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Paper to be presented at the Cultures in Transit Conference, Liverpool Hope UniversityPanel 5, Saturday 19th July 2008
 The Fate of Small Nations during Times of Mass Emigration: The Case of Slovenians
 Mojca Vah
 Abstract
 
Slovenian culture (understood here as the way of life) has been challenged by over a century of extensiveemigration. Waves of mass emigration to the United States in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentiethcentury due to economic reasons were followed by waves of mass emigration to Argentina after the SecondWorld War due to political reasons. Labour migration to the Western European states, especially Germany, bloomed during the communist times, and contemporary migration patterns reveal worrying levels of brain drainafter joining the EU. What kind of an impact is over a century of extensive emigration having on Slovenianculture? Can a nation of only a million or so, inclined to emigrate throughout its history and living under different flags until less than two decades ago, preserve its ethnic / cultural identity? Against all odds it appearsto be so. On the case of Slovenians, the paper will address the intriguing question of how small nations cantackle the pressures of extensive emigration and at the same time manage to preserve - or indeed strengthen – their cultural identity. It will also be argued that the principle of territoriality of culture is considered bySlovenians as a necessary precondition for preserving their identity. This can arguably be contributed to thedemographic factors, as it is popularly believed that territorial dispersal of the already small number of Slovenians would result in significantly weakening or even endangering their identity. After declaration of independence in 1991 and creation of the first Slovenian state, the legal mechanisms for preservation werefinally at hand. Nationalistic tendencies that helped preserve the Slovenian cultural identity in the past, however,continued- at times even escalating to the outright outbursts of xenophobia.
In the paper I intend to go beyond methodological nationalism, which, in one of its variantsimplies that social processes are confined to the political and geographic boundaries of anation-state. Needless to say, territorial limitations, when discussing culture need to bereplaced by a less restrictive framework. Therefore, when I speak of the fate of the Sloveniannation during times of mass emigration, I am not only referring to the Slovenians who inhabitthe territory of their nation-state and who stayed in the homeland, but also those who havesettled abroad and tried, by employing different means, to preserve Slovenian culture andnational identity for the generations to come. Given the fact that Slovenians have always been
 
2a small nation of about one to two million, the urge to preserve their culture has always beenstrongly present. Feelings of fear of assimilation into other nations surrounding the Slovenianethnic territory were immense. Moreover, it was not only demographic factors thatcontributed to stubbornly fighting to preserve the culture, especially language, but also thefact that hundreds of years were spent under the foreign rule. Slovenia reached itsindependence and therefore the Westphalian sovereignty over its ethnic territory only in 1991.Before that, it was a part of several other political entities. At the end of the nineteenthcentury, which is a period when Slovenian mass emigration began, the prospects of preservingthe culture seemed slimmer by the decade, especially because Slovenian nation-state, whichcould help to preserve the culture with clever policy-making and emigration control, did notyet exist. This, however, might have been a blessing in disguise. When threatened, a self- preserving mechanism is usually triggered in order to prevent assimilation into a majorityculture and this may well have been the case with Slovenians. Those that stayed in the ethnicterritory and the ones that emigrated and formed diasporas around the world were all joined inthe efforts to preserve their cultural identity. But let me start telling the story of Slovenianmass emigration as it happened from the beginning on.
 Slavic and Mediterranean mass emigration wave headed for the America
 The development of rail and sea transportation made the world more accessible and attractiveto the populations of the old world. The euphoria of emigration, aimed especially at theUnited States, reached Slovenia at the end of the nineteenth century. At that time, Slovenians,already formed as a nation, lived in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. They were surrounded by the Roman and German world on one side and South-Slavonic world on the other. Germanand Italian territorial aspirations were something Slovenians feared immensely, especially asthere were less than 1, 2 million of them living in the multi-nation monarchy at the time. Infact, throughout the history, the Slovenian ethnic territory has been geographically particularly transitional and vulnerable to a variety of foreign cultural influences. Preservingthe Slovenian culture and national identity was further endangered when massive numbers of Slovenians decided to search for a better living in the United States or 
the land of the plenty
,as they called it. The emigration was so massive that it used to be called the ‘blood toll’ at thetime. It was among the highest in Europe as a percentage of the population, as it is estimatedthat one third of the population increase was headed abroad when reaching the primereproductive age. In addition, unlike in some other European countries, Slovenians who
 
3emigrated were not very poor, hungry and weak, as those decided to stay put. It was mostlythe strong, healthy, curious, adventurous and intelligent men and women that emigrated.
1
Slovenian mass emigration wave to the United States immensely worried the CatholicChurch, which had a major influence in the predominantly rural Slovenian society. The priestswarned against dangers that emigrants would have to face in the States on every corner. Mostof the catholic press wrote about the United States and other foreign countries as dangerous,threatening, unmoral places, where religion becomes highly endangered. In addition, theChurch argued that when thousands of compatriots are leaving their homeland, they areconsiderably and dangerously weakening the nation’s power. A high number of newspaper reports drew attention to the excessive liberty granted to Americans, their disrespect for traditional village customs, and, a great shock to the Slovenian religious rural environment,the neglect of church service attendance. Slovenians were reading such newspapers withwarnings and the majority of them were indeed attending mass, but emigration neverthelesscontinued on a massive scale until the First World War. Opponents of emigration did their  best to highlight the grim side of the land across the Atlantic, while its supporters, especiallythose who returned, all too easily forgot about the negative sides and spoke about America asthe country of great opportunities, offering a better life.The Catholic Church and local teachers were doing everything in their power to stopSlovenians from leaving. After years of persuasion, they managed to break the spell thatSlovenians seemed to be under, believing that in America roast chicken flew into one’s mouthand dollars were lying on the streets. But even though they were better informed, also due tohonest letters from the loved ones who admitted that life in America is not only milk andhoney, the nation was still obsessed. Priests were complaining that, on the classroom walls,instead of hanging pictures of the natural and rural life of the homeland, there were seascapesand steamers displayed in every detail. Teachers reported that children were more familiar with the American rivers of Mississippi and Ohio than with Slovenian rivers.The local priests became more and more concerned about the economic position of their  parishes, which became endangered as a result of emigration. With time, however, theyrealised that they do not hold the power to stop Slovenians from looking for their fortune
1
Drnovšek, M. 1994: Mass Emigration and Slovenes. Dve domovini 5. Ljubljana: ISI ZRC SAZU.
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