Migration History

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

International migration is not simply a result of individuals’ search for better opportunities, but is also linked to a complex series of economic and geopolitical processes. It is also an especially important interpretive key through which to understand the long history of globalization. For Castles and Miller, migration is a collective action that increasingly changes the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape of the world. According to Mauss, it is a fait social total.
Over the last 20 years, an increasing number of countries have experienced a prolonged transition in the nature of the migration to which they are subject: countries that were historically lands of emigration are becoming lands of immigration, for example Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. Societies, and especially destination and departure countries, are inextricably interrelated through this phenomenon.

Come nasce il termine rifugiato? Come si è giunti all'attuale definizione di tale categoria migratoria? Il presente articolo ripercorre la storia della sua evoluzione, analizzando processi e avvenimenti che hanno reso questa figura ciò che è oggi. Frutto di un cortocircuito del sistema politico westfaliano, lo sviluppo del suo profilo contemporaneo rappresenta per certi aspetti il "negativo" dell'idea occidentale di libera circolazione. Ripercorrere tali vicende, contribuisce a mettere in luce le debolezze alla base delle distinzioni fra categorie migratorie.

How the term refugee was born? How did this migration category become what it is today? This article retraces the history of its evolution, analysing processes and events that contributed to shape this figure as we know it. The refugee's contemporary figure emerged from a breakdown in Westphalian international political system and then it developed to some extent in opposition to the western idea of freedom of circulation. The historical path of this type of migration highlights how weak are migrants categories' distinctions.

The various strategies of reaching out to the diaspora throughout the 20th century and of eventually including it in the building of a nation-state was embedded in transnational relations and ties between Croatian communities and individuals sustained over generations. The paper brings an overview of the history of this relationship as well as it questions the current situation and pose questions for the future development. The authors conclude that the transterritorial definition of the nation, on which the relationship between Croatia and its diaspora has been based from early on, was an inherent element of state-building in the 1990s and has likewise shaped the diaspora strategy applied today.

An international conference bringing together geneticists, historians and archaeologists for an open exchange about the possibilities, limitations and risks of the emerging new discipline "Genetic History" (the use of DNA as a historical source). Convened by Joerg Feuchter and Stefanie Samida (Archaeology/Public History, Potsdam) and funded by Fritz Thyssen Foundation. For more information please click on the link to the program or go to the conference website (www.genetic-history.com)

This article examines the interactions between migration policies, poor relief, and economic and political change for the city of Antwerp from the mid-eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries. The main research question focuses on exploring the changing role of settement legislation (onderstandswoonstwetgeving), which determined the locality in which a pauper was entitled to poor relief, in urban migration policies. In the course of the period in question Antwerp underwent a profound economic transforrnation from a middlesized regional textile centre into an international port town, while the different regime changes occasioned shifts in the legislative context of settlement legislation, and migration patterns towards the city experienced important modifications. The article draws upon a range of normative sources, correspondence and accounts from the archives of the central authorities, town council, and local relief institutes, to examine the uses which the Antwerp authorities made of seulement legislation in the development of a local migration policy avant la lettre, and to explore to what extent these were influenced by changes in the economic and political context and in the composition of the migrant population over time. (article in Dutch)

Refugees and reception systems, from the First World War to the Italian Republic. Interpretive frameworks and research perspectives
The “European century of forced migrations” (about 1853-1953, according to Ferrara and Pianciola) has left a legacy that deeply affects European society to this day, as the case of the Austrian candidate to presidential election Alexander van Der Bellen shows. Nonetheless, the actual debate about refugees seems to ignore the deepness of this side of European history: nowadays refugees are conceived by media and institutions as mere victims of dramatic events, not as individuals with an active role on their own life. This kind of “victimary paradigm” is relatively recent but it risks to affect negatively the research on refugeedom, both in historical and social science perspectives. The article discusses this point in relation with the history of reception systems, in particular in post-1945 Italy. Taking into account the most recent literature, I argue that a more complex view is needed. Some issues in particular are highlighted: the mutual influence between institutions and refugees; the continuum between ordinary mobility and the migration of refugees; the stratification of refugeedom memories.

Many of the studies on Palestinian Diaspora are connected to the Nakbah and to the refugee question. The fact that Christmas Lutheran Church is located in Bethlehem, and thus in the 1967 occupied Palestinian Land, gives us a different angle on the issue of Palestinian Diaspora. What this study shows is that the Migration of Palestinians in general and the Palestinian Christian in particular is connected to recurring empires and powers controlling and occupying Palestine and had mainly political reasons: Drafting of Christians to the military by the young Turks; The Nakbah and the loss of land and livelihood, the de-development of the West Bank under Jordanian rule, and the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank.  While economic factors played an important drive for immigration, they were often a result of the political developments.  Devastating is the fact that Palestinian migration is not a onetime thing but an ongoing open wound that is still bleeding with no end in sight. Thus, this study shows that Christmas Lutheran Church provides a microcosm of Palestinian society and a mirror of the Palestinian history in the last 150 years. And last but not least this research shows that the diasporic experience of the Palestinian Christians is part and parcel of the larger Palestinian diasporic experience though there is uniqueness to the Christian experience.

It was what many had been hoping for: some sort of relief. But did it
come too late? And was it enough? On the evening of Thursday, November 20, 2014, US president Barack Obama went on live television to announce a new administrative action to reform the US immigration system. Obama began, “Today, our immigration system is broken, and everybody knows it. . . . It’s been this way for decades. And for decades, we haven’t done much about it.” Responding to growing discontent among immigrant rights groups, the president and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) together issued a memorandum expanding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program of 2012. DACA—instituted by a DHS directive rather than congressional action—provided temporary work permits and deportation relief to more than 664,000 young undocumented immigrants who had lived in the United States since childhood.1 The 2014 expansion announced by President Obama eliminated DACA’s upper age ceiling of thirty-one years and introduced a new program, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Permanent Residents (DAPA), to provide deportation relief and work permits to an estimated 3.5 million undocumented immigrants with US-born children.

This textbook explains the history of an unequal relationship between
rulers and those who are ruled, which includes the decisions of a
small group that have shaped the world as we know it. It also narrates
the actions of the majority of humanity, which created new worlds
by accepting, refusing or resisting domination. All these actions and
reactions are part of history, and forge processes of change and
transformation that happened over time and are reconstructed or
remembered centuries or millennia later.
This textbook also aims to narrate how humanity, as a single species,
created different modes of living, different economic systems,
cultures, political and social formations, ideas, beliefs and worldviews.
These systems organised humans into common organisations and
around common ideas, but they also highlighted differences between
humans. These differences originated over time; they were created by
humans themselves.
This textbook covers the history of humanity, from homo sapiens
departure from Africa to the twenty-first century. Volume 1 spans the
years 70,000 BCE to 1000 CE; Volume 2 covers 1000 to 1870 CE; Volume
3 spans the years 1870 CE to the twenty-first century. The first volume
focuses on the expansion of frontiers, starting with the agricultural
frontier that created empires and cities. The second volume narrates
the story of the connection of different frontiers and the creation
of the first intercontinental trade system. The third volume looks at
the intensified intervention of complex systems of frontiers on our
planet.
Each volume is divided into three chronological chapters. Each
chapter starts with an overview of the chapter, then covers the four
themes by which the book is structured. Instead of reading historical
transformations as single topics, we have chosen to organise our
narrative in four themes and to look at the different transformations
that have occurred in the world. The four themes are 1) humans change
nature, 2) humans on the move, 3) social organisation and inequality,
and 4) worldviews.

After 1815, European manufacturers in several sectors sought to reap the benefits of British technical superiority through the acquisition of British machinery and workers who could operate it. France was one of the beneficiaries of this transfer process. Along with iron, engineering, and tulle making, another British industry that established a French presence was linen and jute textile manufacturing. The authors present the results of joint research carried out in Scotland and France, focusing on a spinning mill established by a Dundee-Paris partnership in Ailly-sur-Somme in 1845. Much of the technical, managerial, and worker input came from Dundee, then becoming Britain’s – and for a time, the world’s – leading coarse textile manufacturing centre: ‘Juteopolis’. But the flow of expertise was not always unidirectional and there was cultural interchange too, in a process that by the 1870s had resulted in Ailly becoming one of the most important industrial establishments in France.

«Nel Mondiale giocato in Brasile nel 2014, la Svizzera è stata la nazionale più cosmopolita. Paradossalmente, la nazionale elvetica è diventata la più internazionale del mondo, proprio qualche mese dopo il 9 febbraio del 2014. Quando, per una manciata di voti, passò, per la prima volta nella sua lunga e travagliata storia di impulsi anti-stranieri, l’iniziativa contro l’immigrazione di massa che fece tremare le cancellerie di mezza Europa e funse da modello per i fautori della Brexit».

In fatto di migrazione, la Svizzera rappresenta un caso emblematico e, insieme, un modello ricco di paradossi. Nel 2014, quando per una manciata di voti passò l’iniziativa contro l’immigrazione di massa, la Svizzera espresse anche la nazionale più cosmopolita del Mondiale in Brasile. È il paese europeo che nel secolo scorso ha conosciuto il tasso d’immigrazione più alto del continente, assorbendo quasi la metà dell’emigrazione italiana del secondo dopoguerra. In settant’anni ha raddoppiato la sua popolazione, passando da quattro milioni agli oltre otto odierni, e la migrazione è al centro del dibattito da sempre. Nel 1948, per la prima volta nella sua storia, la Svizzera firmò un accordo di reclutamento di manodopera straniera, che divenne un modello per i successivi e cambiò per sempre la sua storia e quella del suo principale fornitore di donne e uomini, l’Italia. Paese dal quale, a partire dai trafori dell’Ottocento e per un secolo, sono giunti oltre cinque milioni di persone, la metà solo nel secondo dopoguerra. Ancora oggi, quella in Svizzera è la terza comunità italiana nel mondo. Concepita come temporanea, dopo qualche decennio divenne stanziale e rappresentò il carburante per la crescita e l’espansione dell’economia elvetica. Nessun paese europeo registrò performance così favorevoli e allo stesso tempo un così alto numero di morti bianche, che raggiunsero l’apice con la tragedia di Mattmark. Assopitosi il decennio delle tensioni xenofobe, all’inizio degli anni ottanta venne accantonata una possibile soluzione per migliorare le condizioni di chi contribuiva al progresso e al benessere del paese. Sono ormai lontani gli anni delle baracche, del «non si fitta agli italiani» o dei trentamila bambini clandestini. A tutt’oggi, la Svizzera è l’unico paese al mondo, oltre all’Italia, in cui l’italiano è lingua ufficiale. E l’italianità, pur tra alti e bassi, è riconosciuta, ricercata, apprezzata. Da un decennio si registra la ripresa di una nuova mobilità italiana: alle professioni specializzate si è unito il crescente numero di frontalieri e di chi è alla ricerca di un lavoro qualsiasi. Il rischio è che si ripropongano le questioni di un passato ricco di suggestioni e contraddizioni, che fanno della migrazione italiana in Svizzera un unicum senza precedenti.

This article discusses the argument that a new and different armament -i.e., the refugee as a weapon- has entered the world's arsenals. Evidence is provided that even though refugees are clear proof of humanitarian crises and despite the UN resolutions, they are being used as pawns to serve political, social and military agendas. They fall into the category of a hybrid weapon armament since their use neutralizes most of the conventional assets in a confrontation. Liberal democracies should expect the deployment of such weapons against them and should be prepared well enough to contain them.

Marcinelle è comunemente riconosciuta come la catastrofe per antonomasia degli italiani all’estero. Non fu la prima né l’ultima, ma rappresenta uno dei tasselli più dolorosi del variegato mosaico della migrazione italiana nel mondo. L’incendio nella miniera di Marcinelle, avvenuto l’8 agosto 1956 – nel quale morirono 262 lavoratori di dodici nazionalità, tra cui 136 italiani –, non costituì solo l’ennesimo tributo di migranti allo sviluppo economico europeo, ma anche il momento più drammatico di un’intera epopea migratoria. Alla faticosa ricerca di un nuovo assetto istituzionale e in una condizione di incertezza totale sul proprio futuro, l’Italia, fin dal 1946, aveva gettato le basi organizzative di uno dei più imponenti sistemi di esportazione di manodopera che la recente storia occidentale ricordi. Le piazze e i bar dei paesini, da Nord a Sud, furono tappezzati di manifesti rosa che incitavano a partire per le miniere del Belgio. Parallelamente ai centri di emigrazione, si sviluppò anche la rete dei trafficanti di migranti. Regolari o irregolari, l’importante era che fossero tanti, un esercito chiamato a combattere la «battaglia del carbone», scavando nelle viscere della terra quella risorsa necessaria al rilancio economico dell’Europa. Molti, dopo i primi mesi, rimpatriarono o furono arrestati per il rifiuto di sottostare alle condizioni disumane su cui Bruxelles e Roma si erano accordate: un flusso di almeno 2000 minatori a settimana, in cambio di una fornitura di carbone, che però non arrivò mai. Oggi, a sessant’anni da quella tragedia, è venuto il momento di stabilire un rigoroso bilancio storiografico, di diffondere le testimonianze più dirette e toccanti, di rivisitarne le drammatiche immagini e di ripristinare una memoria collettiva all’altezza di quella dolorosa tragedia, in cui si riscoprono momenti e contesti che per molti aspetti assomigliano alle tristi pagine attuali di cronaca delle migrazioni.

The paper proposes a critical understanding of contemporary " low-skilled, " trans-national contract work/circular migration as a guest-worker regime. Rather than approach circular migration as an instrument of development, or a human rights problem, this paper situates it within the larger, historical debates over the status of labour that emphasise questions of surplus extraction. Drawing on ethnographic research among Bangladeshi male migrants in Singapore and return workers in Bangladesh, the paper explores two crucial moments in the life of migrants—of choosing overseas contract work, and of leaving. In each moment, it highlights certain mechanisms that push migrants along the porous line between free and un-free work, incrementally toward the latter.

In 1977, Irma Testori decided to write her memoirs, in order to capture in the form of an autobiographical narrative a transnational life-story between Italy and the US. Born in New York in 1898, Irma was brought to Olda di Taleggio in 1906, where her mother gave her and her sister Giulia to their paternal grandparents. Twelve years later, after the death of their grandfather Giovanni and their mother Amelia, Irma and Giulia were sent for by their father Pietro, whom they re-joined in the US in 1919. In New York, Irma found a job in the textile industry, and decided with her husband to go back to Olda only in 1928. Fifty years after her final return to Italy, Irma wrote down her memories and retold the relationships and hardships of her entire life in the form of a story: on the one hand, she broke gender stereotypes and observed the American world through the lens of a foreigner; on the other hand, she found closure with people she had not loved.

Nel 1977 Irma Testori decise di scrivere le sue memorie per fissare in una narrazione a carattere autobiografico la storia di una vita transnazionale, spesa fra l'Italia e gli Stati Uniti. Nata a New York nel 1898, Irma venne portata a Olda di Taleggio nel 1906, dove la madre decise di affidarla, insieme alla sorella Giulia, ai nonni paterni. Dodici anni più tardi, in seguito alla morte del nonno Giovanni e della madre Amelia, Irma e Giulia vennero richiamate negli Stati Uniti dal padre Pietro, che raggiunsero nel 1919. A New York, Irma trovò impiego nel settore tessile e, insieme al marito, decise di rientrare a Olda solo nel 1928. A distanza di cinquant'anni dal suo definitivo rientro, Irma raccolse i suoi ricordi, presentando in un racconto gli intrecci e le vicissitudini di una vita intera: se da un lato rompeva con gli stereotipi di genere e delineava il sistema xenologico con cui interpretò la realtà statunitense, dall'altro chiudeva i conti con le persone che non aveva amato.

Anhand des Beispiels der deutschen Einwanderung in Argentinien zwischen 1880 und 1930 werden in dieser Arbeit die transnationalen Verbindungen zwischen Argentinien und Deutschland in der Zeit der sogenannten atlantischen Massenmigration wirtschaftshistorisch untersucht. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit werden zunächst die kulturellen und sozialen Determinanten der Einwanderung erklärt. Im zweiten Teil wird anhand zweier Fallstudien gezeigt, wie Einwanderer zu Unternehmern wurden.

This article examines the postwar trajectories of ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) from Slovenia, Romania, and Ukraine who had ended up in Germany and Austria due to Nazi resettlement. Their story is usually told within the context of German “flight and expulsion,” but is also part of the history of international refugee management. Although ethnic Germans were not eligible for care by the International Refugee Organization (IRO), some of them did seek assistance. This article analyzes the bureaucratic negotiation between IRO officials and applicants using different strategies of “ethnic conversion.” Individual strategies consisted of claiming a nationality other than German, and trying to back up this claim with a convincing narrative. These efforts usually failed, petitioners living in mixed marriages being a partial exception. Collective conversion worked in the case of the Mennonites, thanks to their well-connected international relief organization, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). The article also traces the overseas resettlement of ethnic Germans, focusing on supporting institutional and family networks. Taken together, these perspectives open a window on the postwar negotiation of violence-induced migration at the margins of the supposedly clearly distinguished categories of Germans and non-Germans.

The proposed panel session aims to discuss the impact of migrations on ancient economies. We aim to understand the economic role of migrants in the local communities and their position in the host societies through a wide range of contributions about ancient economic spaces in the Mediterranean and in Central Europe. In particular, we will discuss the function of migration and mobility within the fields of production, exchange and consumption.
In the field of the production, we are going to analyse technological developments and economic growth in host communities following the cultural interaction and the transmission of technological knowledge due to human mobility. Furthermore, we will analyse the social position of the migrants in the work market of their new communities and in the new settled territories. A key aspect will be the contribution of migrants to the production and their networking role for the exchange. The ports of trade will be taken in consideration as a meeting-point of different economic systems. In the field of consumption, we are going to present the coexistence of different economic mentalities, as factors of innovation and conflict in local communities. Consumerism will be taken in consideration to understand dynamics of interaction, integration and segregation. The consumption behavior will be considered as proxy to understand the social identities of migrants and their expressions.
The speakers are asked to compare their case studies to build a common platform of discussion, overtaking chronological and geographical specificities, in the way to discuss more general methodological and theoretical questions: Which archaeological data are suitable to detect the relationships between economic behavior and cultural identities? How did different economic and political systems affect the position of migrants in the local communities and their participation to local and global economies? Which are the effects of different strategies of economic integration of migrants in the host societies on the economic development and on the social stability of local markets and communities? Is our interpretation biased by our modern perspectives or is it possible to contextualize an agent based perception of the economic role of ancient migrants?

Negli anni della guerra fredda, più di seicentomila immigrati vennero
schedati e sorvegliati dalla polizia segreta svizzera. Una larga
maggioranza di quegli immigrati, sospettati di attività sovversive, era
composta da lavoratrici e lavoratori italiani che avevano scelto la Svizzera
come terra promessa.
Nella Confederazione elvetica, infatti, gli emigrati italiani furono
un importante segmento sociale che per molto tempo coincise con il
proletariato locale. Si unirono in associazioni a sfondo politico come
le Colonie libere, a sfondo religioso come le Missioni cattoliche, ma
fecero anche parte di semplici realtà aggregative, sportive, per il tempo
libero, spesso organizzate su base regionale. Gli italiani diventarono
presto uno dei principali problemi politici e temi di dibattito del paese,
generando forti tensioni sociali dalle quali scaturirono formazioni
xenofobe come l’Azione nazionale contro l’inforestierimento.
Il libro intende raccontare questa storia dalle mille sfumature attraverso
un ampio uso di fonti orali e di scritture di gente comune, tra
cui scambi epistolari e testimonianze scolastiche dei figli di italiani, e
attraverso numerosi materiali selezionati da archivi privati e pubblici.
In particolare, le fonti orali consentono, da un lato, di restituire la
complessità di un fenomeno migratorio prodotto al crocevia di tanti
diversi vissuti e percorsi e, dall’altro, di non perdere mai il punto di
vista degli stessi emigrati, per comprendere meglio le loro esperienze e
le sfide quotidiane che hanno dovuto affrontare.

This paper provides a comparative historical perspective of how Australian museums have exhibited stories of migration over the past three decades, with a focus on the use of objects. The pioneering of community access spaces, collecting of oral histories, innovative use of art-as-object and the development of theatrical recreations or props are all features of these exhibitions. Recent critiques have suggested that early migration exhibitions were uncritically ‘multicultural’ and represented only the “external markers of ethnicity”; however, this study reveals that curators in fact challenged and changed museum practice in negotiating these difficult histories. Examples are drawn from archival research and interviews with past and present curators of Australian museums, including the Migration Museum in Adelaide, the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, and the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

This
paper
explores
the
migration
of
Sikhs
to
the
Hesbaye
region
in
the
east
of
Belgium.
The
region
around
the
city
of
Sint‐Truiden
contains
the
largest
Sikh
population
in
Flanders.
As
and
introduction
for
readers
who
are
not
familiar
with
the
material,
the
history
of
Sikhism,
the
role
of
the
Sikhs
in
Indian
history,
and
the
definition
of
a
Sikh
today
are
presented
first.
In
the
second
chapter,
the
development
of
the
Belgian
Sikh
community
is
placed
in
the
larger
history
of
the
Sikh
Diaspora
worldwide.
The
Belgium
Sikh
community
came
into
being
only
after
1984,
although
the
first
migrants
settled
as
early
as
1972.
This
first
settlers
came
from
Uganda
and
acted
as
agents
for
fellow
Sikh
refugees
after
1984,
when
after
the
outburst
of
state
violence
against
Sikhs
a
mass
exodus
started
coming
from
Punjab.
Many
of
the
political
Sikh
activists
fled
in
the
early
nineties
and
a
certain
number
settled
in
Hesbaye,
where
they
found
work
in
the
agricultural
sector.
Some
of
them
brought
their
spouses
and
children
along,
which
paved
the
way
for
other
families
to
come.
However,
many
young
Sikh
males
remained
an
illegal
status
until
2000.
In
2000
a
major
regularisation
campaign
took
place
in
Belgium
that
suffered
from
an
asylum
crisis.
It
was
after
the
legalisation
of
the
men
that
the
community
really
boomed.
Many
women
followed
their
husbands
in
a
pattern
of
family­‐reunion
or
family­‐forming
migration.
With
the
establishment
of
a
large
number
of
Sikh
families,
the
settlement
of
Sikhs
in
Hesbaye
became
finally
permanent.
The
researcher
obtained
this
information
about
migration
processes
through
participatory
observation
and
various
interviews
with
mainly
female
respondents.
The
feminine
perspective
on
migration
is
the
subject
of
the
third
chapter.
Meanwhile,
the
women
shared
their
views
about
their
lives,
their
position
in
comparison
with
men,
and
their
proper
struggles
with
integration.
This
paper
suggests
that
especially
young
women
face
difficulties
to
reconcile
their
Punjabi
and
Sikh
values
with
the
Western
realities.
This
results
in
intergenerational
conflicts,
when
parents
try
to
protect
the
honour
of
their
daughters,
sometimes
with
cruel
consequences.
At
the
same
time,
youngsters
in
the
Diaspora
are
changing
Sikh
culture
through
the
use
of
the
Internet.
They
are
developing
new
identities
for
males
and
females,
making
use
of
pictures,
videos
and
music.
On
the
one
side
they
create
a
militant
masculine
ideal
of
Khalistan
warriors.
On
the
other
side
an
emphasis
is
put
on
the
equality
of
women,
protected
by
saint
soldiers
and
symbolized
by
more
and
more
young
women
wearing
a
turban.