Page 219 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Urban Opportunities

Table 7.9 Emigration from the Tomaj Curacy by Destination (1920−1959)
Decade Trieste Italy Yugo- Ameri- Other Total N
municip. slavia cas
− . . . . . . 
− . . . . . . 
− . . . . . . 
− . . . . . . 
Total . . . . . . 
Notes In percent. Based on data from šak, žat, sa.

population. The relative decline in emigration to Trieste in the 1920s can
also be attributed to these political reasons. Due to immigration restric-
tions, only close family members of pre-war emigrants were permitted to
join their relatives in the usa. Such cases were relatively numerous in the
Tomaj municipality, illustrating how people seized opportunities to escape
precarious economic conditions and a hostile political climate. Even more
villagers emigrated to South America for the same reasons, particularly
Argentina, where favourable economic conditions prevailed and, until the
coup d’état in 1930, a democratic political order was in place.
Emigration to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was comparable in scale to em-
igration to America. Slovenes under Italian rule perceived Yugoslavia as
their new ‘homeland’ from which they remained territorially excluded by
the redrawing of the post-war political space. Political refugees, but also
economic migrants, often travelled there illegally. Most Tomajans found
homes and employment opportunities in Slovenia, spanning from Ljubl-
jana and Maribor to Celje, Krajn, and Novo mesto, where large immigrant
communitiesofSloveniansfromItalyexisted.Someventuredtothesouth-
ern Yugoslav provinces, extending as far as Macedonia. Emigration to oth-
er Italian provinces also surged during this period, from northern cities
and Rome to Apulia, Sicily, and Sardinia. Some were drawn inland by em-
ployment opportunities, while others migrated due to personal relation-
ships and marriages with Italian partners. Civil servants were relocated
arbitrarily and replaced in the Tomaj area with Italian personnel as part of
Italianization programmes. Among other destinations, France emerged as
a prominent choice, receiving numerous migrants from Yugoslavia as well
as from Italy during the 1920s.
In the 1940s and 1950s, emigration again bore the imprint of war events
and the post-World War ii landscape transformations. Following the Peace
Treaty and the new demarcation in 1947, which brought the Tomaj area

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