Population Mobility in Frontier Communities: Examples from the Julian March, 1931-45

Abstract

Using continuous registration data from 21 rural settlements on the Italo-Yugoslav border zone, migration patterns have been analysed in relation to characteristics of the total population. The predominance of short-distance moves was confirmed but considerable variation in distance frequencies was demonstrated for different categories of movement. By implication these variations also applied to movements differentiated by sex and nationality as well as by motivation attributed to migrants. Reconstruction of sample migration fields has illustrated the distorting influences of the political frontier. WHILE the past decade has seen the publication of increasing numbers of theoretical and empirical essays on the subject of human migration, a greater understanding of the process has not necessarily resulted from these studies. One of the reasons for slow progress has undoubtedly been a tendency to attempt to fit specific data into models and concepts derived from quite alien cultural contexts and levels of economic development. For example the standard use of Ravenstein's' conclusions as a framework for migration analyses in other parts of the world has often yielded contradictions,2 or so-called 'disproving' of his laws. Frequently overlooked is the fact that his work was rooted in the manifestations of rapid industrialization and large-scale urban expansion of communities separated by relatively short distances and bound together by an ever-increasingly articulated communications network. Moreover, the period was one in which the socio-economic roles of males and females belonging to different social classes were well defined. Another reason concerns the use of aggregated data, often in the form of published census tables which normally provide only life-time migration statistics based on the discrepancy between respondents' place of birth and place of residence. Further, the majority of studies assume stability of the social and political environment and make little or no comment on the effects of upheaval unless they belong to the sparse literature concerned with such periods per se.3 Against this background it may be enlightening to examine aspects of population mobility under conditions which have characterized many parts of Europe at various times during the past century, namely a context of frontier realignment through communities which were only poorly industrialized and had only small urban settlements exerting limited gravitational pull. The particular area under investigation is the district of Idrija in the centre of the Julian March (Venezia Giulia), territory occupied in the inter-war period by Italy and subsequently regained by Yugoslavia. A prime concern in the analysis which follows is with the influence of distance on mobility,4 a component of most models but one that has rarely been precisely measured, if at all, because of the aggregation feature noted above. It is also too frequently implied that friction of distance operates at a constant rate irrespective of the contrasting motivation for moves,s 44 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.146 on Tue, 23 Aug 2016 04:00:36 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Population mobility on Italo-Yugoslav border 45 whereas it is argued here that individuals or groups have discernibly different spatial spheres of activity, each controlled by social, economic or political considerations. If this is so, it follows that varying frictions of distance will produce overlapping spatial interaction fields of different dimensions which can be measured and compared. Finally, in a rarely consulted but important paper, Edgar Kant6 drew attention to the truncating effect of political frontiers on population mobility, the spheres of which would probably have been wider if economic factors were unbridled. Examination of the Idrija district in the 1931-45 period will also illustrate this phenomenon. THE ITALO-YUGOSLAV FRONTIER ZONE The diplomatic negotiations, claims and counter-claims which revolved around attempts at delineating an acceptable frontier between Italy and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes between 1918 and 1920 are beyond the scope of this paper and have been objectively described by Rousinow7 and Valussi.8 In most accounts the conflicting interests of the Italians and Yugoslavs concerning free access to, or control of, the ports of Trieste and Rijeka (Fiume) have been emphasized so that discussion has focused on the strategic importance of the town of Postojna in relation to communications in the southern Julian region.9 No less important to the adversaries were the mercury mines of Idrija,'0 with their enormous significance for the