Periodic Reporting for period 3 - UnRef (Unlikely refuge? Refugees and citizens in East-Central Europe in the 20th century)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2024-02-29
The Unlikely Refuge? project (UnRef) aims to write refugees back into the history of East-Central Europe in the 20th century. In this “age of refugees”, the region became a destination of large refugee migrations, forcing civil societies and governments to negotiate difficult decisions about protection for those fleeing the war and persecution. Yet, at the same time, East-Central Europe does not enjoy the reputation as a welcoming place for people persecuted for political persuasion, their “racial” and ethnic identity or any other reason. Due to its histories of ethnic conflict and violence, political oppression and economic underdevelopment, the region has often been perceived as a place to leave rather than search for a safe harbour.
Comparative research spanning a longer period and a wider territory promises not only major insights about the “East” as a refuge, but also a significant contribution to the emerging field of global refugee history. In this project, an international research team led by the PI will, using comparative historical research combined with multidisciplinary approaches, probe the multifaceted entanglements with refugees in countries created in 1918 on the ruins of the Habsburg Monarchy (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia) over the 20th century. By doing so, it wishes to return the discussion of the protection of refugees into the region’s history and to contribute – from a scholarly perspective – to the cultivation of current and future public debate about this divisive subject.
Comparative research spanning a longer period and a wider territory promises not only major insights about the “East” as a refuge, but also a significant contribution to the emerging field of global refugee history. In this project, an international research team led by the PI will, using comparative historical research combined with multidisciplinary approaches, probe the multifaceted entanglements with refugees in countries created in 1918 on the ruins of the Habsburg Monarchy (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia) over the 20th century. By doing so, it wishes to return the discussion of the protection of refugees into the region’s history and to contribute – from a scholarly perspective – to the cultivation of current and future public debate about this divisive subject.
In September 2019, an international scientific team of nine scientists of seven nationalities (excluding the PI) was established based on open competition. Regularly meeting both online and in physical meetings, the team members work on their subprojects, organizing their work around common themes and methodological approaches. The team pursues several thematic avenues, comparatively exploring specific periods and subjects. These include the refugee camps during the First World War, borders and the no man’s land at the end of the 1930s, refugees during the Cold War and the construction of refugee policy in post-communist countries in the 1990s.
In the first project year, the team engaged in a comparison of the state of the art of refugee history in the 20th century for the five countries included in the project, discussing it during a series of Zoom sessions with team members and invited guests. The UnRef researchers first conducted in-depth studies of the state of the art trying not only to map the available publications or to decry factual gaps, but also to uncover patterns and paradigms in how refugees coming into the five countries were discussed by historians and researchers from other disciplines. This effort helped develop a comparative baseline, better identify research needs and craft a strong argument for a fresh research agenda for the region. The team co-organized a workshop exploring the connections between refugeedom, citizenship and social rights of refugees with 18 contributions. The team also compiled a working bibliography which will be published online.
In the second project year, the team conceptualized its joint volume, which is designed to highlight common themes and methods of the project. The tentative structure envisions chapters from each team member combining a specific thematic focus with a methodological approach. The chapters in the first section will examine the multiple (re)constructions of the “refugee” in East-Central Europe, including the conceptual and policy shifts establishing those worthy of support in the new nation-states, producing political refugees or reinterpreting them as labour migrants. The second section will be devoted to spaces of aid reaching from refugee camps, local reception of refugees, the concept of relief to those in transit and informal aid. The PI will preface the volume with a substantial introduction weaving the chapters together in a comparative and transnational way.
The key theme of the second year of the project was the history of humanitarianism in a space commonly viewed as a recipient of Western aid and technologies of relief. The international workshop conducted in June 2021 helped to relate the UnRef work to the thriving field of research in humanitarianism. It brought together 23 contributions that explored the actors and practices of humanitarianism in East-Central Europe, studying it from below and examining the tensions stemming from engagements in nationalist and/or state socialist environments and the dilemmas or misunderstandings that arose from encounters with Western forms of providing aid. An edited volume based on the results of this workshop is currently in production.
In the third project year, the UnRef team launched a series of online exploratory workshops with guests from academia and the non-governmental sector, discussing refugees to East-Central Europe in the 1990s. Given the improved pandemic situation, the team also started organizing lectures with invited speakers – experts on refugee studies with a broader geographical focus. The team members were working on their individual publications as well as chapters for the prepared joint volume.
In the fourth project year, the project team made significant progress in terms of its Cold War-related research, having co-organized a workshop with 22 contributions related to interconnections between migration, labor, post-war displacement, and early Cold War securitization. Furthermore, it dedicated a special workshop with 14 contributions to the topic of refugee agency, petitioning and other forms of “writing upwards” and negotiations from below.
In the current (fifth) project year, the project team expanded its activities in creating a collection of oral history interviews related to refugee policies in the 1990s Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. Its members also organized a workshop to discuss inspirations and challenges of this research field. Furthermore, the project team is organizing the upcoming workshop on the spatial perspectives of refugeedom which will host 20 contributions. The project team is also finalizing the manuscript of the final volume. In the meantime, most of individual publications of team members have been published or is in production.
In the first project year, the team engaged in a comparison of the state of the art of refugee history in the 20th century for the five countries included in the project, discussing it during a series of Zoom sessions with team members and invited guests. The UnRef researchers first conducted in-depth studies of the state of the art trying not only to map the available publications or to decry factual gaps, but also to uncover patterns and paradigms in how refugees coming into the five countries were discussed by historians and researchers from other disciplines. This effort helped develop a comparative baseline, better identify research needs and craft a strong argument for a fresh research agenda for the region. The team co-organized a workshop exploring the connections between refugeedom, citizenship and social rights of refugees with 18 contributions. The team also compiled a working bibliography which will be published online.
In the second project year, the team conceptualized its joint volume, which is designed to highlight common themes and methods of the project. The tentative structure envisions chapters from each team member combining a specific thematic focus with a methodological approach. The chapters in the first section will examine the multiple (re)constructions of the “refugee” in East-Central Europe, including the conceptual and policy shifts establishing those worthy of support in the new nation-states, producing political refugees or reinterpreting them as labour migrants. The second section will be devoted to spaces of aid reaching from refugee camps, local reception of refugees, the concept of relief to those in transit and informal aid. The PI will preface the volume with a substantial introduction weaving the chapters together in a comparative and transnational way.
The key theme of the second year of the project was the history of humanitarianism in a space commonly viewed as a recipient of Western aid and technologies of relief. The international workshop conducted in June 2021 helped to relate the UnRef work to the thriving field of research in humanitarianism. It brought together 23 contributions that explored the actors and practices of humanitarianism in East-Central Europe, studying it from below and examining the tensions stemming from engagements in nationalist and/or state socialist environments and the dilemmas or misunderstandings that arose from encounters with Western forms of providing aid. An edited volume based on the results of this workshop is currently in production.
In the third project year, the UnRef team launched a series of online exploratory workshops with guests from academia and the non-governmental sector, discussing refugees to East-Central Europe in the 1990s. Given the improved pandemic situation, the team also started organizing lectures with invited speakers – experts on refugee studies with a broader geographical focus. The team members were working on their individual publications as well as chapters for the prepared joint volume.
In the fourth project year, the project team made significant progress in terms of its Cold War-related research, having co-organized a workshop with 22 contributions related to interconnections between migration, labor, post-war displacement, and early Cold War securitization. Furthermore, it dedicated a special workshop with 14 contributions to the topic of refugee agency, petitioning and other forms of “writing upwards” and negotiations from below.
In the current (fifth) project year, the project team expanded its activities in creating a collection of oral history interviews related to refugee policies in the 1990s Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland. Its members also organized a workshop to discuss inspirations and challenges of this research field. Furthermore, the project team is organizing the upcoming workshop on the spatial perspectives of refugeedom which will host 20 contributions. The project team is also finalizing the manuscript of the final volume. In the meantime, most of individual publications of team members have been published or is in production.
We make a case for transnational approach to refugees which integrates and overcomes the group stories and national master narratives. The comparative approach taken here is designed not to produce isolated, separate country studies, but to organise the research around common themes and methods, using to the full the potential of collaborative research. While also contributing to the integration of refugees into national historical master narratives, the project chiefly aims to enhance our knowledge of refugeedom across borders of states and historiographies. Our aim is to enrich the emerging field of global refugee history, with its expanding horizons, not only by adding an important region, but also by asking different questions and testing new approaches.
When discussing refugees, we ask about citizenship of the host country, its civil society and values and principles as negotiated through refugees. Without glorifying Communist political and social systems, this approach also makes it possible, for the first time, to seriously examine the notion and practice of asylum centred around Communist ideology and solidarity and to compare it to the “Western” – and largely anti-Communist – refugee regime. We argue that without linking responses to refugees to citizenship, in its different facets, and to values and practices of host societies, the discipline of history cannot make contribution to the scholarly understanding of refugees in the world today.
When discussing refugees, we ask about citizenship of the host country, its civil society and values and principles as negotiated through refugees. Without glorifying Communist political and social systems, this approach also makes it possible, for the first time, to seriously examine the notion and practice of asylum centred around Communist ideology and solidarity and to compare it to the “Western” – and largely anti-Communist – refugee regime. We argue that without linking responses to refugees to citizenship, in its different facets, and to values and practices of host societies, the discipline of history cannot make contribution to the scholarly understanding of refugees in the world today.