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Zorn, Jelka --- "From Erased and Excluded to Active Participants in Slovenia" [2011] ELECD 171; in Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen (eds), "Statelessness and Citizenship" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Statelessness and Citizenship

Editor(s): Blitz, K. Brad; Lynch, Maureen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800679

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: From Erased and Excluded to Active Participants in Slovenia

Author(s): Zorn, Jelka

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

4. From erased and excluded to active
participants in Slovenia
Jelka Zorn

In 1991, Slovenia seceded from the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia (SFRY). From the outset, the Slovene independence process
seemed democratic, transparent and respectful of human rights and
minorities. However, ethno-nationalist sentiments would eventually find
their way into policies regarding citizenship and the treatment of foreign-
ers (aliens); the result was that thousands of long-term immigrants1 from
other republics of the former Yugoslavia as well as some Slovenes were
not only left without citizenship in the new Slovene state but were also
deprived of all status and rights, including even the most basic human
rights that they had previously enjoyed.
The economically motivated migration to Slovenia had begun as early
as the 1960s, but it was not until the 1970s, and especially the 1980s, that
these immigrants who represented territorially dispersed communities
without political demands settled with their families and became visible in
Slovenia2. When Slovenia declared its independence in 1991, these com-
munities became the implicit target of the nationalist sentiment embedded
in the citizenship and aliens' legislation of the new state. While secession
legislation made it possible for the majority of these immigrants to become
Slovene citizens,3 many were less fortunate. Most troubling was that after
secession a host of administrative procedures were used to strip those who
did not apply for citizenship of their social, economic and political rights,
giving rise to a new social category of `erased' persons.
The term `erasure' ...