Material on emigration from ‘Venetian Slovenia The case of the commune of Sovodnje/Savogna

Abstract

The article deals with emigration from the commune of Sovodnje in Venetian Slovenia, the western most part of Slovene ethnic territory, situated in the Friuli-Venezia Giuliaregion (north-eastern Italy), and one of the most conspicuous emigration zones of this area. The first part of the article offers a review of emigration processes before and after the First World War on the basis of the commune’s population registers, with a special consideration of the orientation, progress and weight of emigration in the local socioeconomic system. The second part deals on the basis of personal testimony with the individual and collective emigration experiences of the population after the Second World War, when the phenomenon changed from predominantly temporary forms of emigration to a permanent dispersal of the population to all parts of the world, which resulted in thedying out of the original localities.