Trauma in the Context of Global Migration
Opening up an Analytical Field

04 March 2021, 19:00 - 20:30 CET

Online via Zoom

Public Roundtable as part of the workshop "Beyond Victimhood and Stigmatization: Trauma, Ruptured Memories and Agency in the Context of Global Migration" with 

Dr Orkideh Behrouzan - to be confirmed (Department of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS University of London) 

Prof Shahram Khosravi (Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University) 

Dr Maria Belz (Network for Traumatised Refugees in Lower Saxony, NTFN)

Chair: Prof Margarete Boos (Department of Social and Communication Psychology, University of Göttingen)

Abstract: Since at least the long summer of migration in 2015 representations of migrants and refugees as traumatized masses have been omnipresent in European media and politics. They raise narratives and discourses of migrants and refugees as victims in need of help and mobilized the compassion and solidarity of a revitalized civil society. This roundtable discussion aims to closely examine the multiple dimensions that the association of (forced) migration with trauma entails. Bringing together social and cultural anthropologists with academic and practice psychologists it opens up the question whether trauma as a notion and analytical concept is suitable in the field of global migration to include historical and social contexts, describe individual experiences and agency or capture collective memories.

For more information and registration visit our website. 

Picturing Different States of Sao Paulo in the German Empire: Perspectives on Immigration (1890-1905) 

Imaginando Diferentes "São Paulos" No Império Alemão: Perspectivas Sobre A Imigração (1890-1905)

New Publication by CeMig Member Bruno Witzel (in Portugese)

This paper studies some popular German perceptions about immigration to São Paulo at the turn to the twentieth century by making use of two sources that are relatively unkown to modern audiences: the story “Die Ansiedler von São Paulo” from Edgard Reinhold (1897) – a tale for the youth – and an essay about the German communities of São Paulo by Carlos Frederico Scheler (1905) published in the almanac “Erstes Jahrbuch für die deutschsprechende Kolonie im Staate São Paulo”. This article demonstrates the persistence in Germany of some negative views about São Paulo at the turn to the twentieth century, a consequence mainly of the experiences with indebted rural laborers employed under sharecropping contracts by the mid-nineteenth century. Other relevant themes discussed by the sources include: (i) the insecure property righs on landownership and (ii) problems that foreigners faced to access the Brazilian justice. Reinhold and Scheler have antagonic understandings about these points – which is comprehensible considering the nature of these two texts, their own sources and their expected readers. However, the authors adopt a homogenizing perspective to deal with the German presence outside Germany; we perceive in both texts the creation of an archetypical “German living abroad” (Auslandsdeutsche), conceptualized to serve the interests of the German Empire. Finally, this article debates the regionalization of immigration studies in Brazil and proposes tracing more parallels between the southern and southeastern regions, as also discussed by Reinhold and Scheler.

For the PDF version (in Portugese) visit the Journal Website.

Migration und Arbeit: 

Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven und aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse

Tagungsbericht jetzt online!

Conference report now available! (in German)

Am 03.12.-04.12.2020 fand die von Dr. Janina Söhn (SOFI) und Dr. Jelka Günther (CeMig) durchgeführte Online-Tagung „Migration und Arbeit: Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven und aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse“ statt. Nun liegt der Tagungsbericht vor, der die hier präsentierten und diskutierten Forschungsergebnisse dokumentieren und zugleich zu weiteren Diskussionen in Forschung und Praxis anregen will.

Hier gehts zur Veranstaltungswebsite.

Transnational Activism: Politically Active Kurdish Women in Germany

08 February 2021, 16:15-17:45 CET

Talk by Dr. Sevil Çakır Kılınçoğlu (University of Göttingen)
as part of the MZS Colloquium 2020/21

The presentation will take place via Zoom. Please register here.

Gender Implications of African Migration

25 February 2021, 15:00 to 15:45 CET

Digital Development Dialogue (3D) with Linguere Mbaye (AfDB) and Inkeri von Hase (UN Women)

For more information and registration click here. 

The Digital Development Dialogue (3D) seminar is a monthly 45-minute online forum for policy and research exchange organized by Dr. Sarah Langlotz and Dr. Lennart Kaplan (Chair of Development Economics, University of Göttingen). Two speakers – one researcher and one practitioner – touch upon key topics in development policy with the goal of stimulating a meaningful dialogue across the theory & practice divide. 

CeMig Member Talks in the Context of the ISA Forum 2021 

23 - 28 February, Please note: times are Porto Alegre time (UTC-3):

24. February 
Lucas Cé Sangalli: "We- and Self-Presentations of Refugees from Sudan in Germany: How Ethnic Belonging Shapes Life Stories"

24 February
Arne Worm: "Becoming a Refugee and the Politics of Participation. a Biographical and Figurational Perspective." 

25 February
Sevil Çakır Kılınçoğlu: "The Life Histories of Political Activists: The Cases of Kurdish Refugees in Germany"

26 February
Lucas Cé Sangalli & Victoria Taboada Gómez: "Online Interviews with People in the “Global South”: Processes of Arranging the Setting of Interviews in Times of Covid-19" 

27 February
Johannes Becker: "Reconstructing Processes of Settlement and Urbanization in Jordan: Advantages of Multigenerational Research"

28 February 
Johannes Becker & Arne Worm: "Soci(ologic)al Distance? – Challenges of Biographical Research in Times of the Pandemic"

28 February 
Eva Bahl: "Ending up in Brazil – Leaving Situations of Collective Violence As a Long-Term Process"