In my master's thesis, I investigate how a split between Slovenia and parents' homeland has affected the lives and upbringing of children of immigrants from the countries of the former Yugoslavia who came to Slovenia as young children or were born here. Through their stories, I examine the attitude of the majority society towards immigrants.
In the theoretical introduction, I first present some basic data on immigrants from the countries of the former Yugoslavia and the existential complexity of transnational families. I also provide an overview of the phenomena that influence the feeling of (non)acceptance of immigrants and their children in society the most: these are nationalism and citizenship and the resulting attitude towards immigrants, which is often manifested through prejudice, microaggressions and other forms of discrimination. I describe bilingualism or multilingualism in immigrant children as a source of strength and the possibility of belonging to multiple identities at the same time.
In the following, I outline the chosen research method, the narrative interview, the purpose of which is to encourage the interviewees to tell their life stories. The narrative interview is distinctly unstructured in its characteristics and follows the flow of the interviewee's narration. I conducted interviews with six individuals originating from Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Two of them grew up in Slovenia during the former common state of Yugoslavia, while the other four were born or immigrated to the already independent Slovenia.
In the central part of the thesis, I present the stories of the interviewees, following their way of telling stories and the topics they raised. I also tried to present their emotional experiences. Each of the interviewees highlighted a different aspect of growing up and living in Slovenia, and some topics are not typical only for immigrants, such as a critical view of their parents' value system.
In thematic analysis and critical discussion, I combined the interviewees' recurring experiences in the stories into individual chapters and connected them to theory. I found out that children of immigrants are not fully accepted neither here nor in their parents' homeland due to their hybrid identities. Almost all interviewees highlight some microaggression they have experienced based on their ethnic origin, and three also highlight various factors which make people not notice that they come from elsewhere. I understand the non-disclosure of their identity in certain situations as a strategy for protection against discrimination. Most said that they had faced poverty at least during a certain period of their childhood, and half also said that at least one parent was absent a lot due to work. Two interviewees touched on the issue of their parents' inability to help them with schoolwork. All interviewees highlighted the gap in mentality between themselves and their parents or peers who grew up in their parents' homeland, especially in the areas of gender equality and child rearing.
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