Migration Trends in Selected Applicant Countries: Volume VI Slovenia

The key event in the country's contemporary history is the milestone year of 1991 when Slovenia gained independence. After this period, the entire process of creating migration policy started, although it cannot be said that Slovenia had no previous experience with migration outflow and inflow. On the contrary, Slovenia was the territory of immigration from other parts of former Yugoslavia. At the same time, many Slovenes emigrated to the Western countries as "guest workers". However, it is a questionable viewpoint that the accession/applicant countries to the EU (or generally, the transitional countries of Eastern Europe) are by definition countries that only recently face immigration. It seems that a more diversified analysis is needed in order to include different forms of immigration, although not always international, but nevertheless important for particular regions. The fact remains that immigration from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia from the past have influenced nowadays' policing, especially in the field of integration of immigrants into a "new society". To summarise migration trends after WW2, the following picture could be presented: immediately after the war the migration balance was negative, the majority of Slovene emigrants crossed the border undocumented and reasons were predominantly political. In mid 1950s the main motivation for migration became economic. In next two decades Slovenia turned from a territory of emigration to a territory of immigration. Immigration of the population from the former Yugoslav Republics is the most important feature of the period before the year 1991. Most immigrants came to so-called industrial half moon, the area of main industrial centres in Slovenia, including the capital city of Ljubljana. The second prominent territories of immigration were municipalities bordering on Croatia.