Croats of Slovenia

The Croats are an ethnic minority in Slovenia, numbering 35,642 people according to the 2002 census [1]. Their actual number, however, is likely to be higher.

Croats have lived in today's Slovenia for hundreds of years as the two nations were a part of Austrian-controlled lands for a great deal of their history. Nevertheless, their numbers remained relatitely small, as the Slovenian Lands were, before the 1950s, a territory of emigration rather than immigration. They were mostly individuals who assimilated to either Slovenian or German-speaking communities, and did not form a dinstict community before the 1960s, when larger numbers of Croats started coming to Slovenia, mostly as economic immigrants.

Unlike two of the historic minorities of Slovenia, the Hungarians and Italians, the Croats have not been granted the minority status, despite the fact they are the second largest ethnic minority group in Slovenia, after the Serbs. In the Slovenian legal and constitutional framework, in fact, only the historical minorities who have been living on clearly defined territories since centuries (and the Roma people, who have formed a dinstict, although territorially not strictly determined community since at least the 13th century) have the status of a minority, which brings with it several constitutionally guaranteed rights, among which complete visible bilinguism and an autonomous educational system. All other ethnic groups are guaranteed the right to express and develop freely their cultural and linguistic heritage, under the same laws applying to all citizens, but lack the positive discrimination policies applyed to the three constitutionally recognized minority communities, as well as the right to have State-sponsored schools in their languages.

In 2006, the Croatian Heritage Foundation along with the Federation of Croatian Societies of Slovenia organized the Week of Slovenian Croats in Zagreb as part of the heritage foundation's annual Croatian minority week.

Notables personalities

Slovenes of Croatian descent include:

• Ivo Brnčić, literary critic
• Izidor Cankar, essayist, art historian, translator and diplomat (Croatian-German mother);
• Angelo Cerkvenik, playwright and translator (Croatian mother);
• Goran Dragić, basketball player;
• Slavko Ivančić, pop singer;
• Željko Ivanek, actor;
• Ivica Jurković, basketball player (born in Herzegovina, Croatian parents);
• Jelko Kacin, politician (Croatian mother);
• Srečko Katanec, football player and coach (Croatian mother);
• Tonči Kuzmanić, political theorist;
• Miljenko Licul, designer;
• Ivan Mamić, politician (New Slovenia);
• Tino Mamić, journalist and editor (Croatian father);
• Dragutin Mate, politician and diplomat;
• Goran Sankovič, football player;

• Oton Župančič, poet and translator (Croatian mother).

People of Croatian orgin who were born or lived in Slovenia include:

• Alan Hranitelj, costumographer;
• Željko Ivanek, actor;
• Rade Šerbedžija, actor.

See also

• Demographics of Slovenia

External links

• Hrvati u Sloveniji