When ethnicity became an important family issue

There has been a striking lack of theoretical and empirical work dedicated to ethnically mixed partnerships and families in Slovenia. The reasons for such lack of interest in this specific research area are a relatively high degree of ethnical homogeneity within the state (albeit with some regional exceptions) ¹ and the prevailing political ideology of the former common state of Yugoslavia, which reduced the importance of ethnic affiliation. Eriksen (1993) terms this a case of undercommunication of ethnicity. Principles of “brotherhood and equality” were promoted within the frame of the socialist ideal of the former state in order to ensure interethnic equality, tolerance and coexistence as well as to strengthen the position of class above the attributed ethnic determinants. The paucity of research interest in relationships between partners from different ethnic backgrounds can be seen as a by-product of an ideologically conceived ideal of interethnic equality and assumptions that did not problematize the social and research components of ethnic issues. Simultaneously, however, the ideology of interethnic equality gave rise to considerable ethnic heterogamy in the territory of former Yugoslavia.