Activities of Slovenian Communities Around the World Presented to the New Generation of ASEF Junior Fellows From Slovenia

On Thursday, 19 May, ASEF organized an online training on Slovenian communities around the world for the new generation of ASEF Junior Fellows. The training was performed by dr. Dejan Valentinčič, Head of the Center for Social Research at the ASEF Institute.

At the beginning, dr. Valentinčič presented three waves of emigration from Slovenia to abroad and presented the socio-historical context of the latter. He then further concretized the Slovenian emigration to Argentina and presented it through the waves. The training was also attended by architect Marieala Sabernich and English teacher Julieta Puntin,, ASEF Junior Fellow 2020and members of the fourth generation of the Slovenian community in Entre Rios, Argentina, which was a great opportunity for the latter to present their views on emigration and care for the preservation of Slovenian identity in the community in Argentina and thus further contribute to the content of the presentation.

Junior Fellows were also introduced to the differences in emigration to the USA, where around 300,000 Slovenes currently live. As in Argentina, there are Slovene schools in the USA that operate on Saturdays, but they do not speak Slovene compared to the first ones. These are more schools that run in English on the Slovenian language, culture and history. Since most ASEF Junior Fellows from Slovenia are leaving for the USA this year, dr. Valentinčič especially encouraged them to investigate before leaving whether there are any Slovene communities and / or Slovenes operating in the place of hosting, and to connect with them.

The training ended with a short presentation of the background of migration and functioning Slovenian communities in Australia and Canada, as well as the individual aspect of the search for Slovenian roots.