ABSTRACT
The text has two not too ambitious aims.

With the help of an analysis of concrete migration situations and contexts expressed in life narratives of two international migrants - returnees from (the river Nadiža) Venetian Slovenia (the western brink of Slovene ethnic territory in the north-east of Italy) the text attempts to answer or better say enlighten the question to how much is the physical moving (returning) as well a social movement (returning). It seems that the text does not dissect and analyse too detailed the life stories; it rather leaves that to the interpretations of the readers.

Beside searching for answers to the mentioned question the text is (as well or above all) an authentic and a “unique” “document” of the after war history of (re)migration processes, capitalist development, social excluding etc. as well of the Venetian Slovenia as of the “capitalist” Europe. Migrancy as a sum of migrant’s subjectivities formed through their experiences of numerous and contrastive places has, as says the geographer Lawson (2000, 186), analytical power. The narratives of migrants on oppositional experiences of migration and other co-dependent phenomena and processes in the course of migration have a theoretical power that exceeds the uniqueness of individual narratives or stories. The ambivalence of the narrative places on the surface the contradictoriness of migration, capitalist development, inequality and exclusion etc. of which only those from the margins can speak.

The text also mentions the method as the method is linked up tightly with the objectives of the text. Namely, we must understand migration as an act in time; we must not look for causes for it only among those that present themselves as directly significant or deciding for its establishing (for example as a result of deciding between advantages and disadvantages of defined places). Those causes as well are in some way connected with the migrant’s past and future. The causes for migration should be understood as part of the entire migrant’s life – migrants’ biography. That is why the text presents a large part of migrants’ biographies, which do not mention “directly” the very act of returning to the “source” place. We cannot perceive properly the act of returning if we have not the insight into the motive(s) of the initial departure, of the “social image” of the individual in the “host” society, the “source” society, and of many a thing concealed. Thus, for example to the question why they have returned, Mario replied that because his daughter was to enter primary school. He and his wife wanted her to visit school in Italy. However, Mario’s narrative about Switzerland tells us he did not feel too good in the host country; he was troubled by the exclusionism and superiority of the Swiss, which he describes extensively. Just as well, he tells us in the part of his narrative, which refers to Switzerland that he never intended to stay permanently in that country.

However, more than searching for causes for migration/return the stress is in the text on the social context of the return. What does that mean? It is about social circumstances in different environments, which defined the act of migration/return. At this point, a fair sight into the migrant’s biography is extra profitable. Luigi’s return, which was “unexpected” and which seems even imposed from the side of the “important others” is at least for Luigi even today somewhat “contradictory”. Namely, he returned to a country, which he avoided deliberately for several years, and which he resented many a thing. Thus, more between lines, Luigi emphasises that he did not become particularly accustomed to the “original” environment: after eighteen years of living in Italy, he still has more acquaintances in Belgium; he is inconvenient with “Italian mentality” and with many things in general, connected with this state, which he does not describe with pretty words. After his return, he visited Belgium several times and still does so. In addition, he never actually returned: his son is in Belgium, his sole descendant, and from Belgium, he is receiving his pension. Mario’s return meant on the other hand a final parting, a rigid cut with Switzerland. Although Mario did not return without “consequences” of the emigrant environment, he never took Switzerland for his own. Spontaneously, with no external initiative, he spoke for hours and hours about the injustice, he experienced in that “excessively rich” country.

Any quick (and superficial) glance at the text reveals that the two narratives are different: Mario accentuates the confrontation mainly with the state and the “host” society (Switzerland) while Luigi points out the “conflict” with the original country (Italy). In addition, the return too has a different social connotation. In Mario’s case it seems it has for long been expected while in Luigi’s case the return seems to have been imposed from the side of “important others”.

The life narratives of Mario and Luigi tell us that migrations, journeys are not merely “cold” (unconcerned) movements through space, that they are not only physical motions that lead to sensitising of boundaries, transformation of culture, society, community and spirituality. They are as well acts of imagination where the home and the aim of the journey are constantly being newly conceived and thus forever changed. Is thus returning (howsoever) possible?

Jernej Mlekuž, geographer, ethnologist and cultural anthropologist, Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The text has two not too ambitious aims.

With the help of an analysis of concrete migration situations and contexts expressed in life narratives of two international migrants - returnees from (the river Nadiža) Venetian Slovenia (the western brink of Slovene ethnic territory in the north-east of Italy) the text attempts to answer or better say enlighten the question to how much is the physical moving (returning) as well a social movement (returning). It seems that the text does not dissect and analyse too detailed the life stories; it rather leaves that to the interpretations of the readers.

Beside searching for answers to the mentioned question the text is (as well or above all) an authentic and a “unique” “document” of the after war history of (re)migration processes, capitalist development, social excluding etc. as well of the Venetian Slovenia as of the “capitalist” Europe. Migrancy as a sum of migrant’s subjectivities formed through their experiences of numerous and contrastive places has, as says the geographer Lawson (2000, 186), analytical power. The narratives of migrants on oppositional experiences of migration and other co-dependent phenomena and processes in the course of migration have a theoretical power that exceeds the uniqueness of individual narratives or stories. The ambivalence of the narrative places on the surface the contradictoriness of migration, capitalist development, inequality and exclusion etc. of which only those from the margins can speak.

The text also mentions the method as the method is linked up tightly with the objectives of the text. Namely, we must understand migration as an act in time; we must not look for causes for it only among those that present themselves as directly significant or deciding for its establishing (for example as a result of deciding between advantages and disadvantages of defined places). Those causes as well are in some way connected with the migrant’s past and future. The causes for migration should be understood as part of the entire migrant’s life – migrants’ biography. That is why the text presents a large part of migrants’ biographies, which do not mention “directly” the very act of returning to the “source” place. We cannot perceive properly the act of returning if we have not the insight into the motive(s) of the initial departure, of the “social image” of the individual in the “host” society, the “source” society, and of many a thing concealed. Thus, for example to the question why they have returned, Mario replied that because his daughter was to enter primary school. He and his wife wanted her to visit school in Italy. However, Mario’s narrative about Switzerland tells us he did not feel too good in the host country; he was troubled by the exclusionism and superiority of the Swiss, which he describes extensively. Just as well, he tells us in the part of his narrative, which refers to Switzerland that he never intended to stay permanently in that country.

However, more than searching for causes for migration/return the stress is in the text on the social context of the return. What does that mean? It is about social circumstances in different environments, which defined the act of migration/return. At this point, a fair sight into the migrant’s biography is extra profitable. Luigi’s return, which was “unexpected” and which seems even imposed from the side of the “important others” is at least for Luigi even today somewhat “contradictory”. Namely, he returned to a country, which he avoided deliberately for several years, and which he resented many a thing. Thus, more between lines, Luigi emphasises that he did not become particularly accustomed to the “original” environment: after eighteen years of living in Italy, he still has more acquaintances in Belgium; he is inconvenient with “Italian mentality” and with many things in general, connected with this state, which he does not describe with pretty words. After his return, he visited Belgium several times and still does so. In addition, he never actually returned: his son is in Belgium, his sole descendant, and from Belgium, he is receiving his pension. Mario’s return meant on the other hand a final parting, a rigid cut with Switzerland. Although Mario did not return without “consequences” of the emigrant environment, he never took Switzerland for his own. Spontaneously, with no external initiative, he spoke for hours and hours about the injustice, he experienced in that “excessively rich” country.

Any quick (and superficial) glance at the text reveals that the two narratives are different: Mario accentuates the confrontation mainly with the state and the “host” society (Switzerland) while Luigi points out the “conflict” with the original country (Italy). In addition, the return too has a different social connotation. In Mario’s case it seems it has for long been expected while in Luigi’s case the return seems to have been imposed from the side of “important others”.

The life narratives of Mario and Luigi tell us that migrations, journeys are not merely “cold” (unconcerned) movements through space, that they are not only physical motions that lead to sensitising of boundaries, transformation of culture, society, community and spirituality. They are as well acts of imagination where the home and the aim of the journey are constantly being newly conceived and thus forever changed. Is thus returning (howsoever) possible?

Jernej Mlekuž, geographer, ethnologist and cultural anthropologist, Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The fifty-seven stories recorded as part of this oral history project so far, confirm that the woman's role in preserving the cultural heritage among Slovenian immigrants is extremely important both on the public as well as private level. Women are the activists in the Slovenian community, church and organisations; they are members of the singing, dancing and theater groups; they work in countless volounteer projects. But because an important part of the cultural heritage is preserved at home and in the kitchen, traditionally the woman's domain, the woman's role is wider and its impact on the identity of the family members crucial. As a home maker the woman spends more time at home than her husband even if she is employed; she looks after children; she uses the Slovenian language at least when referring to food; she prepares regularly or at least ocassionally Slovenian dishes; she celebrates Slovenian holidays and adds something Slovenian to the celebrations of the American ones; she talks about the people of the same origin and maintains correspondence with the family and friends in Slovenia. The women narrators are in this context of a special importance because they can tell us about the subtle material that identity is made of. They help us understand the complex ways in which they work as socializers on the public as well as private level, which at the end of the day explains, why there is always something in a woman's life worth telling.

It is obvious that the dilemma of deciding how much of one's heritage must be sacrificed to become a member of the mainstream society can never be solved. For the first and second Slovenian immigration waves (before and after the second world war) we can assume that every woman tried to resolve it in her own way. However, for the second and third generations and for the contemporary Slovenian immigrant women in America the dilemma has been turned around. The issue now is how much of one's heritage and customs must be preserved to put oneself as a member of a particular ethnic origin in the mainstream society. The turnaround has been possible because Slovenians, as other European immigrants, have climbed in one hundred years to the position of American middle class and acquired in the post civil rights era the status of the whites. Besides, the Slovenian women who come to America today already are middle class, well educated, independent, ambitious, clever and, of course, white. For Slovenian women who have moved to America in the last ten to twenty years the question of identity and the choice of symbolic ethnic identification does not exist. They regard the problem of preserving the Slovenian cultural heritage and maintaining their ties with their home, language, parents and friends as solved to a large extent by having access to the internet. As one of them defines it, her home is her briefcase and her computer. Having an email address allow them to maintan daily communications with their parents, friends, even children; on their computer they keep their photos, albums, letters and other memorabilia; and on the internet they can check the situation in Slovenia, read books and newspapers, listen to the radio and TV programs or join a chat group in Slovenian. If they feel like doing it, of course. And many times they do not. However, sometimes their views on the cultural heritage change when they start a family and have children. Even those who feel strongly about preserving their cultural heritage are faced with the questions of cultural and ethnic background, language and tradition in a much more definite way when they are addressing their children's future.

Milharčič-Hladnik, Mirjam, Ph D, Sociology of Culture, Research Fellow, Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ABSTRACT
The fifty-seven stories recorded as part of this oral history project so far, confirm that the woman's role in preserving the cultural heritage among Slovenian immigrants is extremely important both on the public as well as private level. Women are the activists in the Slovenian community, church and organisations; they are members of the singing, dancing and theater groups; they work in countless volounteer projects. But because an important part of the cultural heritage is preserved at home and in the kitchen, traditionally the woman's domain, the woman's role is wider and its impact on the identity of the family members crucial. As a home maker the woman spends more time at home than her husband even if she is employed; she looks after children; she uses the Slovenian language at least when referring to food; she prepares regularly or at least ocassionally Slovenian dishes; she celebrates Slovenian holidays and adds something Slovenian to the celebrations of the American ones; she talks about the people of the same origin and maintains correspondence with the family and friends in Slovenia. The women narrators are in this context of a special importance because they can tell us about the subtle material that identity is made of. They help us understand the complex ways in which they work as socializers on the public as well as private level, which at the end of the day explains, why there is always something in a woman's life worth telling.

It is obvious that the dilemma of deciding how much of one's heritage must be sacrificed to become a member of the mainstream society can never be solved. For the first and second Slovenian immigration waves (before and after the second world war) we can assume that every woman tried to resolve it in her own way. However, for the second and third generations and for the contemporary Slovenian immigrant women in America the dilemma has been turned around. The issue now is how much of one's heritage and customs must be preserved to put oneself as a member of a particular ethnic origin in the mainstream society. The turnaround has been possible because Slovenians, as other European immigrants, have climbed in one hundred years to the position of American middle class and acquired in the post civil rights era the status of the whites. Besides, the Slovenian women who come to America today already are middle class, well educated, independent, ambitious, clever and, of course, white. For Slovenian women who have moved to America in the last ten to twenty years the question of identity and the choice of symbolic ethnic identification does not exist. They regard the problem of preserving the Slovenian cultural heritage and maintaining their ties with their home, language, parents and friends as solved to a large extent by having access to the internet. As one of them defines it, her home is her briefcase and her computer. Having an email address allow them to maintan daily communications with their parents, friends, even children; on their computer they keep their photos, albums, letters and other memorabilia; and on the internet they can check the situation in Slovenia, read books and newspapers, listen to the radio and TV programs or join a chat group in Slovenian. If they feel like doing it, of course. And many times they do not. However, sometimes their views on the cultural heritage change when they start a family and have children. Even those who feel strongly about preserving their cultural heritage are faced with the questions of cultural and ethnic background, language and tradition in a much more definite way when they are addressing their children's future.

Milharčič-Hladnik, Mirjam, Ph D, Sociology of Culture, Research Fellow, Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ABSTRACT
The 1930s were one of the most difficult decades in US history, but these were also the years of the cultural renaissance of the Slovene immigrant community in America. This paper presents the cultural activity of three women Katka Zupancic, Anna Pracek Krasna and Mary Jugg and it exposes their concern with the younger generation in a time when youth involvement was becoming more and more crucial to the continuity and future existence of the immigrant organizations established at the beginning of the century. These women were the main contributors to the Slovene-American youth magazine Mladinski list-Juvenile, issued by the Slovenska narodna podporna jednota (Slovene National Benefit Society) or SNPJ, one of the major Slovene mutual-aid societies in the United States. They were also active as public lecturers, teachers of the Slovene language, managers of local youth clubs, choral conductors and directors of dramatic performances. The article further analyzes the different views of these women concerning women's role inside the community. The first generation women - the original immigrants - did not dare to challenge the woman's traditional role in society and they accepted her role as a mother and wife rather than as an independent wage worker. The second generation - the immigrant women' daughters - would eventually challenge these assumptions held not only by the immigrant community but also by the larger American society.

Irena Milanič, B. A., junior researcher, Scientific Institute, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
The 1930s were one of the most difficult decades in US history, but these were also the years of the cultural renaissance of the Slovene immigrant community in America. This paper presents the cultural activity of three women Katka Zupancic, Anna Pracek Krasna and Mary Jugg and it exposes their concern with the younger generation in a time when youth involvement was becoming more and more crucial to the continuity and future existence of the immigrant organizations established at the beginning of the century. These women were the main contributors to the Slovene-American youth magazine Mladinski list-Juvenile, issued by the Slovenska narodna podporna jednota (Slovene National Benefit Society) or SNPJ, one of the major Slovene mutual-aid societies in the United States. They were also active as public lecturers, teachers of the Slovene language, managers of local youth clubs, choral conductors and directors of dramatic performances. The article further analyzes the different views of these women concerning women's role inside the community. The first generation women - the original immigrants - did not dare to challenge the woman's traditional role in society and they accepted her role as a mother and wife rather than as an independent wage worker. The second generation - the immigrant women' daughters - would eventually challenge these assumptions held not only by the immigrant community but also by the larger American society.

Irena Milanič, B. A., junior researcher, Scientific Institute, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana.

ABSTRACT
Parallely but silently and somehow in the background of the male emigration wave Slovene women have been emigrating as well in the 19th and 20th centuries. I have in mind married women who followed their husbands, young women who as sisters, daughters or fiancées followed their brothers, fathers and fiancés, and as well independent women, who left for the world with hope for a better life. The strongest category was wives although it is difficult to prove so with statistical data. Overall, the number of women emigrants was at all times smaller than that of men, although never negligible. In the Austrian period (until the outbreak of World War I) women presented in the Austrian wave 35 percent (1876-1910), from the administrative provinces in Slovenia, for example Carniola 21,4% (1892), from the region of Kočevje of the mentioned country 31,3% (1892). In Egypt Slovene women composed as much as 96,3% of the Slovene wave (1897). In the 1900 census in Germany 29,8% of Slovene women decided for Slovene language. In the emigration wave from Prekmurje between the two wars (1918-1941), women presented 29% (1929), 36% (1930), and 41% (1931). Among Slovene immigrants in Germany in 1939 as many as 45,7% were women. In the after-war emigration wave there were in 1971 as many as 40,1% of women from the territory of the entire Yugoslavia. Women were particularly employed as cooks, servants, governesses, wet nurses (Egypt), emigration teachers, workers; very few among them were educated. The gradation of the extent of employed immigrants increased during the entire mentioned period. Very few were until 1914, with the exception of straw-hat manufacturers from Domžale (New York, Cleveland, Chicago), and wet-nurses, nurses and governesses in Egypt. Between the two wars, women were as seasonal workers massively leaving for France and Germany. We find a larger number of employed women in the after-war economic emigration wave to Germany and to the Scandinavian countries.

The attitude of the Catholic Church to the emigration of women was negative but at the same time approving with the condition that families remain together when abroad. The states (Austria, the first and the second Yugoslavia) dealt less with the mentioned problematic. Among few male intellectuals, we find their views upon emigration of women and their life in the new environments, but more viewpoints of educated women. For example, the writer Zofka Kveder (1878-1926), Ana Župančič, the politician Alojzija Štebi wrote about women-emigrants and after 1945 the politicians Vida Tomšič, Zora Tomič and others. We find quite a few among emigrants.

The paper wishes to remind of numerous not researched spheres regarding the role of women emigrants in new environments, their education, employment and political rights. From the viewpoint of strengthening Slovene identity abroad, the role of mothers in educating children was of significant importance – if we judge from journalistic literature and printed sources. We find women in emigrant organisations, as co-operators in newspapers, teachers of emigrant children, missionaries etc. Rare were emigrant societies that were exclusively women’s which is valid for newspapers as well.

In short, in view of researching the female part of migration events with Slovenes, not to mention the infant’s part, we are only at the beginning, particularly if we have in mind the historical aspect for the time of modern emigrations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Marjan Drnovšek is PhD of history and archivist at the Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana, and researching various aspects of migration movements with Slovenes in the 19th and 20th centuries.

ABSTRACT
Parallely but silently and somehow in the background of the male emigration wave Slovene women have been emigrating as well in the 19th and 20th centuries. I have in mind married women who followed their husbands, young women who as sisters, daughters or fiancées followed their brothers, fathers and fiancés, and as well independent women, who left for the world with hope for a better life. The strongest category was wives although it is difficult to prove so with statistical data. Overall, the number of women emigrants was at all times smaller than that of men, although never negligible. In the Austrian period (until the outbreak of World War I) women presented in the Austrian wave 35 percent (1876-1910), from the administrative provinces in Slovenia, for example Carniola 21,4% (1892), from the region of Kočevje of the mentioned country 31,3% (1892). In Egypt Slovene women composed as much as 96,3% of the Slovene wave (1897). In the 1900 census in Germany 29,8% of Slovene women decided for Slovene language. In the emigration wave from Prekmurje between the two wars (1918-1941), women presented 29% (1929), 36% (1930), and 41% (1931). Among Slovene immigrants in Germany in 1939 as many as 45,7% were women. In the after-war emigration wave there were in 1971 as many as 40,1% of women from the territory of the entire Yugoslavia. Women were particularly employed as cooks, servants, governesses, wet nurses (Egypt), emigration teachers, workers; very few among them were educated. The gradation of the extent of employed immigrants increased during the entire mentioned period. Very few were until 1914, with the exception of straw-hat manufacturers from Domžale (New York, Cleveland, Chicago), and wet-nurses, nurses and governesses in Egypt. Between the two wars, women were as seasonal workers massively leaving for France and Germany. We find a larger number of employed women in the after-war economic emigration wave to Germany and to the Scandinavian countries.

The attitude of the Catholic Church to the emigration of women was negative but at the same time approving with the condition that families remain together when abroad. The states (Austria, the first and the second Yugoslavia) dealt less with the mentioned problematic. Among few male intellectuals, we find their views upon emigration of women and their life in the new environments, but more viewpoints of educated women. For example, the writer Zofka Kveder (1878-1926), Ana Župančič, the politician Alojzija Štebi wrote about women-emigrants and after 1945 the politicians Vida Tomšič, Zora Tomič and others. We find quite a few among emigrants.

The paper wishes to remind of numerous not researched spheres regarding the role of women emigrants in new environments, their education, employment and political rights. From the viewpoint of strengthening Slovene identity abroad, the role of mothers in educating children was of significant importance – if we judge from journalistic literature and printed sources. We find women in emigrant organisations, as co-operators in newspapers, teachers of emigrant children, missionaries etc. Rare were emigrant societies that were exclusively women’s which is valid for newspapers as well.

In short, in view of researching the female part of migration events with Slovenes, not to mention the infant’s part, we are only at the beginning, particularly if we have in mind the historical aspect for the time of modern emigrations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Marjan Drnovšek is PhD of history and archivist at the Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo ZRC SAZU in Ljubljana, and researching various aspects of migration movements with Slovenes in the 19th and 20th centuries.

ABSTRACT
Very little has been until the present written about Slovenes in Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula; thus the author has decided for a thorough research. In it he ascertains the quantitative dimensions of the presence of Slovenes and of their descendants, and Slovene culture in that space. Žigon observes standard, but to political-geographical circumstances adequate acculturation processes, particularly in members of the second generation of Slovene emigrants. He typologises the “categories” of Slovene emigrants by states, which he visited within the frame of the project, and in regard of cause for emigration, and age-social specifics. Thus Žigon studied in detail Slovene identity in Egypt, The South African Republic and in Kenya. In analysing individual typical groups he mentions Slovene female missionaries (and a missionary) in Egypt – missionary as a form of emigration is in this contribution not dealt with, yet the role of clerics was in preserving Slovene identity in Egypt of crucial significance.

The article is given specific weight with the report on the presence at the foundation of the first modern society of Slovenes in the mentioned area (in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2001), and on the first larger meeting of Slovenes in South Africa, which was soon followed by the foundation of a Slovene society (March 2002).

The states in which a relatively large number of Slovenes live are: Egypt, The South African Republic, Kenya, Jordan and Israel; also to be mentioned are Ghana and Kuwait. We can find individual emigrants in other states, for example in Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Guinea Bissau, Algeria, Tunis etc.

ABSTRACT
Very little has been until the present written about Slovenes in Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula; thus the author has decided for a thorough research. In it he ascertains the quantitative dimensions of the presence of Slovenes and of their descendants, and Slovene culture in that space. Žigon observes standard, but to political-geographical circumstances adequate acculturation processes, particularly in members of the second generation of Slovene emigrants. He typologises the “categories” of Slovene emigrants by states, which he visited within the frame of the project, and in regard of cause for emigration, and age-social specifics. Thus Žigon studied in detail Slovene identity in Egypt, The South African Republic and in Kenya. In analysing individual typical groups he mentions Slovene female missionaries (and a missionary) in Egypt – missionary as a form of emigration is in this contribution not dealt with, yet the role of clerics was in preserving Slovene identity in Egypt of crucial significance.

The article is given specific weight with the report on the presence at the foundation of the first modern society of Slovenes in the mentioned area (in Nairobi, Kenya, in November 2001), and on the first larger meeting of Slovenes in South Africa, which was soon followed by the foundation of a Slovene society (March 2002).

The states in which a relatively large number of Slovenes live are: Egypt, The South African Republic, Kenya, Jordan and Israel; also to be mentioned are Ghana and Kuwait. We can find individual emigrants in other states, for example in Namibia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Guinea Bissau, Algeria, Tunis etc.