The Case of a Bilateral Agreement Between Slovenia and Bosnia And
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Care for Diasporic Communities: Te Case of a Bilateral Agreement between Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina Janja Žitnik Serafn Introduction and Herzegovina and the languages of Cultural production of immigrants or Bosnia and Herzegovina in Slovenia were members of ethnic, national or language “brotherly” languages. Tey obtained the minorities is one of the basic elements in status of foreign languages only after the the formation and maintenance of their disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, cultural identity. At the same time, their when their speakers found themselves in cultural production is a bridge between an entirely new position. cultures, a path to intercultural exchange In my paper I wish to explore organi- and a means of cultural afrmation of a zational patterns used by the Bosniaks in minority community in its mother coun- Slovenia compared to those used by the try as well as in the country of its residence. Slovenians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Te impact of cultural production of the the cultural production of the former Slovenian community in Bosnia and Her- and the latter in the framework of their zegovina and of the Bosniak community ethnic cultural societies and associations, in Slovenia on the cultural identity of their and their access to various fnancial re- members, the cooperation between these sources including those necessary for communities, and the ways in which they (co-)organising lessons or courses of their promote their cultural achievements in mother tongues. I am also interested in both countries, had not been subjects of how the minority status of the Slovenians systematic research until recently.1 in Bosnia and Herzegovina is refected in In Slovenia and in Bosnia and Herze- their cultural life and, on the other hand, govina, only some broader research pro- how the absence of the minority status jects in the feld of ethnic and migration shows in the cultural life of the Bosniaks studies have touched upon these topics. in Slovenia. Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina Te paper is based on extensive feld- coexisted in a federative state that prac- work carried out under my supervision ticed the policy of systematic intercultural between 2012 and 2017: a survey carried exchange. Slovenian language in Bosnia out among the Slovenian cultural societies 138 AEMI JOURNAL 2017–2018 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SMI Survey venians in Croatia and in Serbia3 – the 2012); interviews with teachers of the Slovenians in Bosnia and Herzegovina Slovenian language and culture in Bosnia have obtained the status of a national and Herzegovina; and interviews with minority whereas members of the nations representatives of both minorities (i.e. from these countries in Slovenia are still representatives of their cultural societies striving for the acknowledgement of such and associations) in Slovenia and in Bosnia status. Nevertheless, a mutual promise to and Herzegovina respectively.2 Tis empir- support the preservation of the languages ical research was a longitudinal upgrade and cultures of the national minorities of a previous feldwork under the same is a part of all the bilateral agreements supervision which started in 2005 with a between Slovenia and other successor survey on the position of immigrants and states of the former Yugoslavia relating members of the so-called “new minorities” to science, culture and education (Komac in Slovenia, their ofspring, and their 2014: 120). cultural production. Two of my interviews On February 1, 2011, the National were especially signifcant for this paper: Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia with the Secretary and Projects Leader passed the Declaration of the Republic of of the Bosniak Association of Slovenia, Slovenia on the Positon of the National Admir Baltić (Žitnik Serafn 2014b), and Communities of Members of the Nations with the Chair of the Association of Slove- of the Former Socialist Federal Republic nian Societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of Yugoslavia in the Republic of Slovenia Darko Mijatović (Žitnik Serafn 2014c). (Pravno-informacijski sistem 2011). Tree For the purpose of this publication, the months later, a government committee paper has been additionally upgraded, on the questions of the national commu- using the results of a most recent target nities from the former Socialist Federal research project titled “Sodobne strategije Republic of Yugoslavia was established slovenskih izseljencev za ohranjanje et- on the basis of the Declaration. Only a nične identitete” (Contemporary strategies year later, the new government led by of Slovenian emigrants for the preservation the Prime Minister Janez Janša abolished of ethnic identity, 2016–2018), published this committee along with a number of in its Final Report (Žitnik Serafn, Kalc, others. Te Bosniaks and members of Mlekuž, Vižintin 2018). other Yugoslav nations in Slovenia – joined In the so-called “Dayton Constitution”, within the Association of the Associations Bosnia and Herzegovina established the of Cultural Societies of the Nations of the “domination of three constitutive nations” Former Yugoslavia in Slovenia4 – have (Kržišnik-Bukić 2014: 135), and placed been pleading their right to attain the the Slovenians in the ethnic category status of national minorities since 2003, of “others”. Later on, in the Law on the when the Association was established. Protection of the Rights of the Minorities in Te president of the Association, Ilija the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dimitrievski argues that these commu- (Zakon … 2003), the Slovenians were nities cannot consent to their status of explicitly named as a national minority. ‘newcomers’ as they are in fact a product Tis means that – similarly as the Slo- of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Te JANJA ŽITNIK SERAFIN 139 constitutional acknowledgement of the ertheless, some highly esteemed experts national minority status, Dimitrievski in minority issues speak in favour of it, continues, would be prerequisite for the among them the European Commis- preparation of further legislation on the sioner for Human Rights, Nils Muižnieks assertion of their special collective rights in (quoted in Kržišnik-Bukić 2014: 10–11), terms of the preservation of their languages and the Head of the Institute for the and cultures, the access to public media, Constitutional Law in Ljubljana, Ciril political participation, and the dignity Ribičič (2014: 199). of these groups of Slovenian citizens. Today, he says, there are almost a hundred A Statistical Comparison between cultural societies in Slovenia contributing the Two Minorities to the preservation of the cultural heritage of the nations of the former Yugoslavia Te Slovenians in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Dimitrievski 2014: 17–19). Te number of the Slovenians in Bosnia Members of Slovenian academic circles and Herzegovina has been constantly have diferent views on the possible change decreasing since 1961 (Statistički godišnjak/ of the Slovenian Constitution aimed at ljetopis Federacije BiH=Statistical Yearbook the recognition of the national minority 2013: 69). A comparison between the status for these communities.5 Some number of the ethnically declared Slove- authors support such recognition; others nians in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the are more or less sceptical about it or even number of the members of the Slovenian ex plicit ly oppose the idea. Te change of societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina shows the Constitution seems unnecessary even that there are actually more Slovenians to some members of these minorities or in Bosnia and Herzegovina than those their descendants, for example the na- specifed as such in the census. On the tionally awarded writer and flm director, other hand, a three times larger number Goran Vojnović (his view is quoted in of the members of the Slovenian societies Milharčič Hladnik 2014: 90–91). Nev- in Bosnia and Herzegovina indicates that Table 1: Ethnically declared Slovenians in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the membership of the Slovenian societies Number of the ethnically Number of the members of the declared Slovenians in Bosnia Slovenian societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011–2013* and Herzegovina, 2012** BOSNIA AND 1,100 3,083 HERZEGOVINA Te Federation 500 1,376 of B&H Te Republic 600 1,707 of Srpska * Source: Josipovič 2014: 217; ** Source: SMI Survey 2012. 140 AEMI JOURNAL 2017–2018 Table 2: Slovenians in other successor states of the former Yugoslavia and the membership of Slovenian ethnic societies in these countries Number of the Slovenians, Number of the members of the State the latest census, 2011–2013* Slovenian cultural societies, 2012** Croatia 10,517 6,047 Serbia 4,033 4,302 Kosovo 500 / Montenegro 354 66 Macedonia 300 301 * Source: Josipovič 2014: 217; ** Source: SMI Survey 2012. these societies also accept members of 2). Tis unique case of the large number other nations (table 1), which was con- of the members of the Slovenian cultural frmed by the 2012 SMI Survey results. societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be If we compare the data from table 1 explained by the fact that in this country with the data from table 2, it becomes the interest in the study or employment clear that such a distinct disproportion in Slovenia is still relatively larger than in between the census numbers relating to other countries of the region, and that a the members of the Slovenian minority certifcate confrming one’s active mem- and the number of the members of the bership in a Slovenian cultural society Slovenian ethnic societies (in favour of the is taken into account in the Slovenian latter) is – if we consider only the so-called naturalisation process. Yugoslav region – characteristic only of Slovenians in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Te Bosniaks in Slovenia Te number of the members of the Slo- Te number of the persons whose frst venian societies in other countries of this residence was in other republics/states region exceeds the census number of the of the Yugoslav region that had moved Slovenians living there only in Serbia and to Slovenia by 2001 shows that most of Macedonia (besides Bosnia and Herzego- them came from Bosnia and Herzegovina vina), and in both the diference between (67,670 out of 150,763 persons, table 3).