Migration

Historians, philosophers, geographers, and social anthropologists have often pointed out that migration is a conditio humana, in an attempt to foster solidarity or at least sympathy if not empathy for people on the move. Scholars, however, have rarely addressed the dual question of how the representation of human mobilities has affected constructions of belonging on different scales, and their own position as scholars who categorize and classify these articulations. This historical and epistemological question lies at the heart of the approach proposed in this dossier for the Annales. By exploring this topic, we hope to encourage researchers working on different periods and spaces to situate and develop their research on the history of migration and other forms of mobility within a broader analytical framework that would reveal the struggles of various actors with categorizations and allow researchers to reflect on their own position towards them. After a general introduction, the dossier offers three contributions: on migration tales in Medieval Hungary (Nora Berend, Cambridge), on a trans-European perspective on changing societies using the example of the "Ruhr Poles" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Anne Friedrichs, Mainz) and on approaches to an interdisciplinary, time- and context-sensitive study of female mobility in the Mediterranean region (Delphine Diaz, Reims). They all reflect on different practices of representing human mobility, thereby uncovering the varying significance of social constructions of belonging over the longue durée.

Anne Friedrichs und Bettina Severin-Barboutie 2021: Migration. Dossier Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 76, H. , Paris: Cambridge University Press.