As part of the project we also prepared a seminar on ethnic and racial discrimination, at which we presented the stories of groups of people who are frequently – deliberately or otherwise – overlooked, disregarded and forgotten.

At the beginning of the seminar, in the company of Dieter Schindlauer of ZARA, an Austrian anti-racism NGO, we “tripped up” over the term race, its ideological abuse and the significance of its inclusion in documents of international law. Later on, Petra Mikulan and Sekumady Conde of the Africa Centre presented the “Sankofa” project, which is introducing critical multicultural teaching to secondary schools on an elective contents basis. Martina Bofulin of the Institute for Ethnic Studies talked to us about the discriminatory media discourse that by no means contributes to a more tolerant attitude on the part of the majority population towards Chinese people in Slovenia. Miran Komac of the Institute for Ethnic Studies presented his view of the (un)readiness of our country for the processes of immigration and the formulation of a so-called integrational policy of consensus.  He is convinced that policy should be aware of and emphasise the advantages enabled by immigration, and thus by greater cultural diversity in society.

Next, Sonja Gole Ašanin of the Refugees and Aliens Integration Section presented some of the most urgent issues faced by refugees in Slovenia. According to the information she provided, refugees suffer most discrimination when looking for accommodation, in health care and in employment. Klemen Slabina of the Faculty of Arts talked about the language problems experienced by the children of immigrant families. Ilija Dimitrijevski, president of the Union of Federations of Cultural Associations in Slovenia, presented the work of the Union of Cultural Associations of the Constituent Nations and Nationalities of the Former Yugoslavia in Slovenia, and their initiative to obtain the status of national minorities.