and still scientifically correct. Because of extensiveness of matter, I did not deal in particular with the history of migrations in Australia and Tasmania. Data on present ethnic structure in Tasmania are also merely informative. As well, I did not deal with surveying of emigration from Slovene ethnic space. I also know that if we wanted to study the entire process of transfer of Slovene culture on the one side and inclusion in Australian culture on the other, we should include in the research at least their descendants, that is, the second generation. It would be interesting to include in the research the “returnees” – those who have after a many-years stay in Tasmania returned to Slovenia. A comparison between different generations of emigrants was not carried out as the generation in Tasmania is by age relatively homogeneous.
The interviews have been recorded in as much as possible a relaxed atmosphere in their homes. There because I could observe their lodgings (that is – whether I would find something that would prove a Slovene lives there). Usually, the interviews that were on average over 50 minutes long were performed along some Slovene food and drink, listening to the music; it was their choice to show me what they wanted to. As a rule, I was in contact with my informants for at least a few days. My concluding thoughts I can summarize the following: the basic condition for a diachronic and synchronic transfer of a certain culture is the physical existence of its representatives. On the basis of data acquired during fieldwork in Tasmania I can summarize that because of relative old age of the informants and no influx of new emigrants to this insular state in the last ten years, there will be no Slovenes in Australian Tasmania in less than 50 years. For that reason too, the present article and the diploma work are one among rare but not sole records on a group of Slovenes in Tasmania.
20 / 2004
Maša Mikola
TRANSFORMATION OF ETHNICITY: MOVE TO PUBLIC EXPRESSING SYMBOLIC ETHNIC IDENTITYABSTRACT
With children of Slovene emigrants in Australia who came to the south continent mainly in the 50ies, 60ies and 70ies of the 20th century, we can follow a dynamic sensation of appurtenance, which is not unchangeably liable to certain patterns of the culture but can successfully steer between different aspects of that culture and among cultures themselves. In Australian society, already with the second generation Slovene ethnicity exhibits as flexible, symbolic and voluntary. On the one hand, it is still based on their personal experiences connected with primary families and with the past, and on the other that same generation is experiencing ethnicity on another level, which frequently includes in public image of individuals. Identification with a certain ethnic group became in modern society at least fictive if not realistic a surety of broader understandings and global aspects. The media as well of the majority as the minority - ethnic, frequently influence on such a conviction as they bring it into public sphere. Ethnic media are active upon a much smaller population yet they reinforce ethnic identity in many ethnic groups and build public image of individual cultures. In the past, of ethnic programmes, radio ones were of greater importance. Today it seems their position is taken over by newer media.
One of many ethnic groups that create their own ethnic programme on two radio stations in Melbourne in Australia, the SBS and 3YYY, is the Slovene. The Slovene ethnic radio media serves almost exclusively the Slovene emigrants of the first generation and therefore does not include members of the second and third generations that at least partially identify themselves with this ethnicity. The characteristics of the Slovene programme are linked to physical proximity and to stereotype, traditional forms. As such, the Slovene ethnic radio programme does not influence in a larger proportion on forming or preserving ethnic identity of the second and next generations. The internet could offer a new and somewhat different a dynamics in the Slovene community in Australia, especially with ethnically coloured web sites of Thezaurus that Slovenes in Melbourne create. Web pages create new space for communication, interaction and debate (with discussion forums). Yet it is for people of Slovene descent in Australia almost impossible to predict whether ethnically aware individuals will use the internet as a principal field for reinforcement of their multiple ethnic identities. Such web sites can become an interactive canal for acquiring complex information on Slovene culture, on the basis of which the younger generations form their opinion on it and thus choose and define their own ethnic identity.
20 / 2004
Maša Mikola
TRANSFORMATION OF ETHNICITY: MOVE TO PUBLIC EXPRESSING SYMBOLIC ETHNIC IDENTITYABSTRACT
With children of Slovene emigrants in Australia who came to the south continent mainly in the 50ies, 60ies and 70ies of the 20th century, we can follow a dynamic sensation of appurtenance, which is not unchangeably liable to certain patterns of the culture but can successfully steer between different aspects of that culture and among cultures themselves. In Australian society, already with the second generation Slovene ethnicity exhibits as flexible, symbolic and voluntary. On the one hand, it is still based on their personal experiences connected with primary families and with the past, and on the other that same generation is experiencing ethnicity on another level, which frequently includes in public image of individuals. Identification with a certain ethnic group became in modern society at least fictive if not realistic a surety of broader understandings and global aspects. The media as well of the majority as the minority - ethnic, frequently influence on such a conviction as they bring it into public sphere. Ethnic media are active upon a much smaller population yet they reinforce ethnic identity in many ethnic groups and build public image of individual cultures. In the past, of ethnic programmes, radio ones were of greater importance. Today it seems their position is taken over by newer media.
One of many ethnic groups that create their own ethnic programme on two radio stations in Melbourne in Australia, the SBS and 3YYY, is the Slovene. The Slovene ethnic radio media serves almost exclusively the Slovene emigrants of the first generation and therefore does not include members of the second and third generations that at least partially identify themselves with this ethnicity. The characteristics of the Slovene programme are linked to physical proximity and to stereotype, traditional forms. As such, the Slovene ethnic radio programme does not influence in a larger proportion on forming or preserving ethnic identity of the second and next generations. The internet could offer a new and somewhat different a dynamics in the Slovene community in Australia, especially with ethnically coloured web sites of Thezaurus that Slovenes in Melbourne create. Web pages create new space for communication, interaction and debate (with discussion forums). Yet it is for people of Slovene descent in Australia almost impossible to predict whether ethnically aware individuals will use the internet as a principal field for reinforcement of their multiple ethnic identities. Such web sites can become an interactive canal for acquiring complex information on Slovene culture, on the basis of which the younger generations form their opinion on it and thus choose and define their own ethnic identity.
20 / 2004
Zvone Žigon
A SLOVENE WOMAN MISSIONARY WITH THE INUITESABSTRACT
The article is derived from the recently concluded research – a post doctorate project – titled Sodobni (slovenski) misijonar kot izseljenec (The modern (Slovene) missionary as an emigrant). Its intention is to present and describe the missionary above all as an individual, representative of a certain culture who in his/her otherwise voluntary position finds him/herself in a unique cultural dilemma. Like everybody, he initially experiences a cultural shock, and after that, he is put before for an “emigrant” expressively atypical task: as a carrier of a defined mission, he is obliged to preserve his own cultural identity and to announce his “message”. He can achieve this most easily – which is with the issue most interesting and paradoxical - with a great proportion of empathy and adaptation in domestic culture, which inevitably makes a greater or lesser impression on him and thus influences on his personal identity.
The article finds out that rules of assimilation valid in all other migration situations, in such cases do not apply mainly because of the cause itself (temporary and in some cases permanent) emigration from the source missionary’s culture. The research brings some interesting observations and results. For example, it resumes that Slovene missionaries are practically in any culture they appear in known as open, as well as for languages as for local customs, they have a direct, “partner” relation with the locals. Missionaries themselves are of opinion that in such a context there is with missionaries an obvious difference between members of former colonial states and members of a small (Slovene) nation that was in its entire history compelled to accept external influences and to adjust.
The author who has met in the past more or less casually some Slovene missionaries (Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Egypt, Botswana), performed within the research several semi structured interviews with missionaries during their holidays; a large part of primary documentary material is personal declarations – letters, poems, answers to questions and similar that missionaries themselves mediated to the researcher. The treatise deals in detail with the case of the missionary Sister Dorica Sever who is active among the Canadian Intuits in Repulse Bay, a settlement of 700 inhabitants (from May on in the “near” Gjoa Havn).
Organisational, social and pedagogical work presents a large part of missionary work, which can – if the locals are seeing the missionary only “over an empty plate” – present “danger” for the basic mission, announcing (Christian, Catholic) religion. In the case of Sister Dorica Sever, a different social-political environment is in question as Canada is among most social states of the world and in that sense takes good care of the mainly unemployed and in small artificial settlements captured Inuits. The stereotype of “hungry Negroes” in this case does not blur the questions connected with religion and its announcing for the locals are materially relatively well “supplied”, regardless of the fact that they are entirely dependent on state aid.
The missionary is far away from home even more aware of her Slovene identity although she is of opinion that identity presents a burden to the religious message she wishes to convey.
In contrast to another stereotype about missionaries as attenders of colonisation, we can see on the case of Sister Dorica Sever that (modern Slovene) missionaries are actually pronounced “antiglobalists” as they are trying to implant in the culturally confused Inuits or other disregarded nations self respect, love for their own language, nation and customs.
Missionaries frequently interlace their “teacher” position with the experience of the “learner” because in the very culture of the natives they are seeking new cognitions and supplementing of their own spiritual, cultural and intellectual knowledge or even sensation. Connected with this is another observation, namely for almost every male or female missionary, the truly powerful cultural shock is the one they experience when returning into source environment.
The article is enriched with a letter from the missionary and with a supplementary interview with her, taken in the mission in Repulse Bay.
20 / 2004
Zvone Žigon
A SLOVENE WOMAN MISSIONARY WITH THE INUITESABSTRACT
The article is derived from the recently concluded research – a post doctorate project – titled Sodobni (slovenski) misijonar kot izseljenec (The modern (Slovene) missionary as an emigrant). Its intention is to present and describe the missionary above all as an individual, representative of a certain culture who in his/her otherwise voluntary position finds him/herself in a unique cultural dilemma. Like everybody, he initially experiences a cultural shock, and after that, he is put before for an “emigrant” expressively atypical task: as a carrier of a defined mission, he is obliged to preserve his own cultural identity and to announce his “message”. He can achieve this most easily – which is with the issue most interesting and paradoxical - with a great proportion of empathy and adaptation in domestic culture, which inevitably makes a greater or lesser impression on him and thus influences on his personal identity.
The article finds out that rules of assimilation valid in all other migration situations, in such cases do not apply mainly because of the cause itself (temporary and in some cases permanent) emigration from the source missionary’s culture. The research brings some interesting observations and results. For example, it resumes that Slovene missionaries are practically in any culture they appear in known as open, as well as for languages as for local customs, they have a direct, “partner” relation with the locals. Missionaries themselves are of opinion that in such a context there is with missionaries an obvious difference between members of former colonial states and members of a small (Slovene) nation that was in its entire history compelled to accept external influences and to adjust.
The author who has met in the past more or less casually some Slovene missionaries (Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Egypt, Botswana), performed within the research several semi structured interviews with missionaries during their holidays; a large part of primary documentary material is personal declarations – letters, poems, answers to questions and similar that missionaries themselves mediated to the researcher. The treatise deals in detail with the case of the missionary Sister Dorica Sever who is active among the Canadian Intuits in Repulse Bay, a settlement of 700 inhabitants (from May on in the “near” Gjoa Havn).
Organisational, social and pedagogical work presents a large part of missionary work, which can – if the locals are seeing the missionary only “over an empty plate” – present “danger” for the basic mission, announcing (Christian, Catholic) religion. In the case of Sister Dorica Sever, a different social-political environment is in question as Canada is among most social states of the world and in that sense takes good care of the mainly unemployed and in small artificial settlements captured Inuits. The stereotype of “hungry Negroes” in this case does not blur the questions connected with religion and its announcing for the locals are materially relatively well “supplied”, regardless of the fact that they are entirely dependent on state aid.
The missionary is far away from home even more aware of her Slovene identity although she is of opinion that identity presents a burden to the religious message she wishes to convey.
In contrast to another stereotype about missionaries as attenders of colonisation, we can see on the case of Sister Dorica Sever that (modern Slovene) missionaries are actually pronounced “antiglobalists” as they are trying to implant in the culturally confused Inuits or other disregarded nations self respect, love for their own language, nation and customs.
Missionaries frequently interlace their “teacher” position with the experience of the “learner” because in the very culture of the natives they are seeking new cognitions and supplementing of their own spiritual, cultural and intellectual knowledge or even sensation. Connected with this is another observation, namely for almost every male or female missionary, the truly powerful cultural shock is the one they experience when returning into source environment.
The article is enriched with a letter from the missionary and with a supplementary interview with her, taken in the mission in Repulse Bay.
20 / 2004
Mirjam Milharčič-Hladnik
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES IN AMERICAN MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT AS TOLD BY SLOVENIAN IMMIGRANTSABSTRACT
The text is based on the interviews with Slovenian immigrant mothers, teachers and experts and with a principal and a teacher of English as a second language in New York City, Cleveland, Ohio and Washington D.C., conducted in spring 2004. That was a field work for the research project »Equity in educational systems – a comparative study«, which also focuses on equity concerning ethnicity in USA, Sweden, Australia and of course, Slovenia. Experiences of Slovenian immigrants in these countries are of utmost interest as is the historical context of their narratives. I have chosen the period after 1960 since it is the time of crucial social and political changes in the U.S.A, which brought multiculturalism into schools and new ethnicities on the streets. The interviewees are describing the differences that started after 1970. in regard to the ethnic origins of students in school. For a century, the general goals of public schooling were assimilation and acculturation and that started to change. First, there were radical projects and cultural wars among those who wanted public schooling more ethnic oriented and the opponents who insisted that school had to provide the same, civic education for all future citizens of the U.S.A. The interviewees have had in general very good experiences with the American schools from Pre-K to the High School level. They stressed the fact that in the period after 1970 they felt positive attitude concerning ethnic, religious and cultural differences of students and they praised the special attention that was given to those with English as a second language. The experiences of Slovenian immigrants of this period are very positive also because as educated, white and culturally »compatible« people, they were most welcomed by the host country and did not face many problems in general.
20 / 2004
Mirjam Milharčič-Hladnik
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES IN AMERICAN MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT AS TOLD BY SLOVENIAN IMMIGRANTSABSTRACT
The text is based on the interviews with Slovenian immigrant mothers, teachers and experts and with a principal and a teacher of English as a second language in New York City, Cleveland, Ohio and Washington D.C., conducted in spring 2004. That was a field work for the research project »Equity in educational systems – a comparative study«, which also focuses on equity concerning ethnicity in USA, Sweden, Australia and of course, Slovenia. Experiences of Slovenian immigrants in these countries are of utmost interest as is the historical context of their narratives. I have chosen the period after 1960 since it is the time of crucial social and political changes in the U.S.A, which brought multiculturalism into schools and new ethnicities on the streets. The interviewees are describing the differences that started after 1970. in regard to the ethnic origins of students in school. For a century, the general goals of public schooling were assimilation and acculturation and that started to change. First, there were radical projects and cultural wars among those who wanted public schooling more ethnic oriented and the opponents who insisted that school had to provide the same, civic education for all future citizens of the U.S.A. The interviewees have had in general very good experiences with the American schools from Pre-K to the High School level. They stressed the fact that in the period after 1970 they felt positive attitude concerning ethnic, religious and cultural differences of students and they praised the special attention that was given to those with English as a second language. The experiences of Slovenian immigrants of this period are very positive also because as educated, white and culturally »compatible« people, they were most welcomed by the host country and did not face many problems in general.