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Abstract
This article presents some crucial and typical experiences of people who were erased from the Registry of Permanent Residents of the Republic of Slovenia in 1992. In the process of forming the new Slovenian state in 1991 (after the collapse of former Yugoslavia), the body of citizens was newly defined according to the principle of ius sanguinis. This means that ethnic Slovenians who until then were Yugoslav citizens automatically became Slovenian citizens. Permanent residents of Slovenia who ethnically originated in other republics of former Yugoslavia had to file an application to acquire Slovenian citizenship based on Article 40 of the Citizenship of the Republic of Slovenia Act. Approximately 0.9% of Slovenia's population (18,305 people) did not succeed in obtaining Slovenian citizenship because either they did not file an application or their application was rejected. These people were erased from the Registry of Permanent Residents by the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 26 February 1992. The Ministry carried out this secret erasure without any legal basis. The Aliens Act entered into force for the erased which then annulled all their previously acquired rights; legally and formally they were made equivalent to migrants who cross borders illegally. Thus, the people erased from the Registry of Permanent Residents were suddenly left without any rights: the right to a residence in Slovenia (in their homes with their families), the right to cross the state borders, and all other economic, social and political rights. The implementation of the erasure concerns the suspension of basic human rights, the annulment of the principles of a legal state and the production of redundant people. The author argues that the erasure from the Registry of Permanent Residents is constitutive of Slovenian citizenship: the erasure established certain power relations in society and a certain type of democracy.
Notes
1 The author of the research entitled ‘The Politics of Exclusion in the Foundation of the Slovenian State’ was awarded a research grant by the Peace Institute. The research included collection and analysis of stories of individuals who were erased from the Register of Permanent Residence of the Republic of Slovenia. The results of the research were published in the book by Vlasta Jalušič, Jasminka Dedić and Jelka Zorn (2003) The Erased: Organized Innocence and the Politics of Exclusion (Ljubljana: Peace Institute), in English and Slovenian versions. With the kind permission of the editor, Aldo Milohnić, some passages from the book have been used in this text.
2 In this text the term ethnic is used referring to a state centred discourse: ethnicity of an individual is defined by their ancestors' (usually meaning fathers') birthplace. In the case of Roma and other minorities (Italians, Hungarians, Jews, Croats, etcetera) who have lived in Slovenia for a century or longer, ethnicity is the question of self-definition. In everyday life ethnic origin of a person (or a group) can be a basis of negative discrimination and therefore, on the other hand, also a basis of identity politics or resistance. In the populist discourse the members of ethnic minorities are called non-Slovenians.
3 Although the Aliens Act has been a legal basis for the implementation of the erasure, the Aliens Act by itself has never been legally questionable. The problem was in the governmental decision (in 1991) for whom and under what conditions the Aliens Act should be applicable. In 1992 the provisions of Aliens Act began to apply to residents of Slovenia (who did not acquire Slovenian citizenship) as if they have never been the residents of Slovenia before. There was no institute of (temporary or transitory) legal status for former Yugoslavia nationals who did not acquire Slovenian citizenship. In 1991, a deputy from the Liberal Democracy, Ms Metka Mencin, tabled an amendment to Article 81 of the Aliens Act which proposed that “Yugoslavia nationals who are not nationals of some other republic and do not apply for Slovenian citizenship but have a registred permanent residence in Slovenia, or have a job in Slovenia, on the day of this law coming into effect, are issued permanent residence permit” (Mekina, Citation2003, in Dedić, Citation2003, p. 47). The National Assembly rejected this amendment. Had this amendment been adopted, the persons who were subsequently unlawfully erased would have been automatically issued permanent residence permits (p. 47). In 1999 and 2003 the Constitutional Court of Republic of Slovenia ruled the erasure from the Register of permanent residence was unconstitutional, but this does not imply the illegality of the Aliens Act as such. The erasure was implemented on the basis of the internal decision taken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, meaning that the government did not have the legal basis to implement it (p. 47).
4 The issue of numbers of Roma living in Slovenia and especially of the erased Roma deserves a separate study. Only 2,293 persons registered themselves as Romani in the Slovene census, conducted in 1991. The real number of Roma in the country is much higher. As Tatjana Perić wrote in her field report, local Romani leaders estimate that there might be as many as 10,000 Roma in Slovenia (Perić, Citation2001, p. 34). A special problem is the terminology of “autochthonous” and “non-autochthonous” Roma, introduced and used by Slovene officials. All official Roma-related discourse in Slovenia and most legislation related to Roma address only the so-called “autochthonous” Roma (p. 34). The term is commonly held to refer to those Roma whose families have lived in Slovenia for more that a century, while the “non-autochthonous” Roma are understood to be those who came as economic migrants from other parts of former Yugoslavia in the 1960s and 1970s. There are no available statistics of the numbers of the later; however, the Romani activists estimate that there might be about 2,500-3,000 of the so-called “non-autochthonous” (Perić, Citation2001, p. 35). The European Roma Rights Centre, located in Budapest, estimates that at least two thirds of this number do not have Slovenian citizenship (p. 35).
5 Based on Article 40 of the Citizenship Act, citizenship was granted to residents of Slovenia of non-Slovenian ethnic origin, meaning that their fathers' birthplace were not in Slovenia, but in other republics of former SFRY. They had to file an application, whereas the majority, whose fathers were born in the territory of Slovenia, gained Slovenian citizenship automatically.
6 Hanna Arendt used the term “legal freak” to denote a person without citizenship, permanent residence and, consequently, without rights. She used this term in reference to refugees from the First and the Second World War, primarily Jews from Eastern Europe who were revoked German citizenship acquired during the period of the Weimar Republic (Arendt, [Citation1948] 1979, p. 278). At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the term “freak” was used to denote unusual bodies that were the subjects of entertainment and profit. A freak represented a deviation from the norm, and from the medical perspective it was regarded as a pathological human being (Zaviršek, Citation2000, p. 96).
7 This was the statement of former Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek (in Žarkov, Citation1995).
8 This was the statement of former Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek (in Močnik, Citation1999, p. 141).
9 Balkanism is a term used to denote an uncritical and simplified attribution of negative characteristics to the Balkans (where the Balkans is an imaginary space viewed from the perspective of the West). Simplifications and generalizations are frequently based on cultural, religious, ethnic and other prejudices (Todorova, Citation2001).
10 Although the clerks had to adhere to the letter of the law, in other words, the Aliens Act and the internal instructions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, this does not mean that the Aliens Act itself contains the provision on the removal of permanent residence permissions. See Note 2 of this text.
11 Mr M. B. was granted citizenship in 1992 under Article 40 of the Citizenship Act. In 1993 he had his citizenship revoked and was automatically erased from the RPR. The decision on revocation of citizenship included an explanation that the procedure had been revised and that the revocation was final. The decision of the Supreme Court in 1994 that citizenship should be returned to Mr M. B. was not respected. He was returned citizenship only at the request of the Constitutional Court.
12 Many erased people received formally issued decisions from the police which allowed them to live in their homes on the condition that they institute a proceeding for the legalization of their residence in Slovenia. This meant they had to check in with their local police stations every month. It is possible to understand this measure as a total dominance of the police over the lives of individuals who are not connected with criminal behaviour.