For the unemployment benefit? Certificate of proficiency in Slovenian. For family reunions? Certificate of proficiency in Slovenian. A discriminatory legislation against foreign workers that the current government does not seem willing to change
The obsession that immigration can change the face of Slovenia is not just a recent concern. It happens today and it happened in the eighties, when a real aversion for those who were mockingly called the “brothers of the south” had not failed to develop throughout the country. They were workers from the former Yugoslav republics who found employment on assembly lines or construction sites.
As per tradition, even today little or nothing is done to integrate them. The feeling is that once they have finished building villas, roads and tower blocks, it would be nice if they returned home as soon as possible. Seeing them together in the streets of the centre, hearing them speak in their own languages or finding them buying apartments in some areas of the city is annoying. If for white-collar workers who fill medical offices, integration into society is relatively simpler, it is not as easy for those who do menial jobs. The belief is that they have to adapt first of all by learning the language.
As long as they are working on construction sites, they need nothing. They speak to each other in Albanian or in one of the variants of what used to be Serbo-Croatian. When things go wrong and they want to register with the employment office or get unemployment benefits, however, immigrants have to provide the authorities with a certificate of proficiency in Slovene at the basic level (A1). If they want to pass from a simple residence permit to residence, they must bring a certificate certifying an even better knowledge of the language (A2). It is therefore a question of attending a course and also of investing part of the earnings to pay for the exam. Not a simple operation. Uros Škerl Kramberger on the Dnevnik told the story of a Bosnian laborer over sixty who was left out of work, who after years spent on construction sites just couldn’t make it back to school. His case is far from isolated.
The previous center-right government had seen fit to introduce the need to produce a certificate also for reunifications. After a certain period, the family members would have had to hand him over to the authorities in order to continue to stay in Slovenia. Not just any sheet, but a document issued by a special center. Too bad that the structure in charge can have 3,000 exams done a year, while there are more than 9,000 people who need the document. The deadline set for this year is April 27th.
The centre-left government, obsessed with the idea of having to ease the conditions for being able to secure cheap labor abroad, immediately put its hand to a series of laws regulating the employment of foreigners and which will make life easier for employers and also to migrants. Up to a certain point the article which required the presentation of the certificate of knowledge of the language for reunification seemed to have to be quashed, but then the “progressives” changed their minds. The centre-left is often afraid of being accused of not paying due attention to the care of national identity. The opposition immediately played on this card and announced that they would collect signatures to hold a referendum if knowledge of the language was eliminated. So the centre-left backtracked. The law was approved in parliament with only the votes of Movimento Libertà and the Social Democrats. The Left, the third government party, fought in the classroom by taking it out on everyone and throwing arrows against the “nationalism” of the center-right. Democrats and New Slovenia, who would have wanted even stricter rules, had no choice but to explain to the radical left that the law under discussion in the chamber had not been proposed to them and that they had to blame their government allies.
Immediately the Council of State, the almost useless second chamber of the Slovenian parliament, voted the suspensive veto. Not out of solidarity with foreign workers and their families, but because the presentation of the language certificate had been postponed by another 18 months with the new law. Slovenian is one of the foundations of culture and national identity, it was said, specifying that only knowledge of the language would guarantee integration. Now the chamber will have to approve the measure by an absolute majority. To join her in the chamber, practically all of Prime Minister Robert Golob’s deputies and also all of the post-communists of Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon will have to be present.
The head of state, Nataša Pirc Musar, in a note issued on the eve of the debate in parliament had called for the removal of the language clause for reunifications. According to the president, workers and their families must be offered all the tools for linguistic integration, “but this must not be done in a punitive, discriminatory or humiliating way for people”. An outcry also by non-governmental organizations, which spoke bluntly of measures that have the sole purpose of fueling xenophobia, preventing foreign workers from living a dignified life, reuniting with their families and integrating into society . In summary, a law that will serve to deport women and children.
On the matter, the sociologist Roman Kuhar, in a very harsh background on the Delos, specified that anyone who believes that with such interventions the Slovenian language and culture will be protected and that foreigners will integrate is incurring a great (populist) error. Integration, he wrote, is not a one-way street, specifying that this street leads “to segregation, isolation and sooner or later also to violence”.
The debate and protests of non-governmental organizations and also of a part of public opinion, however, probably will not change the opinion of politics, where once again “patriotism” (or rather nationalism) will prevail over everything else .
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