Serbian Non-Governmental Organisations as a "Parallel Political Channel": Between Formal Equality of Civic Participation and Restrictions on Political Rights in Slovenia

In Slovenia, immigrants – regardless of citizenship – have constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association and thus open access to civil society activities, while the paths of formal political participation are much more limited. At the national level, only citizens of the Republic of Slovenia can vote and stand as candidates; in elections to the European Parliament and in local elections, the right is extended to citizens of other EU countries with permanent or temporary residence; foreigners from third countries, however, only gain the right to vote upon acquiring permanent residence and only at the local level. It is precisely this gap between the liberal civil and restrictive political regimes that creates the conditions in which immigrant associations assume quasi-political functions: they serve their members as a space for advocacy, representation and the formation of group interests when official political channels are less accessible. The paper analyses how such dynamics are reflected in the currently densest network of immigrant NGOs in Slovenia, which consists of thirty-four active Serbian associations and federations. Members of the Serbian community, or individuals whose first residence is Serbia, constitute one of the largest ethnic minority communities in Slovenia. The dynamics of immigration from the territory of Serbia to Slovenia continue to be high, especially in the last 10 years. The research combines a desk review of data from the AJPES register on the year of establishment, headquarters and programmatic orientation of NGOs (mostly associations) with the results of three in-depth key-informant interviews with management representatives. The findings show that it is precisely the high density of associations that enables specialization and division of labor: cultural associations strengthen the identity and social capital of the community, while umbrella associations articulate political demands, for example, efforts for the formal status of the national community or for the preservation of the mother tongue in schools. Serbian civil society infrastructure thus functions as a parallel public sphere, overcoming institutional barriers to political participation and contributing to the pluralization of Slovenian public space. The study thus offers insight into the intertwining of integration models, legal regimes of electoral rights, and the emergence of “parapolitical” actors among immigrants.