The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 75THE ERASURE AS A TESTING GROUND FOR EUROPEAN MIGRATION POLICIES75than is the upper limit stipulated by law as a condition for acquiring citizenship,is similar. After 1999, the situation of both mentioned categories improved inthe sense that they cannot be removed from the country, but they are still submittedto regular police supervision and are (still!) detained in the Center forAliens as long as their former status is checked or until they initiate the procedurefor obtaining legal status. In the meantime, their lives are the same as thoseof all undocumented aliens in Slovenia.At this point we should mention several more indirect difficulties encounteredby all people with permanent residence permits, not only the erased people.This legal status in many respects (but by no means all) formally enablesan individual to participate in a community, but practice has shown that the exerciseof these rights is not always possible. Some holders of permanent residencepermits have, for example, the right to basic medical insurance uponpayment or to a personal work permit. The holders of personal work permitscan register with the Employment Service and are consequently entitled to socialaid. However, this chain procedure is connected with substantial expenseswhich many cannot afford because of the overall financial crisis caused by theerasure or other uncertain circumstances. Consequently, these rights are frequentlynot exercised in practice.The Act Amending the Citizenship of Slovenia Act (ZDRS-Č) draws on thesame logic as regards the conditions for obtaining legal status, with an additionalcondition being an examination in Slovene. Accordingly, the obstacles for erasedpeople arising from the provisions therein were similar to the ones describedabove. They also reported that expenses incurred if the person failed to pass theexamination at the first attempt sometimes caused an additional problem. Onthe other hand, certain erased individuals who completed schooling in Sloveniawere not exempted from this provision, including those born in Slovenia.Finally, it is necessary to draw attention to still another implication of theerasure. We have already mentioned that many erased persons attempted toobtain legal status under laws other than the Aliens Act, simply because no provisiontherein pertained specifically to them or corresponded to their actual situ -ation. Accordingly, many were forced to apply for refugee status in their “home”country or other countries (primarily EU member states), where they were consideredrefugees from the former Yugoslavia or Slovenia. However, some erasedindividuals obtained refugee status or temporary protection in Slovenia intendedfor refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. Although this enabled themto obtain a personal document (temporarily protecting them against expulsion)and gave them access to certain rights (e.g., basic health insurance), these individualsgenerally lived in their own homes, so they were not actively includedin the humanitarian networks intended for refugees from the former Yugoslavia.We have also established that certain persons who found themselves outsideSlovenia at the time of the erasure returned to Slovenia as migrant workers(e.g., invited workers, seasonal workers and workers with temporary residence