Eastern Europe witnessed significant post-Iron Curtain transformations, marked by extensive migration and mobility, fueled by geopolitical shifts and conflicts like the Yugoslav wars. This included rural-urban shifts and transnational labor migrations to the West, with profound impacts on both origin and host countries. Despite serving as transit nations during the 2015 "refugee crisis", the countries of Eastern Europe took in most of the Ukrainian war refugees in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, the war in Ukraine is also present in Western European states, not least in the form of several million war refugees. This international conference is dedicated to the causes, forms and social and political consequences of geographical mobility and migration in Eastern Europe. We focus on the states and societies of the post-socialist and post-Soviet space and the years 1989/1991 to the present, although issues with a broader historical scope are also considered.
The contributions from scholars associated with the University of Basel include:
Monday, 02.09.2024, 14:00-15:30, Panel Labor Migration
- F. Benjamain Schenk, Chair
Monday, 02.09.2024, 16:00-17:30, Panel Migration and the Decolonization Debate
- F. Benjamin Schenk, Migration Management. Comparing “Internal” Colonisation in and Emigration from the Late Russian Empire
- Botakoz Kassymbekova, Understanding the Soviet Empire through a Settler Colonial Lense
Monday, 02.09.2024, 20:00-21:30, Keynote Lecture
- Vitaly Chernetsky (University of Kansas/University of Basel), Traumatic Rhymes. Contemporary Ukrainian Refugee Experience and the Cultural Legacies of the 1940s Displacement
Wednesday, 04.09.2024, 08:30-10:00, Panel Migration
- Kai Willms, Migrant Intellectuals as a Knowledge Resource for Area Studies. The Case of the Cold War Polish Émigré Community
Thursday, 05.09.2024, 14:00-15:30, Panel Internal Migration and Population Exchange
- Olena Palko, Chair
- Julia Elena Grieder, Local Perspectives on Migration. Unraveling Migration Regimes
in Soviet Lviv and Transcarpathia
For more information please consult the flyer below.