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Creating the Unbound Yugoslav Nation: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Emigrants from the “Unredeemed” Julian March

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2021

Miha Zobec Open the ORCID record for Miha Zobec [Opens in a new window]
Miha Zobec*
Affiliation:
Slovenian Migration Institute at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article explores how the Kingdom of Yugoslavia tried to co-opt Slovenes who emigrated from the Italian Julian March/Venezia Giulia region to Argentina (a community of around 25,000 emigrants) into the frame of its unbound nation and analyzes the emigrants’ attitudes towards the Kingdom. As emigrants derived from the territory were considered by Yugoslav authorities to be “unredeemed,” the article, explores how Yugoslavia addressed its “two diasporas,” one of stranded minorities and one of emigrants. Secondly, it examines how diplomatic representatives suppressed emigrants’ opposition during times of economic crisis and dictatorial government in Yugoslavia and Argentina. Thirdly, it analyzes the rapprochement between the emigrant community and diplomatic representatives which occurred in the second half of the 1930s. It argues that because the diplomatic corps were ultimately unable to provide the emigrants socio-economic assistance or address the issue of the Julian March minority, emigrants devised alternative visions of belonging. In addition, the article suggests that many emigrants, caught between a powerless homeland and a host society unwelcoming of their particular identities, drifted into Argentine anonymity.

Keywords

YugoslaviaTenth Banovinathe Julian March/Venezia Giulianation-buildingArgentina
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , March 2022 , pp. 296 - 315
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Nationalities

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