88 June / Junij 2022 Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies Razprave in gradivo, Revija za narodnostna vprašanja UDC/UDK 323.15.342.4 (058) ISSN 0354-0286 (Print /Tiskana izdaja) ISSN 1854-5181 (On-line edition / Elektronska izdaja) Editor-in-Charge / Odgovorna urednica Sabina Zorcic (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana) Editorial Board / Uredniški odbor Romana Bešter (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana), Sara Brezigar (Univerza na Primorskem), Milan Bufon (Znanstveno-raziskovalno središce, Univerza na Primorskem), Sean Byrne (University of Manitoba), Jadranka Cacic-Kumpes (University of Zadar), Fernand de Varennes (University of Moncton), Rainer Hofmann (University of Frankfurt), Boris Jesih (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana) Will Kymlicka (Queen’s University), Avguštin Malle (Slovenski znanstveni inštitut, Klagenfurt/Celovec), Mojca Medvešek (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana), Joseph Marko (University of Graz; European Academy Bozen), Francesco Palermo (University of Verona; European Academy Bozen), Srdja Pavlovic (University of Alberta), Janez Pirc (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana), Albert Reiterer (University of Vienna), Barbara Riman (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana), Petra Roter (Univerza v Ljubljani), Sherrill Stroschein (University College London), Pat­rick Thornberry (Keele University; Oxford University), Boštjan Udovic (Univerza v Ljubljani), Zaira Vidau (Slovenski raziskovalni inštitut, Tries-te/Trst), Vladimir Wakounig (University of Klagenfurt), Colin Williams (Cardiff University), Daniel Wutti (University of Klagenfurt), Jernej Zupancic (Univerza v Ljubljani), Sabina Zorcic (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana), Mitja Žagar (Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, Ljubljana). Technical Board / Tehnicno uredništvo Sonja Kurincic Mikuž, Antonija Todic Translations and proofreading / Prevajanje in lektoriranje Nina Barlic Published by / Založil in izdal © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja / Institute for Ethnic Studies, Erjavceva 26, SI-1000 Ljubljana Tel.: +386 (0)1 200 18 70, website: www.inv.si, e-mail: inv@inv.si Legal representative / Predstavnica Sonja Novak Lukanovic Co-financed by the Slovenian Research Agency / Revijo sofinancira Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost RS. The published articles express authors’ viewpoints. / Objavljeni prispevki izražajo stališca avtorjev. 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Editorial correspondence and ordering information / Naslov uredništva in narocila Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja / Institute for Ethnic Studies, Erjavceva 26, SI-1000 Ljubljana E-mail: editortd@guest.arnes.si Website / Spletna stran: https://rig-td.si The Journal was published as follows / Revijo smo izdajali: 1960 – 1986: Razprave in gradivo (Treatises and Documents) ISSN 0034-0251 1987 – 1989: Revija za narodnostna vprašanja – Razprave in gradivo ( Journal of Ethnic Studies – Treatises and Documents) ISSN 0353-2720 1990 – : Razprave in gradivo, Revija za narodnostna vprašanja (Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies) ISSN 0354-0286 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 Table of contents / Kazalo ARTICLeS / cLANKI 5 Daniel Doz, Darjo Felda, Mara Cotic, Tina Štemberger Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and Learning: The Slovene Minority in Italy during the Pandemic Period of Covid-19 Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: Slovenska manjšina v Italiji v casu pandemije covida-19 27 Irina Moira Cavaion Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province of Trieste 49 Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokra­jini Ana Toroš The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija 67 Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi Danila Zuljan Kumar Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual Environment 87 Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje Karolina Lendák-Kabók Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja 113 Barna Szamosi Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu 133 Rebeka Mesaric Žabcic, Nikola Šimunic Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends between Croatia and Austria Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko Hrvaško in Avstrijo TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022, p. 5–26 DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 During the second quarantine period in Italy (Oct. ‘20–June ‘21), students once again faceda remote teaching and learning format. Much research has been conducted on students’perceptions during the first pandemic period; however, far less is known about the secondperiod, especially in the case of students within the Slovene minority in Italy. We aimed toinvestigate (1) students’ satisfaction with their teachers’ teaching methods in remote learningand in-class teaching formats, (2) students’ perceptions regarding the main differences betweenin-class and online mathematics lessons, and (3) whether students’ grades in mathematicschanged as a result of the pandemic. The findings showed that students’ grades during thequarantine period increased compared to their grades before the pandemic. However, studentswere more satisfied with their teachers’ in-class teaching methods and believed that in-classteaching was more efficient. They were also more motivated and concentrated at school thanonline. Keywords: remote learning, online lessons, quarantine, Covid-19, Slovene minority, Italy. V 2. obdobju karantene v Italiji (okt. '22–jun. '21) so se dijaki višjih srednjih šol ponovno soocili s poukom na daljavo. Medtem ko je veliko raziskav obravnavalo mnenja dijakov v prvem obdobjupandemije, je bilo v drugem obdobju podobnih raziskav veliko manj, zlasti v primeru dijakovslovenske manjšine v Italiji. Želeli smo raziskati (1) zadovoljstvo dijakov z ucnimi metodaminjihovih uciteljev pri poucevanju na daljavo in v razredu, (2) mnenje dijakov o glavnih razlikahmed poukom matematike v razredu in na spletu in (3) ali so se ocene matematicnega znanjazaradi pandemije bistveno spremenile. Rezultati so pokazali, da so se ocene dijakov v obdobjukarantene zvišale v primerjavi z njihovimi dosežki pred pandemijo. Dijaki so bili bolj zadovoljniz metodami poucevanja svojih uciteljev v razredu in so mnenja, da je poucevanje v razreduucinkovitejše. V šoli so bili tudi bolj motivirani in osredotoceni kot na spletu. Kljucne besede: ucenje na daljavo, spletni pouk, karantena, covid-19, slovenska manjšina, Italija. Correspondence address: Daniel Doz, Državni znanstveni licej France Prešeren s slovenskim ucnim jezikom, Strada di Guardiella/Vrdelska cesta 13/1, IT-34128 Trieste/Trst, e-mail: doz_daniel@yahoo.it; Darjo Felda, Univerza na Primorskem, Pedagoška fakulteta, Cankarjeva 5, SI-6000 Koper/Capodistria, e-mail: darjo.felda@pef.upr.si; Mara Cotic, Univerza na Primorskem, Pedagoška fakulteta, Cankarjeva 5,SI-6000 Koper/Capodistria, e-mail: mara.cotic@pef.upr.si; Tina Štemberger, Univerza na Primorskem, Pedagoška fakulteta, Cankarjeva 5, SI-6000 Koper/Capodistria, e-mail: tina.stemberger@pef.upr.si. ISSN 0354-0286 Print/ISSN 1854-5181 Online © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja (Ljubljana), http://www.inv.si 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 Italian high school students experienced two quarantines because of the nation­al sanitary emergency connected to the spread of Covid-19. The first began atthe end of February 2020 (DPCM 1, 2020; Decreto-legge 25 marzo 2020) and lasted until the end of the school year (i.e., June 2020). During this time, whenemergency plans were adopted by the government, elementary, middle and highschools, as well as universities, had to close. Students and teachers had to adapt to remote lessons (Quattrone et al. 2020), which are characterised by temporaland/or spatial separation that is normally compensated for with media and tech­nology (Hodges et al. 2020; Zorcic 2020). Italian teachers used various learning and teaching methods, including not only online lectures, audio-visual material,and conferences, but also books and notes (Tejedor et al. 2020). The Decrees ofthe Prime Minister (DPCM 1, 2020; Decreto-legge 25 marzo 2020) stated that teachers had to adapt their teaching and assessment methods to remote teach­ing. The second lockdown, this time only for high schools, occurred at the end of October 2020 (DPCM 2, 2020) and lasted for two months. The national decreestated that high schools had to adopt remote teaching once again to guaranteestudents a natural continuation of their educational activities and learning pro­cesses. The Ordinance from the Ministry of Health of 24 December 2020 statedthat high schools might open at the end of the winter vacation (Ministero della salute 2020). The second quarantine was, nevertheless, much different from thefirst (Bogatec et al. 2021), as schools were open for a longer period throughoutthe school year, and teachers were more prepared than during the first quaran­tine period. Hence, teachers had time to prepare and adjust their teaching meth­ods for the second lockdown. Similarly to what has been reported in the international literature, remotelearning in Italy meant a great change in the way lessons were organised (Basi-laia & Kvavadze 2020; Upoalkpajor & Upoalkpajor 2020; Kim 2020). Regard­ing remote learning worldwide, several issues have been reported, particularlyrelating to internet connections and technological equipment (Adnan & Anwar 2020), the difficulty of doing assignments during online lectures (Nasution &Ahmad 2020), lower satisfaction with online learning (Gonçalves et al. 2020),and a higher level of anxiety among students (Ardan et al. 2020; Husky et al. 2020; Cao et al. 2020). Some studies proved that minority students faced additional issues during the pandemic remote-learning period (Eurac Research 2020). For instance,students from the Slovene minority in Italy faced fundamental issues related tothe unavailability of digital learning materials in the Slovene language on topics covered in the Italian national curriculum (Bogatec et al. 2021). Additionally,students from non-Slovene speaking families, who encountered the Slovene RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 language exclusively at school, were deprived of the essential extra help that theywould have received at school (Bogatec et al. 2021). Overall, the problem of what minority students thought of the second remote-learning period in Italyremains an open question in the literature. The Covid-19 pandemic also had an important impact on the teaching of mathematics. Maths teachers had to adapt their mathematical communication(i.e., the ways of explaining mathematics to students) to the online environment(Wahyuningrum & Latifah 2020). Math teachers believed that students found it more difficult to understand mathematics delivered through online platforms(Yohannes et al. 2021), and neither students nor teachers had adequate digitalskills (Mailizar et al. 2020). Thus, further investigation into students’ opinions on mathematics lessons during the remote-learning period is needed. Considering the teaching and learning of mathematics, Slovene minor­ity students in Italy faced an additional issue. The unavailability of much of the learning material on topics in the Italian national curriculum in the Slovene lan­guage (Grgic 2017; 2019), especially in the case of digital materials (Bogatec etal. 2021), represented an issue for students and math teachers. Thus, some stu­dents might have experienced additional stress from trying to find explanationsof the topics, and the teachers might not have had access to the proper material.Hence, minority students, in comparison to the majority of students, faced ad­ditional challenges, so it is reasonable to expect that their perceptions of remoteteaching and learning also differed in some aspects. The aim of the present research was to understand (1) Slovene minority high school students’ satisfaction with their mathematics teachers’ remote andin-class teaching methods, (2) students’ perceived differences between remoteand in-class (traditional) maths teaching and learning, and (3) whether stu­dents’ grades increased during the pandemic period. Since research on the topicof the second remote learning period during the Covid-19 outbreak in Italy isstill scarce, we decided to focus on this period, in particular: October–Decem­ber 2020. Specifically, we examined students’ satisfaction with teachers’ teachingmethods both in class and during the second quarantine. In addition, we presentsuggestions for educators and policymakers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the learning process changed from in-class to online instruction, which had various impacts on the quality of teaching andlearning (Sahu 2020; Dietrich et al. 2020; Aristovnik et al. 2020; Chakrabortyet al. 2020). Several online learning tools were used, including communication platforms, such as Zoom and Google Hangouts, and communication facilitators, 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 such as video chat, conference calls, chatrooms, conferences, emails and com­munication forums (Gonçalves et al. 2020; Ferraro et al. 2020; Nenko et al. 2020). Remote learning meant a change in the pedagogical techniques used. Students had clarification sessions, video lessons, materials in text format, group work,individual work, group discussions and other forms of learning (Gonçalves et al. 2020). In addition, various evaluation models were used, such as face-to-faceassessing, online individual work, online group work and online tests. The research has highlighted several obstacles and advantages regarding online learning. For instance, students argued that there was a lack of concen­tration (Gonçalves et al. 2020; Fatonia et al. 2020; Son et al. 2020), a lack ofstudent interaction (Gonçalves et al. 2020; Lassoued et al. 2020; Coman et al. 2020), difficulty in time management (Gonçalves et al. 2020), and a lack of mo­tivation and effort (Gonçalves et al. 2020; Lassoued et al. 2020; Zaccoletti et al.2020; Aguilera-Hermida 2020). On the other hand, students reported greater time and location flexibility (Gonçalves et al. 2020) and better academic results(Gonçalves et al. 2020; Gonzalez et al. 2020). The latter result could be seen asa positive outcome (i.e., remote learning helps students perform better); on the other hand, students may have cheated during exams and assignments (Bilen &Matros 2020; Nguyen et al. 2020). Some studies showed that students’ overall perceptions of online learning were not good (Gonçalves et al. 2020; Lassoued et al. 2020; Coman et al. 2020).Students felt that online learning hindered the learning process because of vari­ous issues with internet access, difficulties in communicating with their teachers, problems carrying out assignments and fewer students participating during on-line lessons (Nasution & Ahmad 2020; Baloran 2020; Coman et al. 2020; Surani& Hamidah 2020; Giatman et al. 2020). Some students felt that their learning worsened during remote learning (Chen et al. 2020). The same studies found that students perceived that their institutions werenot prepared to organise online lessons or that they did not adapt their teaching methods quickly enough. Some teachers were not able to adapt their teachingstyles to the online environment or to maintain their students’ attention. Some researchers showed that students preferred the in-class lesson format and learned better while in class; however, students felt comfortable with online classes (Surani & Hamidah 2020; Gonçalves et al. 2020; Giatman et al. 2020). Regarding mathematics education, remote learning, resulting from the Covid­19 pandemic, changed the teaching and learning processes of this subject (Mulen­ga & Marbán 2020). The transition to remote learning greatly impacted students’understanding of specific mathematical concepts, as some teachers adopt­ed asynchronous teaching methods and did not provide additional explanationsof the material covered (Mukuka et al. 2021; Murtafiah et al. 2020). Mathemat­ics teachers also faced fundamental issues (Barlovits et al. 2021; Chirinda et al. 2021) related to the use of math-specific technology, such as virtual white­ RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 boards, video recordings and video-editing software, as well as several learningplatforms. In particular, the inability to use a blackboard was a major issue when teaching mathematics remotely, as this is an almost indispensable tool in teach­ing and learning mathematics (Busto et al. 2021). In addition, mathematics les­sons specifically require derivation, numerous consolidations, and learning in interaction, and it is very important that teachers react to students’ possible gapsin knowledge as promptly as possible, as it is crucial that students master the sim­pler concepts before moving on to more complex concepts (Bone et al. 2021). This was very difficult to deliver during remote learning. The impact of remote teaching and learning on mathematical knowledgespecifically can also be observed in students’ achievements in the Italian national assessment of mathematical knowledge, organised by the National Institute forthe Evaluation of the Education and Training System (INVALSI – Istituto na­zionale per la valutazione del sistema educativo di istruzione e formazione). It was found that students’ overall achievements in mathematics in 2021 were 10 points lower than in 2019 (INVALSI 2021). The INVALSI study for Grade 13(i.e., the last year of schooling; INVALSI 2021) pointed out that 51 % of Italian stu­dents did not gain adequate results in the 2021 national assessment of mathe­matical knowledge, which corresponded to a 9 % increase in under-achievingstudents in 2019. To our knowledge, no research has investigated the possible reasons underlying this decrease in achievement on the national mathematicstest, including the quality of teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pan­demic. Therefore, it is important to address the quality of mathematics learning and teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic to have a clear image regarding stu­dents’ mathematical knowledge and to outline possible measures to overcometheir lack of knowledge. 2.2 The Slovene Minority in Italy and the Covid-19 Pandemic The Covid-19 pandemic posed certain issues for students, who faced a changein the way lessons were delivered. Minority students, however, were more af­fected by the pandemic in terms of both social and economic aspects, including education (Eurac Research 2020). The Italian minority in Slovenia (Sorgo &Lukanovic 2020) and the Slovene minorities in Croatia (Riman 2020) and Aus­tria (Zorcic 2020) faced similar problems. In the present research, our focus is on the Slovene minority in Italy. The Slovene minority in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy is a nationalminority, whose members live along the Slovene-Italian border. This is a well-integrated community, both socially and economically (Brezigar 2020). Italyrecognises the rights of the Slovene minority in the Trieste, Gorizia and Udineprovinces, which are guaranteed by the 2nd, 3rd and 6th articles of the Italian Con­stitution (Senato della Repubblica 2022) and the 3rd article of Constitutional 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 Law 38 from 1963 (Norme a tutela della minoranza linguistica slovena della regione Friuli - Venezia Giulia 2001). Students who are part of the Slovene mi­nority have the right to attend schools with Slovene as the language of instruc­tion or bilingual schools (Disciplina delle istituzioni scolastiche nella provincia di Gorizia e nel Territorio di Trieste 1963), which are equivalent to schools in the Italian language. Kindergartens, primary schools, lower and upper secondary schools with Slovene as the language of instruction, and the bilingual (Italian–Slovene) school in Špeter are an integral part of the Italian national school sys­tem, and they function in the same way as Italian schools (Bogatec 2015). There are some slight differences in the programs taught, as students from schools using the Slovene language have additional topics in history and geography (Bo-gatec 2015), such as the history of Slovenes in Italy (USR-FVG 2021). Schools with Slovene as the language of instruction or bilingual instruction have certain specificities and face additional issues (Baloh 2012; Brezigar & Zver 2019; Strani 2011). For example, students in these schools need textbooks in the Slovene language that cover the topics from the Italian curriculum (Bogatec 2015). Hence, students need specific didactic materials for learning the Slovene language (Grgic 2017; 2019). Moreover, students from these schools have var­ied knowledge of the Slovene language, and teachers need to adapt their teaching strategies to the students’ language skills (Brezigar & Zver 2019; Baloh 2004). Some students only use the Slovene language at school (Bogatec 2015), while they speak Italian or another language at home. The specificities of schools with Slovene as the teaching language concern not only the linguistic competencies of the students and their parents, the unique programs and the learning materials (Brezigar & Zver 2019; Brezigar 2020; Grgic 2017; Melinc Mlekuž 2019), but also the availability of digital learning mate­rials (Grgic 2019). In particular, the material on several digital platforms does not fulfil the language or content requirements. For instance, online materials in the Italian language contain topics from the Italian national programs; however, they do not fit the language requirements. On the other hand, materials (e.g., textbooks) from Slovene institutions fit the language requirement but do not fit the requirements of the topics taught. Taking an example from mathematics, the Italian national syllabus for lyceums (Ministero dell’istruzione, dell’universitŕ e della ricerca 2010) requires mathematics teachers to present the topic of dif­ferential equations in the final year of scientific lyceums; however, this topic is not present in the Slovene national syllabus (Ministrstvo za šolstvo in šport RS 2008). Consequently, this means that the topic of differential equations is not present in high school mathematics textbooks in the Slovene language. Teach­ers who cover this topic need to rely on self-made materials (Figure 1) or other materials in the Slovene language (e.g., university course notes), which may not be suitable for the specific level of schooling. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 Based on international research results that showed various impacts of Covid-related remote teaching and learning, and considering the special situation ofSlovene minority students in Italy, as well as with regard to the peculiarities ofmaths teaching and learning, we outlined three main research questions:RQ1: How did students perceive their own satisfaction with the teaching methods in mathematics during remote teaching?RQ2: How did students perceive the differences between remote and in-classmathematics learning?RQ3: How did students’ grades in mathematics change during the pandemic? For each research question we controlled for the role of gender. We used a nonexperimental method of causal analysis. We carried out quanti­tative research, using an online questionnaire to gather results that were analysedusing descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The participants in the present study were 129 high school students, of whom58 were males (45.0 %) and 71 (55.0 %) were females. There were 85 (65.9 %)students from lyceums, while the remaining 44 (34.1 %) were students fromtechnical schools. In addition, 76 (58.9 %) students attended a high school inTrieste, while 53 (41.9 %) students attended a high school in Gorizia. The aver­age age of the participants was M = 16.0 (SD = 1.60; min = 13; max = 19). Therewere 44 (34.1 %) first-year students, 23 (17.8 %) second-year students, 36 (27.9%) third-year students, 15 (11.6 %) fourth-year students, and 11 (8.5 %) fifth-year students. According to Bogatec (2021), in the 2019/20 school year (data for the2020/21 school year are presently unavailable), there were 936 students attend­ing Italian high schools with Slovene as the language of instruction, which sig­nifies that the research sample represents 13.8 % of the whole sample from the2019/20 school year. Moreover, 609 (65.1 %) students attended a high schoolin Trieste, while 327 (34.9 %) attended a high school in Gorizia. Comparingthese percentages with those from our sample, we claim that there is not enoughevidence to state that our sample significantly differs from the population (.2(1) = .922; p = .337), so we considered the sample to be representative of the popu­lation (cf. Sagadin 1993). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 Data were collected in June and July 2021 through an online questionnaire. Thistechnique was used instead of a printed questionnaire, as high schools had been closed to students from October 2020, and all lessons were online (DPCM 2,2020). However, this represented a major problem, as there was a low responserate (66.1 %). The online questionnaire used was composed of nine questions, among which four were demographic questions, two questions analysed the students’ math­ematics grades at the end of the first and second semesters of 2020/21, two questions analysed the students’ appreciation of the in-class and online teach­ing methods used by their mathematics teachers, and a question composed of 15 items evaluated students’ perceptions of whether they preferred in-class or remote mathematics lessons (see Appendix A). The students’ appreciation of their maths teachers’ teaching methods was measured using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not satisfied at all, 5 = very satisfied). In the 15-item question, students indicated their agreement with 15 statements with a 5-point Likert scale (1 = absolutely no agreement, 5 = absolute agree­ment). The collected data were analysed using the Jamovi statistical software. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to determine the valid­ity of the instrument. Concerning the 15-item questionnaire on the quality of remote learning compared to in-class mathematics lessons, the factorability of the 15 questions was examined. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was greater or equal to .842, above the commonly recommended value of .600. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (.2(105) = 1102, p < .001). Given these two indicators, factor analysis was deemed to be suitable for all 15 items. Initial eigenvalues indicated that the first three factors explained 36.1 %, 17.8 % and 13.3 % of the variance, respectively, for a total of 67.2 % of the variance. Solutions for three factors were examined using the varimax rotation of the fac­tor loading matrix (see Table 1). The first factor grouped the questions regarding teaching methods. The second factor was connected to the students’ emotions, such as stress. The third factor was connected to the environment, such as the presence of distractors. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 Component Uniqueness 1 2 3 Item 1 0.616 0.320 0.487 Item 2 0.823 0.251 Item 3 0.707 0.376 0.359 Item 4 0.764 0.304 Item 5 0.822 0.284 Item 6 0.741 0.342 0.311 Item 7 0.617 0.479 0.340 Item 8 0.777 0.265 Item 9 –0.840 0.259 Item 10 0.772 0.293 Item 11 0.529 0.608 0.305 Item 12 0.761 0.310 0.287 Item 13 0.346 0.649 0.332 0.348 Item 14 0.562 0.532 Item 15 0.504 0.582 –0.328 0.300 Source: Empirical data. Note: Varimax rotation was used. The reliability of this piece of the questionnaire was checked with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, which indicated that the questionnaire had excellent validity(a = .90). Moreover, the two-week test-retest reliability was excellent (r = .833). The analysis of singular variables was done using descriptive statistical meth­ods (i.e., mean and standard deviation). While it is common in psychologicaland pedagogical research to consider Likert-scale items as continuous variables(De Winter & Dodou 2010), we decided to use non-parametric tests instead (i.e., Spearman’s correlation coefficient ., the Mann-Whitney U test to prove dif­ferences between two categories, the Kruskal-Wallis H test for the differences among three or more categories, and the Wilcoxon rank Z test for the compari­son between two variables). Moreover, Levene’s test for equality of variances andthe Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality were violated in most cases, thusconfirming the usage of non-parametric statistical tests. In Table 2, we present the frequencies and percentages of the students’ satisfac­tion with their maths teachers’ in-class teaching methods. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 Levels f % f Not satisfied at all 6 4.7 % Not satisfied 23 17.8 % Neutral 25 19.4 % Satisfied 42 32.6 % Very satisfied 33 25.6 % Source: Empirical data. As can be observed, 22.5 % of students were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied withtheir teachers’ teaching methods during in-class lessons. In contrast, 58.2 % of students were satisfied or very satisfied. These frequencies were statistically dif­ferent (.2(4) = 27.7; p < .001). Concerning students’ satisfaction with their maths teachers’ teaching meth­ods during remote learning, we present the frequencies and percentages in Table 3. We can see that 27.2 % of students were unsatisfied or completely unsatisfiedwith the teaching methods; however, 54.3 % of students were satisfied or very satisfied. These frequencies were statistically different (.2(4) = 44.4; p < .001). Source: Empirical data. No statistically significant differences between genders were revealed regarding in-class satisfaction with the teachers’ methods (U = 1915; p = .908): boys (R = 63.40) and girls (R = 62.66) had similar perceptions concerning their satisfac­tion with their teachers’ teaching methods. Moreover, boys (R = 61.78) and girls (R = 64.02) had similar perceptions in terms of their satisfaction with the teach­ing methods adopted during the second quarantine; the differences in percep­tions were statistically non-significant (U = 1869; p = .720). The students’ satisfaction with in-class lessons and remote learning were pos­itively and statistically significantly correlated (. = .495; p < .001). This meansthat the students who were more satisfied in class were also more satisfied with the teachers’ online methods. There were, however, statistically significant differ­ences in the students’ satisfaction with their teachers’ teaching methods beforeand during the pandemic (Z = 2.290; p = .022; Cohen’s d = .26): the students 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 were more satisfied with in-class (R = 137.31) than online (R = 121.69) lessons. Moreover, the students’ grades correlated positively and statistically signifi­cantly with their satisfaction with the teaching methods used both during quar­antine (. = .196; p = .029) and in class (. = .263; p = .003). This means that stu­dents who were more satisfied with their teachers’ methods had higher grades and vice versa. The correlations found were, however, small. No statistically significant differences in satisfaction with the teachers’ teaching methods were found among different classes either before quarantine (.2(4) = 2.56; p = .633; e2 = .020) or after it (.2(4) = 8.40; p = .078; e2 = .066). In Table 4, we present the frequencies and percentages for the answers regarding the differences between in-class and remote learning of mathematics. For thesake of simplicity and interpretation, the means and standard deviations for each category are reported. Completelydisagree Disagree Neutral Agree Completely agree Mean SD Item 1 5 (4.0 %) 10 (8.0 %) 32 (25.6 %) 28 (22.4 %) 50 (40.0 %) 3.86 1.15 Item 2 4 (3.2 %) 10 (8.0 %) 26 (20.8 %) 40 (32.0 %) 45 (36.0 %) 3.90 1.08 Item 3 8 (6.4 %) 23 (18.4 %) 31 (24.8 %) 33 (26.4 %) 30 (24.0 %) 3.43 1.22 Item 4 1 (0.8 %) 14 (11.2 %) 27 (21.6 %) 40 (32.0 %) 43 (34.4 %) 3.88 1.04 Item 5 5 (4.0 %) 9 (7.2 %) 31 (24.8 %) 42 (33.6 %) 38 (30.4 %) 3.79 1.08 Item 6 5 (4.0 %) 12 (9.6 %) 15 (12.0 %) 40 (32.0 %) 53 (42.4 %) 3.99 1.14 Item 7 8 (6.4 %) 15 (12.0 %) 31 (24.8 %) 28 (22.4 %) 43 (34.4 %) 3.66 1.24 Item 8 18 (14.4 %) 46 (36.8 %) 35 (28.0 %) 11 (8.8 %) 15 (12.0 %) 2.67 1.19 Item 9 9 (7.2 %) 23 (18.4 %) 31 (24.8 %) 43 (34.4 %) 19 (15.2 %) 3.32 1.15 Item 10 2 (1.6 %) 17 (13.6 %) 32 (25.6 %) 48 (38.4 %) 26 (20.8 %) 3.63 1.01 Item 11 3 (2.4 %) 14 (11.2 %) 23 (18.4 %) 41 (32.8 %) 44 (35.2 %) 3.87 1.09 Item 12 4 (3.2 %) 21 (16.8 %) 31 (24.8 %) 37 (29.6 %) 32 (25.6 %) 3.58 1.14 Item 13 8 (6.4 %) 39 (31.2 %) 28 (22.4 %) 28 (22.4 %) 22 (17.6 %) 3.14 1.22 Item 14 12 (9.6 %) 20 (16.0 %) 28 (22.4 %) 38 (30.4 %) 27 (21.6 %) 3.38 1.26 Item 15 11 (8.8 %) 25 (20.0 %) 25 (20.0 %) 30 (24.0 %) 34 (27.2 %) 3.41 1.31 Source: Empirical data. Regarding the stress students felt in school, Item 8 showed that more than half of the students (51.2 %) felt more relaxed at home than at school, which wasconfirmed by Item 9 (49.6 %), with the correlation between these two variables RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 being negatively and statistically significant (. = –.623; p < .001). As seen inTable 4, 28.0 % and 24.8 % had a neutral position towards stress in Item 8 and Item 9, respectively. This means that approximately a quarter of the studentsfound in-class and remote lessons equally stressful or did not notice any differ­ences in levels of stress between these two lesson modalities. More than half of the students (62.4 %) believed that maths in-class lessonswere better than online lessons (Item 1), since they learned better (68.0 %, Item2), the lessons were easier (50.0 %, Item 3), they learned more (66.4 %, Item 4), and the teachers’ explanations were better (64.0 %, Item 5) and easier to follow (74.4 %, Item 5). Moreover, the students felt more motivated at school than online (56.8 %, Item 7); however, they were more stressed (51.2 % and 49.6 %, Items 8 and 9). The results showed that students participated more at school than online (59.2 %, Item 10) and were more concentrated (68.0 %, Item 11). They also feltthat taking tests at school was better than taking them online (51.2 %, Item 15). Students’ perceptions that in-class lessons were better than those onlinewere correlated with their satisfaction with their teachers’ teaching methodsin class (. = .318; p < .001) but not with their satisfaction with their teachers’ teaching methods during remote learning (. = –.120; p = .177). Regarding the differences between genders and singular questionnaire items, the Mann-Whitney U test was computed for every variable with no statis­tically significant differences found between boys and girls in their perceptionsconcerning the differences between online and in-class lessons. 5.3 The Changes in Students’ Grades At the end of January 2021, the students had an average mathematics grade of M = 7.73 (SD = 1.49; min = 3; max = 10), while their average grade at the end ofthe school year (i.e., in June 2021) was M = 8.22 (SD = 1.35; min = 4; max = 10).The Wilcoxon rank test indicated differences between the students’ January (R = 39.09) and June (R = 40.88) grades: the end-of-year grades were higher thanthose in the first semester (Z = –4.689; p < .001; Cohen’s d = .471). At the end of the first semester, the boys had an average grade of M = 7.56 (SD = 1.44; min = 5, max = 10), while the girls had an average grade of M = 7.87 (SD = 1.52; min = 3; max = 10). At the end of the school year, the boyshad an average of M = 8.02 (SD = 1.38; min = 6; max = 10), while the girls had an average of M = 8.38 (SD = 1.32; min = 4; max = 10). Concerning the differ­ences between the boys (R = 57.94) and the girls (R = 67.24), no statisticallysignificant differences were found at the end of the first semester (U = 1650; p = .145). Similarly, no statistically significant differences between the boys (R = 57.39) and the girls (R = 67.71) were found at the end of the second semester (U = 1618; p = .105). Hence, the boys and the girls had almost the same grades in mathematics at the end of both semesters. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 The students’ maths grades at the end of the first semester and those at theend of the school year were positively and statistically significantly correlated (. = .772; p < .001). That is, higher school grades at the end of the first semester alsoindicated higher grades at the end of the second semester. 6. Discussion The Covid-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on education (Sahu 2020; Di­etrich et al. 2020; Aristovnik et al. 2020; Chakraborty et al. 2020), especiallyamong minority students (Eurac Research 2020; Riman 2020; Zorcic 2020;Sorgo & Lukanovic 2020). Studies concerning the Slovene minority in Italy (Brezigar 2020; Bogatec et al. 2021) have highlighted fundamental issues, suchas communication problems related to the delivery of the class materials in theSlovene language (cf. Bogatec 2015; Grgic 2017; 2019). Concerning mathemat­ics specifically, this subject represents an additional issue for Slovene students inItaly. In particular, since the Italian mathematics program differs from the Slo­vene one, the availability of materials in the Slovene language that cover topics included in the Italian program are scarce or non-existent, so teachers need toprepare their own materials or translate materials that are available in the Italianlanguage. The unavailability of digital materials (cf. Grgic 2019), which also af­fects mathematics, could be an additional issue for minority students. Therefore,exploring students’ perceived differences between in-class and remote learningis important to gain a clearer picture of the quality of students’ learning in this subject. Considering these issues, the first aim of our research was to investigate stu­dents’ satisfaction with the maths teachers’ teaching methods both before and during the pandemic. Our study confirmed the findings of previous research(Gonçalves et al. 2020; Lassoued et al. 2020; Coman et al. 2020), showing thatstudents were more satisfied with their teachers’ teaching methods in class than online, since during the remote learning period, the students’ satisfaction de­creased. In terms of the teaching and learning of mathematics specifically, previous studies have shown that students learn mathematics more effectively in classthan during remote learning (cf. Chen et al. 2020; Yohannes et al. 2021). Thestudents felt that their teachers’ explanations in class were better than those given during the remote learning period, and it was easier to follow traditionallessons than online lessons, which might be related to the students’ attentionspan during in-class and remote-learning teaching formats, as well as the teach­ers’ readiness to switch from one teaching format to the other. In addition, the present study, which focused on a specific group of Slovene minority students in Italy, showed that the students expressed lower levels of satisfaction with their teachers’ methods during remote learning in comparison RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 to in-class learning. This might be connected to the fact that these teachers andstudents found themselves in the situation of not having the appropriate digital learning materials in the Slovene language for the topics studied (Grgic 2019;Bogatec et al. 2021). Also, some students could not rely on their parents’ help, asmany of them did not speak Slovene or understand specific Slovene mathemati­cal expressions. Moreover, they could not take advantage of interaction with theirpeers from the Slovene community. As Bogatec et al. (2021) stressed, students’linguistic skills worsened during the pandemic. It is also necessary to emphasise that the results also showed that students with higher grades expressed a higherlevel of satisfaction with the teaching methods, compared to students with lowergrades. In summary, the results supported the need to create the necessary paper and online resources for mathematics lessons, which would serve as a bridge be­tween the Italian syllabus and Slovene learning materials, thus providing teach­ers and students with the possibility of gaining better learning outcomes. Special attention needs to be paid to the design of the necessary resources for improvinglearning outcomes, including those of lower achievers. The second aim of the research was to establish students’ perceived differ­ences between remote and in-class mathematics learning. Previous research (cf.Gonçalves et al. 2020; Lassoued et al. 2020; Surani & Hamidah 2020; Gonzalez et al. 2020; Giatman et al. 2020) illustrated that students were more motivated for learning and more involved in class activities in class than online, but they feltmore relaxed at home. The drop in students’ motivation during remote learningmight be the result of less interaction with peers and schoolmates, including the lack of certain lesson activities (e.g., pair work, group work and project work; cf.Cerbara et al. 2020). Considering the specific case of the Slovene minority inItaly, as emphasised by Brezigar (2020), students normally participate both in sports and cultural clubs, where they meet their schoolmates and friends, andactively use the Slovene language. However, Covid-19-related remote learning impeded the students from having quality face-to face interactions in Slovene(Brezigar 2020). During remote lessons, the students mostly had their micro­phones and cameras off, which made interaction even more difficult (Giatmanet al. 2020; Lassoued et al. 2020). Considering the specific situation of the par­ticipants in this study, we believe the teachers should put more effort into plan­ning and delivering online mathematics lessons that increase interactive activi­ties (e.g., in pairs and in groups), thus providing students with the opportunity to interact in Slovene on mathematical issues in a physical or virtual environment,supported by constant teacher scaffolding. Thirdly, we wanted to find out whether students’ mathematics grades before and after the second remote learning period changed. We found statistically sig­nificant differences, demonstrating that grades in June 2021 were higher thanthose in January 2021. Students thus achieved higher grades at the end of the school year. However, we did not detect any gender differences in grades. More­ 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 over, the students’ grades were positively correlated, meaning that students withhigher grades at the end of the first semester also achieved higher grades at the end of the school year. The results are not surprising, since earlier studies (Gon­çalves et al. 2020; Gonzalez et al. 2020) also reported that students achievedhigher grades after the first pandemic period in comparison to their achieve­ments before the remote learning period. At this point, we must highlight thatall these results do not correspond to students’ achievements at the Italian na­tional assessment of mathematics knowledge (INVALSI), which revealed that students’ attainments in 2021 were lower than in 2019 (INVALSI 2021). Thisdiscrepancy might reflect the possibility that students may have cheated duringonline exams and tests (Bilen & Matros 2020; Nguyen et al. 2020), which could have contributed to their higher grades. However, it is also possible that teachers,as a result of their understanding and sensibility towards students who were notgiven the opportunity to learn mathematics in class, lowered their expectations, resulting in higher grades. The question is whether this evident lack of knowl­edge will impact students’ further mathematical learning. 7. Limitations and Recommendations The present study is not without limitations. Firstly, the present research is based on an online survey, with certain limitations associated with this context. Sec­ondly, the sample might not be large enough, as the Covid-19 pandemic requiredresearchers to contact students via e-mail, thus decreasing the possibility of gen­erating a larger sample. Lastly, the since students were contacted via e-mail, therewas no way of knowing who was answering the questionnaire. Despite obvious limitations, our work provides some insights from the very specific context of Slovene minority students in Italy. It also considers the sec­ond pandemic period, which needs to be studied in further detail by the interna­tional scientific community. Based on our findings, we recommend that legislators and school authoritiescontinue researching the problem of students’ perceptions of remote learning,especially among minority students, and in terms of its connection to mathe­matics teaching and learning. Such research has the potential for increasing thequality of remote learning. We suggest enriching our results from quantitativeresearch with qualitative research to gain a deeper understanding of the second quarantine period. Finding more efficient teaching methods for remote classeswould permit students to be both more active and more concentrated duringonline lessons, which would lead to greater achievements and more knowledge. Remote learning has been an emergency attempt to continue educationalactivity during the pandemic period. However, based on students’ perceptions,we state that students feel that remote learning is not as effective as traditional, in-class mathematics learning. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Mnenje dijakov o poucevanju in ucenju na daljavo: ... 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 References Adnan, M. & Anwar, K., 2020. Online Learning amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: Students’Perspectives. Journal of Pedagogical Sociology and Psychology 2 (1), 45–51. Aguilera-Hermida, A. P., 2020. College Students’ Use and Acceptance of Emergency OnlineLearning Due to COVID-19. 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Frontiers in Psychology 11, 592670, DOI: 10.3389/ fpsyg.2020.592670. Zorcic, S., 2020. Dimensions of Remote Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic in MinorityLanguage Schools (The Case of Austrian Carinthia). Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 85, 223–252, DOI: 10.36144/RiG85.dec20.223-252. Appendix A 1. Gender a. Male b. Female 2. Age 3. Year a. 1st year of high school b. 2nd year of high school c. 3rd year of high school d. 4th year of high school e. 5th year of high school 4. School a. Lyceum France Prešeren (TS) b. Lyceum Anton Martin Slomšek (TS) c. Technical school Jožef Stefan (TS) d. Technical school Žiga Zois (TS) e. Lyceum Simon Gregorcic (GO) f. Lyceum Primož Trubar (GO) g. Technical school Žiga Zois (GO) h. Technical school Jurij Vega (GO) 5. Grade in mathematics at the end of the 2020/21 school year [1–10] 6. Grade in mathematics at the end of the first semester of the 2020/21 school year [1–10] 7. How satisfied were you with your mathematics teacher’s teaching method in class? [Likertscale] 8. How satisfied were you with your mathematics teacher’s teaching method during the re­mote teaching and learning? [Likert scale] 9. Please, indicate to what extend you agree with the following statements [Likert scale]: a. [Item1] Lessons in class are better than lessons online. b. [Item2] I have a better grasp of the topics that we do in class. c. [Item3] Lessons in class are easier than those online. d. [Item4] I learn more in class. e. [Item5] The explanations in class are better than those given during quarantine. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. DOZ, D. FElDA, M. COTIc, T. ŠTEMbERGER Students’ Perceptions of Remote Teaching and ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.5-26 f. [Item6] It is easier to follow the lesson in class than online. g. [Item7] At school I was more motivated than online. h. [Item8] At school I was more relaxed than online. i. [Item9] In class I was more stressed than online. j. [Item10] I participate more in class than online. k. [Item11] In class I am more concentrated than at home. l. [Item12] At school the studied topics were clearer than online. m. [Item13] At school I had more energy. n. [Item14] At school we did more of the program than at home. o. [Item15] Taking tests at school is better than at home. TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022, p. 27–47 DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 This paper describes the history, presence, actions and perspective of Slovene languageteaching and learning in Italian primary mainstream schools in the province of Trieste asan extraordinary opportunity – after 30 years of Slovenia’s independence and almost 25 years of open borders – to reflect on the role of Slovene as a minority and foreign languageamong the majority population of neighbouring Italy, on the interethnic relationshipsit fosters, and on its potential to become an element of identity awareness developmentwithin the process of identity formation for both the kin state Slovenia homeland and theSlovene community in Trieste. Keywords: Slovene as FL/L2, neighbouring languages, border regions, language policy. Clanek predstavlja zgodovino, prisotnost, možnosti in prihodnost ucenja in poucevanja slo­venšcine v italijanskih osnovnih šolah v tržaški pokrajini kot izredno priložnost za premislek – po30 letih samostojnosti in skoraj 25 letih odprtih meja – o vlogi slovenšcine kot manjšinskega intujega jezika med vecinskim prebivalstvom sosednje države Italije, medetnicnih odnosih, ki se vzvezi s tem oblikujejo, in pomenu jezika za razvoj identitetne zavesti v okviru identitetne rastitako za maticno državo Slovenijo kot za slovensko skupnost v Trstu. Kljucne besede: slovenšcina kot tuj jezik/drugi jezik, sosedski jeziki, obmejna obmocja, jezi­kovna politika. Correspondence address: Irina Moira Cavaion, Znanstveno raziskovalno središce Koper, Inštitut za jezikoslovne študije, Garibaldijeva 1, SI-6000 Koper/Capodistria, e-mail: irina.cavaion@zrs-kp.si. ISSN 0354-0286 Print/ISSN 1854-5181 Online © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja (Ljubljana), http://www.inv.si 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 Strengthened by a decentralised view resulting from many years of border studies,we hereby propose an investigation inspired by a fluid conceptualisation of bor­ders and the minority status of languages in these territories (Cavaion 2016;Klatt 2013), which aims to analyse the dynamics arising from the relationshipsthat develop between coexisting ethnic communities. We are indeed problematising the teaching of Slovene in mainstream com­pulsory education in neighbouring Italy where it is currently taught either asthe language of a national minority – the Slovene community of the province ofTrieste – or as a foreign language without locally coherent and shared languageeducation planning. The Slovene national minority – a rather strong and durable community inFriuli Venezia Giulia featuring important institutions such as minority schools,theatres, newspapers, economic and cultural associations, scientific researchcentres, etc. – has recently been widely and profoundly challenged by studiesraising new questions about the real possibility of the Slovene community tosuccessfully meet the challenges of a society that invites and induces peopleand institutions to meet, mix, intermix with each other and, as a consequence,blur linguistic, cultural and psychological boundaries (Bogatec & Lokar 2016;Bogatec & Vidau 2016; Brezigar 2007; Grgic et al. 2020; Jagodic & Cok 2013;Toroš 2019; Vidau 2015). Indeed, these scientific publications also address theperspective of the diffusion of the minority Slovene language among the major­ity population, an aspect that is quite controversial in both majority and minor­ity communities residing in the province of Trieste, yet that we believe is a crucialelement for human and cultural growth and citizenship. The study we propose aims at contributing to and deepening the reflectionon the possible key role of the teaching of Slovene in Italian majority schools as a language of a transnational territory that could act both as an instrument of so­cial integration – or “human coexistence” as Cok (2008) has written elsewhere(cf. Cok 2003; 2006; 2009; Cok & Pertot 2010) – and as an element of identityawareness development in the process of identity formation for the kin state Slo­venia and the Slovene community in Trieste. Starting from our point of view (Cavaion 2016; 2020a; 2020b) regardingthe possible role of Slovene both as a minority and neighbouring language inthe border regions, we will describe the survey and the results obtained from theanalyses of the current national and regional language policies that regulates thepresence of Slovene in mainstream compulsory education in the province of Tri­este, as well as the ongoing teaching in mainstream primary and lower secondaryeducation1 through the testimonies of project coordinators. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 As we will see in the discussion and conclusions, this study could representthe baseline for broader research that could examine in more detail the impact of the teaching of Slovene within the mainstream school population – and mi­nority community – in terms of the development of social integration, languageawareness, and linguistic competence. In Italy, and specifically in the province of Trieste, Slovene is the language of a na­tional minority with all the political, societal, and identity-related implications of such circumstances (cf. Cavaion 2016, chapter What Neighbouring Languages Are (and Could Be), 16–39). A national minority is a linguistic peninsula whichmaintains the link with the kin state from which it has been separated and wherepeople are “anxious to preserve what constitutes their common identity” (Klatt 2013, 301). However, over time, the notion of national minority changes and blurs tosome extent as the distance between minority and majority groups in this area narrows (Bufon 2016, 18–19; Bogatec & Lokar 2016) and identity undergoessome sort of transition. Members of the minority community find themselvesin a situation of multiple identity choices (Pertot 2016, 108) – as much as, we think, members of majority groups and people of recent immigrant background – and the linkage to the kin state remains under examination (cf. Brezigar 2016; Bajc 2016; Zupancic 2016). On the other hand, Slovene is not spoken by the majority group in the prov­ince of Trieste. It is the language of instruction in Slovene minority schools, i.e.,it is not systematically part of the curricula in mainstream Italian schools where there is compulsory teaching and learning of English from the first year of prima­ry school and compulsory teaching of a second European Community languagein lower secondary school. This points to the lack of the possibility of teaching Slovene as a language of the environment or of the neighbouring country due tothe absence of local, national and (cross-border) multilingual language policies,which can partly be attributed to the broader phenomenon of the absence of infrastructural and institutional cross-border links and agreements (Bufon 2016,15). De jure and de facto, the historically multilingual social fabric of the region isnot preserved, let alone promoted, by adequate language policies, i.e., inclusive language acquisition planning, which has been highlighted in Brezigar (2007): The Slovenes in Italy being a part of the nation that mostly lives across the border in Slovenia, where Slovenian is the majority language, the linguistic minority does not have either full responsibility or “full powers” to deal with language planning. In practice this means that several institutions in the Republic of Slovenia de facto take 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 care of language planning, while there’s no designed institution that takes care of the language planning that is necessary for the survival of the Slovene linguistic minority in Italy (Brezigar 2007, 211). In 2018, the Central Office for the Slovene Language was established to manageand coordinate activities related to the use of Slovene in public administration, provide a translation and interpreting service, and take care of the standardiza­tion of Slovene legal and administrative terminology and linguistic training.2 This is an important goal which guarantees Slovene-speaking citizens the right to use their language in relations with local administrative authorities. Neverthe­less, in our opinion, this is not yet a complete measure taken by official bodiesto promote the use of one or more languages in a given speech community, as language planning is usually defined. Nevertheless, Slovene, especially after the Schengen Agreement, is increas­ingly a language that the citizens of the region nowadays want to know, learn and use in everyday life when communicating with Slovenes and visiting Slovene in­stitutions, events and places in their region and neighbouring Slovenia (Brezigar2013). In Cavaion (2016), we explain the rationale and possibilities of teaching andlearning neighbouring languages, proposing to consider neighbouring languages as: languages of modern open borders, ‘multiple identity’ languages which by the passing of time and of historical, geopolitical events, have developed complex interconnections in terms of linguistic contacts, cultural and identity issues among people living in those areas, who are nowadays called to answer key functions in terms of social, interethnic integration (Cavaion 2016, 22–23). Relations between the Italian and Slovene communities in the province of Tri­este are not yet as constructive and dynamic as elsewhere (see the research onthe Italian-Slovene border in the province of Gorizia-Gorica, Novak-Lukanovic 2011; 2015), although there has been improvement in recent years (cf. Brezigar2016; Bajc 2016), as evidenced by a large number of Slovene language coursesfor adults and children organised in the last decade (Brezigar 2013) that seemed to have been stimulated more by the desire to have contacts with neighbouringSlovenia than with the local Slovene community (Brezigar 2013). We wonderwhether anything has changed in recent years and whether learning Slovene has had a positive influence on the desire to get to know the locals and their cul­ture. That is, we wonder whether the awareness among representatives of theSlovene community in Trieste and among Slovene citizens in the Republic of Slovenia about the increased attention and interest shown by the Italian major­ity population towards their language could help their sense of belonging and RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 identity formation, which is still quite hesitant among youngers on this front(see the research by Munda Hirnök & Lukanovic and Obid on the process of identity definition among young representatives of minority communities onthe Slovene borders in Obid 2018), or, at least in some changing form, with adetachment from discourses about national and ethnic identity as felt by previ­ous generations and a greater interest in the values of plurilingualism (Brezigar& Vidau 2021, 100). On the other hand, the teaching and learning of neighbouring languages is quite well supported at the European level with documents that are particularlyrich and meaningful, whose only downside is their non-binding nature.3 We conducted qualitative research, mainly through document analysis, and spe­cifically: a) the selection and analysis of national and local language policies supportingthe teaching of a minority language in Italian mainstream schools; b) the analysis of documents available on the websites of mainstream school institutions situated in the province of Trieste concerning the teaching andlearning of Slovene in the last six years. The documents are now all included in a framework document titled PTOF Piano Triennale dell’Offerta Forma­tiva (Three-Year Educational Offer Plan) that can be found on each institu­tion’s website. We identified six out of 16 comprehensive mainstream institutions as Sloveneproject holders (see further paragraph 2.2). We corroborated the document analysis of the identified schools through di­rect verification (telephone interviews) with the coordinators regarding the exis­tence, functions and organisation of any kind of project for the teaching of Slovenein their institutions. Four out of the six schools took part in our interviews. The study ran at the beginning of the school year 2020/21 (October 2020–January 2021). Many difficulties related to the Covid-19 pandemic were encoun­tered in data collection as schools practically barricaded and isolated themselves. The teachers covering the instrumental functions of coordination of the projectschanged and the school offices proved difficult to reach for research purposes asthey were committed to solving problems of daily urgency. The research questions we tried to answer were: – to what extent – from a viewpoint of curricula, didactics, and language po­licy – is Slovene taught and learned in Italian mainstream schools of the prov­ince of Trieste? 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 – how much do the projects included in Italian mainstream schools imply adirect relation with the Slovene community or the schools of the Slovene community? a) Selection and analysis of national and local language policies supportingthe teaching of a minority language in Italian mainstream schools In Italy, i.e., in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Slovene language is pro­tected by international treaties and conventions as well as national and regional laws, all of which have enabled the preservation of the language and culture ofthe Slovene communities in the province of Trieste and, although less effectivelydue to later legislative intervention, in the provinces of Udine and Gorizia4 (cf. Bonamore 2004; Cavaion 2016, 23–28). The current law regarding the teaching and learning of minority languages in mainstream schools is the national Law No. 482/1999 – Regulation for the Pro­tection of Historical Linguistic Minorities (Legge 15 dicembre 1999, n. 482).Law No. 482 of 15 December 1999 describes under Art. 4 the possible measuresand the type of organisation that school institutions can take to provide linguis­tic education that includes the teaching and learning of minority languages orthe vehicular use of the minority language. Despite Law No. 482 and its implementing decrees (DPR 345 2001) that allow for intervention in schools, as far as minority language teaching in Italy isconcerned, there is nothing compulsory, only advisable actions left to the dis­cretion of each school. It is a complicated “knotty whole” of norms that “allow” schools to set up projects involving minority languages, which still depend verymuch on parents’ wishes and attitudes toward the minority language, as Serenaclaimed almost twenty years ago (Serena 2003, 33). In fact, Italy has not yet ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minor­ity Languages (CoE 1992) which it signed in 2000. The ratification of this docu­ment would demonstrate a concrete commitment and improvement in terms of the promotion of minority languages even among individuals who do not speakthese languages but wish to learn them (see Art. 7g in Objectives and Principlesof the Charter). Consequently, there is neither a national plan for the teaching and learn­ing of minority languages in Italian compulsory schools nor a regional inclusivemultilingual language policy for the multilingualism of a region (e.g., Friuli Vene­zia Giulia, characterised by the presence of different languages such as German,Slovene and Friulian). These languages are currently preserved and protectedunder local regulations, but not promoted through a substantial and coherent re­gional multilingual policy, except for the Friulian community that can rely on the RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 General Plan of Linguistic Policy (the last one applying to 2021–2025) (ARLEF2021), an instrument through which the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Re­gion – in the sense of Article 25 of the LR 29/2007 – sets the future strategies forthe development of the Friulian language, with particular reference to the areasof corpus, public administration, school, new technologies, mass media and so­cial promotion. The local education office of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Ufficio scolastico regio­nale FVG) does have an official responsible for the promotion of regional mi­nority languages, but the Slovene language, unlike Friulian and German, is notpromoted at all, as can be seen from the office’s website (USR-FVG 2020). There are also no references to the teaching of minority and regional lan­guages in the Ministry of Education’s national guidelines for school curricula(MIUR 2012) and its extension (MIUR 2018). There is a whole paragraph onthe importance of promoting multilingual education, but only guidelines for teaching English or the second community language are provided. The only measures to promote the teaching and learning of minority lan­guages in mainstream Italian schools are two calls for the voluntary presenta­tion of projects in the field of minority languages which implement Law No.482/1999 and Law No. 38/2001(Legge 23 febbraio 2001, n. 38). The first is a national call – Financing plan for minority languages. Presenta­tion of projects in the field of minority languages (Art. 5 L. 482/1999)/Piano di fi­nanziamento Lingue di minoranza. Presentazione dei progetti nel campo delle lin­gue di minoranza (art. 5 L. 482/1999) – derived from Law No. 482/1999 (see the website of MIUR – Lingue di minoranza – Piani di intervento e finanziamento). The second is a regional call – Call for funding teaching activities related tothe teaching of languages and cultures of historical linguistic minorities/ Bando per il finanziamento delle attivitŕ didattiche relative all’insegnamento delle Linguee Culture delle Minoranze Linguistiche Storiche – supported by both Law No.482/1999 and Law No. 38, 23 February 2001 (see the website of Regione FVG – Piano regionale triennale per il potenziamento dell’offerta formativa (POF): in-segnamento delle lingue e culture delle minoranze linguistiche storiche). These two measures were first implemented after 2001 when the laws came into force, but both have been significantly cut back financially over the ensuingyears. Nevertheless, many projects were already running in earlier years, as testi­fied by the Ministry of Education’s publication on the implementation of Law No. 482 in mainstream schools (MIUR 2010). The main objective of both actions is to promote interventions related to theteaching of the languages and cultures of historical linguistic minorities and to strengthen the multilingual and multicultural identity of the community repre­sented in the territory, in this case, Friuli Venezia Giulia. The national call specifies that projects will be evaluated according to very precise – and in our opinion, ambitious – criteria, which follow Article 4 of Law 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 No. 482/1999, namely: – teaching in the minority language as part of the curriculum, carried out by teachers from the school who have appropriate language skills; – application of the integrated method of vehicular teaching, ensuring theachievement of the objectives of competence development for all pupils, using the CLIL methodology; – production of transferable pedagogical and didactic multimedia materials,also with a playful approach to transferability, must be understood not only as diffusion of the product but above all as methodological innovation andprocess innovation; – multilingual cooperation, to stimulate exchange between different linguistic and cultural realities present in the same territory or different territories; – skills review and assessment of acquired skills, abilities and knowledgethrough the use of models such as grids, maps, class or board diaries that are easily applicable and transferable to other minority contexts; – network collaboration and representation in the territory through a broadand conscious synergy with local authorities, confirmed by memoranda of understanding or agreements with institutions, associations, research cen­tres, and universities; – production of music, sounds and songs that characterise our minority lan­guages.(Home page of the web site MIUR – Lingue di minoranza – Piani di intervento e finanziamenti). As a final reflection on the policy analysis, we propose a consideration in the con­text of Slovene language policy, which is well outlined in the last Resolution on the National Programme for Language Policy 2020–2024 (Resolucija o nacio­nalnem programu za jezikovno politiko 2020–2024 RS 2021)5 and the underly­ing document titled Legal Regulation and Programme Documents on Language Use and Practices of Language Users in the Republic of Slovenia and Users of Slo­vene Language in Neighbouring Countries and in the World/Pravna ureditev inprogramski dokumenti o jezikovni rabi in praksah jezikovnih uporabnikov v RS in uporabnikov slovenskega jezika v sosednjih državah in po svetu (Komac &Kovac 2018). In the Resolution 2020–2024, the only paragraph concerning Slovene out­side Slovenia deals with Slovene communities in neighbouring countries (para­graph 2.1.3.2.1 Slovenske skupnosti v sosednjih državah). Here the focus is onthe knowledge and use of Slovene as a second language or heritage language. In the document Legal Regulation and Programme Documents on Lan­guage Use and Practices of Language Users in the Republic of Slovenia and Usersof Slovene Language in Neighbouring Countries and in the World (Komac & Kovac 2018), Slovene outside Slovenia is constantly mentioned as the language RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 of the autochthonous Slovene population living beyond Slovenia’s borders (Ital­ian, Austrian, Hungarian, and Croatian), but we also noted the emphasis on the current challenges for those minority Slovene communities, as “there is a growing interest in learning Slovene in schools with Italian as the language of instruction” (Komac & Kovac 2018, 99), and the link with school autonomy as a way to adapt the curricula to local needs and contexts, such as knowledge and understanding of the territory (also described in Bogatec & Lokar’s (2016) study of Slovene teaching in a lower secondary school in Trieste). Could this document convince pedagogical actors in Slovenia of the importance of disseminating the Slovene language in compulsory education in neighbouring countries? This would imply what Grgic (2019) calls cross-border education. b) Analysis of documents available on the websites of mainstream schoolinstitutions situated in the province of Trieste concerning the teaching andlearning of Slovene in the last six years From our analysis of the documents available on the websites of all mainstream comprehensive schools in the province of Trieste concerning the teaching and learning of Slovene, we have deduced that the teaching of Slovene within the Italian compulsory school system in the province of Trieste is offered in six out of 16 institutions. Nevertheless, this teaching is offered incoherently since Slovene is taught as a minority language (as will be described later on) in only a few mainstream primary schools (pupils between 6 and 10 years of age) – in most cases as an extracurricular activity, i.e., not in accordance with the requirements of Law No. 482, which speaks of curricular activities – and as a European Community lan­guage (namely as a foreign language, officially since 2007) in two lower second­ary schools (pupils aged 11–14), which means that it is not taught as a regional, minority language or as the language of the environment. The geographical context of the schools The study was conducted in the school year 2020/21 in mainstream Italianschools in the province of Trieste, which includes six municipalities (see Figure 1 below): – Duino Aurisina/Devin Nabrežina – Monrupino/Repentabor – Muggia/Milje – San Dorligo della Valle/Dolina – Sgonico/Zgonik – Trieste 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 Figure 1: Map of the Province of Trieste and its municipalities RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 – “Altipiano” in Opicina/Opcine, including the villages of Banne/Bane andProsecco/Prosek; – “San Giovanni” in Trieste; – “Iqbal Masih” in Trieste; – “G. Lucio” in Muggia/Milje; – “G. Roli” in Trieste and San Dorligo della Valle/Dolina, including the vil­lages of Bagnoli/Boljunec and Domio/Domjo. The schools cover almost all the municipalities of the province. Analysing the documents (PTOF) reporting on projects of teaching and learn­ing Slovene, we tried to find information on: a) when the project of teaching and learning Slovene was started; b) why it was started, i.e., who or what stimulated the introduction of Slovenein the institution; c) what kind of actions were organised, to whom they were addressed; d) Slovene partner institutions involved; e) curricula, documentation and references to national or regional legislation; f) type of financial support used. Below, we report the results of the PTOF analysis and the answers we received inthe interviews with the project coordinators of four of the six institutions whereSlovene is taught and learned. We must say that the extraordinarily creative nature of these projects andthe enthusiastic response of the coordinators have convinced us of the impor­tance of carrying out a more in-depth study in the near future, aimed at analys­ing the methodology and impact of these projects on some aspects of linguisticand intercultural education, and making the methodology used more visible andavailable for scientific studies of minority language teaching and for other Italianschool institutions that would take up the teaching of the Slovene language. These results were highlighted in the paragraph of PTOF about the schoolenvironment and by the teachers and coordinators we interviewed: a) The projects started around 2000 thanks to the financial support guaranteedby the enacted laws. The last one started in 2012 (Muggia/Milje). The actualbeginning of the projects – which in some cases is difficult to determine andtook place before 2000 – refers to experimental actions proposed by teach­ers, which slowly developed into school projects that implied the collabora­tion of their associates and the support of the principals. b) The context and the main reasons for starting the projects were: – the desire and request of families to ensure a multilingual education fortheir children and in some cases to regain contact with their Slovene ori­gins (mentioned in all six institutions and confirmed by the coordinatorsof the projects); 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 – the bilingual environment in which the schools are located, which creates the possibility of extracurricular encounters (four out of six institutions); – Italian pupils attending Slovene sports clubs, i.e., extracurricular intereth­nic contact (three institutions); – pupils attending Slovene schools and then transferring to Italian institu­tions (mostly Italian pupils) with some knowledge of the Slovene lan­guage which they did not want to lose (one institution); – the proximity to the border, which represented an opportunity for Ital­ian pupils to attend Italian institutions on the other side of the border, in Slovenia. Learning Slovene in Italian schools helped in the return of this outgoing group of pupils (one institution). c) The actions organised concerned both the teaching of Slovene in school time and in extracurricular time and interdisciplinary paths to learn the language of the environment and the historical context and meeting Slovene speak­ers and representatives of the Slovene community. Slovene is the mother tongue of all teachers but one, who master a B2 CEFR level in the Slovene language. The above actions can be summarised as follows: – teaching Slovene in curricular time throughout the school year in all pri­mary school classes (Duino Aurisina/Devin Nabrežina); – raising awareness of the Slovene language and culture in primary schools through a five-step path module in curricular time (last two years of pri­mary school, 10–11 years old pupils) ( “Iqbal Masih”, Trieste); – virtual and face-to-face encounters during school time between Italian and Slovene schools also coming from Slovenia (Sežana), and drama-based activities (“San Giovanni”, Trieste); – extracurricular courses (in the afternoon) organised at two levels – be­ginner and advanced, 20 hours each – for students in the last three years of primary school (9–11 years) and grades 1 and 2 of lower secondary school (11–13 years) (“Altipiano” of Opicina-Opcine and “G. Roli” of Trieste and San Dorligo-Dolina). It is noteworthy that this type flour­ished about ten years ago before cuts in funding drastically reduced its availability. One interesting experiment was made by the institute “Alti-piano”, which offered an online course at the time of the Covid-19 pan­demic that attracted many students this year (as reported by the coordi­nator of the project). – workshops on the history, traditions, and arts of Slovene culture, includ­ing, before the pandemic, visits to Slovene institutions in Trieste and Slo­venia (“G. Lucio” of Muggia-Milje). – two out of six schools (“Iqbal Masih” of Trieste and “G. Lucio” of Mug-gia-Milje) included Slovene as a second foreign language in their lower secondary programmes following the rule of foreign language teaching RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 and learning, with a final ministerial examination. Here it is important tonote that although the schools are geographically embedded in a socio-linguistic context characterised by the presence of the Slovene communi­ty, the teaching of this language is promoted as a European Communitylanguage and not as a language of the environment and of the autoch­thonous linguistic community. The consequences are, for example, a lackof possibility of financial support for the development of materials andproblems related to the recruitment of teachers. The same schools are in­volved in actions based on contacts with schools in Slovenia where pupilslearn the Italian language (Progetto Contatti!). d) Five of the six institutions that promote the Slovene language base their proj­ects on cooperation with schools with Slovene as the language of instruc­tion. The cooperation consists of teacher exchange, encounters of classes,joint development of interdisciplinary pathways or participation in local orcross-border literary, historical, geographical or mathematical competitions(all these activities are attributed greater importance by the Muggia/Miljeschool). One school is very active in exploiting local networks such as Slovene as­sociations, scientific research centres, universities and cross-border contacts with naturalistic associations in neighbouring Slovenia (the Muggia/Miljeschool). e) In the PTOFs of schools offering the teaching and learning of Slovene, thereare no references to national, regional or European regulations, laws or otherdocuments on the teaching of minority languages. Only one of the six insti­tutions cited Law No. 482 as a reference for its projects, but only in relationto financial issues. Curricula and other planning documents are not available for consulta­tion or evident from the PTOF, except for the teaching of Slovene in lowersecondary schools, where the curricula follow the national guidelines for theteaching of a second foreign language. In Italy, the curriculum is preparedby the teachers based on national guidelines. These two curricula are inter­esting because they attach more importance to the language of the environ­ment than to the teaching and learning of a foreign language. They seem tous good examples of schools which are aware of their work in the classroombeing positively influenced by the environment and able to overcome an in­adequate language policy. As far as the teaching of Slovene at the primary level is concerned, theschools’ websites are crowded with ministerial calls and, this year, with in­formation about the Covid-19 pandemic; no links to projects promoting theSlovene language are visible. On the other hand, as testified by the teachers,there are many materials prepared and we presume there are plans for inter­vention in schools. This is one reason we should conduct a more thoroughinvestigation. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 One institute in the city centre – of the six we have presented so far –runs a project to promote a multilingual and intercultural curriculum, fol­lowing a specific project of the region Friuli Venezia Giulia and inspired bya European call for the development of plurilingual curricula. It is stated intheir PTOF that the school promotes all languages spoken by the pupils and their families. f) All projects mainly used regional financial support through regional fundingfor minority language activities. A few used national financial support. Three were involved in Interreg EU projects ( Jezik, Eduka, Eduka2). In the lasttwo years, general European funding was used to combat early school drop­out (the PON programme). Despite the lack of national, regional and cross-border language education plans,Slovene is taught with great creativity and some sort of a bottom-up approachin a few mainstream schools in the province of Trieste. Schools take advantageof the only two possible initiatives regarding the teaching of minority languagesin Italy, namely a national and a regional financial requirement (the latter is theone that is used the most). Exceptionally, Interreg programmes were used, butrather to promote culture and interethnic encounters than to teach languages.Unfortunately, the number of schools promoting Slovene has not increased overthe last ten years, which we believe is related to the financial cuts experienced bythe national and regional intervention plans in recent years. The majority of schools that include projects to promote Slovene are institu­tions located in bilingual municipalities, where the very mixed local social fabricseems to be the true underlying impetus for all initiatives. The two institutionslocated in the municipality of Trieste (“Iqbal Masih” and “San Giovanni”) havecontact with the minority community, very probably because these neighbour-hoods are also characterised by old Slovene community settlements (the neigh-bourhood of San Giovanni and the neighbourhood of Melara). In one institu­tion in the city centre, the promotion of Slovene is part of a broader context ofa regional project on plurilingual education. This might be an easier and moreinclusive means for the promotion of minority languages in mainstream schools,but in our opinion, school communities should be better informed, awareand sensitised regarding the great opportunity to develop language educationthrough minority language teaching. In short, there is a lack of visibility of theseexperiences and of the possibility to develop projects for minority languages. European guidelines and recommendations on minority and neighbouringlanguage teaching could help schools in this region make the teaching and learn­ing of Slovene a matter of European citizenship, but the official documents de­ RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 scribing the institutions (the PTOF) we analysed do not refer to such guidelinesor EU communications. Are these mainstream school institutions even aware of their existence? The documentation on the projects promoting the teaching and learning ofSlovene uploaded to the schools’ websites is not detailed and does not allow for a scientific reflection on the quality of the projects and on the extent to whichthe projects comply with the criteria required by the national call for proposals.We can assume that the reason schools opt more frequently for regional finan­cial aid, which is much lower than national, is because it is very difficult to meetall the requirements for national support. The question we pose is: how couldschools actually meet all the requirements in a region where there is no language policy support, no teacher training, and no information campaign regarding theteaching of minority languages among mainstream school institutions and civilsociety? We believe that the summarised experiences deserve a deeper analysisthrough a more participatory quality study that includes visiting schools, con­ducting interviews and analysing the materials produced, which was indeed our intention but was prevented by the Covid-19 pandemic. The type of actions proposed in the projects considered are quite varied andinterdisciplinary. They largely come from the personal experience of the project coordinators (information obtained through telephone conversations) and arestimulated by a social context in which contacts between the majority and mi­nority language communities seem to be improving. All the projects analysed offer the actual teaching of Slovene and not only the promotion of cultural oreven folkloristic aspects of Slovene culture like the previous projects, an aspectdenounced in the MIUR report about the presence of minority languages in Italian schools after 10 years of legal enforcement of their preservation (MIUR2010). Teachers, families, and representatives of the Slovene community seemto make a concerted effort to make the promotion of the Slovene language a matter of intercultural encounters and an opportunity to make up for the miss­ing regional and national integrative policies and a wounded historical past thatstill requires space for debate to improve knowledge and overcome lingering di­visive aspects of shared history. Slovene mother tongue teachers employed inItalian institutions are valuable key actors for local social integration and, we daresay, for the construction of a mature plurilingual and pluricultural society. To answer our research questions – i.e., at what point, from the point of viewof curricula, didactics and language policy, stand the teaching and learning ofSlovene in Italian mainstream schools of the province of Trieste and to what ex­tent the projects in Italian mainstream schools imply a direct relationship withthe Slovene community or with the schools of the Slovene community – wecan assert that the teaching of Slovene in mainstream schools is still far from having a well-structured and well-organised curriculum. We were unable to in­ 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 vestigate didactic aspects despite the great diversity of funded measures and theinterdisciplinary nature of the projects. Language policies, national and regional, are non-existent. Language education policies are non-binding. The result is thefragmented nature of Slovene language teaching, which depends on internalhuman resources and the schools’ own ideas. Nevertheless, the projects carried out in Italian mainstream schools imply a direct relationship with the Slovenecommunity and, in most cases, with the schools of the Slovene community andthe local Slovene associations and institutions (library, theatre, newspapers, etc.), as well as with neighbouring Slovenia. These relationships could not beanalysed qualitatively but the fact that the projects continue may be interpretedas a result of successful contacts and exchanges. The results lead us to an important reflection on the potential of the schoolenvironment and the projects involving several schools and other types of insti­tutions for the dissemination of the Slovene language and culture in the main­stream society, as well as for the contextualization of this language learning. Infact, this context seems to offer a pedagogical starting point that is not linkedto an instrumental motivation, like the one that can stimulate adults who enrol in the numerous language courses promoted by local cultural associations, butto the schools’ desire to offer their users a real experience of interpersonal andcultural contact that might one day become a more mature and autonomous desire to learn more about the Slovene culture and language as the language ofthe environment. In this paper we provided an overview of the presence, function and actions related to the teaching and learning of Slovene in Italian mainstream primaryschools in the province of Trieste as an exceptional opportunity, after 30 yearsof Slovenia’s independence and almost 25 years of open borders, to reflect on Slovene as a minority and foreign language – a definition we have problematisedand better identified in the concept of the language of the environment – in themajority population of Italy, to better identify the interethnic relations it fosters, and to ask whether it can be considered an element of awareness developmentin the process of identity development of the kin state Slovenia and the Sloveneminority community. The thesis hereby expressed, within the scientific framework of regional andcross-border studies, minority language teaching studies and intercultural lan­guage studies, is that the teaching of Slovene within the compulsory education of the neighbouring Italian majority population can importantly contribute tothe development of a more authentic and mature reciprocal contact area wherethe image of Slovenia, its language and culture, can be valued and reinforced in and through the eyes of neighbouring otherness. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 From a sociolinguistic viewpoint, it is quite astonishing that a divisive lin­guistic policy has so far characterised and persists in this area where, as this re­search demonstrates, there are Italian school institutions very much engaged inthe teaching and disseminating of Slovene language and culture, yet not at allsupported by national and local policies. The projects analysed and their school communities – i.e., the type of ac­tions proposed that focus on the teaching and learning of the Slovene languageand on important aspects of its culture, envisaging a spontaneous intermingling of the Italian and Slovene communities and embracing the Slovene language inall its aspects of identity – are meaningful indicators of a civil society that doesnot want to miss the opportunity to grow through the gift of its multilingual and multicultural background. 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Language Diversity in Border Regions: Some Research Data on thePerception among the Pupils of Two Secondary Schools. Annales. Series historia et sociolo­gia 21 (1), 79–92. Novak Lukanovic, S., 2015. Young People’s Attitudes to the Use and Meaning of Language inBorder Areas of Slovenia. Linguapax Review 3, 43–55. Obid, M., 2018. Identitetne opredelitve mladih v slovenskem zamejstvu. In M. Obid (ed.)Identitetne opredelitve mladih v slovenskem zamejstvu. Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja, 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES I. M. CAVAION Slovene as a Minority and Foreign Language in Italian Mainstream Schools in the Province ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 Ljubljana; Slovenski znanstveni inštitut, Slovenski narodopisni inštitut Urban Jarnik,Celovec; Slovenski raziskovalni inštitut, Trst, 27–50. Pertot, S., 2016. Vicende identitarie degli sloveni in Italia. In N. Bogatec & Z. Vidau (eds.) Una comunitŕ nel cuore dell’Europa: gli sloveni in Italia dal crollo del Muro di Berlino alle sfide delterzo millennio. Carocci editore, Roma, 96–110. Raasch, A., 2002. Europe, Frontiers and Languages: Guide for the Development of Language Educa­tion Policies in Europe from Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education. Council of Europe, Strasburg. Regione FVG, 2022. Piano regionale triennale per il potenziamento dell’offerta formati­va (POF): insegnamento delle lingue e culture delle minoranze linguistiche storiche,https://www.regione.fvg.it/rafvg/cms/RAFVG/istruzione-ricerca/regione-per-scuole/FOGLIA28/ (accessed 24 February 2022). Resolucija o nacionalnem programu za jezikovno politiko 2020–2024 RS. [Resolution on theNational Programme for Language Policy, Republic of Slovenia 2020–2024]. Uradni list RS 94 (2021), 11. 6. 2021, http://www.pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=RESO123#(accessed 24 February 2022). Serena, O., 2003. La tutela e la valorizzazione della lingua ladino-friulana: i riferimenti nor-mativi. In S. Schiavi Fachin (ed.) L’educazione plurilingue: dalla ricerca di base alla pratica didattica. Editrice Universitaria Udinese, Udine, 83–96. Toroš, A., 2019. Teaching Minority Literature: The Case of Trieste. Treatises and documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies, 83, 83–93. DOI: 10.36144/RiG83.dec19.83-93. USR-FVG – Ufficio Scolastico Regionale per il Friuli Venezia Giulia, 2020. Lingue minorita­rie, 15. 10. 2020, http://www.usrfvg.gov.it/archivio/export/sites/default/USRFVG/lingue_minoritarie/ (accessed 18 May 2022). Vidau, Z., 2015. Medkulturni položaj mladih, ki se šolajo v slovenskem jeziku v Italiji. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 74, 23–39. Zupancic, J., 2016. Vista da fuori. Uno sguardo alla realtŕ della minoranza slovena in Italia. In N.Bogatec & Z. Vidau (eds.) Una comunitŕ nel cuore dell’Europa: gli sloveni in Italia dal crollodel Muro di Berlino alle sfide del terzo millennio. Carocci editore, Roma, 231–232. Notes 1 Primary education is organised differently among European countries. Italy follows a commoncore curriculum system with primary schools for pupils aged between six and eleven years –ISCED level 1 (International Standard Classification of Education – ISCED, developed bythe UNESCO, see https://ec.europa.eu/education/international-standard-classification-of­education-isced_it) – lower secondary schools for pupils aged 11–15 – ISCED 2 – and uppersecondary schools for pupils aged 15–19. Slovenia has a single structure school system includingISCED levels 1 and 2, recognised as ‘primary education’ for pupils aged from 6–16. 2 Centralni urad za slovenski jezik, https://www.regione.fvg.it/rafvg/cms/RAFVG/cultura­sport/patrimonio-culturale/comunita-linguistiche/FOGLIA25/. 3 In fact, the European Union includes the teaching of neighbouring languages in its Recom­mendations and Communications, all documents which have the function of guiding memberstates whilst not obliging them to accept the proposed actions. We list them here, but for a moredetailed reading we refer the reader to Cavaion 2020a: • Recommendation Rec (2005)3 of the Committee of Ministers at Teaching Neighbouring Languages in Border Regions (CoE 2005); • Europe,FrontiersandLanguagesbyAlbertRaasch(2002); • RewardingChallenge:HowtheDiversityofLanguagesCouldStrengthenEurope(Maaloufet RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 I. M. CAVAION Slovenšcina kot manjšinski in tuj jezik na italijanskih šolah v tržaški pokrajini DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.27-47 al. 2008). It reports on the European Commission’s proposal on the need to “develop bilateralrelations between the peoples of the European Union”, especially where conflicts have divided neighbouring countries. • the most recent European document entirely dedicated to border areas – Boosting Growth47 and Cohesion in the EU Border Regions (EC – European Commission 2017); • finally,thereisamorespecificEuropeandocumentrelatedtolanguageteaching,alsofromthe European Council – Proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Comprehensive Approachto the Teaching and Learning of Language (EC – European Commission 2018) –, whichfocuses on the need for innovation in language teaching, promotes its potential by proposingimportant measures to integrate and connect between the specificities of the border contextand the broader context of the social and cultural growth of Europe itself and its citizens. 4 As Brezigar (2004, 75) reports, three different models have been created for the protection of theSlovene-speaking minority in Italy: the model of Trieste (since 1954 as a result of the LondonMemorandum and since 1975 of the Treaty of Osimo), the model (of the province) of Udine,where the existence of the Slovene language minority was not recognised until the adoption ofthe national protection law L482/2001, and the model of the Goriška region, based on the partialfulfilment of Article 6 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic, especially in the field of minorityeducation, where the situation was similar to that in the province of Trieste. 5 At the time when the research was conducted, the last resolution on the Slovene language 2020–2025 (Resolucija o nacionalnem programu za jezikovno politiko 2020–2025) was not published yet. 6 See endnote 1. This work was supported by the Slovene Research Agency [grant numbers J6-3132, P5-0409]. TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022, p. 49–66 DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 The following article discusses the poetic output in Beneška Slovenia (Benecija) written forthe Senjam Song Festival of Benecija. While considering the context of the region’s historyand migrations, it focuses on the literary aspects of the festival, particularly on the analysis ofthe themes and the poetry writing technique. It builds on certain theoretical premises fromliterary imagology and psychoanalysis. The subject of the analysis are the lyrics from the periodbetween 1971 and 2012, published in a three-volume collection featuring over 150 authors.The article notes the following most prevalent themes: issues of assimilation, migration,and the dying of villages in Benecija. Categorised by basic mood, they fall under one of twoextremes: they are either cheerful and humorous in order to encourage and bring joy and hopeto the Slovenes of Benecija; or they are pervaded with deep pain and concern over the situationin their region. The lyrics of the latter use a particular writing technique, which merely hints atthe pressures of assimilation, conveying them through images and metaphors. Keywords: Benecija, migration, poetry, minority, trauma. V pricujocem prispevku smo obravnavali pesniško ustvarjanje v Beneški Sloveniji, ki je nastajalov okviru Senjama Beneške pesmi. V prispevku smo se, upoštevajoc zgodovinski in migracijskikontekst, osredotocili na literarne vidike festivala, predvsem na tematsko analizo in tehniko pisanjapesmi, pri cemer smo se naslonili na nekatera teoretska izhodišca s podrocja literarne imagologijeter psihoanalize. Analizirane pesmi, nastale v obdobju 1971–2012, so bile objavljene v trehzbornikih, pri katerih je sodelovalo vec kot 150 avtorjev. Prevladujoce teme pesmi so asimilacijskaproblematika, izseljevanje ter umiranje vasi v Beneciji. Pesmi se po temeljnem obcutenju delijona vedre, šaljive pesmi, ki želijo bodriti in vnašati vedrino in upanje med Benecane, in na pesmi,prežete z globoko bolecino in zaskrbljenostjo nad razmerami v Beneciji. Slednje uporabljajoposebno tehniko pisanja, ki zgolj nakazuje asimilacijske pritiske in jih ponazarja preko podob inmetafor. Kljucne besede: Benecija, migracije, poezija, manjšina, travma. Correspondence address: Ana Toroš, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska cesta 13, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, e-mail: ana.toros@ung.si. ISSN 0354-0286 Print/ISSN 1854-5181 Online © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja (Ljubljana), http://www.inv.si 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 The article discusses the poetic output in Beneška Slovenia written specificallyfor the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija (or Senjam Festival for short), whichmarks its 50th anniversary this year.1 It is a unique literary production, barely re­searched in the field of literary history, born out of the distinct socio-politicaland migratory circumstances in Benecija. The article, within the context of his­tory and migration, focuses on the literary aspects of the festival, particularly on the analysis of the themes and the poetry writing technique. It builds on certaintheoretical premises from literary imagology – which introduces the terms I (do­mestic culture) and The Other (foreign culture) (Pageaux 2010; Leerssen 2016) – and psychoanalysis. It attempts to look at the phenomenon of the Senjam SongFestival of Benecija through the lens of the study The Uncanny Inner Stranger(2009) by psychiatrist Pavel Fonda.2 While Fonda applies his study primarily to the Trieste area of the 20th century and the tensions between the minority andthe majority, the structure of the relations in Beneška Slovenia is similar. Conse­quently, we can speculate that the Slovenes of Benecija also suffered collective cultural trauma through the process of forced assimilation from the late 19th cen­tury onward. An attempt will be made, therefore, to understand the Senjam Fes­tival as a reaction to a “catastrophic anxiety” which forms in a “paranoid-schizoid position” (Fonda 2009) upon facing the demise of one’s culture.3 Marija Pirjevec has pointed out that “because of its deeper purposes andmeanings” the Senjam Festival as a phenomenon “cannot be classified as mere popular singing and song writing” (Pirjevec 2011, 131). In his papers Some Re­marks about the Most Recent Venetian Poetry (2013) and The contemporarypoetry of Venetian Slovenia. A model of engaged poetry by Slovenes in Italy (2016), David Bandelj wrote about the poetics of some of the more prominentauthors who have taken part in the Senjam Festival, while Irena Novak Popov(2015) studied the festival through the lens of the revival of dialect poetry.4 Dur­ing the 2005 Vilenica International Literary Festival, Roberto Dapit identifiedthe native land and the mother tongue as the two most typical motifs of contem­porary Slovene literary production in Benecija (Dapit 2005, 379). In addition, Anna Bogaro writes about the poetry of Beneška Slovenia in her book Lettera­ture nascoste (2011, 111–131). In his study, Pavel Fonda (2009) draws on Freud’s reflection on the uncanny, wherein he distinguishes between suppressed content and dissociated content.Suppressed content relates to the inner stranger, and in this context, it also re­lates to the suppressed elements of one’s own ethno-national identity. Dissoci­ated content refers to the unrecognised self-image of an individual or a group, RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 which is vastly different from the self-image that an individual or a group con­sciously holds. For the purpose, he highlights three categories of a person’s orgroup’s mental positions, which represent the process of development and matu­ration: the undifferentiated position; the paranoid-schizoid position: a personor group perceives every experience as either good or bad, but anything bad isprojected onto the outside world; the depressive position: a person or groupmanages to tolerate their own flaws. The co-existence of love and hate towardsthe same object is accepted. When facing danger, a group will regress from thedepressive position into the paranoid-schizoid position, which makes it easier toclose ranks, identify the common enemy, and enforce both positive emotionstowards one’s own group and negative emotions towards the outside world. Inthis position, the world of objects will be reduced to the enemy group versusthe idealised object/group to which one belongs. According to Fonda (2009),regression from the depressive into the paranoid-schizoid position causes a rup­ture in the semipermeable membrane separating the collective from the indi­vidual. In the process, collective stereotypes (the severely dehumanizing percep­tion of the other, for example) will penetrate the mental space of an individual.The stereotypes formed in the paranoid-schizoid position correspond poorly toreality, because the perceived images of others become distorted by the negativecontent of the self that one projects onto them. The stereotypes/images adoptedfrom the group culture become the inner objects/images that determine the wayone relates to the members of one’s own, as well as other groups (Fonda 2009,101–134). Saying that, it is necessary to point out, in the context of this article, thatmembers of a minority will subconsciously introject a number of their own per­ceptions, as well as the majority’s perceptions of their national identity. Theywill, therefore, find within themselves two stereotyped national identities: theway the minority sees itself and the way it is perceived by the majority. By internalising the national culture of the majority, the minority will alsosubconsciously adopt negative images of itself, and it requires a lot of energy tosupress them. As a result, it will possess both an idealised group image and anintrojected negative image of itself. In the literary discourse of Slovene writers in Italy,5 the introjected negative image is symbolised by the insulting word šcavi.6 The lyrics to the Senjam songsalso use various images to convey this most painful part of self-perception, whichself-deprecatingly bring down the level of the language to that of a dog barking:“When you bark at others here, / I can see they have a hard time understanding /perhaps … I think … it could be / that you bark in Slovene, like all of us” (Trus­gnach et al. 2013, 66).7 Also noticeable is the critical self-image of a weak, help­less community, which can also be understood as an introjection: “Why was mylanguage fearful / of defending my home?” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 20). Some­times the lyrics contain a negation of this image; it stems from the introjected idealised image of the minority (the way the minority sees itself): “We never 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 hang our heads / no, it can’t happen again / that we reply ‘Si signore!’” (Trusgn­ach et al. 2000, 99). Let us look at the lines by David Klodic from the same per­spective: “Lower your voice, so no one can hear, / I am now very respected here”(Trusgnach et al. 2013, 27). According to Fonda (2009), a traumatic experience has to be processed properly, and this is often beyond the scope of an individual/group, who there­fore remains in a paranoid-schizoid position. For the Slovenes of Benecija, theprocessing of the trauma is made difficult by the uncertain situation the minority experienced in the decades after World War Two – the circumstances in Benecijaremained unfavourable for the Slovene language and culture to thrive even afterthe war (Kacin Wohinc 2001, 153–154), while the law on the protection of the Slovene minority was passed as late as 2001. If the literature of the Slovenes in the Trieste region formed its distinct commonattributes at the turn of the 20th century with the rise of fascism as, we can as­sume, a reaction to the traumatic experience of the repression of Slovene cultureand to the aggressive anti-Slovene discourse in the Italian regional literature ofthe time, the literature of the Slovenes in Benecija seems to contain somethingmore than mere cultural trauma: another crucial element in the momentum for literary production – the fear of the ultimate demise of one’s culture. From apsychoanalytical point of view, as Pavel Fonda (2009) explains, the demise of agroup’s culture generates catastrophic anxiety. As the subsequent analysis of thethemes will show, the poetry of the Senjam Festival consistently speaks betweenthe lines about life, and therefore Slovene culture, dying out in Benecija, so wecan assume that the latter is the momentum behind the fifty years of poetic cre­ativity. This assumption is corroborated by Aldo Klodic’s foreword to the third vol­ume (Klodic 2013, 3) of the collection, containing song lyrics from between1996 and 2012. He points out that the festival is at an important crossroads, asthe older generation is passing the torch to the young. As a result, the themesseem to be more varied: from the authors who still describe with nostalgia our peasant Slovene culture […] we have moved to the more specific emotions of our young people, who, nevertheless, still can’t break away from the heavy and unfair wounds that assimilation tried to inflict upon us. Hopefully, this search for something new will continue to preserve us and prolong the life of our Senjam and our national Slovene community (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 3). The catastrophic anxiety is also present in the lyrics of the festival songs them­selves, during the entire analysed period, e.g.: “if we go on like this, / we’ll loseour blood, as well” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 21). The song For You Who Come RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 Among Us contains the following self-image: “We are / a bit tough / where we fear/ to lose our soul” (Klodic 2013, 70). 4. Migrations from Benecija Several factors have contributed to the gradual decline of Slovene culture inBenecija: besides assimilation, mass migrations have also played a part. In hisstudy Material on Emigration from ‘Venetian Slovenia’: The Case of the Com­mune of Sovodnje/Savogna, Aleksej Kalc points out that this Slovene ethnic ter­ritory cannot be understood without its history of emigration (Kalc 2000, 175).Migrations from Benecija coincide with migrations from the rest of the hillyregions of Furlanija/Friuli, but with some deviations. Friuli began to see con­siderable migrations in the 19th century, as a result of demographic and socio­economic changes (e.g., the crisis of the agrarian and pastoral mountain econ­omy). Migrations from Benecija, on the other hand, occurred later than thosefrom other upland parts of Friuli and began on a small scale. They increased afterWorld War One and continued into the late 1920s. Migrations from Benecijathen scaled down again but became steadier; people tended to move overseas,to work in mining and construction. These changes coincided with the globaleconomic crisis and the shrinking international labour market, as well as the re­strictive Italian emigration policies after 1927. A new wave of migrations fromBenecija began after World War Two, due to the difficult economic situation inthe country, particularly in its mountainous and foothill regions. At that time,Italy included the export of workforce among the programme guidelines of itseconomic policies and entered into an intergovernmental agreement with Bel­gium, which needed workers to jumpstart its coal industry. Belgium thus becameone of the destinations of the Slovene migrants from Benecija; others includedFrance, Switzerland, England, Yugoslavia, and the industrial parts of Italy. Later,the flow of migration also turned towards Canada, Australia and Germany. Aradical shift in the nature of migration occurred at that time: if before they hadbeen temporary, people were now leaving the valleys for good (Kalc 2000). Allof this is reflected in the poetry of the Senjam Festival, for the launching of whichthe post-war emigration wave was key. As Kalc points out, the familiar process of the demographic decline in Benecija had thus began, and in the decades following World War Two the region lost over half of its population. […] In comparison to the rest of the upland parts of Friuli, Benecija suffered a much more dramatic process of depopulation, which was only partly due to the “natural” socio­economic tendencies. In fact, the blame also lies with the policies of development and spatial planning, which, for political and nationalist reasons, conditioned through positive provisions the economic growth and increasing marginalisation of these areas. In conjunction with the elements of the suffocating anti-Slovene climate enveloping Benecija for long decades after the war, it was an added impetus for the population to emigrate (Kalc 2000, 185). 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 In the four decades following the 1950s, Benecija recorded a loss of over 60 % ofits population. For the purpose of this analysis, three volumes of festival verse were reviewed, containing the song lyrics from the very first festival (in 1971) up to those from 2012. As a testament to the ways of life in Benecija after World War Two, the lyrics have an intrinsic ethnographic value. They include the motifs of polenta (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 72); basket weaving (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 61); and chestnuts (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 12). The introductions to the three volumes highlight the circumstances in which the festival was born, reflecting the catastrophic anxiety surrounding cultural de­mise (Fonda 2009). The first volume, published in 1984, begins with a foreword by the Recan Cultural Society, which states that the first Senjam Song Festival of Benecija in 1971 opened with the word night – the title of the very first song ever sung at the festival, written by Elda Vogrig. The foreword explains: [A]nd there was indeed an imposing, cold, harsh night in the valleys of Benecija. In ever greater numbers, young people were scattering around the world, while their parents at home were forced to leave their land for lack of help. Our Slovene culture was barren, and it seemed this was the end of our people (S. N. 1984, 5). In the years 1973, 1990 and 2001, the festival was dedicated to church songs. The foreword to the church festival of 2001 notes that “the Church, too, has a good influence on the progress of our people” (S. N. 2013, 97). This mirrors the historic significance of the local patriotic priests for the preservation of the Slovene language in Benecija (Cencic 2008). Understanding the connections between the clergy, faith, and the Slovene identity in Benecija can lead to the deeper layers of meaning in the festival songs of that particular year. In this sense, the lyrics to the song Dear Mother also express a concern for the preservation of Slovene identity among young people: “we ask you to keep / all our family / and most of all / our youth / so they don’t stray / from the right path” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 102). The words to Viljem Cerno’s Easter should be understood in the same context: “Thorns are the flowers of our land; / our footsteps end up / nailed to your wooden cross. / O, Lord, give us strength / to seize the laughter / of our land, / to inspirit the flower / of our soul” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 108). In 1974, the festival took a back seat to other events and did not take place. Financial difficulties have often threatened its existence and were the reason for its cancellations in 1975, 1979, 1993 and 2002 (S. N. 1984, 51; S. N. 2000, 152). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 In 1976, the festival did not take place because of an earthquake. 1981 was a milestone year, because the Slovenes from Rezija (Rino Chinese) joined the fes­tival. The festival of 1987 was special because the grand finale was broadcast live on RAI Radio Trst A and Radio Opcine (S. N. 2000, 68). The introduction to the festival hinted at one of the troubles that has often plagued the festival: “It has to be said, though, that this Senjam, like so many before, could not go by with­out an occasional nail on the road!” (S. N. 2000, 68). As we can see, a particular writing technique was used – simply alluding to, hinting at, certain facts, without giving any detailed explanations or context. Perhaps the fear of consequences for criticising the Other (the enemy group) too loudly may have played a part in this. Not to mention that the participants of the festival, the locals, were only too familiar with the state of affairs in Benecija. Keeping in mind this writing strategy, we can understand Jože Štucin’s fore­word to the second volume, comprising song lyrics from 1984 to 1995. Štucinunderlines the issue of emigration and the “unkind policy” (Štucin 2000, 5). This volume, too, highlights the verses by Aldo Klodic; this time they address the dying of Benecija: “Where have the grapevines gone / and where are the farmers/ who once lived in Benecija?” (Štucin 2000, 6). 2002 was darkened by the loss of the singer-songwriter Francesco Bergnach – Kekko. Together with Aldo Klodic and Luciano Chiabudini, he was one of the most prolific authors in the first volume, which featured some 30 writers. The number of authors more than doubled in the next volume, featuring over 60. Again, Francesco Bergnach – Kekko and Aldo Klodic stood out for their number of contributions. A similar number of writers featured in the third volume, which also saw an increase in collective song writing. The following writers stood out for their number of contributions: Viljem Cerno, Aldo Klodic, David Klodic, Luciano Feletig, Michele Obit and Francesco Bergnach – Kekko, who remained an active member of the festival right up to his death. It was not only the death of Francesco Bergnach – Kekko that hit the festival hard at the time, but also the six-year gap that followed: “The problems were many and varied, but mostly it was the finances and the lack of people” (S. N. 2013, 123). However, this time was used to reflect on past festivals, which re­sulted in an event called Once Upon a Time There Was a Festival, featuring new cover versions of past songs. Despite the eventual relaunching of the festival, the 2010 introduction, again in fragments, reveals the difficulties the organizers faced: “Volunteer work doesn’t cover all the costs of our Festival and financial support from public authorities is dwindling. Consequently, the Recan Cultur­al Society has decided that Senjam will become a biannual event” (S. N. 2013, 139). 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 To start off the analysis, we will refer to the foreword to the second volume, writ­ten by Aldo Klodic in the name of the Recan Cultural Society. He was one of themost prolific and talented festival authors in its 50-year history. He writes: It is assimilation that weighs most heavily on our people; it has done a big job, gnawing at our bodies and getting almost to our very bones. […] We’ve convinced our friends that creativity is a must, even if it germinates in the garden of our dialect culture, and we’ve shown our opponents that it is our roots we respect and not the roots they’ve been forcing upon us […] Many in our Slovene community in Benecija have lent a hand to preserve, develop and enrich our culture, our language and our lives (Klodic 2000, 7). The word root, in the sense of multi-generational existence firmly entrenched in the land of Benecija, also appears in much later verses by Klodic himself: “Weare a tiny / land / and our people / are few / and our tough / roots / help us ev­erywhere” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 70). The word root is also found in other lyr­ics, which continue to expand its connotations. Like the 1988 lyrics to My Little Benecija: “My little Benecija, / you are my wealth, / this is my homeland / andyou are my root” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 107). Similarly, the lyrics by Daniele Capra, who have the word roots in the title: Roots: “It’s strange to think / to be sostrongly, / to be so bonded / with your village. / There’s a force / that keeps mehere, / and it’s always, always hard to leave. // It’s my roots / that keep me here, / in this valley / in these hamlets” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 154). In 1996, the metaphorical field of the word expands even further, towards aneternal flow, towards the progeny who will ensure life, a hope of life, for the cul­ture of Benecija: “From an old root / a new flower was born […] a new, strongflower of Benecija” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 10). Yet another meaning appears atthat time – the root of the spirit: “I will call my friends / to come back here / and look around / […] they’ll see the roots / of their spirit […]” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 20). Let us look at the Izidor Predan’s lyrics to the song The Sun, which expand the image of the root onto those other, threatening, malicious roots that opposethe Slovene culture in Benecija: “May the sun warm up our valleys / and chaseaway a century of cold, dry up malicious roots / and save our true face” (Kul­turno društvo Recan 1984, 96). Like Water Rushing in by Michel Obit containsa negative utterance of the Other: “We’re water rushing in and we’re a river flow­ing, / we won’t be stopped by those who’d take / our language, our old rights, / the roots that won’t die” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 162). The Other (the enemygroup) is named neither in the forewords to the festival volumes nor in the lyrics RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 themselves. The Other’s main characteristic is that they oppose the blooming ofSlovene culture in Benecija. In terms of Fonda’s (2009) categories, this is a case of a poetic utterance from the paranoid-schizoid position, which activates whena community is under threat. The position also prioritizes strong community.This is reflected in the festival songs, which are often written in the first-person plural or speak of the problems of the entire community as it is trying to preserveits culture in Benecija. 6.2 The Flower Metaphor Aldo Klodic also wrote the words to the song that opened the festival in 1971 – Let Us Plant Flowers – which gave the title to all three volumes of the collection.The key, symbolic message of the title becomes clear in the following lines of thelyrics: “Let us sing – the way we like, / speak and cry – write and read / in the language, – that our mother with all her love / imparted to us in the cradle” (Kul­turno društvo Recan 1984, 11). Aldo Klodic’s lyrics from 1995 read like a chorusto these words: “They let us plant flowers, / but they didn’t give us strength to fertilise them, / so where they still blossom, / it is only by God’s grace, / this is agreat miracle” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 184). Let Us Plant Flowers is not the only one of Aldo Klodic’s poems to use meta­phors taken from the environment of the Recanska Valley (withered and tram­pled flowers, silent birds) in order to draw attention to the pressures of assimila­tion and to the relation of I versus the Other (those, who are against us, against our Slovene culture in Benecija): “All things stand still there / as if bullied intosilence. / I’m thinking: The flowers are ugly, / hanging their heads in shame”(Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 30). These clandestine, sometimes fragmentary messages also appear in the lyricsof other authors. There is a general atmosphere of anxiety, oscillating betweenencouragement and hope, and desperation over the existence of the Slovene community in Benecija: “People of Benecija, do not despair” (Trusgnach et al.2000, 142). And in A Parish Church by Antonio Sdraulig: “Lord / protect all jus­tice everywhere” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 40). And also: “We are always giving / light to our valleys” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 134). On the other hand,there are poems of utter despair, for example: “Too much hatred and too manyinjustices / keep us from / calling ourselves the sons of our Father” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 45). We should mention that as a counterbalance to the analysed lyrics, whichare full of anxiety and melancholy as they tackle the painful sides of Benecija (as­similation, emigration, the end of culture), the festival also features light, cheer­ful songs. They wish to express the joy of life, the lighter side of life; however,they probably do not arise from a genuinely cheerful disposition, but rather from a need for encouragement, from an inner sense of urgency to protect oneself from 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 despair over the oppression and the demise of one’s own identity. The introduc­tion to the 1978 festival songs, which ends in an ellipsis, seems to suggest this:“With these songs, we contribute what we can to make life better for the entireBenecija […]” (S. N. 1984, 77). Certain festival song lyrics express the same sen­timent: “protect my people, too” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 141); as wellas a covert wish for a life of peace, without the pressures of assimilation: “Whilewe, Slovenes from Benecija, would just live in peace” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 88). As mentioned before, this and similar cases rely on a particular writing tech­nique – one could call it a coded technique of writing and poetic expression –which is about alluding; approaching and then pulling away; suggesting withoutbeing explicit; while all the while assuming that the reader will recognise the hid­den message. The point is communicated indirectly, possibly because the subjectmatter is too painful and traumatic, but also because external circumstances maynot favour discussing certain topics. Because of this type of literary discourse,which only describes the effects of events rather than the actual agents and ac­tions – in this case the non-utterance of the Other – the lyrics are coded to adegree, and the meaning is only accessible to the authors’ own community. Thiscorresponds to the assumption of a recipient/reader, a member of the Slovene community in Benecija, who knows and lives the underlying reality. With their identity being under threat, the lyrics communicate the need forcommunity, for the bonding of like-minded people: “We also ask of you, merci­ful Lord, / to let brotherhood bind us” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 47). Andalso: “For now / there’s still much to do, / and if we all put on / the love that willkeep us together, / we can mend everything” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 74). Gabriele Blasutig stresses the importance of a cooperating community in thetitle of his song All Together: “We are the ones who are still here. / We continueon our path […] all of us who are still here, / should proudly say: ‘I live here.’”(Trusgnach et al. 2000, 99). Igor Cerno conveys a similar message in Let’s Join Hands: “Let’s join hands, / let’s help each other, / we won’t die!” (Trusgnach etal. 2000, 170). Consequently, in the role of affirming the Slovene community and its identity,the word Benecija itself (and sometimes Recanska Valley) is often used in vari­ous phrasings and titles: “I’m a boy from Benecija”, “in the valley of Benecija”, “from villages of Benecija”, “for friends from Benecija”, “a boy from Benecija”, “a girl from Benecija”, “our Benecija lineage”, “we are two guys from Recanska Val­ley” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 53, 62, 99, 123, 127, 145, 152, 100), “with abouncy tune of Benecija” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 13). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 Another important festival theme is emigration, represented symbolically in thetitle of Adriano Noacco’s An Emigrant’s Song (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 190). In the festival’s first year, the topic was addressed in the lyrics to the song A Man (Franco Cernotta – Izidor Predan), portraying the hardships of Slovene workersfrom Benecija abroad, particularly in respect to the life and work of miners: “A man went to work in Belgium […] Nobody knows, / how he was crushed bya minecart […] Nothing’s left of him but a sad memory. […] A swallow fliesacross the hill / to provide for her young, / it flies across cities and villages, / across rivers, woods and high barriers” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 17). Other festival songs also touch upon the issue, as their titles reveal: Empty Roads, Where Are You Going? The lyrics often talk about the painful separation from one’s birthplace,home and motherland, and about the hope to come back: “When I was young, / life was hard. / I had to leave my land and go” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 73). Similarly, the lines by Angela Petricig: “So, two or three from each house /had to leave Benecija” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 152). And again: “I will come back, my beautiful village, / I will come back, / my hills of green” (Kul­turno društvo Recan 1984, 55). Aldo Klodic treated the theme masterfully in Thoughts: “A swallow is gather­ing / her family, / to go / on a long voyage. // The night is coming. // Everyone’sspurring me on: / off you go, too, / don’t wait here / for your death /…/ The heart is crying. /…/ The soil smells so sweet” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984,83). The separation from family, mainly parents and partners, is portrayed asa particularly painful subject: “Once I’ve earned enough, / I will come back toyou” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 81). Similarly, in the lyrics to Once There Was a Boy: “There was hunger, / and he left his old mother / and father at home,/ and what was even harder, / his young sweetheart” (Kulturno društvo Recan1984, 26). And again, in Petar Zuanella’s Tear: “The day has come for the boy / to take his suitcase and leave” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 80). Emigration is associated with the dying of life in the villages, and the lyrics arefilled with nostalgia for everything that is inevitably disappearing and will onlyremain in these verses. Lyrics of this type are most numerous during the 1984– 1995 period. This corresponds to the timeline of migrations from Benecija de­scribed in the beginning, which began in the 1950s and lasted for four decades.Most of these people never returned (Kalc 2000). Viljem Cerno wrote: “Oh Mother, what is it that keeps us living here, / we are so few, so old, one could cry 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 one’s eyes out over us. /…/ They were leaving day by day, / and before long wewill be gone, as well” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 148). Luciano Chiabudini’s lyrics are similar in tone: “The village is so empty, my heart is breaking /…/ What alovely dream I had tonight, / our people have come home” (Kulturno društvoRecan 1984, 79). Michele Obit is equally straightforward about the situation in Benecija: “Doyou remember the days, when we worked and sang / and the old and the young,we were happy, / and I don’t know how it can be that our land / is now dying without hope, as people are dying / and the bramble’s already overgrowing theold rafters; / how can it be that there’s not a thing we can do” (Trusgnach et al.2000, 162). Lorette Bernich’s words in The Death of My Village are also poignant: “Amongthe flowers, up on the hill, / eight little houses, /…/ ten quiet voices. // There were a hundred voices /… / They’re dying, and my village, / my beautiful vil­lage, / is dying with them” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 52). The land is another recurring motif, which continues in the mature years of thefestival. The element of the land can appear in the title itself – My Land: “My land, / I have to go, / my land, / I’m leaving you /…/ My land, / listen to myheart, / it’s only here that it resounds” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 73). The land caneven appear as a personified member of the Slovene community in Benecija: “Raise your head, the land of Benecija” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 58). The lyrics of the most recent analysed period of 2008–2012 differ from the restin the sense that certain topics typical of the earlier periods (emigration, dying villages, threatened identity, language, land) begin to fade away. We notice a shifttowards Slovene standard language and the presence of English vocabulary: “Tell me why . /Tell me why / you’re not coming back to this paradise” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 159). Albeit as a quote, words in English already appear at the end ofMichele Obit’s 1994 lyrics to A Song: “The answer, my friend, is blowing in thewind, / the answer is blowing in the wind” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 176). The shifts in the language are partly due to the broader involvement of the younger generation. In 2012, “all the protagonists [were] younger than the fes­tival, which was born in 1971; those under thirty played an important role” (S. N.2013d, 155). The bilingual school, which opened in 1984 in Špeter, contributed RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 greatly to the proficiency in Slovene language, as Aldo Klodic noted in the fore­word to the third volume (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 3). Very few of the lyrics written between 1971 and 2012 that were analysedcontain any foreign (Italian) vocabulary. Lyrics with alternating Slovene and Ital­ian language are scarce. One could argue that it is a deliberate choice to search for, learn and preserve the vocabulary of the Slovene dialect of Benecija, withoutthe help of Italian words. This, for example, was the explicit wish and the writingprinciple of Viljem Cerno. The first two songs with Italian vocabulary appear in 1982; they are Our Celešta (Chiabudini 1983, 139–140) and Smooth as Down (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 150). Regarding language, Our Celesta is different: it mangles the Italian words,or rather, writes them in a Slovenised version. The letter k is most prominent – kon wiski, un kappellino, konóško – which could be seen as a response to the Italianised Slovene names in Benecija. The protagonist Celesta is a ridiculed character because she flirts with the urban, richer, non-Slovene world. The name itself is multifaceted: it comes from Italian (celeste), but it is Slovenised, and its first letter (sibilant, caron) gives awayher Slovene lineage. The disapproval over Celesta’s choice (her disloyalty to the Slovene community in Benecija) becomes apparent in the humorous effects cre­ated by the alternating use of Slovene and Italian: “In my ricoti / I have a fiorelino, / and a kapellino / on my head; / bloody rake, / I don’t konóško you, / I’m goingin the boško, / but with a dekolte” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 139–140). There is some suggestion of prostitution, which seems attributed to the Italianelement. Namely, if we assume that the lyrics are written from the paranoid-schizoid position, everything viewed as negative will be projected onto the op­ponent. We may suppose, therefore, that Italian is used to criticise Celesta’s choice,her wish to leave the Slovene community (rural countryside) and enter an urban (non-Slovene) environment: “I am Celešta, / vestita a festa / I carry manure / in a basket; / every Saturday / vado a dancare” (Kulturno društvo Recan 1984, 139– 140). As we can see, the protagonist’s favouring of the foreign community is also reflected in her speech; she changes/mangles the Slovene language on the sideof Italianisation: dancare (plesare in the original – the Slovene root of the verbto dance with an Italian conjugation). One cannot overlook her statement: “I don’t konóško you” (“I don’t know you”), which can be seen as a denial of herown community. In terms of literary imagology, the character of Celesta could be understood through the meta-image (Leerseen 2016), that is, through the home commu­nity’s perception of how it is assessed by its own member who pulled away fromits ideas and values. If we follow Fonda (2009), the image could be understood from the paranoid-schizoid position of the group, where an individual is forced 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 to identify with only one group. Fonda further explains that the separation fromthe group is painful and dangerous. The paranoid rule (you are either with us or against us) creates a threat of expulsion and projective identification whichidentifies/assimilates the other person with the enemy (Fonda 2009), attribut­ing negative traits to him or her, as is the case with Celesta. The community’s expectations of affiliation with the group can also be seen in Kekko Bergnachlyrics: “I love you, because you think like us” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 66). The other lyrics with Italian vocabulary, Smooth as Down, use a passage in Italian to describe the light-hearted life of the younger generation: “The youngsing cheerfully: / ‘Com’ é bella questa vita, / una pizza e la partita’” (Kulturno društvoRecan 1984, 150). The lyrics contain mild criticism of young people, who are not aware of the commodities they have in comparison to the older generation,which experienced hunger. Joyfulness and carefreeness seem foreign to thehome community and inappropriate as a virtue, and are, therefore, through the use of the Italian language, projected outward onto the Other. Aside from the linguistic shifts, it is also apparent that the lyrics no longer de­scend into those painful corners of Benecija. Nevertheless, central themes of the past, like emigration, still reverberate: “He hasn’t been away long, / and wants tocome back, / he left his valleys, / his family and his heart” (Trusgnach et al. 2013,130). And also: “I happily left you, / had to go far away, / in my mind I thought / I’d return to you” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 90). Likewise, the nostalgia and painover the dying villages are still present at times: “I’ve changed my glasses but I’mstill seeing the same, / the autumn colours, the empty valleys, the crying and laughter” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 172). There are fresh connotations of the homeland – the Matajur mountain:“This is our homeland” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 142). The younger generation’s lyrics can deal with the dying of Benecija with slightly different, less anxious feel­ings: “When the week ends / I grab my tools / and prepare my car, / I quicklyleave the town. / I go to see my Nan, / who lives in the field, / among flowers and valleys, / life is good. /…/ But it comes to an end, / on my way home / sadnessgrabs me, / my heart feels sick” (Trusgnach et al. 2000, 181). In recent years, the festival has seen two surprising semantic shifts within the traditional topics. The lyrics with the provocative title Don’t Count on Us prob­ably refer to the trans-generational weight of the cultural trauma and the relatedhopes of the older generation that the younger generation will protect Benecija from the loss of its Slovene culture: “We’re not going anywhere, / we will stayhere, / we are your hope. / We’re not going anywhere, / we’ll fade away here, /we are your hope” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 146). The same lyrics then use the tra­ditional image of a root to show that the faith in the strong Slovene community RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 in Benecija is crumbling: “We fly up, we fall, we despair, / then our families, / theroots of Benecija, / fall apart” (Trusgnach et al. 2013, 145). It is worth noting that collective trauma is also passed on through genera­tions because it has been inscribed into the culture of the group (Fonda 2009)in the hope that the younger generations will process it adequately. The Senjam Festival is an example of these efforts by the older generation; and it has bornefruit in the sense that the younger generations have indeed continued striving topreserve the Slovene culture in Benecija. It is still alive in the 21st century, despite the disturbing set of circumstances in the early 1970s, which brought about thebirth of the festival. Or, as the closing words to the third volume suggest: “It maybe that the lyrics are not always at the highest level, but the feelings they express illustrate beautifully the situation of our Slovene nation” (S. N. 2013, 177). We may conclude that the festival songs are the result of a unique situationand unique energy, efforts, and the desire of the community to survive. Conse­quently, they are immeasurably full of courage, pain, fear, and depth. Every wordis a metaphor, because it utters what is forbidden, unspoken, through the imagesof life in Benecija. In this sense, this is poetry with a capital P. The Senjam Song Festival of Benecija was born in 1971 to meet the perceivedneed to preserve the Slovene culture and language of Benecija, which had beenseverely damaged by assimilation and migration. Although it experienced a few short gaps due to financial, personnel and other issues, it celebrates its 50 years inexistence this year. This article has attempted to understand the festival throughliterary imagology and Pavel Fonda’s theory of the uncanny inner stranger, while focusing on the literary aspects of the lyrics. As well as noting their ethnographicvalue in describing the Slovene culture in Benecija and in preserving the dia­lect, the article has identified their most prevalent themes. As it turns out, in the early period of the festival, the emphasis was on the issues of assimilation andmigrations. In subsequent years, the festival themes focused even more on thedire situation in Benecija: the dying villages, abandoned agricultural land, empty houses, and thus the gradual decline of Slovene culture and language in the re­gion. The lyrics of Senjam songs are simple in form and written in the local dialect. They are set in the region they call home – Benecija. According to their basicmood, they fall into two categories: they are either cheerful and humorous, orthey are pervaded with deep pain and concern over the situation in Benecija. The writings in the festival’s collection and their forewords seem to suggest thatthe cheerfulness is there to encourage, to bring hope as people feel catastrophicanxiety over their cultural demise. The other group of lyrics, with darker under­tones, uses a particular writing technique, which merely hints at the pressures of 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 assimilation, conveying them through images and metaphors. One of the mostfamous metaphors of this kind is that of a flower: Let us plant flowers. It is a verse by Aldo Klodic, one of the main, most prolific, and most talented poets of thefestival. Besides his lyrics, the analysis has also looked at the work of another im­portant poet from Benecija, Viljem Cerno. Another typical poetic image is that of a root, which has changed over time and acquired new connotations. Finally,the motif of the land is also an important element of the Senjam Festival. Through the decades, the language of the lyrics has moved closer to Stan­dard Slovene – this is also because of the influence of the bilingual school, whichopened in Špeter in 1984. The use of Italian words as a means of creating dis­tinct semantic effects is scarce. The analysis of the lyrics of two songs with Italian vocabulary has shown that Italian is used to denote the negative traits that thespeaking subject in his or her paranoid-schizoid position projects onto the out­side world (Fonda 2009). The lyrics from the most recent years of the festival still covered in the analysis (until 2012) occasionally use English words, how­ever, their use is relatively neutral, with no hidden semantic messages. The morerecent festival songs have also gone through changes in terms of their themes, but despite a certain alleviation of anxiety, they still display responsibility andcommitment towards the preservation of the Slovene culture in Benecija, whichthe older generations have passed on – also through Senjam – to the younger ones. References Bandelj, D., 2013. Nekaj opazk o najsodobnejši beneški poeziji. [Some Remarks about theMost Recent Venetian Poetry]. Jezik in slovstvo 58 (4), 59–71. Bandelj, D., 2016. Sodobna poezija Beneške Slovenije: model angažiranega pesništva medSlovenci v Italiji. [The Contemporary Poetry of Venetian Slovenia: A Model of EngagedPoetry by Slovenians in Italy]. Jezik in slovstvo 61 (2), 37–47. Bogaro, A., 2011. Letterature nascoste. Carocci, Roma. Cencic, M., 2008. Beneška Slovenija in njeni Cedermaci. Društvo za negovanje rodoljubnih tradi­cij organizacije TIGR Primorske, Škofije. Cergol, J., 2021. Custveni vidiki pri izbiri jezikovnega koda slovenskih literarnih ustvarjalcevv Italiji. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 87, 233–252, DOI: 10.36144/ RiG87.dec21.233-252. Dapit, R., 2005. Sodobna slovstvena ustvarjalnost v Beneciji. In M. Cunta & B. Šubert (eds.)Vilenica: 20. mednarodni literarni festival. Društvo slovenskih pisateljev, Ljubljana, 374– 378. Fonda, P., 2009. Nedomacni notranji tujec. [The Uncanny Inner Stranger]. In L. Accati & R.Cogoy (eds.) Fojbe: primer psihopatološke recepcije zgodovine. Krtina, Ljubljana, 101–134. Kacin Wohinz, M. & Pirjevec, J., 2000. Zgodovina Slovencev v Italiji 1866–2000. Nova revija, Ljubljana. Kacin Wohinz, M. & Troha, N. (eds.), 2001. Slovensko-italijanski odnosi 1880–1956: porociloslovensko-italijanske zgodovinsko-kulturne komisije / I raporti italo-sloveni 1880–1956: rela­ RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 A. TOROŠ Zakodirani literarni diskurz Senjama beneške piesmi DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 zione della commissione storico-culturale italo-slovena / Slovene-Italian Relations 1880–1956: Report of the Slovene-Italian Historical and Cultural Commission. Nova revija, Ljubljana. Kalc, A., 2000. Prispevki za zgodovino izseljevanja iz Beneške Slovenije: primer obcineSovodnje/Savogna. [Material on Emigration from “Venetian Slovenia”: The Case of the65 Commune of Sovodnje/Savogna.] Dve domovini/Two Homelands 11/12, 175–202. Klodic, A., 2000. Šele cvedejo. In L. Trusgnach, A. Clodig & Ž. Gruden (eds.) Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: Senjam beneške piesmi XI–XX, 1984–1995. Kulturno društvo/Circolo cul­turale Recan, Lese/Liessa; Kulturno društvo/Circolo di cultura “Ivan Trinko”, Cedad/Cividale del Friuli, 7. Klodic, A., 2013. Poganjajo le napri. In M. Trusgnach, A. Clodig, L. Trusgnach & Ž. Gruden(eds.) Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: Senjam beneške piesmi XXI–XXX, 1996–2012. Kulturno društvo/Circolo culturale Recan, Lese/Liessa, Garmak/Grimacco; Kulturnodruštvo/Circolo di cultura “Ivan Trinko”, Cedad/Cividale del Friuli, 3. Košuta, M., 2008. Ime in duh rože: sodobno slovensko slovstvo v Italiji. In M. Košuta E-mejli. Litera, Maribor, 23–64. Kulturno društvo Recan, 1984. Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: 10 let senjama beneške piesmi. ZTT, Trst. Leerssen, J., 2016. Imagology: On Using Ethnicity to Make Sense of the World. Revue d’čtudes ibériques et ibéro-américanes 10, 13–31. Novak Popov, I., 2015. Senjam beneške piesmi kot dejavnik prenove narecne poezije v Slo­venski Beneciji. Primerjalna književnost 38 (2), 157–174. Pageaux, D.-H., 2010. Le scritture di Hermes. Salerio editore, Palermo. Petricig, P., 1997. Pod senco Trikolore. Zadruga Lipa, Špeter. Pirjevec, M., 2011. Vprašanje narecne poezije. In M. Pirjevec Tržaški književni razgledi. Mladi­ka, Trst, 123–136. S. N., 1984. [Uvod]. In Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: 10 let senjama beneške piesmi. ZTT, Trst, 5, 51, 77. S. N., 2000. [Uvod]. In L. Trusgnach, A. Clodig & Ž. Gruden (eds.) Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: Senjam beneške piesmi XI–XX, 1984–1995. Kulturno društvo/Circolo culturaleRecan, Lese/Liessa ; Kulturno društvo/Circolo di cultura “Ivan Trinko”, Cedad/Cividaledel Friuli, 68, 152. S. N., 2013. [XXVI. SBP 2001 (CERKVENI)]. In M. Trusgnach, A. Clodig, L. Trusgnach & Ž.Gruden (eds.) Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: Senjam beneške piesmi XXI–XXX, 1996– 2012. Kulturno društvo/Circolo culturale Recan, Lese/Liessa, Garmak/Grimacco; Kul­turno društvo/Circolo di cultura “Ivan Trinko”, Cedad/Cividale del Friuli , 97, 123, 139,155, 177. Štucin, J., 2000. Predgovor. In L. Trusgnach, A. Clodig & Ž. Gruden (eds.) Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: Senjam beneške piesmi XI–XX, 1984–1995. Kulturno društvo/Circolo cul­turale Recan, Lese/Liessa; Kulturno društvo/Circolo di cultura “Ivan Trinko”, Cedad/Cividale del Friuli, 5–6. Toroš, A., 2020. Literary Manifestations of Traumatic Collective Memory and Postmemory:The Case of Istrian Triestine and Slovenian Triestine Literature. In V. Mikolic (ed.) Lan­guage and Culture in the Intercultural World. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 387–401. Toroš, A., 2021. Minority Literature and Collective Trauma : The Case of Slovene TriestineLiterature. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 86, 65–81, DOI: 10.36144/ RiG86jun21.65-81. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES A. TOROŠ The Coded Literary Discourse of the Senjam Song Festival of Benecija DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.49-66 Trusgnach, L., Clodig, A. & Gruden, Ž. (eds.), 2000. Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: Senjam beneške piesmi XI–XX, 1984–1995. Kulturno društvo/Circolo culturale Recan, Lese/Liessa; Kulturno društvo/Circolo di cultura Ivan Trinko, Cedad/Cividale del Friuli 66 Trusgnach, M., Clodig, A., Trusgnach, L. & Gruden, Ž. (eds.), 2013: Pustita nam rože po našim sadit: Senjam beneške piesmi XXI–XXX, 1996–2012. Kulturno društvo/Circolo cultura­le Recan, Lese/Liessa, Garmak/Grimacco; Kulturno društvo/Circolo di cultura IvanTrinko, Cedad/Cividale del Friuli. Valentincic, D., 2020. Nekaj dilem glede koncepta krovnosti pri slovenskih zamejskih organi­zacijah. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 84, 97–128, DOI: 10.36144/ RiG84.jun20.97-130. Zuanella, N., 1998. Mracna leta Benecije: dejavnost tajnih organizacij v vzhodni Furlaniji. Cankar­jeva Založba, Ljubljana. 1 The event is organised by Recan Aldo Klodic Cultural Society (Kulturno društvo Recan AldoKlodic). Within the Slovene minority in Friuli Venezia Giulia there are several active culturalorganisations, united in cultural associations, which are members of one of the two umbrellaassociations. For more on this, cf. Valentincic 2020. 2 Fonda leans on the research by Melanie Klein (1952, cited in Fonda 2009). 3 Beneška Slovenia was part of the Republic of Venice from 1420 to the latter’s dissolution in1797, when it became part of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1866 it became part of the Kingdomof Italy, which aimed for a one-nation state and the assimilation of its inhabitants (Kacin Wohinz& Pirjevec 2000, 17–19). In comparison to the Slovenes of the Gorizia and Trieste regions, oneof the major differences in the education of the Slovenes in Benecija was the lack of local Slovene-language schools until 1984. Consequently, the Slovene clergy played a major role in spreadingSlovene national ideas. Mira Cencic, among others, writes in her work Beneška Slovenija in njeni Cedermaci [Beneška Slovenia and its Patriotic Priests] (2008) about the clergy of BeneškaSlovenia who strove for the preservation of the Slovene language, even after its use in public andin church services had been prohibited during fascism. In fiction, their struggle for the mothertongue was portrayed by France Bevk in his novel Kaplan Martin Cedermac [The ChaplainMartin Cedermac]. For Benecija after World War Two, and various Tricolore organisations, cf.Mracna leta Benecije [The Dark Years of Benecija] (Zuanella 1998) and Pod senco Trikolore [Under the Shadow of the Tricolore] (Petricig 1997). 4 Poetry writing in Benecija, as part of Slovene literature in Italy, is discussed by Miran Košuta(2008). 5 For Slovene literary discourse in Italy in relation to the collective trauma and emotional aspects inchoosing its language code, cf. Toroš (2020; 2021) and Cergol (2021). 6 From sciavo or slave; the etymology of the word is also connected to the Slavs. 7 All lyrics cited here are from the first three volumes of the collection of the Senjam Song Festivalof Benecija (1984, 2000, 2013). The article, and the literary excerpts in it, were fully translated byKatarina Jerin, in collaboration with the author of the article. The author acknowledges the financial support by the Slovenian Research Agency for the re­search programme Historical interpretations of the 20th century (P6-0347). TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022, p. 69–85 DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.69-85 The article analyses the speech behaviour of two speakers who were born into bilingualfamilies, grew up in a bilingual environment in Italy, and decided as adults to move to amonolingual Slovene environment. We are interested in how the change in environmentaffects their discursive practises. To acquire the data, the guided conversation methodand transcription of audio-recorded discourse were used, while the interactionalsociolinguistic analysis method was used to analyse the discourse. The study showed thatin the monolingual Slovene environment, both speakers found it difficult to adapt theirspeech to Slovene technical language. They also lacked the specific Slovene expressionsused in everyday life. On the other hand, although their Slovene was interspersed withItalian interference, they knew variations in Slovene and were sensitive to the use of slangin standard Slovene. Keywords: contact linguistics, bilingual speaker, discursive practices, choice of language, Slovene, Italian. Prispevek analizira govorno vedenje govorcev, ki sta se rodila v dvojezicni družini, odrašcala vdvojezicnem okolju v Italiji in se kot odrasla odlocila za selitev v enojezicno slovensko okolje. Za­nima nas, kako spremenjeno okolje vpliva na njune diskurzivne prakse. Pri pridobivanju po­datkov je bila uporabljena metoda vodenega pogovora ter transkripcija zvocnega posnetkadiskurza, pri analizi diskurza pa metoda interakcijske sociolingvisticne analize. Raziskava jepokazala, da se je bilo govorcema najtežje jezikovno prilagoditi v strokovni oziroma žargonskiterminologiji. Manjkalo jima je tudi poznavanje specificnih slovenskih izrazov iz vsakdanjegaživljenja. Ceprav je njuna slovenšcina prepletena z interferencami iz italijanšcine, pa na drugistrani kažeta poznavanje zvrstnosti v slovenšcini in sta obcutljiva za rabo slengovskih besed vslovenskem knjižnem jeziku. Kljucne besede: kontaktno jezikoslovje, dvojezicni govorec, diskurzivne prakse, izbira jezika, slovenšcina, italijanšcina. Correspondence address: Danila Zuljan Kumar, ZRC SAZU, Inštitut za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša, e-mail: DZuljan@zrc-sazu.si. ISSN 0354-0286 Print/ISSN 1854-5181 Online © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja (Ljubljana), http://www.inv.si 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 This article presents a brief study of two bilingual speakers born into bilingualSlovene-Italian and Slovene-Friulian families in Gorizia and Trieste, Friuli-Vene­zia Giulia, Italy, who decided to move to Slovenia near the town of Nova Gorica (in western Slovenia, on the Slovene-Italian-Friulian language border). The aimof the study was to discover how the discursive practices of the speakers in ques­tion changed after moving to a monolingual environment. This is a relatively new phenomenon, as in the past the majority of such families settled permanently inItaly (Zuljan Kumar 2009, 65–66). In the first part of the article, the area where the interviewees live is briefly introduced from a historical and sociolinguistic point of view, the relevant theo­retical background is explained, the speakers are introduced, and the methodol­ogy of data collection and analysis is described. In the second part, the factors influencing language choice and code-switching among bilingual speakers, aswell as the way the interviewees themselves adapted their linguistic behaviour tothe new environment, are analysed on the basis of their own statements. In the last part, syntactic interference in the speakers included in the study is discussed. Today, the Slovenes living in the western Slovene ethnic area are divided be­tween two countries, Slovenia and Italy. They inhabit the entire border area be­tween the Canale Valley in the north and Istria in the south. Slovenes living inthe Republic of Slovenia inhabit the Littoral region with the two urban centresof Koper and Nova Gorica, while Slovenes living in the Republic of Italy inhabit the provinces of Trieste, Gorizia and Udine in the Autonomous Region of Fri-uli Venezia Giulia. They are classified as an autochthonous historical linguisticminority, a status granted to the Slovenes living in the provinces of Trieste and Gorizia since 1954, while the Slovenes in the province of Udine had to wait forofficial recognition until 2001, when a new law (Law no. 38) entitled Norme a tutela della minoranza linguistica slovena della regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Regu­lations for the Protection of the Slovene Linguistic Minority in Friuli-VeneziaGiulia) was passed in the Italian Parliament. The difference between the territo­ries results from the different historical and political background of the Slovenes in the province of Udine, since for long centuries they lived under the rule ofthe Patriarch of Aquileum and the Republic of Venice. After living for a whilein the same political framework, the territory of the Slavia Veneta was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, while the Slovenes in the provinces of Triesteand Gorizia remained under the jurisdiction of the Austrian state. At the endof World War I, and after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the en­ RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 tire territory of the provinces of Trieste, Udine and Gorizia, together with thepresent-day Slovene Littoral, was occupied by the Italian army and annexed to Italy in 1920 in accordance with the border treaty of Rapallo. Soon after the endof the war, the Italian authorities began a denationalisation policy against theSlovene population, which became systematic and cruel after the establishment of the fascist regime in 1922. After World War II, Gorizia and Trieste becamepart of Italy, while their outskirts became part of the Socialist Federal Republicof Yugoslavia. After World War II, according to the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947, most of the Littoral region with the upper Isonzo Valley was assigned to Yugo­slavia, while Italy kept the urban centre of Gorizia. In 1954, Italy also regainedthe main port of Trieste. The Slovene population in the outskirts of Gorizia lost its economic centre, so in 1947, the Yugoslav authorities started building a newtown on the border, Nova Gorica (Marušic 1989, 284–285; Jagodic et al. 2020,72–74; Bajc 2020, 22–30). Located at the confluence of the Isonzo and Vipava rivers in the immediate vicinity of the state border, this town is organically linkedto Gorizia economically, socially, and culturally, as well as through kinship ties.However, although the population on both sides of the border is very connected, the sociolinguistic situation of the Slovene community in Italy differs consider­ably from that in Slovenia. Slovenes living in Italy are predominantly bilingualand use a variety of different idioms in their everyday life; from their Littoral Slo­vene dialect, the spoken regional variant of the standard Slovene language, thespoken Slovene literary language, the spoken variant of the Venetian dialect ofItalian, the Italian literary language, and the Italo-Slovene hybridised variant of Slovene called itavenšcina (Grgic 2016, 62–63; Jagodic et al. 2020, 77). Sloveneson the Slovene side of the state border are predominantly monolingual and havefunctional knowledge of Italian. The varieties of Slovene spoken in Italy differ from those spoken in Slovenia mainly in the number of interferences with Italianat all linguistic levels (cf. Jagodic et. al 2020, 70, 78–82; Grgic 2016, 61–62), asthe members of the Slovene minority in Italy have daily contact with the Italian language, while this is not the case for the Slovenes living on the Slovene side ofthe border. From a sociolinguistic point of view, bilingualism can be defined as the result of intensive language contact (i.e., contact between people who speak differentlanguages) either at the individual level (individual or family bilingualism) orat the group level (societal bilingualism). In psychology, the term refers to the coexistence of two language systems within an individual, as opposed to mono­lingualism. A bilingual is anyone who is actively proficient in two languages tosome degree. However, bilinguals are rarely equally proficient or balanced in their use of the two languages, making one the more dominant (Hakuta 2009, 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 173; Wierzbicka 2010, 94–95; Grgic 2019a, 40). When discussing bilingualism,three types of bilingual speakers are distinguished, namely compound, coor­dinate, and sub-coordinate. A compound bilingual is a person who learns twolanguages in the same environment so that they acquire a concept with two ver­bal expressions. A coordinate bilingual acquires the two languages in different contexts (e.g., at home and at school), so that the words of the two languagesbelong to separate and independent systems. In a sub-coordinate bilingual, onelanguage dominates (Diller 1970, 254–256). The article discusses the example of two compound bilinguals who learned Slovene in their primary and second­ary education and in whose primary family two languages were spoken, Sloveneand Italian. There are many studies dealing with different aspects of the language use ofSlovene bilingual speakers in Italy who come from either Slovene or linguistical­ly mixed families and whose discursive practices include both Slovene and Ital­ian language versions. I mention only a few here. Mezgec (2012), Pertot (2014)Grgic (2016; 2017; 2019a; 2019b) and Bogatec et al. (2020) focus on the com­municative competence of Slovenes in Italy, Jagodic (2011) presents language use patterns in different age generations of Slovenes in Italy, Mezgec (2013)discusses the functional literacy of young speakers of the Slovene language, andVidau (2015) and Brezigar & Vidau (2021) focus on the intercultural position of young Slovenes in Italy. However, the aim of the present study is to shed lighton the problems in the language use of two bilingual speakers who grew up ina bilingual environment and decided to move to a monolingual Slovene envi­ronment as adults. We are interested in how the change in environment affectedtheir discursive practices. The study focuses on the following questions: 1. What were the discursive prac­tices like in the interviewees’ childhood families and what are they like in theircurrent families? 2. How do the speakers adapt their choice of language to differ­ent speech situations? 3. How has their speech behaviour changed since moving to a monolingual Slovene environment? For data collection, I used the guided conversation method by making anaudio recording and a subsequent transcription. To analyse the discourse, I used the method of interactional sociolinguistic analysis, in the sense that I directedthe questions to a sociolinguistic (self-)observation of each bilingual speakerand their use of the discursive practises they had developed in the new living environment (change in linguistic behaviour depending on the speech situation,interlocutor(s), discourse topic, etc.). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 The first speaker (hereafter S1) is from the vicinity of Gorizia, Italy. He com­pleted all his education from kindergarten to high school in Slovene in Gorizia. He is employed as an accountant at a Slovene institution in Gorizia, Italy. Hisfather is Slovene by birth and comes from Slavia Friulana, Italy; his mother is Fri-ulian. They spoke Italian within the family, and S1 and his father spoke Slovene in the company of other Slovenes. S1’s wife is Slovene and comes from NovaGorica; they have two daughters and live near Nova Gorica. His wife is a teacher,and although she speaks Italian, they speak Slovene at home among themselves and with their daughters. The daughters attend elementary school in Sloveniaand speak Slovene to all of their paternal relatives except their grandmother, withwhom they speak Italian. The following excerpt shows how communication took place in S1’s familywhen he was a child and what determines his choice of language when he speaksto his father.1 [1] I: […] do you speak Italian or Friulian with your mother?2 S1: Italian. I: And Slovene with your father? S1: Italian with my father, too. Italian if we’re alone, Slovene if we’re in a Slovene group. I: Which factors influence whether you speak Slovene with your father? S1: We always spoke Italian with my mother at home. Italian with my father, too. We spoke only Italian at the dinner table because if I had said, mama, daj mi en kos kruha (‘Mother, give me a piece of bread’), I wouldn’t have got anything (laughs), allora we had to speak Italian. I: And with your father? S1: With my father, too, […] we spoke Italian, you get used to it, I guess, and then it’s hard to switch. Perň, if my father was here (in the company of Slovene speakers), we would be speaking Slovene. The second speaker (hereafter S2) was born in Trieste, where he completed hisentire education from kindergarten to high school in Slovene, except for an Ital-ian-language music conservatoire in Trieste. He is employed as a music teacherin Nova Gorica. Both his parents are Slovene and live in Trieste. At home, hespoke Italian with his mother and Slovene with his father. His wife is Italian andcomes from Gorizia; she did not speak Slovene before their marriage but haslearned it well since. Like her husband, she works as a music teacher in Slovenia. They live in Slovenia, 15 km from Nova Gorica, and they communicate witheach other in Slovene, while they each speak their mother tongue with their fourchildren. All the children attended kindergarten and the first six grades of pri­mary school in Slovenia, then secondary school with Slovene as the language ofinstruction (corresponding to the second triad of primary school in Slovenia)in Gorizia (Italy); the eldest two now attend high school with Slovene as the language of instruction in Italy. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 In the following text excerpt, S2 discusses how communication took place in his childhood family and why he and his wife started speaking Slovene at home despite the fact that even he finds it easier to express himself in Italian [2]. [2] S2: I speak Italian with my mother and Slovene with my father because that’s what they decided, because they lived in Trieste, my mother would speak Italian and my father Slovene. I: How do they talk to each other? S2: With each other, they only speak the dialect. My parents speak only Italian with each other, or rather the dialect, [trieštin], of Trieste … I: How did you start speaking Slovene with your wife? S2: I said, [bašta], enough, I’m tired of always speaking Italian, […] because I realised that, since I’m an Italian Slovene, it all depends on the environment I’m in. If I’m in an Italian environment, I’m more fluent in Italian, and my Slovene is already a little behind. And vice versa, if you’re in a Slovene environment, you’re more fluent in Slovene. I personally find Italian much easier, for example. Thus, S1’s childhood family used mostly Italian for everyday communication,and his current family uses mostly Slovene. In S2’s case, both languages had equal shares in his childhood family, and the same goes for his own family. Un­like his childhood family, where his parents spoke the Italian dialect with eachother, S2 and his wife mostly speak Slovene, which was a mutual decision, even though communicating in Italian would be easier for both. At this point, we canobserve that both speakers, who lived in Italy and now live in Slovenia in com­pletely comparable environments (Slovene-Italian (Friulian) family), actually use different discursive practices, thus, I am further interested in what affects thechoice of a particular language in individual speech situations. With bilingual speakers, the choice of one language or the other in a given speech situation depends on several factors (Weinreich 1979, 4; Thomason 2008, 47;Matras 2009, 234–247), namely: 1. on the individual’s ability to express themselves orally and in writing (linguistic competence); 2. the relative familiarity with the two contact languages, i.e., the ability of phonetic distinction, of accepting a different accent, of adapting to the orthography of the other language, etc.; 3. the attachment of a language to a person or speech situation; 4. the speaker’s familiarity with the variations of each language; 5. their attitude toward each language in contact. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 In the following section, text excerpts from the conversation are used to illustratehow individual factors influence S2’s and S1’s choice of language. 5.1 The Individual’s Linguistic Competence Both interviewees believe that the choice of one language or the other does notdepend so much on the speaker’s general linguistic competence, but rather onhis or her communicative competence,3 i.e., in which area of life it is easier for the speaker to think in one language or the other. Therefore, I first directed my ques­tions to an area in which an adult’s thinking and utterances are rather mechanicaland automated and do not require much mental effort, namely arithmetic (ex­ample [3]). Following that, I was interested in which language the speakers useto respond in an emotional and uncontrolled way (example [4]). [3] I: How do you do multiplication? S1: In your mind, how do you calculate when you’re alone? S2: Since I’ve been told you usually count in your mother tongue; I try to do it in both languages. I: Let’s say you don’t think about it. S2: Let’s say if the calculation is five times six, in Slovene, because that’s how I learned multiplication. Otherwise, in depends on the context. If the work context is Slovene, I calculate in Slovene. If it’s an Italian context, in Italian. I: So, it also depends on the person you’re with, or the environment? S2: I think it’s both. Example [3] shows that for S2 arithmetic depends on the language of the envi­ronment he is in, although he always performs multiplication in Slovene becausehe learned it in that language. It is also noteworthy that since he was told thatarithmetic is usually done in a person’s native language, he tries to perform it inItalian as well, which means that he continues to strive for a balance between the two languages in his new environment (i.e., he does not want his Sloveneto predominate). S1, on the other hand, calculates only in Italian in all speechsituations and indicates that his Slovene colleagues from Italy do the same be­cause, as he says, “I am done calculating before I can turn the numbers aroundin Slovene”. 4 Studies show that the use of internal speech, that is, speech in which mentalcalculation takes place (as well as prayers, dreams, and memories) in a bilingualspeaker depends on their fluency in the other language (Pertot 2014, 17, 18). Asthe example shows, the inner speech of the two speakers in question takes placein different languages, in S1 exclusively in Italian, and in S2 it depends on thespeech situation, which could mean that in S1’s case perhaps the dominance ofItalian in the family environment had a decisive influence on the dominance of Italian in his inner speech. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 Example [4], on the other hand, shows that both speakers unconsciouslyuse Italian swear words, partly because Slovene is not, in their opinion, as ex­pressive as Italian in this area. But another reason is certainly that they both usedItalian as their first language before moving to Slovenia, which is also shown inuncontrolled, unpredictable, emotional reactions when, to use S1’s words, he al­ways instinctively expresses himself in Italian. In a way, their reactions confirm afinding from several studies (see Pertot 2014), namely that speakers can expressintense emotions much more easily in their first or most frequently used lan­guage (Pertot 2014, 16). [4] I: […] how do you swear? W2: What does that mean? S1: Bestemia. S2: Haha, dio can ‘*god dog’, cavoli5 , porka vacca ‘*damn cow’ […]. Well, Slovenes don’t have a diverse repertoire of these … S1: Vaffanculo ‘fuck off ’. If I get really angry, it comes out in Italian, I mean, the [inštintivo]6 that comes out directly. The following excerpts from the interview with the informants illustrate wellhow both had problems with the transition from a bilingual environment in Italy to a predominantly monolingual environment in Slovenia, in terms of phoneticdistinction in the pronunciation of Slovene and Italian words and the distinc­tion between word accents in Slovene and Italian. In a bilingual environment, numerous borrowings of words and mixing between languages are normal; ina monolingual environment, this is immediately noticeable (despite the manyborrowings) and triggers a reaction from monolingual speakers (e.g., laughter), as can be seen in example [5], where S1 describes how, for example, Slovenes inItaly often elide the h sound, which is interference from Italian (as in the word herpes ‘herpes’); in a monolingual environment, this caused his Slovene friendsto burst out laughing. [5] S1: […] allora Italians don’t use h, right. Allora, if I say you have erpes, like in Italian, right, ho ho ho, […] but then you learn, now I say herpes too. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 S2 once made his Slovene friends laugh when he stressed the word piknik ‘pic­nic’ like in Italian (on the final syllable), without even knowing what provoked the laughter. [6] S2: I remember how I conducted the school orchestra and I said, boys, next week we’re organising a picníc for the end of the school year, and they all burst out laughing […]. Tying language to a person is one of the most important factors that influences the choice of language in a bilingual person’s communication, mainly because itis linked to the emotional dimension (Padilla & Borsato 2010, 12–13), as shownin example [7], where S2 explains that he once tried to speak Slovene with his mother, with whom he exclusively speaks Italian.7 This proved hard or evenimpossible. Moreover, S2 emphasises that when speaking about important lifeevents, which concern your emotions, you always speak in the language closest to you. This assertion again confirms the above finding that a bilingual speakercan express themselves semantically most accurately and with the most appro­priate choice of words in emotional moments only in the language of their emo­tional closeness and intimacy.8 [7] S2: I did an experiment, I managed to speak Slovene with my mother two years ago, but it’s difficult, you know, you feel like you’re going against nature […]. You have to force yourself. I had to think: I’m Slovene, my mother is Slovene, right, and we have to speak Slovene. I: How did you tell your mother your wife was pregnant? S2: Always in Italian. When it’s intimate, about matters of the heart, you always switch to the language closest to you. In the following excerpt, S1 describes how he is bothered by the fact that in the monolingual Slovene environment the use of borrowed slang words has expan­ded to formal speech situations (such as work) (e.g., fotka vs. slika ‘photo’), whilecertain Slovene words that he and the bilingual environment he grew up in use are marked as archaic (e.g., gumica for std. Sln. radirka ‘eraser’) or are not known at all in the Slovene environment (e.g., lesenka for std. Sln. barvica ‘crayon’). Inthis way, S1 has actually demonstrated greater language sensitivity and loyalty 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 to the language than monolingual Slovene speakers who uncontrollably adopt foreign slang words into formal discourse. However, in order not to be laughed at by his interlocutors, S1 adapted and started using such words himself. [8] I: [S1], the other day you told me that since you’ve come to Slovenia, you no longer say stisnit, but sprintat. S1: Yes, yes, I was used to it before, it was stampare, stisnit. […] perň, when we were in school, it was stisnit, right. She (S1’s wife) has laughed many times at some of our words, saying they’re from the stone age, perň, we use them. […] But they’re Slovene words, right, because afterwards I go check that JKSKZ (laughs), what’s the dictionary called … S2: SSKJ.9 (laughs) S1: And it’s in there, right, it’s a normal Slovene word, not archaic, you people just don’t use it. Although the speaker is mistaken and the word stisniti is not appropriate for the meaning ‘to be printed’ in the standard Slovene language, the word natisniti is semantically appropriate, he nevertheless clearly shows a sensitivity to language use and is aware of the interference in language variation (slang words in the standard language), which bothers him. At the same time, he keeps switching from Slovene to Italian and vice versa, even within utterances, which he is not aware of. The following section therefore provides an overview of how the mech­anisms of language switching work and what triggers the switch in the speakers included in the study. In addition, conversational excerpts are used to illustrate the final factor in the choice of one language or another in a given speech situa­tion, namely, the speaker’s attitude toward each language. This term refers to the alternating use of two or more languages within the same discourse or the parallel placement of utterances belonging to two different grammatical systems within the same discourse (Gumperz 1992, 81; Treffers-Daller 2009, 58). It is particularly common in spontaneous conversations be­tween two or more bilingual or multilingual speakers in multilingual communi­ties or individual families. The switching can take different forms; the speaker may make the switch with a single word or phrase, with an utterance, or with a whole sequence of utterances. There are several reasons that lead to language-switching; the following list is based on Heine & Kuteva (2008, 59), Crystal (2006, 414), and Gumperz (1992, 63): 1. to express solidarity or respect with a particular social group; 2. to exclude others from the conversation; RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 3. to produce a specific effect; 4. to compensate for the speaker’s lower linguistic competence in the other lan­guage. An example of the speaker’s language switch in the function of expressing soli­darity with or respect for a particular social, ethnic, linguistic, or other commu­nity would be the Pope’s annual Easter greetings in over 150 different languagesof the world. Bilingual or multilingual speakers switch to another language when they wish to exclude others from the conversation or do not want to be understood. An ex­ample of this are the children of S2 who switch to Italian when they do not wantto be understood by their monolingual Slovene classmates. For a bilingual speaker, there are meanings that cannot be expressed equally well in both codes (Wierzbicka 2010, 102). In this sense, the switch to languageB may, according to the speaker, have the function of conveying semantically more relevant information than would be the case in language A, e.g., in order toachieve a certain effect, as S2 says in the following text excerpt. [9] S2: I don’t know. […] it can happen that in the given moment it’s easier to express yourself in one language than in the other, it does happen, and among Slovenes living in Italy you can talk 70 percent in Slovene and then you want to say one sentence in a particular way, and you say it in Italian. I: Do you think that sentence that you want to say in Italian conveys more? S2: You create a different atmosphere because it’s probably linked to specific experiences and events, or it’s linked […] to a specific writer, to a film or something that you experience in a different way, allora you prefer to connect with those words in that language. The speaker is unable to express themselves in language A, so they switch to language B. In this case, the language switch is a strategy that the speaker usesto compensate for their lower linguistic competence in language A, as example 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 [10] shows. Another example comes from the Slovene Littoral. Sociolinguisticresearch conducted by Todorovic (2021, 118) among Italian-speaking Istrians, wherein it was shown that some speakers in contact with Slovene monolingualspeakers prepare for conversations in advance. One of the interviewees explainedthat her personal doctor does not speak Italian, so she gets acquainted with the appropriate terms for the symptoms before the examination. The interlocutors were left alone for a moment and their conversation turned to the technical language of mobile telephony. S1 had heard Vodafone had a spe­cial offer worth considering. Since they are better acquainted with the technicalterminology of the field in question in Italian, and also because the absence ofother conversation participants (a change in the speech situation) meant they were able to open the door to interference from Italian (they had controlled theirspeech when the interviewer had been present), a significant change in theirspeech behaviour can be observed. They began language mixing.10 Slovene was still the predominant language of communication but it was interspersed with: 1. switches to Italian, such as, you pay ventinove euro fisso a month and you get eight hundred minutes of calls, four hundred messaggi and ten [džiga] in traf­fico internet, [špeciale] I think, 2. Italian lexical and syntactic interference, such as, one [opcion], I’ll need two [telefonini]; pustmo stat messaggi ‘let’s put aside messaggi’. 11 [10] S1: Allora, I’ll switch to Tre, cioč, I’d like to switch to tre, practicamente, right, because now there’s an [opcion] ‘option’, special, cioč, eight hundred minutes of calls […]. S2: How much? S1: Ventinove euro, you pay ventinove euro fisso a month and you get eight hundred minutes of calls, four hundred messaggi and ten [džiga]12 in traffico internet, [špeciale]13 I think, does Vodafone have something like that? You keep track of such things. S2: I remember, I was checking out Tre, cioč, if they have any offerta. S1: Now they have only tre power, […] otherwise, the same thing costs quarantanove euro […] For me it’s [figada], cioč, cioč … I made a calcolo, let’s put aside internet, let’s put aside messaggi, which I don’t write, perň, if you make a calculation, right, you make, e, ottocento minuti o per venti nove euro diviso ottocento minuti, I get that it costs me seven cents a minute […]. According to our interlocutors, however, the reason for switching is not alwayslower linguistic competence, but that something can be expressed better in theother language. Thus, the reason why a bilingual speaker switches from one lan­guage to another is often because the meaning they want to express “belongs”in the other language (Wierzbicka 2010, 102). For S1, Italian metaphorical lan­guage is closer to him than its Slovene counterpart. He illustrates this with the example of sports, where, he says, the Italian commentator uses very expressivephrases that he thinks Slovene lacks. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 [11] S1: […] for example, Moto [dži pi], right, […] I mean, Guido Meda, […] has a flair for words, […] Franco Bulatto dietro [a žvernicato]14, he uses expressions that are not even comprehensible in Slovene, [žvernicare] means strip off paint, right. Allora […] that means that he passed by so close that he stripped his paint off, see? Perň, how are you going to say something like that in Slovene? When you’re done with the sentence, the race is already over, right. (laughs) No, I think Italian has a lot of expressions where one word can convey a concept when Slovene requires a whole essay, right. In this case, S1 feels that the Slovene word for driving very close to another mo­torist is not the exact semantic and metaphorical equivalent of the Italian word,so he feels that the Italian word is irreplaceable here. In other words, he feels thatthe Slovene word does not fit his perception of the situation. For him, the Italian expression [žvernicare] has greater emotional power because of its meaning, andthe Slovene equivalent would fall short in its emotional intensity. S2 agrees, butthen also cites example [12], that illustrates a lack of Italian lexical equivalents to the Slovene words. In his opinion, there are indeed differences between the twolanguages in their expressiveness, but in one area, Italian is more expressive or semantically precise, and in another Slovene. [12] S2: Sometimes Slovene has more words for something. For example, you have five, six words for different kinds of ice, right, while in Italian you only have ghiaccio. It’s ghiaccio compresso, ghiaccio cosi, but it’s always ghiaccio, you don’t have any other word, you see? The two examples show that not only do both speakers speak two languages, butthey also live their lives in both languages, unconsciously observing and compar­ing the lexical and grammatical repertoire of both of them and, when they deem it necessary, using the most appropriate expression from one or the other lan­guage in a bilingual speech situation to express the most appropriate semanticmeaning they want to convey. As mentioned at the beginning, both speakers have chosen to live in the Slo-vene-speaking environment of the suburbs of Nova Gorica. S2 has lived therefor twenty years and S1 for sixteen years. Next, I was interested in the areas of life in which they found linguistic adaptation most difficult. Both emphasised thatcertain expressions from daily life were the most problematic at first, such as the Slovene expression for the remedy to remove limescale. S2 tells how he went tothe shop to buy it and only knew the Italian expression anticalcare. This responsein some way confirms the finding of Grgic, who points out that 80 per cent of students who complete eight years of schooling in Slovene do not know Sloveneterms for everyday things such as cotton candy, shower soap, and croissant, “eventhough they can write an essay about the French Revolution correctly” (Grgic 2019a, 135–135). 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 Another area that caused the interviewees problems was jargon terminologybelonging to various areas of life, e.g., car parts or tools, which confirms the state­ment by Jagodic et al. (2020, 81) statement that Slovene speakers in Italy lackknowledge of specific (especially professional) Slovene vocabulary. [13] S1: I was more fluent in Italian than in Slovene terminology, because on that side of the border, if you like, technical terminology is Italian, […] you won’t hear any boy say, I’ve cleaned the uplinjac, 15 I’ve cleaned the [karburator],16 […] (laughs), I’ve changed the [kandele],17 I’ve changed the spark plugs. S2: You know what the biggest problem is? When I had to go to a Slovene hardware shop, I didn’t know what to ask for. Can you give me a cacciavite? Can you give me what? S1: It’s a problem because we still use colloquial terms. Do you have a [šraufencinfer] ‘screwdriver’? S2: Yes, I didn’t know the word, I didn’t know how to translate it, how to say cacciavite in Slovene. S1: There’s also [bulon].18 S2: [bulon], too. Based on the textual examples, we can see that the speakers are affected by lexi­cal interference and constantly switch between the two languages. However, from the point of view of language contact, the interference at the syntactic level,which is not apparent at first sight in the language, is the most interesting, whichis why the last part of the article focuses on such interference in the language use of the speakers included in the study and in their families. Syntactic interference (or in this case syntactic calque) is a phenomenon inwhich a syntactic structure in language B, or more precisely in a subsystem of language B, deviates from the norm of language B (or is absent altogether in lan­guage B) but is found in the contact language (language A or one of the systemsor subsystems of language A) (Heine & Kuteva 2008, 58; Matras 2009, 234– 237; Zuljan Kumar 2022, 149–150, 153–159). Here are a few examples from the conversation with the bilingual speakersin question: [14] S2: […] all these expressions that you also have […] here in the Littoral, there’s expressions […] such as brez druzga […]. W2: Senz’altro. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 S2: It’s a direct translation of senz’altro. W2: And there’s za + infinitive. I know it isn’t OK, but if everyone says it, I say it too now, I know that it’s wrong, oppure this, je brat od Andreja (‘he is the brother of Andrej’). It isn’t OK, right, but if everyone says it … (laughs). In example [14], S2 and his wife point out the calqued structures brez drugega ‘*without other (i.e., surely)’, za + infinitive ‘for + infinitive’ and od ‘of’+ noun phrase, which are the predominant means of expressing manner (brez drugega), intention (the preposition za + infinitive) and possession (the preposition od + noun phrase). These language patterns have prevailed over the Slovene struc­tures vsekakor (bi), ne da bi + infinitive and the expression of possession withpossessive pronouns in the corresponding meanings. S2’s wife, who learnedstandard Slovene in a language course, is aware of this calquing but uses these structures herself because she identifies with the community that uses them andin order to adapt to the environment in which she lives. [15] S1: […] in Slovene it’s se blešci (‘*it’s glimmering itself (i.e., it’s shining)’), right […]. I’ve corrected it so many times19 […] o, come si brilla questo, in Italian come brilla, right […]’ I: Does this mean the children think in Slovene and translate to Italian? W2: E, yes… S2: Ci prepariamoci, said [my son] once, you say prepariamoci or ci prepariamo. W2: Oppure, aspetta, aspetta, un’altra, I can’t remember […] Aiuta a la mamma (‘*help to your mother’). In Italian it’s aiuta la mamma, help your mother […] Or vice-versa, such as za vidit, in Italian it’s andiamo a vedere, in Slovene gremo za videt (‘*let’s go to see’), that’s not OK, right?’ In example [15], S2 and his wife report on Slovene linguistic interference in theItalian of their children, who spend most of their time in a Slovene-speaking en­vironment. Language switching is bidirectional in S2’s family, suggesting that thetwo languages he is in contact with are indeed equal, whereas it is much less fre­quent in the other family because of the exclusive use of Slovene. The study showed that although both speakers had highly developed languagecompetence in both languages, the predominant language in their childhoodfamilies was Italian. They were aware of this and decided to change their estab­lished discursive practices by moving to a monolingual Slovene environment.When they moved to Slovenia, they encountered language problems in termsof being unfamiliar with Slovene jargon terminology in the new environment and using Slovene words that the monolingual environment rejected as archaic. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 The speakers also had problems at the level of pronunciation (i.e., the phonetic distinction between languages in contact), pronouncing some Slovene words in an Italian way, and at the level of accent, stressing Slovene words in an Italian way, which triggered laughter in the monolingual environment. Although the speakers constantly switch between languages, even within utterances, they are sensitive to the transfer of slang words into standard Slovene, indicating a loyalty to Slovene that they believe is stronger than with monolingual Slovene speakers, a fact that disturbed S1. Both speakers, as well as S2’s wife, who is a native Ital­ian, are aware of interference at the syntactic level, but still use such structures because it is normal in the community they moved to, indicating their loyalty to the speech habits of the new environment. Although both speakers lived in Italy and now live in Slovenia in a similar environment, their families use different discursive practices based on deci­sions between spouses: While in S1’s family, Slovene is consciously predomi­nant, unlike in his childhood family where Italian was predominantly used, S2’s family repeats the pattern from his childhood family by using both languages equally. Despite this difference, the linguistic behaviour of the two speakers when speaking to each other maintained their predominant discursive practice, i.e., switching between languages depending on which language they consider most appropriate at a given moment to express the intended message. They have (unconsciously) maintained this linguistic behaviour, although they both con­sciously use Slovene as the language of everyday communication in their new language environment. References Bajc, G., 2020. Between Clear and Cloudy Skies. A Brief Overview of the History of Slovenes inItaly. In N. Bogatec & Z. Vidau (eds.) A Community at the Heart of Europe: Slovenes in Italyand the Challenges of the Third Millennium. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, 22–34. Bogatec, N., Bidovec, M., Grgic, M., Košuta, M., Mezgec, M., Simcic, T. & Slamic, P., 2020.Slovene. The Slovene Language in Education in Italy. Mercator European Research Centreon Multilingualism and Language Learning, Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, http://www.slori.org/en/publications/slovene-the-slovene-language-in-education-in-italy-2/ (accessed 5 May 2022). Brezigar, S. & Vidau, Z., 2021. Mladi govorci slovenskega jezika v Italiji in njihov odnos doRepublike Slovenije. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 87, 87–106, DOI: 10.36144/RiG87.dec21.87-106. Crystal, D., 2006. How Language Works. Penguin Group, London. Diller, K. C., 1970. Compound and Coodinate Bilingualism: A Conceptual Artifact. Word 26, 2, 254–261. Grgic, M., 2016. Jezik: sistem, sredstvo in simbol: identiteta in ideologija med Slovenci v Italiji. Slo­venski raziskovalni inštitut SLORI, Trst. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 Grgic, M., 2017. Italijansko-slovenski jezikovni stik med ideologijo in pragmatiko. Jezik in slovstvo 62 (1), 89–98, 121. Grgic, M., 2019a. Slovenian in Italy: Questioning the Role of Rights, Opportunities, and Posi­tive Attitudes in Boosting Communication Skills among Minority Language Speakers.Europäisches Journal für Minderheitenfragen 12 (1/2), 126–139. Grgic, M., 2019b. Manjšinski jeziki med Italijo in Slovenijo: zakaj potrebujemo cezmejnošolstvo?. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 83, 35–50, DOI: 10.36144/ RiG83.dec19.35-50. Gumperz, J., 1992. Discourse Strategies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne. Hakuta, K., 2009. Bilingualism. In L. R. Squire (ed.) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Stanford Uni­versity, Stanford, 173–178. Heine, B. & Kuteva, T., 2008. Constraints on Contact-Induced Linguistic Change. Journal of Language Contact 2, 57–90. Jagodic, D., 2011. Between Language Maintenance and Language Shift: The Slovenian Com­munity in Italy Today and Tomorrow. Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri, (Special Issue), 195–213. Jagodic, D., Kaucic-Baša, M. & Dapit, R., 2020. Linguistic Situation of the Slovenes in Italy. In N. Bogatec & Z. Vidau (eds.) A Community at the Heart of Europe: Slovenes in Italy and theChallenges of the Third Millennium. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, 70–101. Marušic, B., 1989. Goriška. In M. Javornik Enciklopedija Slovenije 3 Eg-Hab. Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana, 284–285. Matras, Y., 2009. Language Contact. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Mezgec, M., 2012. Funkcionalna pismenost v manjšinskem jeziku: primer slovenske manjšine v Ita­liji. Univerzitetna založba Annales, Koper. Mezgec, M., 2013. Razvijanje pismenosti v maternem jeziku, ko materni jezik ni uradni jezik: vpliv bralnih in pisnih praks. Andragoška spoznanja 19 (4), 10–24. Padilla, A. & Borsato, G., 2010. Disciplinary and Methodological Approaches: Psychology. In J. A. Fishman & O. García (eds.) Language and Ethnic Identity. Volume I. Disciplinary and Regional Perspectives. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 5–16. Pertot, S., 2014. Dvajset let med slovenšcino in italijanšcino. In S. Pertot & M. Kosic (eds.) Jeziki in identitete v precepu. Mišljenje, govor in predstave o identiteti pri treh generacijah matu­rantov šol s slovenskim ucnim jezikom v Italiji. SLORI, Trst, 13–50. Thomason, G., S., 2008. Social and Linguistic Factors as Predictors of Contact-Induced Change. Journal of Language Contact – THEMA 2, 42–56. Todorovic, S., 2021. Istrobenešcina med pripadniki italijanske narodne manjšine v slovenskiIstri. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 87, 103–123, DOI: 10.36144/ RiG87.dec21.211-231. Treffers-Daller, J., 2009. Code-Switching and Transfer: An Exploration of Similarities andDifferences. In B. E. Bullock & A. J. Toribio (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-Switching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 58–74. Vidau, Z., 2015. Medkulturni položaj mladih, ki se šolajo v slovenskem jeziku v Italiji. Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 74, 23–39. Weinreich, U., 1979. Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems. Mouton Publishers, The Hague, Paris, New York. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES D. ZUljAN KUMAR Change in the Discursive Practices of Bilingual Speakers after Moving to a Monolingual ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 Wierzbicka, A., 2010. Preface: Bilingual Lives, Bilingual Experience. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 94–104. Zuljan Kumar, D., 2009. Jezikovno preklapljanje v jeziku v stiku. In I. Novak Popov (ed.) Slo­venski mikrokozmosi – medetnicni in medkulturni odnosi. Zveza društev Slavisticno društvo Slovenije, Ljubljana, 62–74. Zuljan Kumar, D., 2022. Skladnja nadiškega in briškega narecja. Založba ZRC, Ljubljana. Notes 1 The abbreviations used for speech roles are: I – interviewer, S1 – first speaker, S2 – second speaker,W2 – S2’s wife. 2 The examples have been translated into English. To improve readability, language switchesto standard Italian (std. It.) are written in italics. Language switches to the Gorizia and Triesteversions of the Venetian dialect (Gor. and Tr. Ven.) are cited in square brackets, e.g., Gor. and Tr.Ven. [šfigada] vs. std. It. sfiga ‘bad luck’; the same applies to acronyms spelled by speakers in theItalian way, such as moto GP [dži pi]. Square brackets are also used to quote loan words in theSlovene version spoken in the Gorizia region of Italy (Gor. Sln.), such as [inštintivo]. 3 Communicative competence is a learned skill that a speaker acquires through socialization in aparticular language, and it includes forms and ways of communicating, i.e., practices that a speakeruses in particular circumstances and domains (Grgic 2019a, 128). 4 S1 is referring to the inverted order in the pronunciation of the ones and tens digits in Slovene. 5 Compare Non mi importa un cavolo ‘I don’t give a *cabbage (damn)’. 6 A borrowing from Gor. and Tr. Ven that is used in Gor. and Tr. colloquial Sln., but not in theregional colloquial variant of Slovene in Slovenia; it means ‘instinctively’. 7 His mother finds it easier to communicate in Italian than in Slovene because as a child she was torn from her Slovene environment during the war and deported to Germany. As a result, sheforgot her mother tongue. She was not able to develop it when she should have, and instead shefostered her knowledge of Italian and German. Now she tries to speak Slovene, but she is unableto do so when it comes to intimate topics. 8 This is also confirmed by Todorovic (2021, 114), who notes that many speakers of the Italiandialect with whom she conducted several interviews had no real need to learn the standard language. One of the interviewees explicitly pointed out that she would feel uncomfortable if shewanted to speak differently than she was used to, which is in her native dialect. 9 Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika (Dictionary of Standard Slovene Language). 10 Here I use the term language mixing to mean using two languages as if they were a single language.In contrast to conscious language switching, speakers do this unconsciously when they mix codes. 11 A calque from lasciamo stare i messaggi. 12 Italian version of the word gig(abyte). 13 Borrowing in Gor. and Tr. Sln. 14 Gor. and Tr. Ven. ‘strip off paint’, std. It. sverniciare. 15 Std. Sln. expression for ‘carburettor’. 16 Borrowing in Gor. and Tr. Sln., std. It. carburatore. 17 Borrowing in Gor. and Tr. Sln. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 D. ZUljAN KUMAR Sprememba diskurzivnih praks dvojezicnih govorcev po preselitvi v enojezicno okolje DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.67-85 18 Borrowing in Gor. and Tr. Sln., Friulian bulňn, std. It. bullone ‘bolt’. 19 She has corrected her children when they speak Italian because they use the reflexive form of averb which is a calque from Slovene. The article has been produced as part of the P6-0038 programme, which is financed by the Slo­venian Research Agency. TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022, p. 87–111 DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 The goal of this paper is to investigate the role of family choices regarding the language of education in self-representations in the adult life of millennials, who grew up during the1990s Yugoslav wars in Vojvodina. Although the armed conflicts of the 1990s Yugoslav warsavoided Vojvodina, the war had a profound effect on the region. For intermarriage-bornmillennials, one of the milestone events in their lives is their parents’ choice of language ofinstruction when enrolling them in elementary school. The paper is based on an in-depthanalysis of interviews conducted with millennials born in Serb-Hungarian intermarriage.The findings show the influence the choice of language of school instruction has on themillennials’ identity and sense of belonging. Those who attended minority language tuitionendured more ethnicity-based, nationalism-fuelled incidents during their schooling. Thistopic is important, since the experiences of intermarriage-born millennials in Vojvodina hadpreviously been neglected because of the focus on Serb-Croatian-Bosnian relationships inconflict literature. Keywords: intermarriage, education, language, 1990s Yugoslav war, ethnicity, identity, millennials, Vojvodina, Serbia. Prispevek proucuje vpliv izbire ucnega jezika na samoopredelitev v odrasli dobi v primeru otrok, kiso odrašcali v Vojvodini v casu jugoslovanskih vojn v devetdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja. Cepravso neposredni oboroženi spopadi Vojvodino obšli, je vojna tudi to regijo mocno zaznamovala. Zaotroke, rojene v mešanih zakonih, je ena od življenjskih prelomnic tudi izbira ucnega jezika obvpisu v osnovno šolo. Clanek temelji na poglobljeni analizi intervjujev, opravljenih z otroki, rojenimiv mešanih srbsko-madžarskih zakonih. Ugotovitve kažejo pomemben vpliv izbire ucnega jezika všoli na njihovo identiteto in obcutek pripadnosti. Tisti, ki so obiskovali pouk v manjšinskem jeziku,so med šolanjem doživeli vec incidentov, povezanih z etnicno pripadnostjo in nacionalizmom.Tematika je vsekakor zanimiva, saj izkušnje vojvodinskih otrok iz mešanih zakonov doslej niso biledeležne vecje pozornosti v strokovni literaturi, ki se je osredotocala predvsem na srbsko-hrvaško­bosanske odnose. Kljucne besede: mešani zakon, izobraževanje, jezik, jugoslovanska vojna v devetdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja, etnicnost, identiteta, otroci, Vojvodina, Srbija. Correspondence address: Karolina Lendák-Kabók, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Dr. Zorana Đindica 2, RS-21102 Novi Sad, e-mail: karolina.lendak@uns.ac.rs. ISSN 0354-0286 Print/ISSN 1854-5181 Online © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja (Ljubljana), http://www.inv.si 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 Although during the 1990s Yugoslav wars there were no armed conflicts in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (hereinafter, Vojvodina), the northern partof Serbia, the war still had consequences (Nad 2006). Vojvodina is not a territo­rial autonomy on ethnic grounds, but a multi-ethnic region (Székely & Horváth 2014) with 25 different ethnicities,1 among which the Hungarian ethnic minor­ity is the largest and constitutes 13 per cent of the Vojvodinian population (Sta­tistical Office of the Republic of Serbia 2012). During the wars in the 1990s, the living conditions of the Hungarians in Vojvodina changed significantly (Göncz2004), since the 1990s were permeated by ethnic conflicts and the outbreak ofhatred and hostility towards national minorities, or towards all those who dif­fered from the majority nation (Savic 2006). These circumstances decreasedthe population of the ethnic minority communities due to large-scale emigra­tion (Gábrity-Molnár 1997; Vékás 2008). Everybody had to cope with difficult economic and ever-changing social and political circumstances that were exacer­bated by and associated with their minority fate and vulnerability (Göncz 2004).The number of Hungarians in Vojvodina decreased rapidly (Gábrity-Molnár 1997; Göncz 2004; Vékás 2008); by May 1992, 25,000 Hungarians had fled toHungary, who were later legally deprived of their inheritance rights for avoidingmilitary conscriptions. Many who stayed and refused to serve were dismissed from their jobs (Vékás 2008, 356). Acculturation can be seen as an important concept in explaining the variedexperiences of ethnic and cultural minorities (Trimble 2003, 5), which may in­volve the loss of some components of the ethnic minority identity in public re­lations, i.e., language loss, changing social networks, or evolving cultural values(Phinney 2003). Acculturation was always more prominent in intermarriage-born children. Moreover, those who were born in intermarriages and had mixednational identities found it challenging to decide whether to belong to an eth­nic minority group or the majority during the turbulent time of the 1990s, as it became onerous to be a member of any ethnic minority community (Göncz2004). Although Botev (1994) argued that the high level of intermarriages (be­tween 1962–1989 the percentage of intermarriages in Vojvodina varied between 22.5 %–28.4 %, while in Kosovo it varied between 9.4 %–4.7 % in the same pe­riod) saved the province from the escalation of armed conflicts, the idea of inter­marriage as a panacea for social harmony and cohesion may be overly simplistic (Rodríguez-García et al. 2016, 2), especially if they become weaponized and re­garded as eroding forces attacking ethnic boundaries (Buric 2020). Earlier studies on ethnic intermarriages in Vojvodina were based on pub­licly available statistical data analyses (cf. Petrovic 1968; 1985; Botev 1994;Smits 2010; Sokolovska 2008; Lazar & Acimov 2017), while scant attentionwas paid to ethnic-intermarriage-born individuals from a qualitative perspective RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 (Özatesler-Ülkücan 2020). To understand this phenomenon of heteroethnicmillennials we need to adopt Hobsbawm’s (2012, 10) approach2 of analysing the nations and their constructions from above, i.e., in terms of political, techni­cal, administrative, economic and other conditions; and from below by voicingindividuals’ assumptions and interests. The paper presents the complex decision-making process that intermarriedparents faced upon choosing their children’s language of instruction at school(minority or majority). The stories were narrated from the perspective of inter­marriage millennials (born in the 1980s) revealing breakpoints, much like thelanguage of instruction. Millennials in post-socialist countries in Europe are ina particularly vulnerable, precarious position, as the transition from socialism to neo-liberalism has revived class, gender, and ethnic social differences (Ule 2012,40). Additionally, the research focuses on the investigation of ethnicity-baseddiscrimination and incidents which intermarriage-born millennials endured in their childhood and schooling during the 1990s Yugoslav wars. The analysis wasbased on semi-structured interviews with individuals from different parts of Vo­jvodina with either majority- or minority-dominant populations. The research is unique in two aspects. Firstly, it offers an insight into theSerb-Hungarian relationship during the 1990s war through the lens of the his­torical overview of political and social events, which serves to shift the focus from the literature that looks at Serb-Croat-Bosnian ethnic relations, but also to add a new dimension to it. Thus, the questions this paper ought to answer is:to what extent do intermarriage-born millennials preserve their ethnic minor­ity identity components (ethnic minority language use) and did the languageof school instruction induce any ethnicity-based atrocities during the 1990s forintermarriage-born millennials? 1.1 Intermarriage as a Panacea of Social Cohesion There is no clear-cut definition of intermarriage. There exist different types ofintermarriage, for instance, racial, ethnic, or religious, but they may coincide, sothe boundaries between them are often blurred. The literature on who marries whom is dominated by two themes: marriageas an exchange of social, economic, and personal relationships between spous­es, and marriage as an indicator of assimilation or social distance (Schoen et al. 1989, 617). Intermarriage has long been seen as a reflection of intergroup rela­tions and the strength of group boundaries (Gordon 1964). It also serves as themain indicator of acculturation or even assimilation (Merton 1941; Blau et al. 1982; Labov & Jacobs 1986), and, as it challenges people’s ideas about divid­edness, is still controversial (Osanami Törngren 2016). It is not clear whetherintermarriage is a result of integration, or vice versa – integration is seen as an outcome of intermarriage (Song 2009). Integration needs to be differentiated 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 from assimilation. Namely, assimilation implies the diminishing of ethnic char­acteristics, while integration refers to the social aspect, indicating “the overall ac­ceptance into the mainstream” (Song 2009). In writing about the assimilationprocess, Gordon (1964) defines three steps: cultural assimilation or accultura­tion, structural, and finally, marital assimilation, highlighting that this process may result in the disappearance of an ethnic group as a separate entity. According to Peach (2005), the rate of intermarriage depends on the degreeof segregation – a higher degree of segregation implies a lower degree of integra­tion and, hence, a lower number of intermarriages. High rates of intermarriagebetween a minority and majority group simultaneously indicate the acceptabil­ity of the minority to the majority, and the blurring of the smaller group’s distinc­tiveness (Schoen et al. 1989, 618). What also affects intermarriage rates is the location of creating such unions.The nature of the heteroethnic relationship also plays a significant role. Merton (1941, 361) suggests that “rates and patterns of intermarriage are closely relatedto cultural orientations, standardized distributions of income and symbols ofstatus”. Ethnic minority members might try to “get closer” to the majority popu­lation in their homeland via intermarriage (Kemp 2006), i.e., choosing a spousefrom the majority nation (Hoóz 2002). A minority spouse may become moredeeply integrated into the majority society’s structures, institutions, or social networks through intermarriage. In some cases, families value both heritages equally, thereby practising a “hy­brid family culture” (Caballero 2007). It may happen that the minority spouse’s culture is dominant in some families or diminished in others. Consequently, thechildren born in these unions very often do not identify themselves as mem­bers of a single ethnic group and their cultural distinctiveness is rather decreased (Harris & Sim 2002). Their tendency towards the majority, minority or mixedpositions is the result of both individual and contextual factors (Osanami Törn­gren et al. 2021). For instance, in the regions where racial categorization is not state-driven, persons from mixed marriages identify themselves as “neither-nor”,as coined by Brubaker (2016), i.e., “in a space outside the parameters of originand ethno-racial background” (Osanami Törngren et al. 2021, 773), which could easily be applied to the situation of the heteroethnic background as is commonin Central and Eastern Europe. Because marriage is regarded as a mechanism for the transmission of ethni­cally specific cultural values and practices to the next generation, intermarriagemay fundamentally affect the boundaries and distinctiveness of ethnic minor­ity groups (Barth 1969). Intermarriages indicate that social, cultural, and other barriers are falling (Coleman 1994). Intergroup social categories and boundar­ies can be transcended with the creation of hybrid and transformative identities(Özatesler-Ülkücan 2020). If we accept that intermarriage signals the genuine social acceptance of others as equals, then we may also conclude that it reveals a RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 genuine decrease in ethnic and racial prejudice toward minority groups in soci­ety (Song 2009, 333). For these reasons, intermarriage is usually regarded as an indicator of a minority group’s success and social acceptance (Song 2009). Intermarriage between members of different social groups calls into ques­tion another aspect of this kind of union – its function as a connecting element in society. This is because intermarriage not only links two individuals, but alsothe larger groups to which these individuals belong (Smits 2010, 421). Accord­ingly, intermarriage concerns not only the married couple, but whole families whose members may develop the most personal relationships with each other(Hoóz 2002, 1090). Families constitute important contexts for the social interaction and mu­tual acceptance that occurs between ethnic groups in society and may foster themaintenance of ethnic group boundaries (Huijnk 2011, 15). Preece (2008, 57)suggests that the use and maintenance of heritage language has a gender dimen­sion that applies to ethnic minority women, thus apart from bearing the task ofsymbolizing their nation collectively, women are expected to reproduce it cul­turally (Yuval-Davis 1997, 196). Women bear the burden of being “mothers of the nation” (Bracewell 1996), they reproduce the boundaries of ethnic/nationalgroups, transmit culture, and are the privileged signifiers of national difference(Kandiyoti 1994, 377). In family units with patriarchal male heads, the role of women is to reflect traditional notions of femininity, which in the case of eth­nic minority women can also result in their absorption into the majority nation(Thomson 2020). Botev (1994) argues that intermarriages in the former Yugoslavia were influencedby the cultural tradition of spouse selection preferences and that the Hungarianethnic minority had the lowest barriers for ethnic intermarriages in Vojvodina. They were the most open to ethnic intermarriage with other ethnically differentmembers of Yugoslav society. The fact that mixed marriages were condemnedand ridiculed during the 1990s wars in Yugoslavia by Bosnian politicians is an apt example of the weaponization of a peaceful and voluntary union of two cul­tures represented by a husband and wife (Buric 2020). Intermarriages in the for­mer Yugoslavia were influenced by the cultural traditions of different peoples and the states in which they lived, which greatly affected the choice of spouses(Botev 1994). Ruža Petrovic began researching and writing about mixed mar­riages in Yugoslavia in the 1960s. Using statistical data, she stated that mixed marriages were a rare occurrence between the two world wars, because of churchclerical rules, as religion had a far greater influence and significance compared tothe later period (Petrovic 1985). After World War II in Yugoslavia, the number 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 of mixed marriages began to grow owing to the introduction of socialist policies,such as compulsory civil marriage, urbanization, and education. Although Petrovic believed that mixed marriages in the former Yugoslaviahad become a means of ethnobiological as well as ethnocultural homogenization(Petrovic 1985), Buric (2020) states that a 1967 study conducted by Petrovic with respondents in each of the republics and two autonomous provinces (Voj­vodina and Kosovo) showed that regardless of the extent to which they variedin distrust of other ethnic groups, all respondents quickly dismissed members of other ethnic groups as possible spouses (Buric 2020). Religion remained aparticularly important factor in choosing a spouse, as Petrovic (1985) observes,and most ethnically mixed marriages were between spouses of the same religion (for example, Kosovo Albanians with Turks, Bosniaks with Kosovo Albanians).Montenegrins, who were mostly religiously undecided by that time, more often chose Serbs as their spouses compared to the non-Orthodox population (Buric2020). Instability characterized intermarriages in Yugoslavia. Petrovic (1968) no­ticed that disagreement and differences on ethnic grounds were the root causes of the instability in mixed marriages. Buric (2020) added here an important ob­servation: that mixed marriages were more common in cities, between spouseswith a higher level of education, between whom divorce was certainly more fre­quent than in the rural population. Namely, mixed marriages between spouses oflower educational levels in rural areas were extremely unstable and resulted in ahigher level of divorces than in those from urban areas (Buric 2020). When it comes to multi-ethnic Vojvodina, in the period from 1956 to 2004,Sokolovska (2008) concludes (also based on statistical data) that ethnically het­erogeneous marriages were entered into by all ethnic groups in the territory of Vojvodina, mostly with Serbian women. She found that the most numerous mi­nority group, Hungarians, prefer to marry Serb women rather than Serbs Hun­garian women (1.06 % vs. 0.89 %), and that religion is not crucial for Hungar­ians in this process (Sokolovska 2008). The Hungarian national minority hadthe lowest barrier to conclude ethnically mixed marriages in Vojvodina, that is,it was most open to ethnically mixed marriages with other ethnically different members of Yugoslav society (Botev 1994). This practice dates back to the timeof the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, in which Hungarians were more open tomarrying members of ethnic groups (Botev 1994). The 1990s brought many socio-cultural changes, and this period was ofgreat importance for discussion on the level of acculturation of minoritiesthrough mixed marriages in Vojvodina. As a result of the wars in the 1990s, a large number of (Serb) refugees arrived from Bosnia and Croatia, which leadto a significant change in the demographic structure (Sokolovska 2008). It is interesting to point out that Botev believes that the wars of the 1990s in the for­mer Yugoslavia bypassed Vojvodina partly because of its large number of mixed RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 marriages (Botev 1994). Recent research conducted after 2010, also based onstatistical data, indicates that the highest rate of ethnically mixed marriages can still be found in Vojvodina, which is to be expected, given the heterogeneity ofthe ethnic structure of the population (Lazar & Acimov 2017), but also giventhe above-mentioned cultural tradition of the population of Vojvodina. A sense of belonging is an important part of identity, and as such is essentialto citizens as they develop bonds with a particular territory or nation (Örkény2005, 46). In the case of former Yugoslavia, a “supranational Yugoslav identity was built, an identity pattern which embodied the principle of brotherhood andunity” (Godina 1998, 416), and which was free from ethnic and class difference(Tóth 2019). Today, individuals born from ethnic intermarriages must choose between different ethnically-marked alternatives (Kiss 2018, 483) and in thisway, artificially affirm one of their identities to the detriment of the other. It isinteresting to note that members of the Hungarian minority had greater affilia­tion with the former Yugoslavia than Serbs (Perunovic 2016). As regards Vojvodina’s inhabitants, they developed multiple identities thatdid not necessarily exist in a hierarchy, but rather were awarded priority depend­ing on the context (Šaracevic 2012, 3) – this might be because ethnic communi­ties in Vojvodina have different group characteristics (Ilic & Cvejic 1997). TheVojvodinian-Hungarian identity was developed and built during the socialist era (Losoncz 2018), in parallel with the building of a supranational Yugoslav iden­tity. However, it only fully developed after the disappearance of Yugoslavia, andit can be “clearly differentiated from that of the wider (perhaps original?) Hun­garian nation” living in Hungary (Bálint 2012, 454). In order to preserve one’s ethnic minority identity in a nation-state, educationin one’s mother tongue is crucial (Papp 2017). Education maintains the cultural and linguistic shape of the nation state (May 2012, 132), thus, ethnic minoritiestend to seek the formal institutionalization of mother-tongue education and usetheir language at school as a means of preventing or reducing language assimila­tion (Papp 2014). In the Transylvanian-Hungarian context, schools play a keyrole in the generational reproduction of the Hungarian world in Cluj-Napoca(Brubaker et al. 2018). For mixed families, choosing the language of school in­struction can have real, long-term, and far-reaching consequences – for example,in terms of choosing the child’s ethnic identity (Brubaker et al. 2018). In Tran­sylvania, for minority Hungarians, it is not even a question of which language their children speak at school, they enrol their children in Hungarian schoolsby default, as this is a way of maintaining the “ethnic minority word”, but when 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 it comes to mixed marriages, this is not unambiguous (Brubaker et al. 2018).Some children born in intermarriages may begin their education in a Hungarian primary school and then transfer to the Romanian system in high school or inupper secondary school (Brubaker et al. 2018). In some countries, like Slova­kia or Ukraine, parents of Hungarian minority children may feel that a minority Hungarian-language education would not provide their children with as manyopportunities, thus they might opt for majority language schooling. If parentschoose the majority language for school instruction, they may do so to better integrate their children with the majority nation, as the former is important ifchildren are to prosper and build a career in the country in which they were born(Papp 2017, 97). Opting for majority language schooling affects the minority community on multiple levels. It narrows down the possibility for ethnic mi­nority language schooling, because if there are not enough pupils enrolled in aclass (at least five), the school will cancel the ethnic minority language class. For example, in Novi Sad (Serbia) there are currently three elementary schools andfour high schools that offer instruction in Hungarian. Earlier, when more firstgraders were enrolled in Hungarian, more elementary schools had instruction in Hungarian. High schools also struggle with a low number of pupils in class.Some researchers argue that minority language schooling can be detrimental,since in Serbia, the teaching of all classes in primary and secondary education in the minority language, with only a few hours per week of Serbian as the majoritylanguage, created generations of unbalanced bilinguals, characterized by a verylow level of Serbian language proficiency (Filipovic et al. 2007). This lack of ma­jority language proficiency resulted in a high rate of educational migration fromVojvodina that was strengthened by the fact that ethnic minority high schoolgraduates can obtain an EU university degree in their kin-states (Lendák-Kabók et al. 2020). If they choose to stay in their home country, most of them first needto overcome the language barrier (i.e., to gain Serbian language proficiency)when starting their studies, which requires time, effort, and sacrifice (Lendák-Kabók 2021). The language barrier mostly develops in Vojvodinian municipali­ties, where the minority population is in majority. Based on the above-presented contextual framework, the paper’s aim is to approach the 1990s war from the perspective of intermarriage-born (Serb-Hun­garian) millennials. In this sense, the paper will explore the following questions:what is the role of family choices regarding language of education in the self-representations of millennials in their adult lives? How were millennials affectedby the 1990s Yugoslav wars in Vojvodina? The study is based on eight interviews with millennials born into Serb-Hun­garian intermarriages. The snowball method (Esterberg 2001) was used when RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 choosing the respondents. The interviews were conducted from September toDecember 2019 in Hungarian and Serbian. The interview excerpts included in the paper were translated by the author from Hungarian and Serbian into Eng­lish. The respondents were born between 1981 and 1989 and raised in differentparts of Vojvodina. To secure the anonymity of the respondents, pseudonyms were used. The municipalities in which the interviewees from minority commu­nities were born and raised make a difference in terms of understanding theirattitudes towards ethnicity and language. These municipalities differ in regard to their ethnic compositions: in Novi Sad and Cenej, the majority of the popu­lation is Serb, thus it is more challenging for the interviewees to preserve theirminority language and identity, while in Ada, Mali Idoš and Mol, Hungarians are in the majority, thus it is easier to preserve the Hungarian ethnic minoritylanguage and identity. The interview grid consisted of twenty questions that built on each other and were divided into five main topics, namely: (1) childhood; (2) schooling; (3) the 1990s in Vojvodina; (4) ethnic identification; and (5) cultural differ­ences in partnership and family. In this paper, we focus on topics number (2), i.e., the language of schooling, family reasons for choosing minority or majorityschooling and its effects, (3) exploring the turbulent times of the 1990s, and partof topic number (4) on ethnic identification, which some respondents attached to either schooling or to their narrative about the 1990s. Coding methods designed by Saldańa (2013) and MacQueen et al. (2009)were followed when analysing the qualitative data. First, attribute coding (Mac-Queen et al. 2009) was applied to code the place of birth, the place of origin, theethnic belonging of their name and maiden name, their mother’s and father’snames, the language of their elementary and high school, their dominant lan­guage today, and their experience with ethnic-based conflicts. Their dominantlanguage was the one they expressed as being dominant when the author of thispaper asked them to decide. In most cases, they chose to speak in their dominant language during the interview, but some of the interviewees spoke in the minor­ity language, even though it was not their dominant language. Narrative analysis(Law 2004) was applied to analyse the interviews, as narrative research discusses the ways in which individuals and groups interpret the social world and theirplace within it (Law 2004). 3. empirical Findings The findings section will present the narratives of intermarriage-born millenni­als. Their parents choose either majority or minority language instruction. Thereasons behind these decisions will be discussed. We also analyse the ethnicityor language-related incidents which happened to our respondents during the turbulent 1990s and were somehow related to schooling. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 As the analysis focuses on a special group of people in an under-researchedarea in Europe, it begins with a short introduction of the interviewees, pre­senting their family background and the place they were raised. Hobsbawm’sapproach (2012) is adopted, suggesting that nations should be analysed frombelow by voicing individuals’ assumptions and personal perspectives on events, which was the author’s intention as well. First, we analyse the narratives of therespondents who finished at least elementary school in Hungarian, followed bythe narratives of the interviewees who finished their schooling in the majority language (i.e., in Serbian). Table 1: Attribute codes for respondents Code Date of birth Place of origin Ethnic belonging of their name Ethnic belonging of their maiden name Father’s ethnicity Mother’s ethnicity Language of elementary school Language of high school Language of the interview Dominant language Experienced ethnic-based atrocity Ljubica 1981 Mali Idoš Serb Serb Serb Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Yes Ivan 1982 Mol Serb - Serb Hungarian Serbian Serbian Hungarian Serbian Yes Eva 1982 Novi Sad Serb/Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Serb Serbian Serbian Serbian Serbian No Tara 1983 Cenej Serb Serb Serb Hungarian Hungarian Serbian Serbian Serbian Yes Teodora 1984 Novi Sad Serb Serb Serb Hungarianand Croatian Serbian Serbian Serbian Serbian No Zorana 1986 Novi Sad Serb Serb Serb Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Yes Katarina 1986 Ada Serb Hungarianand Serb Hungarian Serb Serbian Serbian Serbian Serbian No Emma 1989 Novi Sad Serb and Hungarian Hungarian Hungarian Serb Hungarian Serbian Hungarian Serbian Yes Source: Empirical data. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 In the continuance of this paper, the narratives of the respondents whose parentschose minority education for them will be presented together with the ethnic conflicts that occurred in the 1990s. Table 1 shows that four respondents wentto elementary school in Hungarian and only two continued their high school inHungarian as well. Choosing minority-language education was the result of diverse motivationin my respondent’s parents. Some attended school in Hungarian because theirmother was Hungarian (Ljubica, Zorana and Teodora – all three of them have Serb names), whereas one had a Hungarian father (Emma), who insisted thatshe went to elementary school in Hungarian. However, he did not require herto attend high school in Hungarian as well, so she continued her education in Serbian. As is shown in Table 1, four respondents finished their elementary and high school education in Serbian (Ivan, Eva, Teodora and Katarina), three of them(except Ivan) spoke in Serbian during the interview, stating in the beginning thatthey felt more comfortable to speak in Serbian, which was a sign of acculturation (Phinney 2003). My respondents did not recall any specific discussions aboutthe choice of tuition language within their family; the decision had come natu­rally, which they accepted without questioning it later on. In order to understand the respondents’ social status and the environments they grew up in, their backgrounds will be presented in chronological order,considering their date of birth, starting with the respondents who finished theirelementary (and high school) in Hungarian (Ljubica, Tara, Zorana and Emma) and continuing with the respondents who finished their schooling in Serbian(Ivan, Eva, Teodora and Katarina). 3.1 Ljubica Ljubica (1981), whose father is Serbian and her mother Hungarian, always lived with her mother in a mid-sized, mostly Hungarian town in the north of theBacka (in Hungarian: Bácska) region in Vojvodina. Her parents were separated,and her father lived in southern Serbia. She finished all her schooling in Hun­garian, as it was left to her mother to choose the language of instruction. In hernarrative, she identified with the Vojvodinian Hungarian ethnic minority group,but her Serb identity was also important for her. She recalled a period during the 1990s, when her Serb name either helped her or had its downside. In the follow­ing passage, she recalls a strong memory of an incident when her friends fromschool were bullied because of their ethnicity: My Serb name once helped, because when we were going home from high school by bus once, Lovcenac and Mali Idoš were in a big fight. Then, in the late 1990s, when Lovcenac and Kishegyes were battling, they came with chains and there were 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 big fights. It didn’t last long, but a lot of kids were beaten [...] it lasted a few months. Then we did not dare to cross through Lovcenac, or we went through Lovcenac very fearfully. In Lovcenac, the Montenegrins would not let the girls get off the bus in Mali Idoš, they would hold them and poke them. They did not hurt me because they looked at everyone’s name on our ID cards, and they did not hurt me because they thought I was theirs. There were also downsides to my Serbian name. I did not get a Hungarian scholarship from Kosztolányi [school] once because I have a Serbian name, although I finished all my schooling in Hungarian (Ljubica, see Table 1). Tara (1983) has a different background, as she grew up in a small Serbian settle­ment near Novi Sad. Her mother is Hungarian, was born in Hungary and cameto live in Serbia when she met Tara’s father. Tara had a Serb name and surname, just like Ljubica, but spoke in Serbian during the interview. The language of the interview was an immediate question of hers when we started the interview, asshe explained that nowadays it is much easier for her to speak Serbian, whichshowed a clear sign of acculturation. She went to Hungarian elementary school, switching to a Serbian high school, where she remembers having language-re­lated difficulties. The most traumatic experience for her in the 1990s was theNATO bombing in 19993 that resulted in moving to Hungary with her mother and sister, to her mother’s sister. They stayed there for a while, and she also wentto school. In Hungary, children were mean to her at school, she was othered be­cause she came from Serbia – for example, they posted notes on a bench telling her to go home to Serbia. Then it was very difficult for me because it was difficult for my class to accept me in high school, because it took me a while to switch from the Hungarian to the Serbian language. It was also hard in ’99, when the war started, the bombing, then our mother packed us up and we went to Hungary to live with our aunt, but my aunt’s husband spoke out openly against Miloševic,4 which made us even more anxious [...] we didn’t know what was going on, we weren’t aware of it, and mom took me and my sister away for only two or three weeks until everything calmed down a bit. In the end, we stayed there for three months, and they enrolled us in school – I went to high school, my sister went to elementary school, and I think my sister didn’t have any problems at all. She hung out there with those children, because they were younger, so I guess they weren’t aware. My case was different, children left me messages on the bench: “Go back to Serbia!”, you know, written in pencil (Tara, see Table 1). Zorana (1986) has a Serb name, but spoke in Hungarian during the interview, and has no difficulty with either the Hungarian or Serbian language. She consid­ RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 ered herself truly bilingual. Her late father was Serb and her mother is Hungar­ian. She was born and raised in Novi Sad, which is a city predominantly inhab­ited by the majority population. She completed all her schooling in Hungarian,including at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, where she had an opportu­nity to study and have exams in Hungarian in certain subjects that were taught by professors of Hungarian origin.5 Although she wanted to enrol in a high schoolspecialising in languages, the environment was rather competitive and she wasnot accepted, therefore she enrolled in one Hungarian class at a grammar school. Her high-school education in the Hungarian language was a second choice forher, since the competition for enrolment was not as fierce as it was in some highschools in Serbian, since the “minority world” (Brubaker et al. 2006) does not struggle with oversubscription of students, as there are ever fewer ethnic minor­ity Hungarian students at every level of schooling. Her father wanted her to beeducated in Hungarian during elementary school, as he was aware of the advan­tages of bilingualism. Later, bilingualism became her main trump card in life, asshe got all her jobs because she was bilingual. I went to primary and secondary school in Novi Sad, and to the University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Philosophy, I studied journalism, I chose the Hungarian group. Education in Hungarian was my father’s wish, and my sister and I went to a Hungarian school, he thought that if we chose schooling in Serbian, we would forget Hungarian (Zorana, see Table 1). When it comes to the 1990s, which divided people on an ethnic basis, Zorananarrated an occasion when their female neighbour, who was Hungarian, but who hid her origins by not speaking Hungarian at all, posted an offensive mes­sage on a tree. The female neighbour had probably rationalized her position byhighlighting her success at being socially accepted by the majority population (Song 2009), thus accepting the cultural badge (Kalmijn 1998) of her husbandin a majority environment, and in a tension-filled moment even denying her eth­nic origin: It happened at school in general. I felt that when my mom and I were going somewhere by bus, I somehow felt the negative energy in the air because they used to look at us for a moment. They did not speak. There was one occasion that I remember, at school[...] a little Serb girl came up to me and said that I should speak Serbian because I had a Serb surname and name. I will also say that we had a Hungarian neighbour in our building, her son was Serbian, she stopped speaking in Hungarian, and her husband was also Serbian. On one occasion, a piece of paper was glued to a tree with the printed message “Hungarians under the ice!”6 My dad also wrote an article about this at the time7 which also appeared in the newspaper. They were very upset because of that (Zorana, see Table 1). 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 Emma (1989) spoke in Hungarian during the interview, although she was some­ 100 what reserved and spoke in short sentences. Clearly Serbian was her strongerlanguage, but even though the researcher offered to continue the converstaion in Serbian, she did not accept. Her father was Hungarian and her mother Serb,while her maiden name and surname were both Hungarian. She was born and raised in a predominantly Serbian city, a majority Serbian environment, whereshe completed kindergarten and elementary school in Hungarian but graduatedfrom a prestigious grammar school in Serbian. In her narrative, she was less posi­tive about ethnic minority language schooling – she said that her class in elemen­tary school was small, with fewer than ten pupils, which she experienced as adisadvantage because of the lack of opportunity to socialize and make friends of her preference, which would be normal in a bigger class. This was because of theYugoslav war, as by the time Emma started elementary school in 1995, a lot ofethnic minority Hungarians had left Serbia, owing to difficult economic and un­stable social and political circumstances (Göncz 2004). In her Hungarian class, she felt discomfort due to her mixed origin and used a strong word for the chau­vinism that she also used to feel later in a Serbian environment. Namely, at theelite grammar school, for not being an ethnic Serb. Emma attended Hungarian classes at another grammar school in order to maintain her minority-languageskills and learn about Hungarian grammar and literature. This was her father’s wish. Thus, she completed four years of Hungarian language and literature stud­ies and passed the graduation exam in Hungarian as well. It should be noted thather father was a university professor, therefore more conscientious of his ethnic belonging and with the positive side of bilingualism. She spoke of her experiencein the following passage: I went to kindergarten and primary school in Hungarian, but I finished grammar school in Serbian, while also going to Hungarian classes in parallel at another school. At the end of each year, I took an exam in the Hungarian language and literature. That is how I have a high-school degree in Hungarian language and literature as well. I felt the chauvinism of a few teachers in elementary school, whose behaviour differentiated between ‘pure’ Hungarian and mixed-origin students. And in high school, I felt Serbian chauvinism from a teacher because I was not a ‘pure’ Serb. At high school, where there were about thirty of us, the environment was much healthier (Emma, see Table 1). Ivan (1982) had a Serb name and surname. He spoke in Hungarian during theinterview. His father is a Serb and his mother is Hungarian, and even his father’smother was Hungarian. His parents divorced during the 1990s. He and his sister RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 went to school in Serbian in a predominantly Hungarian environment. In hisnarrative, he did not recall whether his parents discussed his going to a school in Serbian. He did not question their decision. It could be argued that his father’s(partial) belonging to the majority nation was a cultural badge worth wearingand following (Kalmijn 1998). He had both Hungarian and Serbian friends, re­gardless of going to a Serbian school, because he lived in an environment thathad a Hungarian majority. His work required him to use both Hungarian andSerbian, and his minority language competency served as an advantage when finding work. He talked about the language choice of his schooling in the fol­lowing excerpt: I finished my elementary and high school in Serbian. This was because of my father. Although he does not declare himself a Serbian – his mother was also Hungarian. Somehow it was like that. I do not know if my parents discussed this, but it came as natural to them. I went to kindergarten in Hungarian, and I developed this bilingualism, even then, and since then I have been bilingual [...] my Serbian is a bit stronger, but my Hungarian language is also quite good. The language that I use for business purposes is also Hungarian (Ivan, see Table 1). Ivan talked about always being somewhere “in-between”, or neither-nor (Brubak-er 2016). As he went to a Serbian class but had many Hungarian friends, whenethnicity-based gang-fights took place in elementary school, he had to avoidchoosing sides, and because of his Serbian schooling, he may be seen as being inthe “anteroom of becoming a member of the majority nations” (Öllos 2012). Herecalled that ethnicity-based fights were not significant clashes. When he was astudent in Novi Sad, at the beginning of the 2000s, there was a situation in a bak­ery where comments were made about him and his friends because they werespeaking in Hungarian. He approached the person and sorted out the situation.The following is an excerpt of his narrative: During the 1990s there were ethnic conflicts which ended up in fights, but organized or exaggerated hatred was not the case. I heard that there were situations like this in Novi Sad in the ‘90s, but when I studied there between 2003 and 2009 nothing like that happened [...]. Once we were in a bigger group and went into a bakery or diner, someone muttered in the background about us speaking in Hungarian. So, I went up to him and told him how things were, so that was the only case that I can mention from my personal experience (Ivan, see Table 1). Although Ivan does not explain in his narrative what he did exactly to sort outthe minority-language use incident, the fact that Vojvodina was and still is a mul­tilingual and multicultural region means that people can refer to this fact when such incidents occur, i.e., they expect a certain level of tolerance. 101 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 3.6 eva Eva (1982) spoke in Serbian during the interview. She has a Hungarian name, 102 and her maiden name was also Hungarian, but when she married her husband(ethnic Serb) she took his last name. Her mother was Serbian and her fatherHungarian, they are both deceased. In her narrative, she emphasised how theyused both languages at home (Hungarian with her father, and mostly Serbianwith her mother and sister, thus in her family the most used language was Ser­bian). She went to school in Serbian in a majority Serbian city environment. Herschool did have a Hungarian class as well, but her parents decided to enrol herand her sister into a Serbian class. This was also something natural for her; shenever asked questions or wondered too much about her parents’ decision. Thedecision may have been connected more to her older sister, as the family movedaround the city when the girls were small, and the first school in which her par­ents enrolled her sister was close to their home but did not have Hungarian lan­guage instruction. In her case, geographical distance played a role in the choiceof language of instruction. When intermarried couples live on the periphery ofa region inhabited by an ethnic minority group, like in Novi Sad, they often livefurther away from the limited number of schools that offer minority-languagetuition. Therefore, like in Eva’s case, intermarried parents may make their schoolchoice based on their perceived level of comfort and enrol their children intomajority language schools which are nearby. Afterwards, Eva and her sister trans­ferred to a school that had a Hungarian class, but their parents did not changetheir daughters’ language of instruction, as that would have required a languagetransition for the children, thus both of them continued tuition in Serbian. Al­though Eva emphasized that her sister had friends from the Hungarian class withwhom she is still in contact, Eva did not mention having the same experience. Yes [I finished my schooling in Serbian], my sister too. She had friends then, and today she has friends from the Hungarian class as well from the Petefi8 school. My parents decided to enrol us in a Serbian class mostly to make it easier for us later [...] since I started ballet when I was five, and I knew from a young age that would be my occupation when I grew up [...] and we moved a few times because my parents were subtenants at the beginning (Eva, see Table 1). For Eva, Serbian was her dominant language – she did not even talk in Hungar­ian for ten years. This changed when she gave birth to her first child and decided to introduce him to the minority language through speaking with him in Hun­garian. Notably, when she and her husband enrolled their children into a Hun­garian kindergarten, she also started working in a Hungarian-speaking environ­ment, which was also a trigger for awakening her mixed identity characteristics,of which one part was the Hungarian ethnic minority identity, which she mostlyconnected to the Hungarian language. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 Eva did not recall experiencing any inconveniences because of her mixedidentity, but she emphasized the importance of speaking Serbian flawlessly, without an accent. Failure to do this is, in her opinion, the biggest disadvantage 103 of homogenous Hungarian ethnic minority families (cf. Russo et al. 2017). Notspeaking the language grammatically correctly may simply be a result of “imbal­anced bilingualism” (Filipovic et al. 2007) because parents do not invest suf­ficient effort into acquiring perfect majority language skills. Eva’s interview ex­cerpt follows: Both because of the accent and because of insufficient language skill, how can I say, you know, grammatically insufficiently correct, and because you always have the impression you know, they pretend they cannot master it, you know, my Serbian friends asked me “How is this possible?”. I think if we moved to Sweden, and our children went to school there in Swedish, they would have to learn Swedish. How is it possible that someone living in Serbia does not know Serbian well enough?! It is simply a big mistake for them not to teach their children Serbian, so I think it would be easier for them to live in this country until they decide they want to go somewhere else, you know, when they are old enough, because it [a lack of language skills] kind of holds you back because [...] if you understand me [...]. I mean this is of course not my opinion, I generally tell you what I heard from those who said this to me [...] (Eva, see Table 1). Eva’s narrative included a critique of parents who live in a homogenous ethnic minority marriage and do not emphasise the need to acquire perfect knowledgeof the Serbian language, which might result in their children leaving the countrythey were born in (Lendák-Kabók et al. 2020). A lack of understanding of the ethnic minority Hungarian groups’ problems with Serbian language learningwas also noticeable in her narrative: Eva compared the Hungarian ethnic minor­ity to an immigrant group in Sweden, which would have a different status com­pared to that of an ethnic minority in Serbia. 3.7 Teodora Teodora (1984) had a Serb name and surname and she spoke in Serbian duringthe interview. Her mother is from a Hungarian family, and her father is Serbian. She was brought up by her single mother. They lived with their grandparentswho lived in an urban area where mostly Hungarian families lived. Within herfamily they spoke Hungarian, but with Teodora they spoke in Serbian. Thus, when her mother enrolled her in a Hungarian-language kindergarten, she feltuncomfortable and refused to learn the minority language. Afterwards, she at­tended school in Serbian, where there was a Hungarian class as well. She had extracurricular Hungarian classes at school but did not learn to speak Hungar­ian. Later, when she moved to another area of the city, where there were blockhouses in the 1990s, she felt alienated from other children, as she was not one of 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 them, because of having an interethnic background. Moreover, she was Catho­lic, not Orthodox as the Serb majority, which meant that she did not celebrate the same religious holidays. It was a rather traumatic experience for her, since at 104 her new school, she was not accepted by the other children. She connected thiswith a period of absolute chaos, when children were infected by the nationalist propaganda coming from the media, but also from their parents. The followingis an excerpt of her interview: I think that in the new part of the city it was [the alienation] more present than elsewhere because ethnicities are quite separated, whereas among the children – especially among them – a considerable amount of harassment was there (Teodora, see Table 1). Teodora does not consider herself a part of the Hungarian ethnic minority today. The only string that connects her to her minority nation is her religion. 3.8 Katarina Katarina’s (1986) father is Hungarian, and her mother is Serb. She was educatedin Serbian, in a predominantly Hungarian environment in a mid-sized town in Vojvodina. Her maiden name had Serbian and Hungarian elements, as her lastname was Hungarian and her name Serbian. Her parents connected the decisionabout her schooling in Serbian to her mother’s availability – she was the one who spent more time at home helping the children with their school assignments.Kandiyoti (1994, 377) states that it is women who transmit culture, and they are the privileged signifiers of national difference, therefore, in intermarriages,they may interpret this role through culturally reproducing their own identity viaschooling. Katarina spoke in Serbian during the interview, discussing the impor­tance of acquiring perfect knowledge of the Serbian language. This is important for her, as she lives in Serbia and does not feel anything towards Hungary: as sheemphasized in her narrative, it is not a kin-state for her. She did not learn to writeand read in Hungarian, which she regrets now, as it would have opened new pos­sibilities for her. The following is an excerpt of her interview: Yes, because one of their ideas [...] because my mother was more at home, she could help with our studying, as well as because we live in Serbia, they thought it was very important to know how to speak Serbian correctly so that we might not have problems later. I always asked them why they sent me to a Serbian class because I thought that if I went to a Hungarian class I would learn to write and read. Their answer was that my [Serbian-speaking] mom was at home more and she could study with me. Believe me, after that, I didn’t ask them about it anymore, and I don’t know if there was any other reason for it [...] (Katarina, see Table 1). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 Katarina did not experience any discrimination because of her intermarried ori­gin, namely a mostly Hungarian environment, where people are used to living together with neighbours with different ethnic backgrounds. Peaceful living to­ 105 gether with other ethnic groups was why Ilic & Cvejic (1997) argued that Hun­garians in Vojvodina did not focus their dissatisfaction on confrontation with the Serbian majority, but rather their dissatisfaction involved worsening economicand social conditions, which were the result of the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s(Ilic & Cvejic 1997). Katarina did not opt for one or the other forms of ethnic belonging but spoke about how she told people she had two identities, althoughthis is something she only said to people with whom she became close, and whowere able to understand regional ethnic diversity. She was always proud of being half Serbian and half Hungarian: I have never had problems there because I am half Serbian, half Hungarian, because people who live there are used to being both, and there have never been any problems, I have never felt any kind of discrimination at any point in my life because I am half Hungarian. I am very proud of my origin in general, both Serbian and Hungarian, so when I introduce myself to someone, I always say I am both (Katarina, see Table 1). She talked about how she came by her current job because she speaks both lan­guages and that even though she never thought that she would need the Hungar­ian language in her professional life, she relied on it to get her first position. 4. Discussion The findings show that the respondents whose schooling was in Serbian depart­ed from the ethnic minority group more, and even if they cultivated the ethnicminority language, it became a means of acquiring a job or for further career advancement, i.e., cultural capital transformed to economic capital (Bourdieu1991), not for forming bonds with the minority group.9 Those who finished both elementary and high school in a minority language preserved stronger bonds with the ethnic minority group. The environment also had a significantinfluence on (not) preserving the minority language; those who grew up in amostly minority-inhabited environment had a better chance at preserving the minority language. Nevertheless, when it comes to ethnic minority languageloss, for most of them, Serbian became the dominant language with a clear fad­ing or even loss of the minority language. Minority language loss was also visible from the results presented in Table 1, since for six respondents (out of eight)Serbian became their dominant language. One respondent stated that for herboth languages were equally strong, and for another Hungarian was the stronger language, which underpinned previous findings, which state that intermarriagemay fundamentally affect the boundaries and distinctiveness of ethnic minority 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES K. lENDáK-KAbóK Intermarriage-born Millennials in the Whirlwind of the 1990s Yugoslav Wars DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 groups (Barth 1969). Even though some of the respondents finished their ele­mentary education in Hungarian, their continuation of their high-school educa­tion in Serbian and the environment they were brought up and lived in contrib­ 106 uted to the loss of their minority language skills (Phinney 2003). Consequently,they avoided speaking Hungarian in public, preferring to speak only in Serbian, which was reflected in the choice of language of the interview (see Table 1). When it comes to parents’ choice of tuition language, a gender dimensionoccurred. Namely, in families where the mothers were from the majority com­munity, children went to school in the majority language – as women are en­trusted with the supervision of their children’s schooling, thus they are the onesreproducing cultural boundaries (Yuval-Davis 1997, 196). In intermarriages, this meant that the tuition language was the same as the mother’s language. Wemight argue that this arrangement made it harder for minority fathers whose ma­jority (Serbian) spouses did not speak the minority language to choose a minor­ity language education for their children, which would mean that they wouldhave to break the patriarchal norm and oversee their children’s education. How­ever, in some cases of family units with patriarchal male heads, the role of women is to reflect traditional notions of femininity (Thomson 2020), which meant thatthe father’s choice is to be respected when it comes to the choice of language ofschooling. In one case, an ethnic minority father insisted on the minority languageeducation of their children, as he identified the knowledge and use of an ethnicminority language as a tool which he wanted to cultivate in their children. The influence of ethnic minority mothers in intermarriages was less visible in termsof choosing the language of instruction at school. More specifically, only a singlemother was able to influence and/or make that choice. Choosing the language of instruction for children is a long-term decision, which has a strong impact onidentity development, thus, in a patriarchal society, this choice is made mostly by men. In the case of single mothers, they are the ones with more social powerwithin the family (freed of the male head of the family), as they are the ones tak­ing care of the children most of the time, while fathers are less involved. In thisscenario, they can choose the minority language for their children more freely. The supranational Yugoslav identity (Godina 1998) disappeared during andafter the 1990s Yugoslav wars, which made intermarriage-born millennials’ posi­tion harder, as they had to choose their ethnic belonging. Their choice of ethnic belonging was associated with the language of the school instruction their par­ents choose for them; thus, this was the milestone event in their lives. The choice of language of instruction at school was in a way choosing a side and becoming closer to the majority nation or to the minority. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 Intermarriage-born millennials faced additional ethnic tension during the1990s, as this period was permeated by ethnic conflicts and an outbreak of ha­tred and hostility towards national minorities, or towards all those who differed 107 from the majority nation (Savic 2006). Only those who had gone to school inSerbian stated that they had not experienced any ethnically-based atrocities,which brings us to the conclusion that finishing elementary school during the1990s in an ethnic minority language was a source of discrimination for the re­spondents, which inevitably left its traces in their upbringing. In the end, we should note that there are considerable limitations when usinginterviews and when relying on a qualitative study, especially with the smallnumber of interviews. 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Dimensions of Remote Learning during the Covid-19 Pandemic in MinorityLanguage Schools (The Case of Austrian Carinthia). Treatises and Documents, Journal of Ethnic Studies 85, 223–252. DOI: 10.36144/RiG85.dec20.223-252. Notes 1 Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks, Croats, Romani, Romanians, Montenegrins, Bunjevci, Rusyns,Macedonians, Ukrainians, ethnic Muslims, Germans, Albanians, Slovenes, Bulgarians, Gorani,Russians, Bosniaks, Vlachs, ethnic Yugoslavs, Others, Regional identity, Undeclared andUnknown (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia 2012). 2 Hobsbawm’s (2012) approach was applied by Brubaker et al. in their book Nationalist politicsand everyday ethnicity in a Transylvanian town (2018). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 K. lENDáK-KAbóK Otroci mešanih zakonov sredi vojne vihre na obmocju Jugoslavije v devetdesetih letih ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.87-111 3 The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was a military operation against the Federal Republic ofYugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999.The bombings continued until an agreement was reached that led to the withdrawal of Yugoslavarmed forces from Kosovo and the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration 111 Mission in Kosovo, a UN peacekeeping mission. 4 Slobodan Miloševic was the Serbian dictator who was charged by the International CriminalTribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with war crimes in connection with the Bosnian War,the Croatian War of Independence, and the Kosovo War. 5 There is no comprehensive Hungarian language university in Vojvodina, however at the Facultyof Philosophy, some subjects can be studied in Hungarian because of the willingness of theprofessors who are of Hungarian origin and speak Hungarian, but also because of the openness ofthe management, which is not against this practice. 6 This offensive note may be associated with the Raid (....../Racija), which was a military operation carried out by the Királyi Honvédség, the armed forces of Hungary during World WarII, after the occupation and annexation of the Vojvodinian territories that belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I. It resulted in the deaths of approximately 4,000 civiliansin the southern Backa (Bácska) region in Vojvodina. The victims in both Novi Sad and the widerregion were mostly Jews and Serbs, although several Hungarians were killed as well. In Novi Sad,victims were forced to march across the frozen Danube, only to perish when the ice sheet wasshattered by shelling from the shore. Some victims were pushed into holes in the ice sheet, causingthem to drown or succumb to hypothermia, while others were shot in the streets. The retributioncommitted by the Partisans against Germans, Hungarians, and Serbs was severe in 1944–45; atleast 55,973 people died. The vast majority of victims were summarily executed without trial. 7 Her father was a journalist. 8 The school is named after Hungarian poet Jožef Atila (in Hungarian: József Attila), who lived inthe early 20th century. 9 The same tendencies can be observed also elsewhere, see for example Naceva (2021), Riman &Novak Lukanovic (2021) and Zorcic (2020). Acknowledgment The research was done with the support of Délvidékért Kiss Alapítvány Scholarship at Eötvös LórándUniversity (ELTE) Budapest, Hungary (2019). I would like to thank Professor Antal Örkény(Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest) for being my supervisor through my short postdoc period atELTE Budapest, Hungary. TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022, p. 113–132 DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 Racial/ethnic categorization in medicine presents challenges for clinicians and patientsalike. Challenges arise because racial/ethnic identities do not match with objective biolo­gical traits, and at the same time, these identities do have medical consequences in a raciallyand ethnically stratified society. Three major epistemological approaches – biologicalrealism, eliminativism, and constructivism – dominate scientific theorization on the con­sequences of racial/ethnic categorization in medicine. In this paper, I present a case studyof Hungarian medical genetic discourse that focuses on the possible applications of race/ethnicity regarding Roma and non-Roma patients. In applying the methods of constructivistgrounded theory, I recorded and analysed 34 expert interviews with human geneticistsbetween 2011 and 2015. In this paper, I argue that the constructivist understanding ofmedical diagnoses must be complemented with materialist sensitivity, thus making sense ofthe contingent nature of race/ethnicity as factors that contribute to medical understanding. Keywords: medical genetics, health equality, race, ethnicity, Roma. Rasna oz. etnicna kategorizacija v medicini pomeni izziv tako za zdravnike kot za paciente.Težave nastajajo, ker se rasne oz. etnicne identitete ne ujemajo z objektivnimi biološkimi last-nostmi, hkrati pa imajo v rasno in etnicno razslojeni družbi dolocene zdravstvene posledice. Vznanstvenih teorijah o posledicah rasne oz. etnicne kategorizacije v medicini izstopajo trije epis­temološki pristopi: biološki realizem, eliminativizem in konstruktivizem. Prispevek predstavljaštudijo primera madžarskega medicinskega diskurza na podrocju genetike, ki se osredotoca naupoštevanje rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije romskih in neromskih bolnikov. Ob uporabi metodkonstruktivisticno utemeljene teorije je bilo med letoma 2011 in 2015 posnetih in analiziranih34 intervjujev s strokovnjaki za cloveško genetiko. Prispevek zagovarja stališce, da je trebakonstruktivisticno razumevanje diagnoz dopolniti z materialisticno obcutljivostjo in tako rasnooz. etnicno klasifikacijo upoštevati kot dejavnika, ki prispevata k razumevanju zdravstvenih razlikmed prebivalstvom. Kljucne besede: medicinska genetika, enakost na podrocju zdravja, rasna in etnicna pri­padnost, Romi. Correspondence address: Barna Szamosi, Institute of English, American, and German Studies, Eszter-hazy Károly Catholic University, Egészségház str. 4. 2/213, HU-3300 Eger, e-mail: szamosi.barna@uni­eszterhazy.hu. ISSN 0354-0286 Print/ISSN 1854-5181 Online © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja (Ljubljana), http://www.inv.si 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 In the 1960s, it was found that members of Hungarian Roma communities werein such an economically marginalized situation and subject to further racialdiscrimination that their health standards were far below the national average. Since that period, significant medical and sociological research has been aimedat working out ways to ameliorate their living conditions, but because of system­atic discrimination the research results were not put to use efficiently. The pos­sibility of joining the European Union opened up for Hungary during the 1990s,and in 2004 the country successfully met the required criteria. As part of therequirements, it was mandatory to develop the rights and protection of minori­ties in Hungary (Kósa et al. 2002). The health protection of Roma was one of thekey priorities, and some of the most important goals sociologists and healthcareprofessionals identified were the improvement of housing possibilities, access to employment, and access to healthcare services. Medical geneticists contributedto this discussion with their own expertise by claiming that to improve the healthstandards of Roma it is important to map the most prevalent inheritable genetic disorders in their communities, as well as the epidemiologically relevant geneticmarkers that cause them to be at risk for diseases. One of the conclusions that was drawn from the early epidemiologically important genetic studies is the factthat ethnic identity is only important because it meshes biological causes withsocial factors and is thus useful for better diagnosis and better healthcare service. Geneticists acknowledged that biological differences can be important for bothpatients and clinicians, and the socially marginalized situation of Roma shouldbe considered during medical interviews. The everyday racism that they endure during healthcare services must also be taken into account when healthcare sta­tistics are evaluated. Thus, in this paper, I will contribute to the understanding ofrace/ethnicity in the Hungarian medical genetic context. In the international literature that deals with the applications of genetic re­sults to improve health disparities it is possible to delineate two directions. Thefirst approach considers connecting genetic patterns to race/ethnicity to be ascientific error, while the second approach embraces racial/ethnic classification of biological materials because it is argued that this technique speeds up andtherefore helps medical diagnosis. Starting from these grounds, I rely on criti­cal constructivist approaches that can accommodate the context dependence of racial/ethnic identities in medicine, but at the same time give a critical view onthe essentializing tendencies of the genetic discourse and its possible drawbacks.Thus, in this paper I will briefly review the major framework regarding the con­ceptualization of race and connect it to contemporary epistemological discus­sions. My aim is to provide theoretical underpinnings to my argument that anessentialist understanding of race in the medical sciences could prove to be very dangerous in a society that structurally marginalizes and discriminates against RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 racial minorities. In order to support my claim I will analyse the arguments thatcomplicate the use of racial/ethnic classification in medical genetics. We live in a racially stratified society, and currently it is not possible and not desirable to get 115 rid of racial categorization because it would seriously damage medical under­standing and thus equality in healthcare (Rose 2007). Another reason is con­nected to this last problem; if a society wants to offer identical treatment1 to all its citizens, it must take into account various identity categories, from class and gen­der to race/ethnicity (Risch et al. 2002). These issues are interconnected, and the suggested avenue is to tackle health problems with the present vocabularyand with the already established racial framework. However, medical geneticistsdo not accept racial/ethnic categorization in medicine unanimously and uncriti­cally, and they do question the essential nature of race (Feldman & Lewontin2008). There are also geneticists who suggest that a focus on individual geneticmake-up will provide better information for establishing a diagnosis and thus providing identical healthcare, but at the same time race and ethnicity cannot bediscarded just yet. I designed a qualitative study in which I interviewed 34 medical and clinical ge­neticists based in the cities of Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged, Pécs, Miskolc, andGyor. All of them had clinical experience with Roma and non-Roma patients,and some of them had even taken part in mapping population specific disorders. I executed the analysis of the collected interview materials and reported my find­ings according to the criteria of constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz 2003;2006; Clarke 2005). This research was approved by the Central European University. I obtained con­sent verbally from all of the participants and I provided information about theaims of my research to everyone. I did not give any compensation of incentives to the interviewees. I began collecting interviews through a series of lectures that were organized atthe Semmelweis Medical University in Budapest. I collected the contact infor­mation of geneticists who had a focus on racial/ethnic issues in medicine. Dur­ing the interviews, I asked for the contact information of other geneticists inorder to contact those whose work in the field was valued by their colleagues. I chose to do semi-structured interviews because this method allows for constant 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 adjustments during the research process. I conducted the interviews between2011 and 2015; the interviews lasted between 60 and 120 minutes. All of the in­terviews were conducted in Hungarian and were audio-recorded. Subsequently, 116 I transcribed all of the interviews in Hungarian and I translated only the parts ofthe interviews that became relevant after the coding process. In the analysis, I coded all of my interviews as Personal Interview (PI) followed by the date it tookplace, in order to keep the professional identities of my interviewees safe. In order to analyse my material I relied on the guidelines of Adele E. Clarke (2005) and Kathy Charmaz (2003; 2006). As Clarke suggests in her work, Iused situational maps to complement the coding and memo-writing strategiestraditionally used by grounded theorists. In my work, I went through three cod­ing phases while I analysed the transcripts. At first my aim was to develop activeshort codes to capture the incidents told by my interviewees. Later, I developedfocused codes that helped to clarify the most important and recurring themes that I eventually used in a comparative manner. In the third phase, I developedtheoretical codes that became part of my final analysis. Charmaz states (2003, 261) that in order to provide a focused and sharp analysis researchers must em­ploy the method of memo-writing as an intermediate step between coding andthe final analysis. This served the purpose of elaborating on the analytical in­sights. With these methods, I mapped the elements at different locations, in dif­ferent narratives that played a role in the production of various medical realitiesregarding racial/ethnic categorization. There are three major approaches to theorizing race in philosophy of science: these are called biological realism, constructivism, and eliminativism (Haslanger2008; Ludwig 2017). The most important distinction among these approachesis how theorists who work within these paradigms regard race: eliminativists, for example, consider race to be something that is non-existent, therefore it is coun­terproductive to discuss its relevance in any medical discourse. Their approachwas criticized by many scholars for turning a blind eye towards skin colour; this approach, they claimed, would not solve the very real problems of everyday rac­ism that people face in various societies. Social constructivists think that race isreal in the sense that it is a social construct based on material differences, and although it is imbued with different values in different social and historical con­texts, it has very real consequences for people experiencing discrimination orprivilege because of a racial discourse. Biological realism holds that there are races that correspond to biological differences. This strand of theorizing has RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 become revitalized as a result of molecular genetic studies. After the comple­tion of Human Genome Project (Fridovich-Keil, Invalid Date), it is argued that within the differences mapped it is possible to find the reason for racial diversity 117 that corresponds to racial subgroups which in turn, if recognized, contribute tohealth equality. In the following, I will overview very briefly the main shifts that took place in scientific thought about race. During the Enlightenment, the work of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach enti­tled On the Innate Variety of Mankind, published in 1775, defined the direction of racial studies for the coming 150 years and it had a long-lasting impact on thetwentieth century (Smith 2015, 253; Raskó 2015, 147). Blumenbach describedfour geographical varieties in his 1775 edition, then changed it slightly to five varieties in 1781, when he reworked his thesis, and finally concluded with fivegeneric varieties classified as Caucasians, Mongolians, Ethiopians, Americans,and Malays in the final re-edition of his thesis in 1795 (Bhopal 2007, 1308). Jus­tin E. H. Smith argues in his book that although Blumenbach was hesitant toclaim that there is a biological reality according to which clear racial divisions canbe made, he still maintained, through statistical measurements of human skulls that it is legitimate to support the racial classification of peoples into the racialtaxonomic system that he proposed (Smith 2015, 259–260). This is why Smith(2015, 259) claims that Blumenbach was a “statistical racial realist”, and his work lent itself easily to succeeding theorists whose aim was to establish accounts forthe biological reality of race. The view that there are essential racial types started to become more and more incompatible with developments in biological research. First Charles Dar­win’s evolutionary theory questioned whether it was possible to pinpoint towardracial types, and then later Mendelian genetics provided rational arguments in favour of abandoning the essentialist approach. By the early twentieth century,the essentialist concept of race was supplanted by a geographical concept thatdivided races into subdivisions according to their geographic origin. For example, William Z. Ripley, in his work published in 1899, divided the people of Europeaccording to three different geographical regions: Alpine, Mediterranean, andNordic (Marks 2008, 22–23). A series of works appeared in this paradigm from which perhaps the work of Theodozius Dobzhansky was the most significant in1937, titled Genetics and the Origin of Species (Dobzhansky 1982). Althoughthe Second World War had an important impact on the reconceptualization of race, it is needless to say that the Unesco Statement on the Nature of Race andRacial Differences (UNESCO 1952) described three major races – European,Asian, and African – and an unspecified number of subdivisions, which still ad­hered to the geographical type paradigm. This understanding dominated scien­tific thinking until the 1960s. The civil rights movement in the 1960s pushed the theorization of race in a new direction. In 1962 Frank Livingstone argued that it is best to understand 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 racial difference in terms of clines, which are “geographical gradients of featuresin natural populations” (Livingstone 1962, 279, cited in Marks 2008, 24). In a similar manner, Richard Lewontin (1972, cited in Marks 2008, 24) quanti­ 118 tatively compared populations from a genetic perspective. He concluded thatintra-group differences are larger than in-between group differences, thus de­constructing the race-as-geographical-type concept. As noted by Marks (2008)Lewontin still holds that despite the developments in molecular genetic studies,abandonment of the biological race concept in medical research was well-sup­ported. Marcus Feldman and Richard Lewontin (2008, 90) state that if medi­cal professionals understand race/ethnicity as a social construct, they can gainimportant knowledge about the social-environmental factors that determine the health status of patients. In particular, knowledge about race/ethnicity can beinformative in order to fight discrimination on the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of society. The third and perhaps most radical shift occurred during the 1990s, whenresearchers suggested that roughly 7 % of our molecular genetic difference couldbe racially relevant (cf. Sesardic 2010, 148–149). They argued that perhaps a more thorough understanding of this part of the human genome could contrib­ute to making sense of human racial differences. The process through which raceis projected onto the molecular level is called the molecularization of race (Kahn 2008; 2012; Fullwiley 2008; Duster 2006). It would be a misunderstanding tosee the present process of racialization as unreflective of racism – it is the oppo­site; scientists apply race in genomics as a biosocial reality but at the same time they are working towards the genetic explanations and rebuttals of any kind ofracism; this is called the biosocial paradox of race (Bliss 2011, 1019). The pri­mary aim of racial classification that is advanced by scientists who work with genomic-level data is to overcome health inequality that is caused by systematicracism. Although scientists widely acknowledged that it is hard to define what race/eth­nicity means in biomedical research, at the beginning of the twenty-first century,Nikolas Rose argued that it is inescapable for researchers working in the fieldof biomedicine to categorize through racial/ethnic identity (Rose 2007, 172). Skin color is one of the markers (besides hair texture, and bone structure) thatdefine racial belonging following the work of modern naturalists. Although nu­merous scholars point out that skin color or bone structure cannot be used to group people together for medical genetic purposes because it is a very arbitrarymarker (Gould 1981), it is still viewed by others as a medically valid factor of cat­ RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 egorization. It is claimed that folk racial/ethnic categorization is useful becauseit shows that members of such groups share medically relevant genetic histories. The following quote from an interview emphasizes that skin colour indicatesdeeper medical relevance than superficial racial resemblance: Skin colour is not only a superficial marker that accidentally helps, obviously, Caucasians or white people resemble each other more than white people resemble black people. But within the white population, or black or Asian, a Japanese is utterly different – not fundamentally of course – but represents a significant genetic difference in contrast to an Indian or Nepalese. This is because of the migratory routes of different populations. Those who lived together for a long enough time developed genetically unique characteristics (PI 20130311). I do not interpret the above claim to be in tension with the medical genetic knowledge that within-group differences can be larger than differences betweengroups. This position rather entails that, although there are no fundamental dif­ferences among human beings, there is medically useful information that can be teased out with the use of racial/ethnic categories. In the Hungarian social context, numerous racial and ethnic groups havebeen analysed by geneticists (cf. Béres 2003). Within these populations, in most interviews Caucasians were viewed as the medically most significant group, andbesides them Roma and Jewish groups were highlighted. In the excerpt below, it is noted that superficial racial/ethnic characteristics are not helpful in directingthe caregiving process because in some cases they are not visible, or they do notdiverge from the dominant look of individuals in the country. In these cases, self-defined ethnicity is understood to be crucial for precise diagnosis. In Hungary the most significant ethnic group is the Caucasian, and there are a few Roma and Jewish groups. But I only inquire about ethnicity in the case of concrete diseases, when those are more prevalent in certain ethnic groups; because I can’t always recognize from the appearance of the patients which race they belong to (PI 20121207). To put it differently, medical genetic knowledge cannot be applied by clinicians in certain cases when there is no knowledge about ethnic belonging and only amedical hypothesis exists about a possible diagnosis based on the medical inter­view and examination of the patient. This medical hypothesis rests on the previ­ously existing racial stratification of people. Thus, self-defined race/ethnicity isviewed as a very good marker for the medical understanding of the health status of the patient (Risch et al. 2002). Risch and his colleagues argue that most of theresearch that addressed the genetic and epidemiological validity of race is notobjective, hence these studies, they claim, cannot contribute to the scientifically grounded reformation of healthcare. They acknowledge that because of the past 119 120 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 and present racial/ethnic discourse of the United States, racial/ethnic minoritiesare disadvantaged and their disadvantageous social position largely defines their health standards; they say that besides the genetic structure – about which theyclaim that racial/ethnic communities resembling their own members more thannon-members is empirically provable – it is needless to take into account the environmental factors (overall health, education, lifestyle, support system, andsocioeconomic status); together these define the genetically understood healthneeds of an individual. Therefore, they claim that it is vital to consider the self-defined racial/ethnic identity of patients in order to provide them with identical – though not equal – healthcare, because human beings are different. In the case of Hungarian ethnic groups, for example, the homogenous ra­cial/ethnic identity category of Caucasian does not address certain problems.The distribution of the cystic fibrosis gene .F 508 is such an example. In a studyconducted by scientists in Debrecen, the authors claim that the F508del muta­tion is the most significant variant in Hungary with 61.2 % and it shows a de­creasing north-to-south gradient in its distribution in the country (Ivády et al.2015, 50). This means that other mutations are also prevalent in the population, and the diagnoses would be helped with further knowledge of the geographicalancestry of the individual. In addition to this, one must note that population genetic studies that aim at mapping the diversity of certain diseases within various populations is veryuseful on a local level to shorten the time that is needed for diagnosing a givenproblem. Let us look at the following argumentation that points out differences between Roma, non-Roma, Hungarian, and non-Hungarian Caucasian popula­tions to the West of Hungary, regarding the above detailed cystic fibrosis dis­ease. What I want to emphasize from the quote below is the distinctions that the author makes regarding ethnic boundaries and the uncertain claim about theprevalence of the disease in Roma communities. In our work, we noted that a high percentage of our patients have a certain mutation which is very rare in the international literature. This could mean that this mutation is a highly frequent one in Hungary, but it could equally mean that this is a mutation which is frequent in a Hungarian gypsy minority population – because we don’t know the ethnic background of our patients. However, we have data about ethnic Hungarian patients regarding cystic fibrosis. We know that these are from ethnic Hungarians because the clinicians sent the samples that way. By the way, cystic fibrosis is not really prevalent in gypsy populations. So, we have two mutations, which are practically non­existent to the West of Hungary. I would say, where there are no Slavic populations. This is beautiful evidence of the mixture of ethnicities. This mutation occurs in 5 % of our patients, and this is zero in England, in Sweden, and Spain. And this is very important because it can help us to offer fast and cheap diagnoses for our Hungarian patients. Because we know that this exists in Hungarian patients, and in a diagnostic kit, which is composed in England – and let’s say we use that – that is not included because it is not typical in that population (PI 20140210B). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 The claim regarding the prevalence of two genetic forms of cystic fibrosis inHungarian populations suggests that medically relevant ethnic boundaries cross state boundaries. A medically valid argument was put forward by the interview­ 121 ee to create disease diagnostic kits that are relevant for the Hungarian and neigh-bouring populations’ genetic make-up, since it would make diagnoses faster and much more precise. The argument supports, in my view, the idea of mapping thevariations of different mutations for the same genetic disease in local popula­tions in order to design diagnostic kits to treat patients effectively. This argument stands for members of the Roma and Jewish groups as well,since their racial/ethnic diversity is also important when discussing the medicalrelevance of sharing certain problems. The dominant approach in researching ra­cial/ethnic populations is connected to the works of Cavalli-Sforza (2000), whosuggested analysing genetic data that is collected from communities defined bytheir shared geographical location, cultural behaviour, and linguistic practices. He argued that these factors determine the reproductive practices of communi­ty members and, hence, the gene-flow within the population. Regarding Romadiversity, three main ethnic groups reside in Hungary; these are the Vlachian,Romungro, and Beasi communities scattered across the country. These commu­nities came to Hungary on various migratory routes, and they differ from eachother culturally and linguistically. In addition to this, they are located in differentgeographical regions of the country. An example that helps to elaborate my pointis the Beasi community: they came to Hungary from two directions: (1) from thesouth, particularly from Croatian-Slovenian regions and (2) from the east, fromRomanian territories. Their cultural customs were different, they spoke differentlanguages, and they settled in different parts of Hungary. The Beasi Roma whocame from Croatian regions mostly settled in Baranya and Somogy counties,while those who came from Romania first settled in Szabolcs and Szatmár coun­ties and then moved to the Tiszafüred region (Kemény 2005, 50–51). IstvánKemény, through accepting Katalin Kovalcsik’s differentiation, identifies threeethnic groups within the Beasi ethnicity. These are the Mucsán, Argyelán, andTicsán communities. Members of the Mucsán group live around the Hungarian-Croatian border, and their linguistic dialect still uses Croatian words. Membersof Argyelán group speak a Transylvanian dialect (called Bánátian), and they alsolive in Baranya and Somogy counties, while the Ticsán communities came toHungary through Szabolcs and Szatmár counties from Romania, and they livearound Tiszafüred nowadays. This anthropological differentiation suggests thatmedical genetic problems could be very different for the members of the BeasiRoma communities living at a significant distance from each other and possiblymixing with non-Beasi Roma communities; but it still supports the idea that self-identified and precisely used identity categories could be medically beneficial. If we choose to analyze concrete medical situations, wherein a quick and pre­cise response is of crucial importance, the argument to use ethnic/racial markers 122 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 in the sampling and diagnostic process seems to further strengthen this position.In the case of bone marrow transplantation, for example, racial or ethnic ances­try is suggested to be valuable information. The interviewee quoted below is onthe same theoretical footing as Neil Risch and his colleagues (2002) referred toabove: in order to help patients to have an equally positive outcome one has to take into account the ethnic diversity of the population. Gypsies are different genetically from the surrounding white Hungarian population, and in order to help them, we must analyse precisely their genetic background. For example, it is necessary to map gypsy bone marrow donors, because gypsy and white Hungarians are so different immunologically from gypsies that they cannot get bone marrow transplantation from Hungarians because they would die. In order to be able to treat them properly because of their increased risks we must do these genetic assessments. There is no discrimination in this (PI 20131119). Here, the primary racial/ethnic differentiation happens through skin colour, andgypsy people are viewed as being isolated, surrounded by the majority white population without any intermixture.2 This explanation stems from the fact thatbecause gene-flow does not occur significantly, the biological difference regard­ing bone-marrow structure between a Roma and a non-Roma patient is signifi­cant enough to cause the death of the recipient of the transplant. In this case,because there are fewer bone-marrow donors among Roma individuals thanamong non-Roma, in order to help Roma patients who are waiting for bone-marrow transplantation and to shorten the waiting period, it is medically usefulto create a bone-marrow donor bank in which the donated bone-marrow is from Roma people. This practice aims to counter unequal care. Another interviewee further argues that transplantation donors must be identical in the relevant ge­netic markers, otherwise the transplant will probably be rejected by the recipi­ent’s body. Race/ethnicity helps medical professionals to find acceptable donors from a more reliable pool of sources. This is because of the unique mutationalevents (founder effects) that took place in the bodies of people who belong tothe same ethnic group, since they lived and travelled together across the same geographical landscapes. In the case of bone marrow transplantation, donors mustn’t be only approximately identical in order to be accepted by the recipient’s body; it must match a lot of genetic details. This means that there may be genetic characteristics in the Roma population for which it is better for a Roma person to receive the transplant from another Roma. It will be identical with a higher safety margin. With this approach we have higher probability rates because of the founder-effects. In other words, if we need a donor, we had better look for the donor in the same ethnic community because this way we have a better chance of finding an identical match in a shorter time period. It is not possible to exclude the chance of finding a donor from the Caucasian population but we would need to analyse many more samples (PI 20140307). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 However, when speaking about ethnic/racial boundaries, it is important to notethat this standpoint does not exclude the possibility of finding a bone-marrow donor with identical markers from a different racial/ethnic community – it is 123 only assumed that it would take more time to run into an exact match. This posi­tion does not create biologically grounded and divided races or ethnicities; ac­cording to this direction, it is possible to imagine that people who have beenliving in the same geographical area, who have similar dietary habits, but per­haps who have rarely chosen their reproductive partners from another ethnic community, would still be a match for bone-marrow transplantation for a racial/ethnic other. Race or ethnicity in itself is not a sufficiently precise marker to draw any med­ical consequences. The following quote from one of my interviewees suggests alimited usefulness: genetic studies on ethnic/racial ancestry would suggest theuse of these markers in medicine but with a restriction that would mandate the inclusion of geographical ancestry. This counters the view that skin colour is nota superficial marker; it rather states that because skin colour variation is the re­sult of multiple genomic combinations, it is of no use for precise diagnosis in medicine. [A]s I said, skin colour, and other superficial characteristics, are defined by multiple genes, and this disease is also defined by multiple genes. From a medical perspective, it is important to know the ancestry of a human community. I think it is important to do population genetic studies that can result in the ascertainment of disease susceptibility that is higher in a given geographically defined population than in another one (PI 20130328). In this sense, skin colour is understood to be superficial, which means that popu­lation genetic studies are perhaps designed in a manner wherein race and ethnic­ity is considered, but without any information on geographical ancestry, diseasesusceptibility cannot be adequately defined. This approach entails that perhaps skin colour on the molar level acts as a dividing factor, thus we need molecularlevel information in order to provide medically precise diagnoses for ethnicallydifferent patients with the same genetic disease. In the early 2000s as the Human Genome Project approached its final years, dur­ing a conference on June 26, 2000, President Bill Clinton evaluated the resultsand placed emphasis on the finding that humans share 99.9 % of their genome which renders racial differentiation genetically meaningless (Bliss 2012). Thispolitically significant position was supported by the human geneticist Craig Ven­ 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 ter, who said that they “have shown that the concept of race has no biologicalbasis”, and only one year later, Francis S. Collins further emphasized that “those who wish to draw precise racial boundaries around certain groups will not be 124 able to use science as a legitimate justification” (Bliss 2012, 1). Catherine Bliss,who is a sociologist of science, claims that it is observable globally that geneti­cists are trying hard to give new meaning to the concept of race on the genomiclevel. This racial turn in genomic thinking about the concept took place in thesecond half of the first decade of the new millennium: scientists are busy looking for medically applicable data regarding someone’s racial identity. Genetic tests are useful on different levels and for different purposes. Theyare useful, for example, in gaining knowledge about an individual’s health pros­pects, they are useful for couples who want to know genetic data about theirreproductive capacities, they are also useful for individuals to get medically rel­evant information about their newborn child, and genetic tests are useful on an epidemiological level to manage the healthcare of the population. The primarydirection in which researchers began to work was toward epidemiological screen­ing. Population screenings were first introduced in the United States during the 1960s. These first screenings were phenylketonuria (PKU) screenings, whichwere introduced over the course of the following ten to twenty years in coun­tries that had systematically organized healthcare systems (Kosztolányi 2013, 70–77). This was the case with Hungary as well, where they were introducedin the 1980s, and since then, because of rapid biotechnological developments,compulsory screenings were supplemented with 25 other genetic problems and have been tested for since 2007, following the decree of the Healthcare Ministry44/2007 (EüM Rendelet ...). There are arguments put forward by researchers for designing screening pro­tocols that target ethnic communities. Perhaps it is sufficient for this argument toname two racial/ethnic target communities with their respective genetic prob­lems (here I rely on Kosztolányi 2013, 72–74). It was observed in the United States that sickle-cell anaemia is more prevalent in the members of AfricanAmerican communities than in non-African Americans, so this was integratedinto the screening programs of several states. In a similar manner, it is argued that cystic fibrosis (CF) is a disease that occurs more frequently in Caucasian popula­tions than in others. Particularly the .F508 mutation is responsible for roughlytwo-thirds of the occurrences. In these cases, it is argued that it is both rational and economically beneficial to design racially/ethnically sensitive screeningsthat would help these communities to tackle these genetic issues. In the develop­ment of genetic screenings in Hungary, biological averages were used to define the thresholds of acceptability. In Hungary every newborn is screened for certain deficiencies. It doesn’t matter if the newborn is German, Dutch, Russian, or Ukrainian; this is a compulsory screening for RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 every newborn. Blood samples are collected on a filter paper and half of the country’s samples are sent to Szeged, and the other half to Budapest. Only those will be notified whose results diverge from the norm. This is not a diagnosis, this is a precaution. These people are requested to return to the clinic and subjected to a focused examination. It is possible to set up a diagnosis only after the examination. There is absolutely no distinction on ethnic grounds (PI 20121018). The whole population was studied to establish mean values for various prob­lems, such as PKU, to be able to give meaningful medical answers to those who are affected by the disease. It is important to note, however, that today there arearguments provided by researchers, for example about CF, that there are variousforms of cystic fibrosis mutations but different populations are affected by only a given set of these. And certainly, this can be true for various ethnic groups withina larger population, so the perspective to screen a given community with thesame parameters may well be imprecise. However, the question remains: how do ethnic or racial identities best serve the medical needs of community members? Here, another relevant question comes up regarding the medically-guided distinction of the Hungarian population on genetic grounds. Roma people aremainly referred to in the literature as Asian, regarding their ancestry. Recentstudies argue that the ancestors of Roma people presently living in Europe can be traced back to their ancestral geographical origins in Northwestern India(Pamjav et al. 2011; Martínez-Cruz et al. 2016). In opposition to this position,other geneticists argue that this type of differentiation is not tenable or useful. Geneticists do not take Roma people to be an Asian group; with this mindset we Hungarians could be Asians, too. I don’t know about any genetic abnormality which has a higher frequency in Roma communities than in non-Roma communities. According to our present knowledge from the perspective of diagnostics, there is no difference between a Roma and a non-Roma: we must take them to be of Caucasian ethnicity. It would be an exaggeration to consider them to be Indians. In everyday screening practice, there is no difference between the white population and the Roma population (PI 20121210). The counter argument centres on the tacit linguistic, anthropological, and histor­ical knowledge that Hungarians migrated to their present geographical area from Asia. Despite this accepted view, ethnic Hungarians are classified as Caucasiansor Europeans. Importantly, there is no significant genetic difference regarding disease prevalence in the Hungarian Roma population that the above geneticistknows of. And this also entails that there is no official disease panel suggested bythe Hungarian Human Genetics Society that would recommend racially focused screenings. This shows us the untidiness of boundaries that genetic discoursecreates for white Hungarians and non-white Roma Hungarians as possible iden­tification schemes, because these are still based on classic racial markers such 125 126 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 as skin colour or hair texture when it is widely acknowledged that there are nobiological grounds for racial differentiation (Raskó 2015, 147–148). However, this entails, as Raskó (2015) argues, that there are mutations, which accumulatein various groups who intermarry for a long time, and this prompts researchersto suggest further sensitivity in screening and providing diagnoses. This perspec­tive is explained below with a joint problem called Bechterew’s syndrome that isperceived to be more common in the members of Roma communities. There can be biological differences regarding ethnic belonging. Let’s take an example: in gypsies the occurrence of Bechterew-syndrome is much higher than in the non-gypsy population. So, when a gypsy young man comes and tells us that his waist hurts him, this is the first thing we have to think about because almost every second gypsy man will have this problem. And this is not racism. This is an empirical fact. And it is right to think about why this has developed this way, it is right to think about it, however this is how it is (PI 20130311). The initial symptoms of Bechterew’s syndrome are lower back pain or back pain that usually occurs during the night with changing intensity but it can worsenin the morning or with inactivity (Brent 2018; Sáfrány 2010). Its occurrence inpopulations is 0.1–1.4 % and it is more prevalent in males than in females. The precise cause of the syndrome is unknown, but it has been shownthat familial transmission of the gene is frequent. In addition to this observa­tion, many point out that the presence of the HLA B27 allele can be detected in most pathological cases. However, this HLA B27 allele can most likely onlybe held responsible for 20 to 30 % of risk factors that cause the disease (Sáfrány2010, 13). Eniko Sáfrány, a medical geneticist, studied nine single-nucleotide-polymorphisms of the IL27R gene. The IL-23R is a transmembrane protein thatcan be detected on the short arm of the first chromosome (1p31.3) (Parham 2002, cited in Sáfrány 2010, 6). Sáfrány found that certain SNPs are higher infrequency in the population that has the disease in comparison to the controlgroup. The rs11805303 T allele, rs1004819 A allele, the rs10889677, and the rs2201841 SNPs are detected to be more frequent in populations that exhibitthe disease. She claims that in the case of the IL27 R haplotype, in connection tothe development of the syndrome, the ATCACAG and ATCACAA haplotypes consisting of the rs1004819, rs7517847, rs7530511, rs10489629, rs2201841,rs10889677, rs11209032 variants were understood to be susceptibility factors;while in the case of the patients who carried the B27 allele, only two haplotypes showed connection with the disease. The GGCATCG haplotype was provento be a defense factor, while the ATCACAA haplotype was understood to bea risk factor in the examined Hungarian population (Sáfrány 2010, 30–31). In the papers that were published by E. Sáfrány et al. (2009), and later by Sáfrányherself (2010), regarding this problem, neither racial nor ethnic categories were RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 mentioned by researchers to classify their subject material. However, it is pos­sible to make further distinctions by using racial/ethnic categories regarding the frequency of the disease in various communities. Investigations aiming to understand the links between various immuno­logical diseases and the above-mentioned SNP variants of the IL23R gene were initiated by Richard Duerr and his colleagues (2006); in their study, they com­pared the IL23R gene variants in samples taken from Jewish and non-Jewishpatients. They stated that there is significant correlation between the function of the gene variants in the development of Crohn’s disease. Similar studies havebeen conducted across the world. Researchers examined various SNPs regard­ing the IL23R gene mutations that can be relevant to Crohn’s disease in Brazilian populations, in New Zealanders, in Koreans, in Chinese, and in Germans (listedin Magyari et al. 2014, 150–151). This is the direction taken by Hungarian re­searchers when they began investigating the prevalence of the IL23R SNPs in ethnically identified samples. Magyari and her colleagues compared the IL23receptor gene variations in Roma and Hungarian population samples. [We] examined five susceptible, one protective and two neutral variants of the IL23R gene, and found significant increased genotype and allele frequencies in rs10889677, rs1004819, rs2201841, rs11805303, rs11209032 in Roma samples compared with the Hungarian population, and the rs7517847 showed significantly decreased genotype and allele frequencies in the Roma samples compared to the Hungarians (Magyari et al. 2014, 151). Because various studies pointed towards the correlation between the susceptiblevariants of the gene and the disease, their finding implies, they argue, that hypo­thetically Roma people are more prone to develop the Bechterew’s syndrome than non-Roma Hungarians. In the above discussed case, medical genetic findings are paramount forthe better public health for both Roma and non-Roma Hungarian citizens. The question is how one understands it and how citizens are capable of using theinformation. I would argue against the starting position of my interviewee, who stated that when a Roma male individual with lower back pain enters his office,they (the medical professionals) must consider the possibility of Bechterew’ssyndrome. It would be misleading for both parties to consider Bectherew’s syn­drome only when racial/ethnic identification matches the description of the patient and the perception of the doctor. Those who are non-Roma but simi­larly carry the gene variants that make them more susceptible to develop thedisease are left out in this perspective. According to Sáfrány (2010, 29), 47 % of the healthy control group had the same genetic variant, namely the presence ofthe rs11805303 T allele in one instance, and also the rs1004819 A allele variant was more frequent in groups who had the disease than in the healthy control 127 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 groups. With these results, geneticists argue that (Sáfrány et al. 2009; Sáfrány2010; Magyari et al. 2014), because of the difference in frequency of the variant between Roma and non-Roma carriers, most probably Roma people are more 128 susceptible to Bectherew’s syndrome. This information can work to the advan­tage of both Roma communities and health professionals, but only on the condi­tion that they are careful to screen non-Roma patients with similar symptoms forthe same genetic variants. And with this move the work that geneticists do canbe seen as a contributing force in re-thinking the divide between Roma and non-Roma Hungarian communities. Members of both vaguely defined communitiescarry these variants, and the only medically significant difference is the fact thatone in one of these groups’ carriers is more frequent. Following on from this, two problems arise regarding the use of race/ethnic­ity. The first problem lies in the difficulty of identifying someone’s ethnicity, andthe second problem is the precise application of said knowledge. It is important to address this issue, because it is possible that an individual cannot preciselydefine their racial or ethnic ancestry. This can be for various reasons but let ustake one: incomplete ancestral information was passed down across generations. In this case, what is the best solution? And how can this approach accommodatethe individuals’ freedom to choose their ethnic or racial identity according totheir social circumstances? Let us say a white immigrant from Africa who livesin a European country permanently, perhaps even without planning to returnto their country of origin, chooses to identify as White African. Immediately, asimilar question emerges: if geneticists use stratification more and more, then towhat extent should they rely on folk race/ethnic categories? In what ways canwe secure precise information flow regarding these social categories in medicalsettings when we must ensure precise diagnoses? In order to be inclusive, themedical response must begin on the biological grounds that there are differentgenetic mutations that must be identified, since these are crucial for successfultreatment. Ethnic/racial markers understood by either patients or health pro­fessionals in a superficial manner can lead the diagnosis astray. Let me use anexample of a patient suffering from cystic fibrosis. CF is understood primarilyto be a Caucasian problem, one that largely affects white people, and as suchthis understanding directs the medical gaze of health professionals along racialidentities. Arguments to use racial/ethnic markers put forward by geneticists includetime efficiency in a clinical setting, where the patient’s interest is to find medi­cal solutions to their problems as soon as possible, hence medical professionalsneed reliable markers that efficiently guide the therapeutic process. In additionto this criterion, it is often argued that it is simply not economically efficient toscreen a patient for everything, since it is a costly procedure, and it is also inef­ficient for the state for the same reason. Therefore, many suggest that racially orethnically different populations be screened for health problems that are more RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 b. SZAMOSI Posledice rasne oz. etnicne klasifikacije v madžarskem postgenomskem medicinskem diskurzu DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 prevalent in specific communities. Dorothy Roberts discusses an exemplarycase where the racial bias of healthcare professionals caused harm instead of fastand efficient treatment (2011, 99). Roberts tells the story of “Lela, who was de­ 129 scribed by doctors as a ‘2-year-old black female with fever and cough’ and lateras a ‘4-year-old with another pneumonia’, as she continued to suffer from an un­shakable respiratory ailment” (Roberts 2011, 99). After six years of continuousimprecise diagnosis, at the age of eight her chest X-ray was read by a radiologistwho identified her condition as cystic fibrosis. The radiologist did not have anyprevious knowledge about her; Lela was not classified as a black patient by thisradiologist; it was only the X-ray image that allowed the doctor to give a raciallyunbiased diagnosis of her respiratory problem. In Lela’s case, it is highly probablethat if she had been white, she would have been diagnosed early on with CF andtreated correctly. Roberts emphasizes that because of the racial lenses that crudestatistical data provide about various racially or ethnically significant diseases,medical professionals mistreated Lela because they interpreted her racial differ­ence in a way that was translated into the clinical practice that CF is a predomi­nantly white disease, which means that black patients very rarely suffer from it. Thus, her doctors never considered checking her for CF despite the symptomsthat she had shown during her physician office visits. One of the turning points in medical genetic studies was the completion of the Human Genome Project. Its results have changed our thinking about the pos­sible applications of genetic knowledge in medicine. One of the key fields whereit had a significant impact was epidemiology. The knowledge gained made it possible and ethically necessary to address population-based health problemswith the tools of genetics. Thus, partially, racially/ethnically identified popula­tions became the focus of such studies, in order to provide equal healthcare for everyone. Furthermore, it became widely accepted that in order to provide equalhealthcare, it was necessary to map population differences in any social context.This approach embraced the idea that economic marginalization, racial discrimi­nation, and gender inequality contribute to diverse health issues and unequalaccess to healthcare. Thus, it became mandatory to find ways of tackling theseempirical problems. Social categories, such as race and ethnicity, might provide useful guidelines both for clinicians to reduce the time that is needed for a pre­cise diagnosis and to offer medical services, and for patients on how to changetheir lifestyle in order to better attend to their health. However, it is important to be vigilant about the social processes that reduce certain diseases to race- orethnicity-based problems. An essentialist understanding of race/ethnicity inmedicine can constrain the medical gaze and thus interfere with the diagnosis and the treatment process. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 References Béres, J., 2003. A Magyarországi Népesség Genetikai Rokonsága. In E. Hídvégi (ed.) A Genom, 130 171–186. Széphalom Könyvmuhely, Budapest. Bhopal, R., 2007. 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Pécsi Tudományegyetem, Általános Orvostudományi KarOrvosi Genetikai Intézet, Pécs, http://aok.pte.hu/docs/phd/file/dolgozatok/2010/ Safrany_Eniko_PhD_dolgozat.pdf (accessed 25 May 2022). Sáfrány, E., Pazár, B., Csöngei, V., Járomi, L., Polgár, N., Sipeky, C., Horváth, I. F., Zeher, M.,Poór, G. & Melegh, B., 2009. Variants of the IL23R Gene Are Associated with AnkylosingSpondylitis but Not with Sjögren Syndrome in Hungarian Population Samples. Scandi­navian Journal of Immunology 70 (1), 68–74. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3083.2009.02265.x. Sesardic, N., 2010. Race: A Social Destruction of a Biological Concept. Biology and Philosophy 25 (2), 143–162, DOI: 10.1007/s10539-009-9193-7. 131 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES b. SZAMOSI Implications of Racial/Ethnic Classification in the Hungarian Post-Genomic Medical Discourse DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.113-132 Smith, J. E. H., 2015. Nature, Human Nature and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philo­sophy. Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ). UNESCO, 1952. The Race Concept: Results of an Inquiry. United Nations Educational, Scientific 132 and Cultural Organization, Paris. 1 Identical treatment is a term suggested by Risch and his colleagues (2002) to explain that differentsocial groups have different treatment responses, therefore, they argue, treatments must beadjusted to their specific needs. 2 There are sociological and anthropological studies that explain sensitively the social immobility ofRoma people living in segregated areas (see for example Rozgonyi-Horvath 2018). I developed this article from my PhD research project that was supported by the Central Euro­pean University. Here, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Andrea Peto andJudit Sándor who tirelessly helped the articulation of my ideas during my work. I am indebtedto Colin Swatridge for proofreading and discussing my drafts. I would also like to thank SabinaZorcic and two anonymous peer reviewers who gave very valuable feedback before the publica­tion of this paper. TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022, p. 133–153 DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 After Croatia’s accession to the European Union, a trend of increased emigration ofCroatian citizens outside the borders of Croatia was noticed. The aim of this paper is tomap selected demographic characteristics of contemporary migration trends betweenCroatia and Austria in the period from 2013 (Croatia’s accession to the European Union)to 2020. The paper uses classical demographic statistical-mathematical analytical methodsin combination with GIS analysis. The paper is based on official Austrian statistics with afocus on Croatian citizens. The spatial framework of the research is the state level and theAustrian NUTS 3 regions (Gruppen von Gemeinden). According to Austrian statistics, atotal of 14,011 Croatian citizens emigrated from Austria to Croatia, and a total of 33,127Croatian citizens immigrated to Austria from Croatia, which means that Croatia recorded anegative overall migration balance compared with Austria (–19,116 Croatian citizens). Asa result, Croatia lost an average of approximately 2,730 people a year due to the emigrationof Croatian citizens to Austria. Keywords: Austria, European Union, Croatia, Croatian citizens, migration. Po vstopu Republike Hrvaške v Evropsko unijo je moc opaziti povecano izseljevanje hrvaškihdržavljanov izven meja Republike Hrvaške. Namen prispevka je prikazati demografske znacilnostisodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko Hrvaško in Avstrijo v obdobju od leta 2013 (pristopRepublike Hrvaške k Evropski uniji) do leta 2020. V prispevku so uporabljene klasicne metodedemografske statisticno-matematicne analize v kombinaciji z analizo GIS. Prispevek temeljina uradnih avstrijskih statisticnih podatkih, poudarek raziskave pa je na hrvaških državljanih.Prostorski okvir raziskave zajema državno raven in avstrijske statisticne regije NUTS 3. Poavstrijskih statisticnih podatkih se je iz Avstrije na Hrvaško izselilo skupno 14.011 hrvaškihdržavljanov, iz Hrvaške v Avstrijo pa se je priselilo kar 33.127 hrvaških državljanov, kar pomeni,da je Hrvaška v primerjavi z Avstrijo zabeležila negativen migracijski saldo (–19.116 hrvaškihdržavljanov). Z izseljevanjem hrvaških državljanov v Avstrijo je Hrvaška v povprecju izgubilapribližno 2.730 prebivalcev na leto. Kljucne besede: Avstrija, Evropska unija, Hrvaška, hrvaški državljani, migracije. Correspondence address: Rebeka Mesaric Žabcic, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Trg MarkaMarulica 19, HR-10000 Zagreb, e-mail: rebeka.mesariczabcic@pilar.hr; Nikola Šimunic, Institute for Physical Planning of Lika-Senj County, Ulica dr. Franje Tudmana 4, HR-53000 Gospic, e-mail: nikola. simunic@licko-senjska.hr. ISSN 0354-0286 Print/ISSN 1854-5181 Online © Inštitut za narodnostna vprašanja (Ljubljana), http://www.inv.si 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 External migration implies spatial mobility with temporary or permanent emi­gration outside the state borders (Nejašmic 2005). Emigrants can be generallydivided into legal emigrants, illegal (undocumented) emigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers (Weeks 2020). Weeks (2020) states that emigration can involvean individual and/or a family, and ghost towns are not necessarily an indicatorof community disappearance, but resettlement. However, in the Croatian case, emigration is largely negatively contextualized, as the local population movesoutside Croatia. Croatia is traditionally an emigrant country, and almost four million Croatslive around the world. Emigration of Croats outside the national borders, influ­enced by various pull and push factors, has been facilitated by the removal ofprevious administrative barriers, with the last emigration wave beginning with Croatia’s accession to the European Union in 2013 and continuing until today.By 1 July 2020, i.e., seven years after Croatia’s accession, Austria abolished thework permit requirement for Croats as well as all forms to be submitted when applying for a job, resulting in faster and easier employment in Austria. On thatdate, the labour market was liberalised and employment in Austrian companies, with Austrian and Croatian employers, became easier. Some Croatian citizenswelcomed the removal of barriers to employment with enthusiasm and, accord­ingly, a new major wave of emigration of Croatian citizens to Austria is expected,especially since Austria is geographically close to Croatia. Due to the emigration of young adults in the fertile age, mostly highly edu­cated, but also people with professional occupations, Croatia is facing worryingdemographic problems with far-reaching consequences, primarily reflected in the demographic structure of the population. Migrations affect both birth andmortality rates, as well as the population structure (demographic, economic,social, ethnic and other). The emigration of young adults causes negative demo­graphic trends, natural depopulation, and an increased share of the elderly popu­lation (Peruško 2016). At the academic level, a recurring problem for migrationresearch is the significant disparity in the data presented by Croatian official sta­tistics and those of destination countries. The paper focuses on Croats who emigrated to Austria, and not on the Burgen-land Croats who hold the status of an official minority in Austria. In Austria, migration statistics are based on data from registrations and de-registrations ob­tained from the Central Register of Residence (CRR). The Austrian statisticsof migration and population since 2002 are based on the same data source and thus represent consistent statistics. Migration and population statistics include RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 all persons who have registered their residence in Austria for at least 90 consecu­tive days. Migration statistics in Austria indicate all changes of residence within Aus­ 135 tria, from abroad to Austria or from Austria to abroad, since reporting a change of residence is required by law. The 1995 Residence Act defines the basic con­cept of residence, and migration statistics in Austria since 2002 consist of quar­terly data obtained from the CRR. The registration offices enter the relevant data in the CRR, while the Federal Ministry of the Interior submits all applications and cancellations processed in the CRR to Statistics Austria. Therefore, the au­thors use Austrian statistics data in the desk-analysis method, which entails the analysis of available statistical data. This type of analysis enables the research of possible social changes and behaviours in certain societies.1 The GIS analysis was also used, based on the application of GIS as a research tool for the calculation and visualization of data. The authors vectorised the Aus­trian regions’ borders, created a GIS database, and calculated the spatial relation­ships of migration changes in statistical tools. The classification and spatial statis­tic methods in the GIS environment were applied. Croatia has traditionally been an emigrant country whose population has been displaced around the world due to economic and/or socio-political circum­stances and motives that have consequently been a strong repressive factor andcause of emigration (Mesaric Žabcic 2012; 2014). Migration is also a very im­portant determinant of the population of Croatia (Živic et al. 2005). The prob­lem of population migration is not faced by Croatia alone but is a global and transnational issue (Peric Kaselj et al. 2021). Migration is not a simple mechani­cal phenomenon that takes place in society, but rather a complex social process full of dynamics and demographic factors (Lajic 2002). In recent years, negative trends in the demographic development of Croatia (depopulation, natural decline, the ageing process, etc.) have gained dramatic proportions, ranking Croatia among the European countries with the most un­favourable demographic processes. A possible cause of this situation is the ex­tremely negative migration balance, i.e., the growing number of emigrants from Croatia compared to the number of immigrants (Pokos 2017). The last big wave of emigration began with the global economic crisis in 2008 and intensified with Croatia’s accession to the European Union in 2013. It is perhaps the most unfavourable so far as it takes place in a context of reduced birth rates, natural decline, total depopulation, and rapid ageing. The true extent of contemporary and past emigration is not known as many residents do not 136 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 report a change of residence before leaving, although they are obliged to do so under the 2012 Residence Act (Pokos 2017). For every country, human capital is the most valuable capital. Without population, there is no progress and development. The three basic demograph­ic processes are fertility, mortality, and migration. By close analogy, we can say that Croatia is characterized by low birth rates, demographic ageing, and large emigration (Ivanda 2017). These conclusions of demographers were taken into account in this study of contemporary migration trends between Croatia and Austria. Consequently, the lack or shortage of population, especially the younger generations, leads to the destabilization of the basic systems of the state: labour force, pension, health, education, and financial system (Lajic 2007; Hollifield 2012; Martin 2015). Globalization, availability of information, and the legal and organizational ease of movement all make people move faster and easier. The competition among the population, which can be viewed as labour, consumer or human capital, now involves all EU countries and is likely to increase in thefuture (Mesaric Žabcic 2021). After Croatia’s accession to the EU in 2013, a large wave of emigration began that is difficult to stop and continues today. As the theory of Massey’s law on migration claims, international migration is much harder to stop than to start (Massey et al. 1993). As a member of the EU, Austria, due to its proximity to Croatia, is very at­tractive as a country of work, higher standards, and better legal order. Throughout history, a whole range of push and pull factors have created and dictated the emigration of the population. High unemployment, an unfavour-able economic situation, the inability to find a job in one’s profession, the inabil­ity of promotion, and the inability to solve the housing situation are just some of the many personal, psychological, and even economic factors triggering the decision to emigrate. People are attracted by the opposite factors and thus move to countries/societies that offer everything that, generally speaking, implies asatisfactory standard of living (Cizmic & Živic 2005; Akrap et al. 2017). Nowadays, corruption and nepotism are often highlighted as motives for emigration ( Juric 2017), while the decline in total employment, long waits be­fore finding employment in one’s profession, and the impossibility of permanentemployment (Župaric Iljic 2016) continue to feed a negative demographic trend with major consequences for the basic Croatian systems (Balija 2019). Emigra­tion from Croatia partly reduces the pressure on the labour market as it reduces the number of unemployed in Croatia, yet it also reduces labour supply, which is likely to have long-term negative economic effects with lower GDP and a certain collapse of the pension system as we know it today. Labour market conditions directly affect migration. According to Lowry’s (1966) migration model, the level of employment and income has a direct im­pact on migration. People move out of low-income and high-unemployment RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 areas to areas with high incomes and low levels of unemployment (Lowry 1966, cited in Wright & Ellis 2016). In addition to the economic reasons for migra­tion, the latter can also be triggered by certain political, social and demographic pressures (Cox 1976), which can certainly be linked to the situation in Croa­tia where emigration is associated with reduced job opportunities (especially in rural areas), but also to the general situation within the society (insecurity, corruption, etc.). In Croatia, especially in rural regions, there is a trend of selec­tive emigration (Nejašmic 2005; Lajic 2007; Živic et al. 2005) that contributes to negative demographic trends. This is confirmed by the new 2021 census, ac­cording to which all Croatian counties (NUTS 3 regions) recorded a decrease in population in the last intercensal period (2001–2021) (total decrease of –396,360 people), which confirms the prevalence of total depopulation).2 According to official data from the Austrian Statistical Office,3 a total of 8,451,860 people were registered in Austria in 2013, of which 7,447,592 were Austrian citizens (88.1 %) and 1,004,268 were foreign citizens (11.9 %). Re­garding the total number of foreign citizens, the citizens of the European Union (EU27, excluding Austria) accounted for 465,744 citizens (46.4 % of foreign citizens), while foreign citizens from other European and world countries ac­counted for 538,524 citizens (53.6 % of foreign citizens). Among foreign nation­als from other EU countries recorded in Austria in 2013, Germany (33.9 % of foreign nationals from the EU), Croatia (12.6 % of foreign nationals from the EU), and Romania (11.4 % of EU foreign nationals) stood out.4 Seven years later, in 2020, a total of 8,901,064 inhabitants were recorded, of which 7,414,841 were Austrian citizens (83.3 %) and 1,486,223 foreign citizens (16.7 %). Regarding the total number of foreign citizens, citizens of the Europe­an Union (EU27, excluding Austria) accounted for 757,420 citizens (51.0 % of foreign citizens), and foreign citizens from other European and world countries accounted for 728,803 citizens (49 % of foreign citizens). Among the foreign na­tionals recorded in Austria in 2020, Germany (26.4 % of foreign EU nationals), Croatia (11 % of EU foreign nationals) and Romania (16.3 % of foreign citizens from the EU) (Table 1) stood out again.5 The NUTS regionalisation implies the analysis of the territory of the EU member states by statistical regions of different levels. The basic distinctive cri­terion is the number of inhabitants, resulting in three NUTS levels. According to these criteria, in Austria, there are three NUTS 1 regions (groups of federal states, Gruppen von Bundesländern), nine NUTS 2 regions (federal provinces, Bundesländer), and thirty-five NUTS 3 regions (groups of municipalities, Grup-pen von Gemeinden). 137 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 138 Citizenship 2013 2020 Population change2013–2020 (%) Austrian 7,447,592 7,414,841 –0.44 Foreign total 1,004,268 1,486,223 47.99 Belgian 1862 2653 42.48 Bulgarian 14,144 32,528 129.98 Cypriot 125 259 107.20 Czech 10,232 14,182 38.60 Denmark 996 1230 23.49 Estonian 385 590 53.25 Finnish 1301 1721 32.28 French 6869 9011 31.18 Greek 3695 7393 100.08 Croatian 58,619 83,596 42.61 Irish 1058 1800 70.13 Latvian 1045 1761 68.52 Lithuanian 1086 1652 52.12 Luxembourgish 634 1187 87.22 Hungarian 37,004 87,516 136.50 Maltese 74 122 64.86 the Netherlands 7498 9739 29.89 German 157,793 199,993 26.74 Polish 45,965 64,429 40.17 Portugal 2260 3989 76.50 Romanian 53,261 123,459 131.80 Slovak 25,333 43,621 72.19 Slovene 9592 21,441 123.53 Spanish 4272 7901 84.95 Swedish 2810 3157 12.35 Italian 17,831 32,490 82.21 EU 465,744 757,420 62.63 Other foreign 538,524 728,803 35.33 TOTAL 8,451,860 8,901,064 5.31 Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022a (author’s calculations). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022a; GISCO 2020. Observed through the prism of the geographical distribution of the share of Croatian citizens by Austrian NUTS 3 regions, the largest share of Croatian citi­zens (2020) was recorded in the regions of Wien (22.67 %, i.e., 23,128 Croatian citizens) and Graz (11.25 %, i.e., 9,406 Croatian citizens) (Figure 1). The age-sex structure of the population reflects the composition of the pop­ulation by age and sex and is a good indicator of the current state of the popu­lation and a predictor of future trends in population development. According to Austrian statistics on Croatian citizens, it is possible to create an age and sex pyramid of Croatian citizens in Austria (2020) and analyse it. It should be kept in mind that the age and sex pyramid shows the recent age and sex composition of Croatian citizens in Austria and is mainly the result of the migration of Croatian citizens from Croatia to Austria on the one hand, and the dynamics of losing Croatian citizenship on the other, which is regulated by Austrian legal provisions.6 The age-sex pyramid (constrictive pyramid) shows a prevalence of the el­derly population (working contingent) (Figure 2). Most often, according to age, the population is divided into 3 cohorts: young (0–14 years of age), mature (15–64 years of age) and old (65 and older). In 2020, Austria recorded 11,259 Croatian citizens in the young category (13.47 %), 65,705 in the mature category (78.60 %), and 6,632 in the old category (7.93 %). 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022a. The fact is that at management levels in the countries of immigration, immigrants (especially highly educated ones) are viewed from the perspective of their po­tential contribution (in terms of intellectual and professional competencies) tothe society they immigrate to (Hercog 2019). A similar process of brain drain, i.e., emigration of the highly educated labour force, was recorded in neighbour­ing Slovenia ( Josipovic 2020). Long-term emigration limits economic growth considering that in most cases the ones who emigrate are younger people at fertile age who are also thegreatest contributors in the sense of payment of taxes and health and pensioncontributions (Šterc 2016; Mesaric Žabcic 2021). According to Austrian statistics, a total of 39,025 Croatian citizens immigratedto Austria from Croatia (2013–2020), while 16,096 Croatian citizens emigratedfrom Austria to Croatia. Thus, the migration balance of Austria compared with Croatia (in terms of immigrated Croatian citizens) was positive and amountedto 22,929 persons. On average, in the observed period, about 4,900 Croatian RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 citizens a year immigrated to Austria, while about 2,000 Croatian citizens emi­grated from Austria to Croatia, which means that Croatia lost on average about 2,900 Croatian citizens every year. Croatia is deemed a less developed country 141 in terms of economy and population and is more prone to emigration in thecontext of globalisation processes, especially after EU accession which sees an increased emigration of the able-bodied population ( Juric 2017). The largestgroup of potential emigrants (migration potential) consists of those who are dis­satisfied with the economic situation in the country and believe they can capital-ise on knowledge in foreign markets (Božic & Buric 2005). Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022b. With Croatia’s accession to the EU, the number of registered Croatian immi­grants from Croatia to Austria increased by 43.4 % in the first year of member­ship. After that initial wave, the immigration of Croatian citizens from Croatia to Austria decreased in the following years and stabilized at around 4,700 people ayear. In 2020, the immigration of Croatian citizens from Croatia to Austria in­tensified. On the other hand, the emigration of Croatian citizens from Austria to Croatia (known as return migration) increased until 2015 when it stabilizedat about 2,200. It can be assumed that these are people who may not have found adequate employment in Austria or have completed their short-term (perhapsstudy) stay there and returned to Croatia. Accordingly, the positive (for Aus­ 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 tria) migration balance grew until 2014, then decreased and stabilized at around 2,400 people a year, and later increased again (Figure 3). The age-sex structure of immigration/emigration is a very important aspect 142 because it can contribute to the immigration area (immigration of the youngerpopulation) and be very unfavourable for the emigration area (emigration of the bio-reproductive base), but also (less often) vice versa. Since the population ismost often divided into young (up to 19 years of age), mature (20–64 years ofage) and old (65 and older) (Nejašmic 2005), it is possible to identify possible structural changes in migration. In the observed period (2013–2020), 7,190 young people (18.42 %), 31,194mature people (79.93 %) and 641 old Croatian citizens (1.64 %) immigrated to Austria from Croatia. It is interesting to note that among mature Croatian citi­zens, younger age groups (especially 20–24 years of age) prevailed, which showsthat a significant part of the emigration wave from Croatia to Austria consists of students and job seekers. Among the Croatian citizens immigrating to Austria(2013–2020), there were 22,408 men (57.42 %) and 16,617 women (42.58 %).Persons of mature age prevailed both among male (82.31 %) and female immi­grants (76.73 %). Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022b (Author’s calculations). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 143 The regional analysis of the migration of Croatian citizens on the Austria–Croa­tia route was conducted at the Austrian NUTS 3 level (35 statistical regions).Persons with Croatian citizenship and Croatian descent were taken into ac­count. These persons are not necessarily Croats by nationality, that is, they arenot necessarily born in Croatia. In the period 2013–2020, all Austrian NUTS 3 regions recorded a positive overall migration balance of Croatian citizens with Croatia.7 Some NUTS 3 re­gions recorded a more prominent total migration balance of Croatian citizenswith Croatia, such as the NUTS 3 regions of Vienna (positive migration balance +5,359 persons; 23.37 % of the total positive migration balance for Austria com­pared with Croatia), Graz (positive migration balance +3,541 persons; 15.44 %of the total positive migration balance for Austria compared with Croatia) and Linz-Wels (positive migration balance +2,567 persons; 11.20 % of the total posi­tive migration balance for Austria compared with Croatia), and some recordeda less prominent total migration balance of Croatian citizens from Croatia, such as the NUTS 3 regions of Weinviertel (positive migration balance +15 people; 0.07 % of the total positive migration balance for Austria compared with Croa­tia), Mittelburgenland (positive migration balance +32 people; 0.14 % of the total positive migration balance for Austria from Croatia) and Waldviertel (posi­tive migration balance +37 persons; 0.16 % of the total positive migration bal­ance for Austria from Croatia). According to Austrian statistics (2022), most of the previously mentioned39,025 Croatian citizens immigrated from Croatia to the NUTS 3 regions ofVienna (28.06 %), Graz (14.75 %) and Linz-Wels (9.64 %). In the same peri­od (2013–2020), as many as 20,472 Croatian citizens from Croatia moved tothe mentioned NUTS 3 regions. The NUTS 3 region of Vienna consists, at thelower level of the regional breakdown, of 23 municipalities. Most of the Croa­tian citizens were recorded in the southern and central parts of the region/city.These areas are the municipalities of Favoriten (2,971 Croatian citizens; 12.85 %of Croatian citizens of the region) and Ottakring (1,920 Croatian citizens; 8.30 % of Croatian citizens of the region). On the other hand, the lowest number of Croatian citizens immigratingfrom Croatia to Austria (2013–2020) was recorded in the NUTS regions of Weinviertel (0.12 %), Osttirol (0.16 %) and Mittelburgenland (0.20 %). In thesame period, only 186 Croatian citizens from Croatia moved to the mentioned NUTS regions. An insight into the structure of the population at the micro-level(2020) shows that, out of only 163 Croatian citizens living in the NUTS 3 re­ 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 gion of Osttirol, most of them were recorded in the eastern part of the region.This is the municipality of Lienz (117 Croatian citizens; 71.78 % of Croatian citizens in the region), with only 11 municipalities (or 33 in the NUTS 3 Osttirol 144 region) having 1 or more Croatian citizens (Figure 4). Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022b; GISCO 2020. 2020 saw the maximum immigration of Croatian citizens from Croatia to Aus­tria (Appendix 3). Compared to the previous year (2019), there was an increase in the immigration of Croatian citizens from Croatia to Austria in as many as 26(out of 35) Austrian NUTS 3 regions. The largest increase in relative terms wasrecorded in the NUTS 3 regions of Sankt Pölten (the change index 2020/2019 was 380.00) and Weinviertel (the change index 2020/2019 was 333.33), whilein absolute terms the largest increase was recorded in the NUTS 3 regions ofVienna (+448) and Linz-Wels (+220). The above-mentioned data from Austrian statistics show that total immi­gration to Austrian regions has been intensifying. Vienna is still as important toCroatian citizens (as a destination for migration) as it was at the beginning of the observed period. According to Austrian statistics (2022), out of the previously mentioned16,096 Croatian citizens that emigrated from Austria to Croatia between 2013 and 2020, most of them emigrated from the NUTS 3 regions of Vienna (34.75%), Graz (13.77 %) and Linz-Wels (7.42 %). In the same period, 9,005 Croatian RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 citizens emigrated from Croatia to the mentioned NUTS 3 regions. The lowestnumber of emigrated Croatian citizens from Austria to Croatia (2013–2020) was recorded in the NUTS 3 regions of Osttirol (0.12 %), Weinviertel (0.19 %) 145 and Mittelburgenland (0.26 %). In the same period, only 92 Croatian citizensfrom Croatia emigrated from the mentioned NUTS 3 regions (Figure 5). Figure 5: Share (%) of emigrated Croatian citizens from Austria to Croatia by NUTS 3 regions 2013–2020 Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022b; GISCO 2020. 2015 saw the maximum emigration of Croatian citizens from Austria to Croa­tia. Compared to the previous year, there was an increase in the emigration of Croatian citizens from Austria to Croatia in 25 (out of 35) Austrian NUTS 3regions. The largest increase (in relative terms) was recorded in the NUTS 3 re­gions of Sankt Pölten (the change index 2015/2014 was 242.86) and Rheintal-Bodenseegebiet (the change index 2015/2014 was 213.79); in absolute terms,the largest increase was recorded in the NUTS 3 regions of Vienna (+184) and Linz-Wels (+60). By comparison, in 2019, there was an increase in the emigration of Croatiancitizens from Croatia to Austria in 19 (out of 35) Austrian NUTS 3 regions com­pared to the previous year. The largest increase in relative terms was recorded in the NUTS 3 regions of Mühlviertel (the change index 2019/2018 was 1000.00)and Außerfern (the change index 2019/2018 was 240.00), and in absolute terms in the NUTS 3 regions of Tiroler Unterland (+39) and Pinzgau-Pongau (+29). 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 Data from the Austrian statistics suggest that the total emigration from the Austrian regions decreased and is not as intensive as in 2015. It is possible to as­ sume that the majority of Croatian immigrants from Croatia made their living 146 in Austria, that is, they managed to get a job. Return migrations were certainlysignificant enough, mainly due to the student population returning to Croatia after completing their studies (or a semester). Among the returnees, there arealso families who did not manage to settle down in Austria. The paper examines selected demographic characteristics of the migration contingent consisting of Croatian citizens of Croatian origin who moved fromCroatia to Austria and from Austria to Croatia (return migration) in the periodbetween 2013 and 2020. Austrian statistics are accurate and provide an insight into certain demographic characteristics based on which it is possible to drawsome synthetic conclusions. A total of 16,096 Croatian citizens emigrated to Croatia from Austria (2013– 2020), and a total of 39,025 Croatian citizens immigrated to Austria from Croa­tia, which means that Croatia recorded a negative overall migration balancecompared with Austria (–22,929 Croatian citizens) in the observed period. This is because the Austrian labour market is relatively close to Croatia andmigration has been made easier after Croatia’s accession to the European Union.There is also a certain developmental disparity between Croatia and Austria which, combined with historical factors (the former affiliation of parts of Croa­tia to Austrian territory and a significant community of Burgenland Croats), isa very pronounced pull factor for emigration from Croatia to Austria. Although emigration from Croatia to Austria has stabilized in recent years, an increase inemigration in the post-pandemic period is possible. It is important to point out that all Austrian NUTS 3 regions recorded a positive migration balance with Croatia, with the most attractive regions for im­migration for Croatian citizens being the NUTS 3 regions of Vienna, Graz andLinz-Wels. These are, of course, the largest Austrian metropolises which, due to greater employment opportunities, are very attractive destinations for Croatiancitizens. In the context of the age structure of Croatian citizens who immigrated from Croatia to Austria, there were 6,220 young people (18.78 %), 26,349 maturepeople (79.54 %) and 558 old people (1.68 %). Among the mature Croatian im­migrants, younger age groups (especially 20–24 years old) prevailed, which shows that a significant part of the emigration wave from Croatia to Austria consists ofCroatian students and job seekers. Among Croatian citizens who immigrated toAustria (2013–2019), men prevailed (56.94 %) over women (43.06 %). RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 It can be concluded that Austria is a very attractive migration destinationfor Croatian citizens. Younger people mostly move to Austria due to greater em­ployment opportunities, while students most often return to Croatia after com­ 147 pleting their studies. According to research by Šcukanec (2017), most of the younger emigrants plan to return to Croatia either in retirement or when the conditions for employ­ment in Croatia improve, which will certainly contribute to the demographic re­newal of Croatia as well as to the increase of knowledge and capital investments, which will especially affect the development of rural areas. Considering the broader migration issues, we believe that Croatia shouldtake a strategic approach to planning its migration policy since migration is a strong destabilizing factor in Croatia’s demographic trends. 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Migracijske i etnicke teme 33 (3), 247–274. RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 STATISTIK AUSTRIA, 2022a. Population at the Beginning of the Year Since 2002 (regional status of 2022). Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich, Wien, https://portal.statistik.at/ (accessed 1May 2022). STATISTIK AUSTRIA, 2022b. International Migrations and Migrations within Austria acc.to 149 Communes. Bundesanstalt Statistik Österreich, Wien, https://portal.statistik.at/ (acces­sed 1 May 2022). Šcukanec, A., 2017. Nov(ije) generacije Hrvata u Austriji: razmišljanja i iskustva. In M. Sopta, V. Lemic, M. Korade, I. Rogic & M. Peric Kaselj (eds.) Hrvatska izvan domovine II. Centar za istraživanje hrvatskog iseljeništva, Zagreb, 433–439. Šterc, S., 2016. 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Negativedemographic trends are most clearly seen from the data confirming that a decrease in thepopulation (2011–2021) was recorded in 91.37 % of Croatian cities and municipalities (CroatianBureau of Statistics 2012; 2022). 3 Numerous authors have warned about the discrepancy in the statistics on emigration betweenCroatia (Croatian Bureau of Statistics) and foreign countries (Pokos 2017; Rajkovic & Iveta2017; Juric 2018; Jeric 2019). That is one of the reasons why the authors of this paper use onlydata from the Austrian statistics. 4 This data should be viewed through the prism of the total population of the mentioned countries(2013): Germany – 80,523,746 inhabitants (almost 19 times more than Croatia); Croatia –4,262,140 inhabitants; Romania – 20,020,074 inhabitants (almost 5 times more than Croatia)(Eurostat 2021). 5 Continuing the comment in the previous footnote, the population of the mentioned countries(2020) was: Germany – 83,166,711 inhabitants; Croatia – 4,058,165 inhabitants; Romania –19,317,948 inhabitants (Eurostat 2021). 6 Bundesrecht konsolidiert 2022. 7 By comparison, in the previous eight-year referential period (2005–2012), 15 Austrian NUTS3 regions recorded a negative migration balance of Croatian citizens with Croatia (STATISTIKAUSTRIA 2022a). 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 Source: GISCO 2020. NUTS 3 regions 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Außerfern 278 277 285 280 280 288 301 313 Bludenz-Bregenzer Wald 341 374 438 530 618 685 720 751 Graz 5422 5891 6521 7095 7583 8168 8737 9406 Innsbruck 1687 1777 1886 1939 2001 2032 2093 2140 Innviertel 871 913 1002 1058 1144 1183 1241 1344 Klagenfurt-Villach 3190 3356 3530 3657 3797 3901 4093 4301 Liezen 904 968 1093 1173 1259 1339 1413 1492 Linz-Wels 5377 5708 6249 6699 7135 7620 8098 8616 Lungau 94 109 111 131 143 168 187 197 Mittelburgenland 107 108 124 143 148 155 152 157 Mostviertel-Eisenwurzen 274 300 309 334 334 356 378 401 Mühlviertel 107 114 120 147 149 162 179 191 Niederösterreich-Süd 814 851 919 982 1037 1070 1121 1148 Nordburgenland 526 554 595 633 660 684 714 728 Oberkärnten 758 761 794 822 830 855 881 915 RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 NUTS 3 regions 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Östliche Obersteiermark 1604 1677 1798 1896 2025 2117 2271 2462 Oststeiermark 380 406 459 486 533 571 617 661 Osttirol 130 139 147 155 154 150 157 163 Pinzgau-Pongau 1725 1807 1898 2037 2113 2206 2356 2445 Rheintal-Bodenseegebiet 1519 1573 1715 1809 1922 2000 2068 2134 Salzburg und Umgebung 3398 3438 3585 3677 3767 3898 3976 4057 Sankt Pölten 330 337 379 382 399 417 429 426 Steyr-Kirchdorf 1142 1207 1317 1424 1509 1604 1669 1744 Südburgenland 221 235 256 256 258 260 268 276 Tiroler Oberland 317 311 321 334 350 393 431 458 Tiroler Unterland 2047 2167 2250 2348 2453 2621 2782 2900 Traunviertel 1881 1943 2068 2229 2331 2444 2612 2717 Unterkärnten 682 701 715 761 784 810 806 844 Waldviertel 137 131 135 165 160 152 158 145 Weinviertel 142 149 148 164 182 203 210 229 West- und Südsteiermark 619 654 682 741 797 876 1019 1173 Westliche Obersteiermark 807 840 909 954 985 999 1021 1050 Vienna 17.596 18.789 20.038 20.933 21.498 22.089 22.530 23.128 Wiener Umland-Nordteil 1738 1825 1971 2078 2135 2278 2307 2372 Wiener Umland-Südteil 1454 1569 1708 1796 1861 1928 2004 2112 TOTAL 58.619 61.959 66.475 70.248 73.334 76.682 79.999 83.596 151 Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022a. 88 / 2022 TREATISES AND DOCUMENTS JOURNAL OF ETHNIC STUDIES R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Selected Demographic Aspects of Contemporary Migration Trends ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 152 NUTS 3 regions 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020. Mühlviertel 10 16 23 4 8 7 15 12 Niederösterreich-Süd 57 61 76 46 48 35 35 64 Nordburgenland 31 47 53 29 24 38 31 33 Oberkärnten 21 42 33 28 33 45 42 60 Östliche Obersteiermark 75 125 123 124 107 154 204 197 Oststeiermark 22 64 54 56 51 66 66 54 Osttirol 9 9 7 4 5 12 6 10 Pinzgau-Pongau 104 121 168 142 145 184 163 186 Rheintal-Bodenseegebiet 83 168 167 131 98 122 122 165 Salzburg und Umgebung 126 188 159 144 159 156 130 235 Sankt Pölten 9 30 19 19 10 8 10 38 Steyr-Kirchdorf 54 118 121 85 74 83 67 94 Südburgenland 22 29 25 18 12 16 8 15 Tiroler Oberland 32 42 40 46 60 58 64 41 Tiroler Unterland 162 134 173 169 200 230 199 166 Traunviertel 81 165 157 132 136 139 134 167 Unterkärnten 30 28 52 50 31 35 42 48 Waldviertel 0 7 20 9 10 6 10 19 Weinviertel 1 3 8 11 4 5 3 10 West- und Südsteiermark 48 58 81 79 85 112 111 119 Westliche Obersteiermark 29 74 52 45 31 38 37 58 Vienna 1328 1753 1615 1320 1145 1157 1093 1541 Wiener Umland-Nordteil 80 133 114 70 95 52 64 138 Wiener Umland-Südteil 97 131 92 82 94 87 107 152 TOTAL 3857 5531 5349 4553 4481 4684 4672 5898 Source:STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022b. NUTS 3 regions 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Außerfern 7 21 10 8 7 5 12 8 Bludenz-Bregenzer Wald 16 17 30 37 53 48 73 46 Graz 146 224 270 297 287 346 327 320 Innsbruck 30 54 82 67 59 58 62 59 Innviertel 7 13 23 14 23 17 21 23 Klagenfurt-Villach 58 96 90 83 111 71 88 82 Liezen 24 22 24 38 26 27 36 35 RAZPRAVE IN GRADIVO REVIJA ZA NARODNOSTNA VPRAŠANJA 88 / 2022 R. MESARIc ŽAbcIc, N. ŠIMUNIc Izbrani demografski vidiki sodobnih migracijskih gibanj med Republiko ... DOI: 10.36144/RiG88.jun22.133-153 NUTS 3 regions 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Linz-Wels 66 132 192 147 167 176 158 157 Lungau 10 4 7 4 3 15 12 18 Mittelburgenland 2 4 4 3 4 13 3 14 Mostviertel-Eisenwurzen 2 13 6 10 3 8 8 3 Mühlviertel 2 6 5 7 4 1 10 7 Niederösterreich-Süd 22 25 41 33 39 16 32 16 Nordburgenland 14 11 20 13 26 23 19 11 Oberkärnten 9 10 13 16 11 15 17 17 Östliche Obersteiermark 22 27 42 45 28 43 44 57 Oststeiermark 6 16 23 18 17 29 34 28 Osttirol 2 2 0 4 3 3 1 5 Pinzgau-Pongau 30 26 36 50 32 40 69 72 Rheintal-Bodenseegebiet 28 29 62 52 56 65 52 33 Salzburg und Umgebung 65 79 100 80 69 71 75 79 Sankt Pölten 5 7 17 4 9 7 9 7 Steyr-Kirchdorf 9 17 17 13 18 20 25 22 Südburgenland 8 12 22 14 12 6 6 7 Tiroler Oberland 32 27 27 24 19 30 38 36 Tiroler Unterland 42 57 61 64 62 70 109 94 Traunviertel 21 34 37 37 35 33 32 36 Unterkärnten 15 9 8 15 7 20 10 10 Waldviertel 0 4 6 4 13 5 5 7 Weinviertel 1 0 4 2 8 6 3 6 West- und Südsteiermark 16 25 30 30 22 29 22 49 Westliche Obersteiermark 18 11 22 18 14 10 11 11 Vienna 428 664 848 826 729 769 705 624 Wiener Umland-Nordteil 32 35 57 58 44 54 44 34 Wiener Umland-Südteil 30 44 55 60 55 58 69 52 TOTAL 1225 1777 2291 2195 2075 2207 2241 2085 153 Source: STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2022b. 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