arian minority. These autochthonous (that is indigenous) Italians and Magyars enjoy legally guaranteed rights, including parliamentary representation (Benderley, 1996, p. 37). It is interesting to note that while Hungarians often have to struggle to maintain their sense of ethnic identity in Slovenia, but the converse is true as well, as the many Slovenians who have emigrated to Hungary or gotten displaced by changing national boundaries often struggle to maintain their sense of ôSlovenianessö in Hungary.
The political boundaries, and political complexities, of this region of Europe have been so complex for such a long period of history that is it no longer possible to draw national boundaries in such a way that different ethnic groups will be separated into different geographic areas. Nor, of course, is it necessarily desirable that they should be.
The Hungarians in Slovenia are ethnically Magyars, A Finno-Ugric people. Hungary itself came into existence when the Magyars occupied the middle basin of the Danube River in the late 9th century AD. Parts of this territory had formed the ancient Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dacia. When Rome lost control of Pannonia at the end of the 4th century, it was occupied first by Germanic tribes, then by Slavs. The subsequent history of Dacia is unrecorded. The central plains had formed the bases of nomadic immigrant peoples from the steppes north of the Black Sea û Huns, Bulgars, Avars û some of whom extended their domination farther afield. The Avars,
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