ABSTRACT
Slovenia was located at the European ethnic crossroads and its position was one of a zone of transit. The Slovenia of the time, together with other South Slav remnants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, joined the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Italian-speaking workers in Istria are more involved in quaternary activities than the local Slovenes. In Prekmurje, the Hungarian population structure changed, basically because of migration from rural to industrial jobs, mainly in Salovci, Murska Sobota, Lendava and Prosenjakovci. The area of Lendava/Lendva gravitates to the communal centre, under the influence of a speed-up development with favorable conditions: traffic situation, opportunities for farming, and jobs in non-agrarian occupations. The Lendava area is made up of twenty-two Hungarian-speaking centres along the foothills of Lendavske Gorice. Landownership is the domain of the Hungarian autochthonous population. This leads to better opportunities for preserving both the national identity and a fairly compact territory.
