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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