Neues Heft der ÖZG zum Thema "Historische Migrationsforschung"
Sigrid WadauerHistorische Migrationsforschung. Überlegungen zu Möglichkeiten und Hindernissen, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 6-14.
Annemarie SteidlEin ewiges Hin und Her. Kontinentale, transatlantische und lokale Migrationsrouten in der Spätphase der Habsburgermonarchie, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 15-42.
Jochen KrebberKettenwanderung als migrationshistorisches Paradigma: Überprüfbares Konzept oder metaphorischer Bezugspunkt?, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 43-59.
Michael G. Esch Historisch-sozialwissenschaftliche Migrationsforschung als Delegitimationswissenschaft, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 60-78.
Marita KraussZurückbleiben - ein migrationshistorischer Perspektivwechsel, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 79-91.
RezensionPatrick Henßler / Josef Schmid (Gudrun Exner) Bevölkerungswissenschaft im Werden. Die geistigen Grundlagen der deutschen Bevölkerungssoziologie, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 95-97.
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Editorial, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 5-6
Migration ist ein brisantes Thema politischer Debatten und journalistischer Berichterstattungen. Migration ist ebenso Gegenstand verschiedener Wissenschaftsdisziplinen und -konzepte. Auch die historische Migrationsforschung hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten zu einem ausdifferenzierten Forschungsbereich entwickelt. Sie liefert zumeist - in kritischer oder beratender Absicht - Daten und Informationen zu Entwicklungen von Migrationsprozessen. Im besten Fall kann sie sogar abseits von aktuellem Handlungsdruck differenzierte Sichtweisen entwickeln, Vorannahmen korrigieren und entmystifizieren. Allerdings gibt es Mythen und unbefragte common sense-Annahmen nicht nur "außerhalb" der Forschung. Auch manche forschungsleitenden Vorstellungen werden ohne Überprüfung oder gar gegen empirische Evidenz tradiert, beispielsweise die Annahme historisch stetig wachsender Migrationsraten, das Ausblenden von Möglichkeiten und Zwängen der Sesshaftigkeit, die Vernachlässigung von Ab- und Rückwanderungen und damit verbunden etwa die Begründung des Städtewachstums im 19. Jh. überwiegend durch Zuwanderung.
Die Beiträge des vorliegenden Heftes der ÖZG bemühen sich, die eigenen Zugangsweisen zu reflektieren und solche Selbstverständlichkeiten in der Forschung zu vergegenwärtigen. Dabei werden anhand konkreter Forschungsprojekte Potentiale, Erkenntnishindernisse und praktische Schwierigkeiten verschiedener Forschungszugänge und Konzepte diskutiert: der Zusammenhang vielfältiger Migrationsformen und -möglichkeiten (Annemarie Steidl), das Konzept der Kettenmigration (Jochen Krebber), der legitimatorische Charakter von Migrationsforschungen und ihr delegitimatorisches Potential (Michael G. Esch) sowie die Effekte, die Migration auf die Zurückbleibenden hat (Marita Krauss). Die Beiträge dieses Heftes formulieren dabei teils differierende Perspektiven, Fragen und Forschungsansätze. Sie verwenden unterschiedliche Quellen und Methoden zur Berichtigung bislang bestehender Vorannahmen und zur Spezifizierung der Aussagekraft von Hypothesen. Sie stimmen nicht in allen Schlussfolgerungen überein, doch ihnen ist gemeinsam, Konzepte nicht einfach anzuwenden, sondern zu verwenden, indem sie zugleich auch die Hürden und Schwierigkeiten, die den Konzepten jeweils eigen sind, reflektieren. In einem einleitenden Überblick formuliert die Herausgeberin einige zusammenfassende Überlegungen zu Möglichkeiten und Erkenntnishindernissen der Migrationsforschung.
Sigrid Wadauer (Wien)
Abstracts, ÖZG 19/2008/1, 92-94
Sigrid Wadauer: Historical Migration Research: Obstacles and Possibilities, pp. 6-14
(Historical) research on migration is still a booming field of research. There is a variety of concepts and approaches as well as manifold empirical studies. Research concepts and categories are developing and subject to change. Nevertheless, some common categories, perspectives, and frames of analysis seem rather persistent. In many cases, they can be an epistemological obstacle rather than a useful tool of research. This introductory essay sketches out some of these obstacles. It discusses the possibilities and problems of epistemic reflexivity in migration research.
Annemarie Steidl: Migration is a Multidirectional Phenomenon: The Coming and Going of Internal, Continental, and Transatlantic Migrants from the Late Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, pp. 15-42
According to new perspectives in migration history, spatial mobility was never a linear phenomenon restricted to a single move from an area of out-migration to an area of in-migration. Instead, as it will be argued here, migration in Central Europe was a 'multidirectional phenomenon'. Based on various statistics on internal, continental, and transatlantic migration, the interwoven patterns of coming and going have been analyzed for Austro-Hungary in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. First, the importance of coming and going for city growth and its connections among rural areas are shown. Second, as an example for labor migration of Poles from Western Galicia indicates, inhabitants of the Habsburg Monarchy could choose between different routes to migrate. The third example that deals with transatlantic migration poses the question of how useful terms such as 'emigration' and 'immigration' are in the context of a return rate of nearly 40 percent of transatlantic migrants.
Jochen Krebber: The Paradigm of Chain Migration - Verifiable Concept or Metaphorical Reference Point in Migration Research?, pp. 43-59
Since the concept of chain migration had been introduced into scholarly research on migration and ethnicity some forty years ago, it has become an enormously popular and widely used explanation for migration, community formation, and cultural change. Due to its appeal, it became a metaphor and then a paradigm, thus eluding verification. In this article, chain migration was brought back onto a conceptual level that allowed for testing its validity and scope against a whole variety and combination of methods and sources in respect of nineteenth century transatlantic migration. Applied to an entire migrant population, chain migration, however visible, is shown to have a lesser range and a more narrow impact on migration processes than previously thought.
Michael G. Esch: Migration Research in the Historical and Social Sciences and (De-)Justification, pp. 60-78
The essay examines the discursive patterns of recent migration research. It argues that for all its critical, socially aware and often emancipatory impetus, migration research tends to establish, (re-)affirm and - sometimes involuntarily - legitimize dominant discourses on migration, integration, and thus on modern statehood, gouvernance and migration policies. This affirmation is shown in terms of terminology, interpretative adjustment and especially in the - often lacking - treatment of aspects of past migrations that do not fit into the generally given overall picture of successful integration or fruitful intercultural contact. The essay tries to hint at some possibilities of historical migration research that aims more directly at the incompetence of modern statehood to deal with the migration that it has itself created. It then explores patterns of integrating seemingly unappealing aspects of past migrations - and migrant behaviour - into a picture of migrant ingeniosity that could be able not only to deconstruct and de-legitimize common discourses and gouvernance claims, but also provide a more thorough and realistic analysis of what happened when migrating men and women tried to make their living.
Marita Krauss: Studying those Staying Behind - a New Perspective in Migration History, pp. 79-91
Not only migrants are changed by their experiences; those left behind are also affected in significant ways. Their changes and experiences when their relatives and friends chose to migrate had till now not been the topic of much historical research. Scholars of historical migration have mostly focused on one half of the story: on the ways of the migrants. Migration means always separation and change; but also those staying behind and the structures at home will change by the departure of the former compatriots. Those staying behind have to say goodbye and to accept the realities of separation. Social and economic positions are vacant after the leave of the migrants, they have to be filled again and the whole social configuration has to be newly arranged. As an example for the broad topic, the article focuses on those left behind by emigrants from Germany during the Nazi period.