Social Inclusion/Exclusion of Immigrant Groups in Urban Slovenia. The Case of Istria
Social Inclusion/Exclusion of Immigrant Groups in Urban Slovenia. The Case of Istria

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses some key aspects of everyday life as experienced by members of immigrant groups that moved to Slovene Istria from the territories of former Yugoslavia in the second half of the 20th century. Special emphasis is laid on the phenomenon of the urban social inclusion/exclusion of immigrant groups and the nature of inter-ethnic relations between members of autochthonous and immigrant communities. This analysis of the phenomenon of social inclusion/exclusion focuses on some key aspects of everyday life: employment, housing, education, organization of immigrant groups, and the nature of inter-ethnic relations. Two distinctions bear crucial importance within this framework: first, the distinction between “younger” and “older” immigrants; i.e., those who migrated to Slovene Istria from the 1950s to the 1980s and those who came to Istria in the 1990s after Slovene independence; second, the different degrees of social inclusion/exclusion between first and second generation immigrants, i.e., the immigrants and their descendants born in Slovenia. A further key element presented within the context of discursive analysis is the distinction between autochthonous and non-autochthonous ethnic groups living in the examined area. Last but not least, the paper includes an analysis of the impact of the broader political and social changes that had permeated the territory of former Yugoslavia on the immigrant groups’ quality of life and the degree of their social inclusion and acceptance.

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