The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 195195Veronika BajtMORE THAN ADMINISTRATIVELY CREATED“FOREIGNERS”: THE ERASED PEOPLE AND AREFLECTION OF THE NATIONALIST CONSTRUCTIONOF THE OTHER IN THE SYMBOLIC IDEA ABOUT “US”1. IntroductionIf we consider the erasure through a prism of legal issues and economicdimensions and attempt to interpret it as a social fact, we will soon find ourselvesmired in the omnipresent atavisms of “us” and “them” which are generated bythe processes of national identity creation, needed for the smooth operation ofnation-states. Namely, the erasure is not something that happened to “them,” ithappened to all of “us” (all residents and citizens of Slovenia), mirroring the verydefinition of “Slovenianness.” Understanding how identification with a nationtakes place, how nationalist discourses function, and how the mechanisms ofexclusion and of distinguishing between “us” and “them” are reproduced is notonly crucial for an understanding of the socio-historical circumstances and thesequence of events that led to the erasure, but also helpful in understandingwhy and on which grounds this conspicuously unlawful measure can still be exo -nerated 18 years later and why the erased people are still demonized.My assumption in writing this chapter, a very optimistic one, although notvery plausible, is that legal status for all erased people will eventually be regularized,that soon the principle of legality will no longer be a source of controversy,that injustices will be remedied, rights restituted, the reimbursement acceptedas a legitimate and the only possible method of at least symbolically redressingthe damages suffered, and that those responsible for the erasure will be heldcriminally liable. 1 Therefore, in this chapter I will not thematize the act of erasureand its many and serious consequences for people who have been marked by it1 This assumption is our standpoint as to how the consequences of the erasure should be resolved.