Giving History its Place in Migration & Refugee Debates & Research

imageIn the current debates concerning refugees, we observe, in some European countries, at least three ways in which history tends to ‘disappear’:
(1) the past is either absent because it is unknown (it thus looks as if we have never dealt with refugees before…)
(2) actual developments are put in a quasi-historical perspective, by claiming that certain countries have always known certain types of policies, resulting in a rather static and a-historical picture as well;
(3) migrants are urged to leave their histories home.

This seminar will look into ways to do ‘justice’ to history, both in the political debate and in scholarly work.