The process of migration has not been merely a phenomenon of the near past and the present. The author compares the known emigration of Slovenes in the second half of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries with a lesser known emigration of Slavs who lived in the present day territory of Yugoslavia, to Italian lands during the period from the early Middle Ages to the end of the Eighteenth Century. Many similarities between the earlier migration and the more recent ones are established.

Text is published on SLO pages

The process of migration has not been merely a phenomenon of the near past and the present. The author compares the known emigration of Slovenes in the second half of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries with a lesser known emigration of Slavs who lived in the present day territory of Yugoslavia, to Italian lands during the period from the early Middle Ages to the end of the Eighteenth Century. Many similarities between the earlier migration and the more recent ones are established.

Text is published on SLO pages

The paper presents the data on the beginnings of organized collection of material on Slovene emigrants, an effort which took an institutionalizetd form with the foundation of the Center of Studies on the History of Slovene Emigration at SAZU in 1963. Also presented are the activities of the Center, which was renamed twice: in 1982 into the Institute for Emigration at SAZU, and in 1986 into the Institute for Slovene Emigration Research of the Centre of Scientific Research of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU).

The paper presents the data on the beginnings of organized collection of material on Slovene emigrants, an effort which took an institutionalizetd form with the foundation of the Center of Studies on the History of Slovene Emigration at SAZU in 1963. Also presented are the activities of the Center, which was renamed twice: in 1982 into the Institute for Emigration at SAZU, and in 1986 into the Institute for Slovene Emigration Research of the Centre of Scientific Research of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU).

The idea of publishing a new collection of studies and thus adding another »hungry mouth« at the barely adequate »bowl« of resources which our country earmarks for science, might seem questionable a t this time of economic crisis. Also, one could ask whether there hasn’t already been enough attention paid in print to our homeland’s interest in Slovene emigrants. What are the principal justifications for this publication of Two Homelands?

The first idea concerning the necessity for a special scientific publication devoted to migrations occurred to the researchers within The Institute for Slovene Emigration Research of the Centre of Scientific Research of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts as early as the end of 1987, when our Institute attained its more or less final form. The importance of studying and reporting on emigration patterns was emphasized at that time. Quite naturally, there was great interest and enormous enthusiasm among the entire staff of the Institute for an ambitious project that would present its work and help satisfy our nation’s booming interest in Slovene emigration. The Institute’s desire to publish this anthology was even more justified since our scientific press, which in other respects has a fairly rich offering, does not include a publication devoted exclusively to questions connected with Slovene emigration. Articles on this subject matter have so far been published only in various miscellanea, journals, papers, or almanacs. Slovene emigration, a phenomenon so important to our national existence, a phenomenon which concerns no less than one third of the Slovene nation, certainly deserves a special scientific publication.

The idea of publishing a new collection of studies and thus adding another »hungry mouth« at the barely adequate »bowl« of resources which our country earmarks for science, might seem questionable a t this time of economic crisis. Also, one could ask whether there hasn’t already been enough attention paid in print to our homeland’s interest in Slovene emigrants. What are the principal justifications for this publication of Two Homelands?

The first idea concerning the necessity for a special scientific publication devoted to migrations occurred to the researchers within The Institute for Slovene Emigration Research of the Centre of Scientific Research of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts as early as the end of 1987, when our Institute attained its more or less final form. The importance of studying and reporting on emigration patterns was emphasized at that time. Quite naturally, there was great interest and enormous enthusiasm among the entire staff of the Institute for an ambitious project that would present its work and help satisfy our nation’s booming interest in Slovene emigration. The Institute’s desire to publish this anthology was even more justified since our scientific press, which in other respects has a fairly rich offering, does not include a publication devoted exclusively to questions connected with Slovene emigration. Articles on this subject matter have so far been published only in various miscellanea, journals, papers, or almanacs. Slovene emigration, a phenomenon so important to our national existence, a phenomenon which concerns no less than one third of the Slovene nation, certainly deserves a special scientific publication.

The book Global Migration: Patterns, Processes, and Politics by Elizabeth Mavroudi and Caroline Nagel has the potential to become a new classic textbook used by scholars and students of international migration alike. The book makes the case for the complexity of global migration and presents many ambiguities surrounding the issue. Scholarly as well as hands-on, it is an interesting read from the first page (it begins by describing the protests against immigration in Tel Aviv in 2012). The book brings fresh perspectives from the current research on migration and clusters them in general themes that can be used in a university setting as well as by anyone who wants to learn more about the intricacies of global movements of people. The book systematizes the topics and links them in a logical way, often cross-referencing between different chapters. Mavroudi and Nagel offer countless interesting case studies, but in the end they concede that “embracing the messiness of migration, then, is not about miring ourselves in the details of every single migration case study” (p. 225). However, it is the specific cases that make their arguments persuasive. The authors do an excellent job presenting the scale of the phenomenon of international migration and its centrality in the current world, regardless of the geographic setting.

The book Global Migration: Patterns, Processes, and Politics by Elizabeth Mavroudi and Caroline Nagel has the potential to become a new classic textbook used by scholars and students of international migration alike. The book makes the case for the complexity of global migration and presents many ambiguities surrounding the issue. Scholarly as well as hands-on, it is an interesting read from the first page (it begins by describing the protests against immigration in Tel Aviv in 2012). The book brings fresh perspectives from the current research on migration and clusters them in general themes that can be used in a university setting as well as by anyone who wants to learn more about the intricacies of global movements of people. The book systematizes the topics and links them in a logical way, often cross-referencing between different chapters. Mavroudi and Nagel offer countless interesting case studies, but in the end they concede that “embracing the messiness of migration, then, is not about miring ourselves in the details of every single migration case study” (p. 225). However, it is the specific cases that make their arguments persuasive. The authors do an excellent job presenting the scale of the phenomenon of international migration and its centrality in the current world, regardless of the geographic setting.