FYI

Subject: 6th Annual Meeting of the Society for Historical Migration
Research

Organizer: Society for Historical Migration Research
Date, Location: 06.09.2012-07.09.2012, Salzburg
Deadline: 02/28/2012

6th Annual Meeting of the Society for Historical Migration Research

For a long time migration has been seen as an almost exclusively male
phenomenon - even in scientific research. If women were mentioned at
all, it was usually in the context of marriage or family migration,
women migrating with or to join men. A look at the statistics of the 20
Century, however, shows that the participation of women has been greatly
underestimated. Currently, in some countries women make up two-thirds of
the migrants, and unmarried migrants are just as mobile as those who
move as family members. The contribution of women to the familial
economy through financial or material returns to their home areas, or as
family breadwinners in the destination country has rarely been taken
into account so far. Often women have been quicker to gain employment
and get a firm footing in a new environment and it was their income that
ensured the survival of the family. The worldwide demand for (cheap)
labor in the service sector has led to an enormous expansion and
acceleration of female migration. Women,  in the household and health
care sectors, are often the main breadwinners for their families . Their
remittances contribute substantially to family income, and they are
often essential to pay for the schooling or vocational training for the
children left at home. The contributions of women to the family economy,
however, are not only a phenomenon of the 20th Century. In earlier
centuries too there were women who provided for their families through
migration and employment far from home. Children have also been seen so
far also only in the context of family labor migration, but  they are
now starting to come into view as independent foci of migration
research. Examples range from the Swabian practice of sending gangs of
child laborers to work abroad, to the child labor on African cocoa
plantations. All these aspects will be explored in this conference to
develop a long-term historical perspective from past experiences to
those of the present.

 

Please send proposals for presentations at this conference to the chair
of the Society for Historical Migration Research no later than by
02/28/2012.


Contact:

Prof. Dr. Dittmar Dahlmann
Eastern European History, Lennestr. 1, 53113 Bonn
d.dahlmann @ uni-bonn.de