Migration and development on the mountain border areas of Switzerland and Slovenia: a comparative perspective (18th-20th century)

The research project aims to investigate the economic effects and social and cultural impacts that migration and mobility have had on four (border) regions: the Swiss cantons of Neuchâtel and Ticino and the Slovenian provinces of Gorica and Štajerska.

These areas are characterized by different historical paths that determined the forms of urban and industrial development, as well as the social characteristics and identity dynamics of the analyzed regions. These analogies concern their morphology in particular, as they contain mountainous areas that determined development directions. In addition, they are also united by the presence of significant migration movements and cross-border mobility events, which are partly encouraged by their border location. However, the border is also at the origin of the differences between the Swiss regions - where it remained unchanged throughout the observation period - and Slovenian regions, where the border moved due to various historical events, thus changing their national affiliation and ideological regimes.

The project covers the period between the 18th and 20th centuries. Using a comparative approach, it focuses on the economic effects and social and cultural stimulus brought about by migration and mobility in the analyzed regions. The goal of the research is primarily to analyze migrations in their economic, social and cultural dimensions, taking into account their "positive" and "negative" effects in relation to the dynamics of development and transformation of the four observed regions. What traces and visible signs do migrations leave on the territory? How to evaluate their contribution by measuring the gap between strengths and weaknesses?

The project addresses these questions through a threefold perspective.

• The first one examines the different forms of migration they cause and considers them in their material and non-material nature. At the intersection of this dualism, altruistic and redistributive uses of migration products are described as the object of privileged observation to assess the transformation of connections between migration projects (individual and collective) and the social framework in which they are formed.
• Another perspective focuses on the role of migration as a factor in inequality. With some indicators that concern aspects of the socio-economic fabric of the four studied areas, and on the basis of examples based on local realities, the project aims to verify whether migration is responsible for the phenomena of territorial imbalance and polarization of development directions, as well as individual paths.
• The third perspective asks how mobility was structured in the cross-border spaces of the four analyzed regions. In addition to checking the economic and social peculiarities related to medium and long-term migrations, it is also intended to determine the effects of the border (in different values ​​over the centuries and in different socio-economic conditions) on the dynamics of regional development.