Erasure, activism and Slovenian fathers on the edge in times of political madness. Issue 5 (3rd May 2020) - Aitken, Stuart C.
Abstract: Today, it seems, spatial identities (nation, border, place) are tied intimately to political identities (adult, student, child, family, minority, refugee), and these identities are complexly interwoven. This paper looks at how differential citizenship shows up as an emotional practice for fathers and children who lost their legal status as Slovenians during the years of the 'erasure'. For over a decade after Slovenia gained its independence, many ethnic minority people – and especially Bosnians, Serbs, Kosovans, Croatians, and Roma – lost legal residential status. All the benefits of official residential status, including jobs, housing, health, education, driving licenses, marriage licenses, and movement across borders, were lost, and many young children saw their fathers portrayed as enemies of the state. This paper unpacks the emotional toll for some erased fathers and the kind of differential, insurgent citizenship that emerged from their activist practices as well as how connections were forged between fathers and children. By so doing, it also questions Anglo-American ideas of what constitutes a family and fathering.