Abstract
Can we discover similar experiences of flight and migration since the middle ages unto contemporary history? What factors and interdependencies have proven successful and consequential for the inclusion or exclusion of immigrants? What causes and social actors contributed to divided societies? In this session, we will offer a long-term perspective on historical mobilities and discuss how people were dealing with migrations. This diachronical analysis helps understanding both persistent similarities and differences over the centuries. During the last centuries, refugees and migrants came from different areas to different destinations via different routes and because of different motives. Yet, these aspects alone did not shape the strategies and action taken by municipalities regarding migration. The way local communities dealt with migration refers to social order in general and to its consequences for municipalities, regions, and mobile people. This session will bring together case studies from late medieval East-Central Europe (Andreas Rüther), Alsatia in the nineteenth century (Levke Harders), the Ruhr valley at the turn of the twentieth century (Anne Friedrichs), and Dutch migration circuits from the early modern period to the present (Leo Lucassen). All papers will tackle three interrelated questions: First, the participants will discuss interdependencies between the local level and other social spaces (like the nation-state, empires or other sovereignties). Second, they will focus on mobile people, local residents, and (state) administrators with their repective practices. Third, the presentations will contribute to a critical reflection on migration historiography by discussing to what extent research is specific to a time period not only because of the historical context but also because of research traditions and source materials.
Simone Lässig (Washington)
Moderation
Andreas Rüther (Bielefeld)
Right of residence, immigration policy, welcoming culture? Migrants and new residents in late medieval towns in East-Central Europe
In städtischen und ländlichen Siedlungen des östlichen Mitteleuropas finden sich im Mittelalter etliche Neuankömmlinge, die sich rechtlichen Abhängigkeiten entzogen und denen ehemalige Grundherren nachsetzten. Mit Hilfe herrschaftlicher Unterstützung wurden aus diesen arbeitssuchenden oder herbeigerufenen Personen(gruppen) häufig bessergestellte Minderheiten. Die Regulierung des Aufenthaltsstatus offenbart wirtschaftliche Motivationen für die Einbindung der Auswärtigen, aber auch integrative Hemmnisse in den Aufnahmegesellschaften. Von der Ablehnung durch die zurückfallenden Eliten bis zur Ausgrenzung der alteingesessenen Bevölkerung lassen sich neue soziale und ethnische Spaltungen erkennen.
Levke Harders (Bielefeld)
Migration, flight and mobility. Negotations of foreignness and belonging in the nineteenth century
Anhand der Grenzregionen Elsass und der Herzogtümer Schleswig und Holstein im 19. Jahrhundert diskutiert dieser Vortrag, wie Fremdheit und Zugehörigkeit ausgehandelt und unterschiedliche Formen der Mobilität hergestellt wurden. Rechtliche wie politische Rahmenbedingungen beeinflussten Exklusions- und Inklusionspraktiken, die zugleich immer umstritten waren. Denn die Bemühungen seitens der Migranten um eine dauerhafte Niederlassungserlaubnis verdeutlichen, dass Verwaltung, Einheimische und mobile Menschen selbst Fremdheit und Zugehörigkeit aushandelten und herstellten.
Anne Friedrichs (Mainz/Bielefeld)
Polish-German migration into and from the Ruhr valley (1860–1950). Towards a relational history of the societal
Der Vortrag befasst sich mit den polnisch-deutschen Migrationen ins und aus dem Ruhrgebiet und plädiert dafür, die damit einhergehenden Differenzierungs- und Bewertungsprozesse aus der Perspektive einer relationalen Geschichte des Gesellschaftlichen auszuleuchten. Mobilität und Migration werden gleichsam als Sonde genutzt, um Konstruktionsprozesse gesellschaftlicher Ordnung und des Zusammenlebens zu untersuchen.
An Fallstudien zur Zu- und Abwanderung ab 1860, um 1890 und nach 1919 wird exemplarisch gezeigt, dass zunehmender Nationalismus und die Förderung von Diversität gerade kein Widerspruch sein mussten.
Leo Lucassen (Leiden/Amsterdam)
The Netherlands and its colonial ‘migration circuits’, 1600-2010
In my paper I deal with the question how the framing of migrants who for ethno-national reasons are considered as belonging to the nation influenced their subsequent integration process. I will first briefly describe the Dutch colonial migration circuit between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies (from 1949 Indonesia) until the present day. After a phase of Dutch sailors, soldiers and merchants going to the Dutch East Indies in the early modern period, with the establishment of an official colony in the 19th century, the circuit became more extensive (including Dutch bureaucrats, missionaries and corporate personnel, as well as a multinational military presence). Moreover, for the first time small numbers of indigenous migrants came to the Netherlands, often as servants and staying only temporarily. In the early 20th century these were followed by Indonesian students, who stayed at Dutch Universities and developed nationalist ideas, spilling over in organisational activities to further an independent indonesia. When this was established in 1949, after a short colonial war, a huge immigration to the Netherlands of some 300.000 people followed, many of whom were of mixed descent (often Dutch fathers and Indonesian mothers). Considered as traitors they fled the nationalist government. Like the Aussiedler in Germany they got a preferential treatment and considered Dutch nationals. Their integration was highly coordinated by the state with the aim to assimilate them as soon as possible. Finally I will compare this ethno-national model of incorporation with the treatment of other refugees.
