Nove Fužine is the most notorious neighbourhood in Slovenia: a suburb of Ljubljana with the highest proportion of first- and second-generation immigrants from the other former Yugoslavian socialist republics stands in Slovenia as the privileged signifier of Balkan-ness, and is consequently a place around which many negative stereotypes are constructed. Authors have conducted a survey with which they attempted to discern the real degree of cultural differences between the biggest three of the ethnic groups in the neighbourhood (Slovenes, Serbs and Bosniaks), primarily in terms of their culinary habits and choices - these were taken as indicator of more general cultural references. The results of the research have limited explanatory potentials due to an extremely low response rate among the inhabitants. However, taken as they are they show that while there are very few substantial differences between the ethnic communities in Nove Fužine, social distance between them remains substantial: any forms of cultural exchanges, at least as much as these could be inferred from eating habits, are in this multi-ethnic suburb almost completely absent. Immigrants from the other former Yugoslavian republics in several instances include various typically Slovene dishes on their menus and vice versa, but it appears that they do so because of other structural reasons and influences, not because of the possible cultural exchanges within their neighbourhood.
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