Page 68 - Changing Living Spaces

Žarko Lazarević

and insufficient employment. It was mainly the agricultural population
that emigrated (Valenčič 1990, 43–82). According to some sources, 23 per-
cent of the population left the Slovenian territory in the period before
the First World War (Peternel 2003, 29). Slovenia is undoubtedly one of
the countries with the highest emigration rate from the second half of
the nineteenth century. On the European average, the proportion of em-
igrants in relation to the population was 12.3 percent (Massey 1988, 385–
6). In the long run, emigration did not solve the problem of agricultur-
al overpopulation until the First World War, but it did alleviate it to such
an extent that a partial restructuring of agriculture became possible.
Indeed, emigration contributed to a reduction in the pressure on farm in-
come. While maintaining the same standard of living, farmers were able
to allocate some of their resources to much-needed investments, which,
along with agricultural policies and the growth of financial intermediar-
ies, allowed for an improved standard of living (Lazarević 2015, 62–73).
With the new borders and changing attitudes toward migration on a glob-
al scale, the opportunities for permanent emigration were severely limit-
ed after World War I. The so-called seasonal migrations became frequent.
It was precisely this kind of agrarian migration that was the predominant
form of foreign migration prior to World War II. In the spring, a large por-
tion of the population set out for farms throughout Western Europe and
returned in the fall as soon as the harvest was in. Seasonal migrations
were typical of eastern Slovenia, the region of Prekmurje, where overpop-
ulation was highest and land ownership was most fragmented (Lazarević
1994, 74). In the interwar period, internal migrations also gained impor-
tance. These resulted from ongoing industrialization and the accompany-
ing urbanization and involved the resettlement of the population from
the countryside to the emerging Slovenian industrial centres (Slovenska
novejša zgodovina 2005, 495–7). However, industrialization was not so
pronounced that it completely solved the problem of overpopulation in
the countryside.
The large-scale migration from the countryside contributed to a re-
duction in supply on the agricultural labour market. It partially alle-
viated the problems stemming from the agrarian overpopulation and
inadequate employment of the peasant population and also provided ad-
ditional sources of income. The remittances sent by back home emigrants
to their families or relatives were an important contribution to allevi-
ating social and economic circumstances in the countryside (Lazarević
2017, 49–66).

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