the children of the alexandrian woman migrating from 1930s to the 1960s - Dasa Koprivec, Dokumenty(6)
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MIGRATIONS OF THE CHILDREN OF THE ALEXANDRIAN
WOMEN FROM THE 1930S TO THE 1960S
Daša KOPRIVEC
1
COBISS 1�01
ABSTR ACT
Migrations of the Children of the Alexandrian Women from the 1930s to the 1960s
The article presents the migrations of the children of the Alexandrian Women, with a par-
ticular emphasis on the relocations in the period from the 1930s to the 1960s� It describes
the main migration flows of the children between Goriška and Egypt, the age of the chil-
dren involved, and the principal reasons for their migration� The migrations are discussed
in relation to the family situation, as well as in the wider context of the relevant economic
and political developments in the first half of the 20
th
century� In addition to the migrations
of the Alexandrian Women themselves, many of their children relocated more than once,
and the article sheds light on a perhaps less known aspect of the migration of Slovenes to
and from Egypt�
KEYWORDS: migrations, children, Alexandrian Women, transnational migrations, Goriška,
Egypt, migrations from Egypt
IZVLEČEK
Migracije otrok aleksandrink od tridesetih do šestdesetih let 20. stoletja
V prispevku avtorica predstavi migracije otrok aleksandrink in pri tem poudari migracije v
obdobju od 30. do 60. let 20. stoletja. Predstavi glavne tokove migracij otrok iz Goriške in iz
Egipta, starost otrok migrantov in poglavitne razloge za njihove migracije. Migracije otrok
aleksandrink umešča v družinski kontekst, postavi pa jih tudi v širši ekonomski in politični
okvir dogajanja v prvi polovici 20. stoletja v navedenem geografskem prostoru. V ozadju
migracij aleksandrink so potekale številne selitve njihovih otrok, zato nudi članek vpogled
v do sedaj morda malo manj znano plat selitev Slovenk in Slovencev v Egipt in iz njega.
KLJUČNE BESEDE: migracije, otroci, aleksandrinke, transnacionalne migracije, Goriška,
Egipt, migracije iz Egipta
INTRODUCTION
In this article I will deal with some of the fundamental characteristics of the migra-
tions of the children of the Alexandrian Women
2
from the 1930s to the 1960s� To a great
1
MA in Ethnology and BA in Sociology of Culture; museum advisor; curator for Slovene emigrants
and Slovene minorities at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Metelkova 2, 1000 Ljubljana; e-mail:
dasa.koprivec@etno-muzej.si.
2
This involves the migration of Slovene women and men to Egypt, who in the social sciences and
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Daša Koprivec
extent, what is outlined here is part of a wider research project carried out at the Slovene
Ethnographic Museum, which focused on the formation of the heritage of the Alexandrian
Women and its evaluation among their descendants�
3
The testimonies of those who took
part in the research revealed numerous migration currents, which also included the chil-
dren of Alexandrian Women, not only their adult relatives� I discuss primarily the main
migration currents from the Goriška area of Slovenia (near Nova Gorica on the Italian
border) to Egypt, rather than from other Slovene regions� The reason for this is that the
basic research work carried out by the Slovene Ethnographic Museum was in the Goriška
area, as was research by certain other authors (Makuc 1993; Miklavčič-Brezigar 2003;
Škrlj 2009). Thus comparison with other parts of Slovenia could be unsatisfactory, as we
have far less suitable data on migrations from these other areas to Egypt�
With regard to migrations from Europe to the Near East, the period from the 1930s
to the 1960s was exceptionally rich and dynamic� After World War 1 and to the mid-1930s
migrations flowed from north to south, from Europe to the Near East and North Africa�
Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and by the mid-1920s, Britain, France and
Italy had already consolidated their political and economic dominance over many countries
in this region� Not only Egypt, but also Sudan, Jordan, Iraq and the then Palestine were
in Britain's hands; France had control of Syria, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia; and Italy
had Libya (Warnock Fernea 2002: 67). This transfer of political and economic strength
facilitated migrations from Europe by numerous individuals and families seeking to make
a living and, frequently, to start a new life� Not only Slovenes moved, but also Italians,
Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Maltese, Britans and French (Haag 2004). These migration
processes also involved the Alexandrian Women and their children� Dorica Makuc, the
author of key research into the Alexandrian Women, has noted that in the mid-1930s, when
there was an Italian policy of trying to Italianise Slovenes living within Italy's borders,
the Goriška quaestorship was very happy to rapidly accede to requests from Slovenes for
a passport, including for children (Makuc 1993: 127)�
Migrations by the children of the Alexandrian Women were numerous and diverse,
both in terms of the direction of migration and the causes for it, while the age of the
children involved varied greatly. Further research needs to be done into the migration of
children prior to World War 1� In this discussion I focus on the period from the 1930s to
the late 1960s, as my main source is the testimonies of Alexandrian Women's children,
who actually took part in these migration processes�
4
humanities are referred to as Alexandrian; see also Miklavčič-Brezigar 2004: 5; Kalc 2002; Makuc
1993�
3
Koprivec, Daša (2005–2010)�
Aleksandrinke
in njihovi potomci
(The Alexandrian Women and their
descendants), research project of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. Field interviews. Audio recor-
dings 1–25 and fieldwork notebooks 1–19�
4
Testimonies recorded as part of the museum research are used� These are kept in the Department for
Slovene Emigrants at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in the form of audio recordings (AO) and
field notes (TZ) of interviews conducted in Goriška (Koprivec 2005–2010)�
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Migrations of the Children of the Alexandrian Women from the 1930s to the 1960s
MIGRATIONS BETWEEN GORIŠKA AND EGYPT
The migration of Alexandrian Women's children was in three main directions: from
Goriška to Egypt, from Egypt to Goriška and from the mid-1940s onwards from Eypt
to other parts of the world� These migrations were not only part of the family context,
but also part of the wider economical and political circumstances of the time� More than
adults, the children can be thought of as in some senses
objects
of these migration flows,
as their migrations were dependent on a parental decision – sometimes by both parents,
sometimes by the mother alone, depending on the situation within the child's primary
family. Children were not party to the decision, they just had to come to terms with it and
accept it� Many participants in our research told us how when their mother or aunt came
to get them they could not come to terms with the migration from their home in Goriška
to Egypt� Many of them tried to hide and to avoid the move�
I didn't want to leave, but what could I do? I hid under that bridge over there….but
my sister knew. She picked me up and carried me… Yes, I was there, and then they
took me off to Egypt�
This was told by the son of an Alexandrian Women, who went to Egypt in 1935 as a
six-year old, with his eight-year-old sister, when their mother came from Egypt to fetch
them� He spent twenty years in Egypt, moving in 1955 from there to Australia, where he
lived until 2008 when, after seventy-two years abroad, he decided to spend the rest of his
days in his birthplace Goriška�
5
Child migrations between Goriška and Egypt can be divided into three groups, ac-
cording to age� The first group is babies; the second is boys and girls between the ages
of six and ten; and the third is adolescent girls aged fifteen to seventeen� The reasons for
the migrations of the different groups were different�
MIGRATIONS INVOLVING BABIES
Migrations of babies mainly took place from Egypt to Goriška: in other words,
they were born in Egypt but their mother could not take care of them because of work
obligations� The women were employed as maid servants who lived and worked with the
employer's family and there was no room there for servants' children� While they were in
this situation, Alexandrian Women in Egypt could not have their own family with them,
as they had to become surrogate mothers, friends and companions to various members
of the employer's family�
6
Some of them got pregnant when they were on a visit home and returned to Egypt
5
Koprivec 2005–2010: AO8-04�
6
This did not happen only to the Alexandrian Women, but was one of the basic features of
live-in
work
and part of the fate of migrant women workers who were also mothers (Hrženjak 2007: 40–42).
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not even knowing that they were with child� Some months after the birth, the child would
be sent home to be cared for by relatives or neighbours� These babies would have a wet
nurse paid for by the mother (Humar 2007: 11). Some of them would eventually rejoin
their mother in Egypt if she was still working there� This happened after they reached the
age of six, because then they were old enough to attend one of the many boarding schools
in Cairo or Alexandria where the children of different immigrant groups spent their first
school years (Warnock Fernea 2002). Thus the children of some Alexandrian Women
went through a number of migrations: after being born in Egypt they were sent home to
Goriška, then as boys or girls they moved back to Egypt and in the mid-1950s there was a
massive wave of migration, when numerous Slovene families, after the Egyptian national
revolution of 1952–1956, sought new homes in Australia, Canada and Argentina� This is
the kind of story told by the son of an Alexandrian Woman, who in 1924, as an six-week-
old baby, was sent from Alexandria to Goriška, where he lived until he was six, mainly
with his father and older sister, while his mother and two older sisters lived and worked in
Egypt� Then at the age of six he was sent back to Egypt, where he lived for thirteen years,
attending school and acquiring a career� After World War 2 he emigrated to Slovenia and
then in 1952 to Canada, where he still lives (Koprivec 2009: 113)�
Slovene children were born in Egypt to married couples (where both husband and
wife were working in Egypt) and to Alexandrian Women involved in other relationships�
The decision to separate from a child was always difficult and marked both mother and
child� But the child in particular was most affected, especially when migration from Egypt
to Goriška meant long-term separation from the mother (who stayed in Egypt and never
returned to Goriška, or only after so many years that the sense of alienation between
mother and child was difficult to overcome) and is connected with traumatic memories
that burden the children of Alexandrian Women even in old age�
I was sent home like a parcel, less than three months old� I have no memories of
mother being home� Even now, at the age of 80, I miss my mother� What your mother
gives you no one else can replace�
This was the daughter of an Alexandrian Women born in Egypt in 1930, who was
sent home to Goriška at the age of three months. Her mother, who had joined her mother
in Egypt in 1906 at the age fourteen returned to Goriška in 1947, after an absence of
forty-one years�
7
The decision by a mother or both parents to have a child raised by relatives in Goriška
was dictated by difficult circumstances: due to the nature of the work in Egypt care of
the child was simply not possible�
7
This was said in an interview with a TV Slovenija team. Documentary footage of RTV SLO: SŠ–
2009� Noted down by Koprivec 2005–2010: TZ 18�
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Migrations of the Children of the Alexandrian Women from the 1930s to the 1960s
MIGRATIONS OF YOUNG GIRLS AND BOYS TO EGYPT
The children from Goriška who migrated to Egypt in the 1930s were born in the
years 1922–1929. Most often, the mother went to work in Egypt and was later joined by
her husband if he found suitable employment� The transfer of the children to Egypt was
because the parents wanted their offspring who had at first stayed behind in Goriška to
join them. This was a reflection of a
wish
for the family to be united once the parents had
established themselves in the new environment�
I went to Egypt because my mum was there� She first went when I was two years
old� Then my dad went, a year before me� And so I was six when my mum came to
get me� Mum and dad were initially in the same house with the same family and
when I came to Egypt I went to my aunt's for two years to be looked after� Then
my parents rented a flat, my dad got a job in a mill and then I started to attend the
French school.
This is the narrative of the daughter of an Alexandrian Woman who was born in
Goriška in 1928, lived in Alexandria from 1934 to 1946, and then after twelve years
returned to the village of her birth in Goriška�
8
Photo 1. Lucija left Goriška to live with her mother, grandmother and aunt in Egypt. Taken in
Alexandria at the end of the 1930s� (Slovene Ethnographic Museum Archives)
8
Koprivec 2005–2010: AO7-07�
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