Historic background of the migratory phenomenon in the Province of Trieste

della frontiera, che è ponte ma anche barriera, luogo in cui è più facile incontrare l'altro ma pure rifiutarlo e ignorarlo, vivace apertura e gretta chiusura.”¹¹³

(Claudio Magris in Corriere della Sera, 5 July 2005)

6.1 Historic background of the migratory phenomenon in the Province of

Trieste

This chapter aims at presenting a brief history of the evolution of the migratory flows and distinctive features of the province of Trieste. As Trieste the case study of the present research is located in the town of Trieste, a few aspects and characteristics of this territory should be considered when analysing the findings and interpreting the data gathered.

Firstly, it is important to mention that, due to its location – at the crossroads of the Germanic, Latin and Slav cultures, Trieste’s population is made up of an ethnic mix from the neighbouring regions. Aside from the close-by neighbours (i.e., Slovenians, Austrians and Croatians), Trieste is marked by the historic presence of other ethnic minorities which

113 Trieste has made its own the contradictions of the frontier, which works both as a bridge and as a barrier, a place where it is easier to encounter the “other” as well as to reject or ignore him, a lively opening and a narrow minded closing. (my translation)

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have been present for decades and have even managed to leave their mark on the city’s architecture, and on its cultural and social life. Such examples are the Serb, Greek, Jew and Armenian communities which have all found in Trieste a both a refuge and a commercial partner.

In order to understand the specificity of this borderland city, I will give a brief account of the most important events of contemporary history which have shaped the identity of its inhabitants. In 1861, at the time when Italy became a unitary state, parts of the territories of north-eastern Italy and the whole Slovenia belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, only five years later, Italians extended their eastern territories by taking hold of the western Friuli (today the Province of Pordenone) and the central Friuli (today the Province of Udine) along the border between Italy and Slovenia. At that time, the territory of Trieste and Istria, together with that of Gorizia and Gradisca, were still under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and benefited of great autonomy. Actually, under the Habsburg, this territory was known as the Austrian Littoral and it included both the Italian and Slovenian (or Primorska) border areas [Pantaleo 2008].

It was only in 1920, after the end of WWI and the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo¹¹⁴ that Trieste, along with the now Slovenian side (Primorska) became integral part of the Kingdom of Italy. The result was that a large number of Slovenes and Croats became part of Italy. According to Hehn (2002:45), “the treaty left half a million Slavs inside Italy while only a few hundred Italians in the fledgling Yugoslav state”. Furthermore, according to the Austrian census, there were around 25,000 ethnic Germans and 3,000 Hungarians living in the regions annexed to Italy.

In the period running from the First World War to the Second World War most of the current Slovenian territory was included into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, while the western part of Slovenia was kept under the Italian Kingdom. After Second World War, the Italo-Yugoslavian border was pushed towards the current Italian territory incorporating Slovenia into the Yugoslav state. As a part of Yugoslavia, Slovenia pushed the border

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The Treaty of Rapallo was a treaty signed by the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in order to solve the dispute over the territories in the upper Adriatic, in Dalmatia and in the Julian March region (i.e., Venezia Giulia).

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back, and by doing so gave rise to the famous “Trieste question” that puzzled the world for almost ten years and was one of the first signs of the Cold War [Pantaleo 2008]. However, after the Paris Peace Conference held in 1946 and the Treaty of Osimo signed in 1975, the two countries settled the question definitely: the so-called “A zone” (i.e., the current Province of Trieste) became Italian, while the “B zone” (now divided between the Slovenian Littoral (or Primorska) and Croatian Istria) became part of the ex-Yugoslavia.

Moreover, after the London memorandum agreement signed in 1954, the Slovenes allowed the Yugoslav citizens with Italian ethnic background to migrate to Italy. Subsequently, a relatively high number of these moved. The exodus resulted in a drastic decrease in the number of Italian community members and an increase of Slovene population and immigrants (e.g., Croats, Serbs and Bosnians) from other Yugoslav republics.

Aside from the disputes with its close neighbours which resulted in a mix of population, Trieste nowadays host also a significant number of Serbs, Greeks, Jews and other migrating minorities of more recent date. Furthermore, the city is also home to several minorities’ religious communities such as the Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Swiss Waldensian, Augustan Evangelical, Methodist and Adventist¹¹⁵. According to ISTAT estimates, at the end of 2009, there were 15,795 foreign born residents in Trieste, representing 7.7% of the total city population. The Slovenes were the largest autochthonous minority, but there were also large immigrant groups from other Balkan nations (particularly nearby Croatia, Albania and Romania) -.0.95%, Asia - 0.52%, and sub-saharan Africa - 0.2%. Serbian community consists of both autochthonous and immigrant groups.

Trieste’s multicultural population and its location at the border of Italy and at the crossroad of different empires, kingdoms and states had led to the creation of a distinct identity, to which Magris and Angelo [1982] referred to as the “border identity”. The city seems to have the ability to bring together minorities which in their home countries would be in conflict with one another and, at the same time, it can act as a meeting place for long time conflicting neighbours:

115 Source: Trieste – a gateway to the new Europe from the 2001 Report by the Municipality of Trieste (available at: http://www.triestefilmfestival.it/sitiaac/2003/trieste/ts.pdf)

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“ Trieste, dove greci e turchi parlavano in italiano (…)” ¹¹⁶ [Magris 2001]

“Trieste ha fatto proprie le contraddizioni della frontiera, che è ponte ma anche barriera, luogo in cui è più facile incontrare l'altro ma pure rifiutarlo e ignorarlo, vivace apertura e gretta chiusura.”¹¹⁷ [Magris 2001]