Preliminary Programme

From 1933 until the final closing of the borders of the Third Reich in October 1941 about 500,000 people of Jewish origin were expelled from Germany (and former Austria) by the Nazi. In spite of the restrictive British immigration policy 55,000 persons later acknowledged as "refugees from Nazi oppression" got entry into England. About 55% of these German and Austrian refugees in England were women. Nearly 20,000 came into the country as domestic servants, with the vast majority of them being Jewish females. A very large number came from former Austria. This specific immigration can only be understood as a part of a longer tradition of German–speaking young women coming into British families as domestic servants: The "Domestic Permit" – issued by the British Ministry of Labour – enabled British employers to engage foreign domestic servants for an agreed–upon period of time. After the "Anschluss" – and especially after the November pogrom – this document emerged to be the only possible way to reach England, in particular for women. (Show less)

Growth of Imperial Vienna in the 19. century depended, as can be observed for all the metropolitan cities, on migration. Today, again, the aim to re-gain the position of an important central European capital stimulates debates and controversies about migration as a vital force of urban development. Within the new discourse on the European unification process migration is considered to be an important ressource for further developement, and the pro´s and contra´s have become the main topic of local politics. But historical inquieries into the waves, patterns and cultures of migration to Vienna after 1945 are still rare and predominantly focusing on the economic and demographic interests of local society. The migrants point of view up till now has found no adequate representation. In my contribution I´ll ask for the cultural frames that shaped different migrant milieus like the Hungarian exile after 1956 and the Turkish labor migration since the 1960ees. This comparison will focus on the decisive role of economic, political, and cultural networks for community-building and self-articulation as well as on the ambivalence of visibility/invisibility of migrant milieus. (Show less)

The circumstances of the Soviet repatriation policy drastically illustrated how the Stalin-regime treated its own citizens, particularly those who were stigmatised as traitors to their country and collaborators – i.e. former POWs and civilian workers in the Third Recih. The Western powers, on the other hand, handed over almost all Soviet DPs in their zones although they had already been aware of the Soviet repressive treatment of the returnees before signing the Treaty of Yalta in 1944. Nevertheless the Soviet side became increasingly dissatisfied with the way the Western powers handled the repatriation of the Soviet DPs. Those who were affected most by this ambiguous repatriation policy of the Soviet Union but also the Western powers were the former Soviet POWs and civil workers. They found themselves – also in Austria – literally between the lines.

The presentation will focus on the historical circumstances of forced labourers in the "Third Reich", their fate as "vitims of two totalitarian systems" and their biographies after the - in many cases forced - repatriation back to the Soviet Union. The analysis is based on oral history interviews with former Soviet forced labourers as well as on archival material. (Show less)

At the beginning of the 20th century Canada was mainly a transit country for most of the European migrants. In those days the United States of America had been the desired destination because of their better socio-economic performance. In the inter-war period the number of immigrants even decreased due to the depression and a quite restrictive Canadian immigration policy. But after 1945 the image of Canada changed completely. Canada experienced an economic upturn and became a prospering country. Labour market shortages and desired population growth became the main reasons for an active immigration policy in that context. Between 1945 and 1960 Canadian provinces absorbed about out two million immigrants and among them approximately 24.000 Austrians.
The paper wants to explore reasons and preconditions for Austrian labour migration in the 1950s by looking at push and pull factors. One main factor is the slow economic recovery of Austria in the post-war period. The lack of employment and poverty affected Austrians in some provinces more than in others (e.g. provinces of Styria, Carinthia, or Burgenland). It became attractive for residents particularly in these areas to consider - a permanent or at least a temporary – migration to Canada to escape poverty and to gain better economic conditions. (Show less)