»I was a refugee, not a criminal«: The lives of people with refugee experience in Slovenia after the war in Yugoslavia

V letih 1991–1995 je zaradi vojne in genocida na Hrvaškem in v Bosni in Hercegovini v Slovenijo pribežalo 70.000 ljudi, ki pa jim ni bil podeljen status begunca po Ženevski konvenciji, temveč zgolj status začasne zaščite, ki predvideva zelo okrnjene pravice. Svoje stališče do prihoda begunk in beguncev je država pokazala z zaprtjem meje v avgustu leta 1992 z argumentom, da je zastavljena kvota beguncev, ki jo lahko država sprejme, že presežena. Ozemlje, prostor in meje so bila sredstva za ohranjanje pravila izključevanja. Dodaten mehanizem za izključevanje pa je tudi državljanstvo, katerega pogoji so bili za ljudi težko dostopni. V Sloveniji je imelo državljanstvo poseben pomen ob formiranju novega, slovenskega državljanstva. Potrdila o državljanstvu so bila prvi pogoj za uveljavljanje pravic in so obenem podeljevala moralno večvrednost državljanom v nasprotju z ljudmi brez dokumenta – ljudmi brez pravic. Političnemu in medijskemu diskurzu je uspelo dokaj hitro po osamosvojitvi države oblikovati podobo begunk in beguncev kot kršiteljev zakonov, nepopolne in necivilizirane osebe, kot osebe, ki jemljejo delo ipd. Politično-medijski diskurz je begunke in begunce dehumaniziral, jim odvzel individualnost in jih opredeljeval kot »druge«, torej kot »problem«, predvsem v smislu ogrožanja javnosti. Ravno s temi argumenti so ljudem, nameščenim v begunskih centrih, odvzemali prostost in jim omejili izhode z dovolilnicami. Življenje v begunskem centru je tako zreducirano na »golo življenje«, Agambenov koncept, ki taborišča in njim podobne prostore (tudi begunske centre) opiše kot biopolitični kraj, kjer se izniči možnost razlikovanja med biološkim telesom in političnim telesom. Tako so človekove pravice omejene zgolj na pravico do preživetja. Posledično zahteve po pravicah, ki niso le golo preživetje, temveč so potreba po »biti človek«, država sprejema interpretira kot »nehvaležnost« begunk in beguncev. V zameno za varnost in zagotovljene minimalne svoboščine morajo biti begunci »poslušni in hvaležni«. V empiričnem delu naloge sem analizirala osem narativnih intervjujev, ki pričajo o begunski izkušnji v Sloveniji po vojni v Jugoslaviji in o vzpostavitvi življenja v novi državi. Sogovorniki in sogovornice pripovedujejo o težki begunski poti, občutkih negotovosti, izgubah, trudu in zmagah. Odvzem pravice do dela in izobraževanja je begunkam in beguncem tistega časa pustil posledice, ki so vidne vse do danes – delo na črno, krajša delovna doba in spoprijemanje s težkimi in slabo plačanimi deli. Pridobivanje pravnih statusov in čakanje na vizo je za ljudi predstavljalo veliko finančno breme, predvsem pa velik stres. Na državljanstvo so čakali več kot deset let, nekateri kljub že doseženim pogojem. Življenje v begunskem centru je pomenilo živeti v natrpanih sobah, jesti ostanke hrane in prositi za dovoljenje za izhod. Takratne begunke in begunci se spominjajo ljudi, posameznikov in nevladnih organizacij, od katerih so prejemali pomoč in se počutili sprejeteodnos uradov za tujce in centrov za begunce pa opisujejo kot zelo ponižujoč. Kljub vsemu, kar so begunke in begunci doživeli po tridesetih letih od prihoda v Slovenijo, svoje zgodbe vidijo kot zgodbe o borbi in zmagi. Želijo si miru, sveta brez sovraštva in spoštovanja sočloveka.In 1991 to 1995, 70.000 people fled to Slovenia due to the war and genocide in Croatia and Bosnia and Hercegovina. However, they were not granted refugee status under the Geneva Convention, but only temporarly protection status, which provides very reduced rights. The state showed its position on the arrival of refugees with the closure of the border in August 1992 arguing that the set quota of refugees that the state could accept had already been exceeded. Territory, space and border were the means of maintaining the rule of exlusion. An additional mechanism for exclusion was citizenship, the conditions of which were difficult for people to access. In Slovenia, citizenship had a special significance in the formation of a new, Slovenian citizenship. Certificates of citizenship were the first condition for exercising rights and at the same time conferred moral superiority on citizens as opposed to people without documents - people without rights. Fairly soon after the country\u27s independence, the political and media discourse managed to form the image of refugees as law-breakers, imperfect and uncivilized persons, such as job-stealers, etc. The political-media discourse dehumanized refugees, deprived them of their individuality and defined them as »others«, i.e. as a »problem«, especially in terms of endangering the public. It was with these arguments that people detained in refugee centres were deprived of their freedom and their exits were restricted with permits. Life in the refugee centre is thus reduced to »naked life«, the Agamben\u27s concept which describes camps and similar spaces (including refugee centres) as a biopolitical environment where the possibility of distinguishing between a biological body and a political body is eliminated. Thus, human rights are limited to the right of survival. Consequently, all demands for rights that go beyond the right to "be human" are interpreted by the receiving state as "ingratitude" of refugees. In return for security and minimum freedoms, refugees must be »obedient and grateful«. In the empirical part of the thesis, I analysed eight narrative interviews that testify to the refugee experience in Slovenia after the war in Yugoslavia and the establishment of a life in a new country. The interlocutors talk about the difficult refugee path, feelings of uncertainty, losses, effort and victories. The deprivation of the right to work and education had consequences for the refugees of that time which are visible to this day - undeclared work, shorter length of service and coping with hard and low-paid work. Obtaining statuses and waiting for visas was a great financial burden for people and, above all, a tremendous stress. They were waiting for citizenship for more than ten years, some despite having already met the conditions. Living in a refugee centre meant living in crowded rooms, eating leftover food, and asking permission to leave. Refugees at the time remember the people, individuals and NGOs from whom they received help and felt accepted, and describe the attitude of the Offices for Foreigners, the Refugee Centres and administrative units as very humiliating. Despite everything that refugees have experienced, after thirty years of coming to Slovenia, they see their stories as stories of struggle and victory. They want peace, a world without hatred and respect for fellow human beings