Transnational research programmes

Detailed Review of Slovenian institutions engaged in Migration Research

  • Institute for Economic Research (IER)
    Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1109 Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Tel.: +386 1 5303 810, Fax: +386 1 5303 874, E-mail: ier@ier.si, www.ier.si

The Institute for Economic Research is an autonomous non-governmental research organisation with a long tradition in the field of macroeconomic and microeconomic analysis. It has a 15-year experience in studying migration. The main research fields are the stock and flow of immigrants and emigrants, migration policy and the impact of migration on demographic trends. Besides external, also internal migration has been extensively analysed. Unlike most of the other institutions in the country working on migration studies, the Institute's research of migration has an economic background. Apart from analysing the registered migration flows of population, active population, employees, etc., the Institute has made special effort in exploring the non-registered flows, especially of the highly skilled (brain drain). It has devoted close attention to the actual and potential external and internal brain drain of scientists; on this topic the Institute participated in PHARE COST A2 international project cited below. Migration flows of students in higher education have been also analysed, with an emphasis on Erasmus students. Besides focusing on national dimension, research also encompasses the EU and OECD perspective. This is especially true for the study on migration of scientists, published by IER in 2006.

Many IER research studies on migration have been policy oriented and represented one of the basis for several national strategic documents (i.e. two Strategies on Economic Development of Slovenia - 2001 and 2004, and National Programme for R&D - 2006). Similarly, the Institute prepared several basic documents for the Slovenia's negotiations with the EU on the free movement of persons.

There is one researcher at IER (Milena Bevc) actively involved in migration studies and a group of up to four researchers, working on migration issues occasionally (Klemen Koman, Boris Majcen, Nika Murovec, Sonja Uršie). Institute has been successfully collaborating with other Slovenian institutes; in the case of joint projects on migration issues it has been the leading institution.

International project:

Potential external and internal brain drain - Slovenia, COST A2 project "Europe's Integration - Labour Force Brain Drain". Project duration: 1994-1996 (financed by EU).

  • Institute for Ethnic Studies (IES)
    Erjavčeva 26, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Tel.: + 386 1 200 18 70, Fax: + 386 1 251 09 64, E-mail: inv@inv.si, www.inv.si

Currently there are about 10 researchers at the Institute for Ethnic Studies (IES) dealing with migration-related topics. They come from different research disciplines: history, geography, political science, sociology, anthropology.

The main migration-related research topics at the IES are:

  • emigration of the Slovenes to the USA
  • migration of the Slovenes across Europe and the former Yugoslavia
  • emigration of the Carinthian Slovenes after WWI and between the two world wars
  • migrations from the PR of China into Slovenia (current and historical migration flows from the territory of today's PR of China and integration of Chinese immigrants in the Slovene society)
  • migrations from the African countries into the European Union (emphasis on the geographical, historical and political perspective of these migration flows; migrations after 1990)
  • ethnic affiliation and fertility in Slovenia
  • integration of immigrants:
  • integration policies (models, Slovene integration policy)
  • legal, socio-economic, political, cultural integration of immigrants from former Yugoslavia in Slovenia
  • integration of immigrant descendants in Slovenia
  • ethnic discrimination in the working sphere
  • the role of dual citizenship in the process of immigrant integration
  • mainstreaming vocational guidance for refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants

International projects:

  • COST-A16: Transnational Communities and ICTs: Participation and Citizenship. Duration: 2002-2004. Financed by: European Commission, project manager: Bart Cammaerts, London School of Economics.
  • Mainstreaming vocational guidance for refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. Duration: 1st October 2003 - 30th September 2006. Project promoter: University of Glasgow. More on the project: http://www.gla.ac.uk/rg
     
  • Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences (ISES SRC SASA)
    Novi trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Tel.: + 386 1 470 61 00, Fax: + 386 1 425 78 02, E-mail: izi@zrc-sazu.si, http://isi.zrc-sazu.si/

Institute for Slovenian Emigration Studies at the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences (ISES SRC SASA) is involved into interdisciplinary research of migration processes in Slovenia and in the international environment. Researchers are focused on emigration and immigration studies, analyses of return migration, ethnicity, migration policies and different methodological and theoretic research approaches to migration. Their disciplines span from humanities to social sciences - from historiography, literary history, ethnology, anthropology, cultural studies, political studies and art history. They are involved in international projects and strive to compare their own research with similar Slovenian and foreign researches. Currently, the ISES employs 8 researchers and 3 PhD Candidates.

ISES SRC SASA is issuing the international scientific journal (Dve domovini/Two Homelands) and the Monograph series (Migracije/Migrations).

ISES also organises international symposiums and consultations on the topic of emigration and immigration, culture and education. Researchers present their research results at public lectures, exhibitions, with films and other visual materials. Individual researchers cooperate with various educational institutions and are therefore actively included in education process on migrations issues. Researchers of ISES SRC SASA have together with University of Nova Gorica and three other partner institutions from Norway, Portugal and Germany developed an international MA study in Migration and Intercultural Relations.

Other fields of research include emigration (Slovenians around the world), immigration, return migrations and migration policy, culture and art (cultural heritage and its digitalisation, emigration and immigration literature, fine-art), history of emigration, spatial, ethnic, cultural, gender and professional identity, acculturation, socialisation, re-socialisation, multiculturalism, assimilation, re-integration, forced or political migrations, emigrant communities, descendants of emigrants, life stories, women studies, literature and return migration, contemporary labour migrations.

International Projects:

  • Czechs and Slovenes. Comparative Studies of their Mutual Relations (in cooperation with Eeské akademie ved, Historický ústav, Prague-Brno) (1. 7. 2001-30. 6. 2003)
  • Comenius 3 -MIR: Migration and Intercultural Relations: Challenge for European Schools Today (2002-2005)
  • Learning Migration: Learning about migration and intercultural relations in school and teacher training (2005-2008)
  • Unesco - Comparative Education Programme in Euro-Mediterranean Studies (2000-2003)
  • Erasmus NewPROG: www-supported learning in migration/intercultural relations - a joint MA programme for collaborative learning and cultural awareness (2003-2006)
  • Czechs and Slovenes. Traditions and Opportunities on Cooperation among Small Nations within Multinational Communities (in cooperation with Eeské akademie ved, Historický ústav, Prague-Brno) (1. 1. 2004-31. 12. 2005)
  • Stavanger 2008 - Youth and Migration (2005-2008)
  • Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature (contributor) (2003-2004)
  • Czechs and Slovenes. Common Cultural and Ideological Pilgrimage (in cooperation with Eeské akademie ved, Historický ústav, Prague-Brno) (1. 1. 2007-31. 12. 2008)
  • Slovenians in Serbia/Serbs in Slovenia (in cooperation with Balkanološki inštitut Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti, Belgrade) (1. 1. 2006-31. 12. 2007)

The Peace Institute (PI) was founded in 1991 and it is an independent non-governmental organisation. The PI researchers' endeavour to integrate academic work with concrete social and political engagement led to a number of action research studies and projects. The PI devotes close attention to marginalized social and political issues that are usually ignored by mainstream institutions. Studying migration has been an ongoing endeavour of the Peace Institute researchers, who have approached this phenomenon from various perspectives, e.g. migration and questions of citizenship, politics of exclusion/inclusion, nationhood and 'nation-state', migration and globalization. Apart from conducting several nationally funded research projects, especially in connection to migration and citizenship, the PI researchers have been successful in competing for different funds, including the ASO, Austrian Science and Research Liaison, and the ongoing 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission project 'FeMiPol' (2006-2008).

Selected research and other projects:

  • FeMiPol: Integration of Female Immigrants in Labour Market and Society: Policy Assessment and Policy Recommendations (2006-2008)
  • ANEAS, Protection of Asylum Seekers in the Republic of Croatia and the Region (2006-2007)
  • Gendered Migration, Sex Work and Exploitation. Trafficking in Women and Prostitution (2005-2006)
  • The Erased People of Slovenia (2007-2009)
  • Immigrants, who are you? Research on Immigrants in Slovenia (2001-2004)
  • Monitoring Group of Immigrants' and Aliens' Legislation (Changing of Legislation on Immigrants) (ongoing)
  • Monitoring Group of Immigrants' and Aliens' Legislation (Immigrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina - Law on Temporary Asylum)
  • Legal Help for Refugees and Immigrants (ongoing)
  • Women in Migration and Vulnerability for Trafficking in Human Beings (2004)
  • Migration and Asylum: Policies in the "Schengen Border" Countries and the Balkans (2001)
  • Contemporary Citizenship: Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion (2001-2004)
  • The Slovene Model of Migration Policy: Perspectives and Potentials for a Country on the Schengen Periphery (2001-2002)
  • Racism and Xenophobia in Post-Socialism (2000)
  • Nation-state and Xenophobia (2003-2007)
  • Personnel membership (mag. Neža Kogovšek) in ODYSSEUS Academic Network (ongoing since 2006)
  • University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Faculty of Economics
    Research Centre (RCEF)1
    Kardeljeva ploščad 17, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Tel.: + 386 1 5892 499, E-mail: rcef@ef.uni-lj.si, www.ef.uni-lj.si

The main fields of interest of the researchers at the Faculty of Economics are connected to the scientific disciplines which are somehow "at home" at the Faculty. These disciplines are the economics of migration, the statistics of migration, the demography of migration and the migration management. The focus of the researchers is mainly directed towards European and especially Central and South-East European migrations. Needless to say, the most important expertise is in the domain of the Balkan, the South-East to North-West European migration streams, different topics connected to the labour market, employment of foreign workers and all migration topics connected to the Slovenia. The research work is frequently policy oriented and applied in its nature.

The researchers from the Faculty of Economics have participated in the migration research quite differently. Some of them are specialists and experts in the field while others participate in this research area only occasionally. It is always possible to invite also colleagues with special expertise, especially from the methodological fields. Different researchers have conducted several research projects. Most of them have been Slovenian in their nature. However, there have been some international research projects and collaboration as well. In the middle of the 1990 Prof. Malacic participated in the COST Migration project management board and in the project "Brain Drain from Central and Eastern Europe" financed by the EU. There have been different other collaborations at Council of Europe projects like Mediterranean Conference on Population, Migration and Development, IOM, IUSSP and EAPS activities, etc. Especially fruitful have been collaboration with the colleagues from neighbouring countries and Central and East European countries.

The core research group at the Faculty of Economics available for the collaboration with other domestic and foreign researchers consists of five researchers. Three of them are senior researchers and two of them are younger research fellows and assistants. The group can be enlarged if necessary with specialists in different methodological fields of expertise.

Research at the Sociomedical Institute at Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts (SRC SASA) is oriented to the fields of sociology, social anthropology, psychology, neurobiology, and social work. The research at the Sociomedical Institute excels in its multidisciplinary approach. The institute main orientation is towards the study of population dynamics, such as fertility, ageing of the population and migration. Migration is therefore studied in relation to other elements of the population dynamics.

Main research themes related to migration are integration of migrants, gender and migration, attitudes toward migrants and migration and identity. The researchers mainly utilise qualitative research methods as we are particularly interested in studying migration from the bottom-up, from the perspective of the migrants themselves. However, we see the value of migration research in combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

The institute has so far participated in two international projects related to migration:

FEMAGE - Needs for Female Immigrants and their Integration in Ageing Societies (6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, duration of the project: 2006-2007, researchers from the institute: Majda Eernie Istenie, Duška Kneževia Hoeevar, Sanja Cukut.
The objectives of the project are to generate knowledge about obstacles and needs for economic and social integration and emancipation of women immigrants in a life-course perspective, identify requirements for integrative interaction between immigrants and national population in the host country, build this knowledge into a platform for the policy deliberations among key policy stakeholders, and elaborate recommendations on needs for immigrants and support policies and services for their integration in view of population ageing in Europe. The comprehensive method of approach encapsulates findings from a small scale targeted survey of immigrant women (30 qualitative interviews were conducted in 2006), the viewpoints of nationals regarding migration and integration of immigrants (Population Policy Acceptance Survey) and the focus groups among migration policy stakeholders (in 2007) all of which were conducted in Germany, Austria, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Estonia.

Mainstreaming Vocational Guidance for Refugees, Asylum-seekers and Migrants, project funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Programme of the European Community, duration of the project: 2003-2006, coordinator of the project for Slovenia was Alenka Janko Spreizer, Duška Kneževia Hoeevar was one of the associates in the project. Within the project, a multi-lingual site of a European partnership which aims to meet the needs of vocational guidance advisors, counsellors and all others who support refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in their efforts to prepare for education and work in their new countries, was set up.

  • University Of Primorska, Science And Reserach Centre Of Koper (UP SRC)
    Institute for Mediterranean Humanities and Social Studies
    Garibaldijeva 1, 6000 Koper, Slovenia
    Tel.: + 386 5 66 37 700, Fax: + 386 5 66 37 710, E-mail: info@zrs-kp.si, www.zrs-kp.si

The research program of the Institute for Mediterranean Humanities and Social Studies of the UP SRC, focuses primarily on the research of the geographically complex region of Primorska and Istra, its history and contemporary social processes and the area as an ethnic, i.e., national and cultural meeting point between Central Europe and the Mediterranean and the East and West of Europe, with emphasis on Mediterranean studies. The research topics are related to the social, economic, philosophical, anthropological, ethnological, political and cultural aspects.

Research projects in the field of migration and ethnic studies are focusing on borders and cross-border integration, ethnically mixed areas, minorities, human rights, marginalized groups, groups vulnerable to trafficking in human beings, irregular migration, migration trends and migration and integration policies. There are cca. 5-8 researchers who are actively involved in migration and ethnic studies.

Bilateral and international research projects:

  • Perspectives of Economic Migration between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia in the Context of European Integration Processes. Project duration: 1. 1. 2003 - 31. 12. 2005 (bilateral project)
  • Slovenia and Wales: Small Nations in European Integration Processes. Project duration: 1. 3. 2000 - 1. 3. 2003 (bilateral project)
  • HeiRat III Female Marriage Migrants-Awareness Raising and Violence Prevention. Project duration: 31. 5. 2005 - 31. 5. 2006 (DAPHNE - European Commission)
  • The Risk Group of Unaccompanied Minors: Protection Measures in the Enlarged European Union. Project duration: 3. 4. 2006 - 3. 4. 2007 (DAPHNE - European Commission)
  • Gendered Migration, Sex Work and Exploitation: Trafficking in Women and Prostitution. Project duration: 1. 8. 2005 - 1. 4. 2006 (Austrian Science and Research Liaison Offices)
  • Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (SIAE)
    Šmartinska 134a, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Phone: +386 1 5842560, Fax: +385 1 5842550, E-mail: info@acs.si, http://www.acs.si

The Slovenian Institute for Adult Education's activities aim to stimulate the culture of lifelong learning in Slovenia by research, development, counselling and training, and information services. Main areas of research include the state of the art of adult education in Slovenia through participation studies, education and learning for governance and active citizenship, evaluation studies in formal and non-formal adult education as well as policy measures in adult education and lifelong learning; motivation of adults for education and learning; comparative research of adult education systems; national adult literacy survey: formal qualification in the labour market; research on active citizenship through life histories. Selected projects include: Second International Adult Literacy Survey (1998), Participation in Adult Education in Slovenia (2004), ETGACE and RE-ETGACE (replication of the ETGACE research project in Romania and Hungary - FP5, 2003), LLL2010.

Our Institute focuses on adult education issues, however, in recent years we also pay special attention to vulnerable groups, among them especially migrants. Primary research themes related to migration include: educational needs of migrants, multicultural competencies, educational exclusion/integration of migrants, etc.

Ongoing projects related to migration:

  • INCLUD-ed (Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education) (2006-2011) 6th framework programme, (European Commission), coordinator CREA Spain (partner countries Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Great Britain, Slovenia). The aim of the project is to research educational strategies which help to eliminate inequality and which enhance social cohesion and to identify those strategies which generate social exclusion. In the project special attention is paid to vulnerable and marginalized groups such as migrants, Roma people, excluded women, youth and children with special needs.
  • Education and training of migrants (2008) (Ministry of Education and Sport, Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Slovenia). Research on educational needs of migrants and employers' needs regarding the education of migrants.
  • Training in intercultural competencies (2007-2008) (Ministry of Education and Sport), training for adult educators.