Research Activities
Hamburg as a Diaspora City
Since many centuries, the city of Hamburg with its vast port area is a gateway for migration and one of Europe's most important markets. Besides its prominence as a crucial transit point for emigration in the late 19th and early 20th century, the city has always offered many possibilites for newcomers as a major cultural and commercial centre. In this context, migrant communities became a significant part of Hamburg's history, be it Sephardic merchants from the late 16th to the 18th century, Italian merchants and artisans or Chinese seamen in the late 19th and early 20th century or Polish workers who mostly left Hamburg after their country became independent in 1918. The focus of this research project is on Hamburg's current diaspora communities in a comparative perspective.
The Armenian diaspora is usually considered as a prototypical „victim diaspora“. Their displacement is associated primarily with the genocide 1915/16, which dispersed Armenians to the Near and Middle East, to France, the USA and Canada. Apart from emigration under coercion or for political reasons, Armenians voluntarily left for settling abroad, especially for business purposes. Currently, old Armenian colonies in the Middle and Near East decline due to further migration to the newer Armenian diasporas in the Western hemisphere. The Armenian Community in Hamburg dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, when Armenian merchants settled down in the area around the Alster. Today the Armenian community in Hamburg consists of two subgroups: the "Diaspora Armenians" who came to Hamburg for business or educational reasons and the "Republic Armenians" who only arrived after the independence of the Republic of Armenia in 1991.
In comparison, the Ghanaian diaspora is a rather recent phenomenon. The diasporization process started only in the 1980ies; it is estimated that currently between two and four million Ghanaians live abroad. During the postcolonial phase and especially from the late 1970ies to the 1990ies, pioneers of migration came to Germany for mainly educational and later on for business reasons. Today, with an estimated 40.000 people, Ghanaians constitute the biggest group from Subsahara-Africa in Germany. As a centre for Ghanaian migration, Hamburg is first on a national level and third on a European level after London and Amsterdam. A special feature of the Ghanaian diaspora is the characteristic way of self-organization by means of ethnic and national associations as well as transnational churches.
The Greek diaspora dates back to antiquity, when Greek tribes and city states spread people of Greek culture, religion and language in trading and colonising activities around the Mediterranean and Black Sea, to Middle East and Egypt, and later across the territory of the Roman Empire. Under the Ottoman Empire these populations generally remained unchanged. During and after the Greek War of Independence Greeks of the Diaspora were important in establishing the fledgling state, raising funds and awareness abroad. Large waves of emigration in the 20th century followed political and economic crises.The lasting effect on Greece's national consciousness was the expansion of the notion of "Hellenism" and "Hellenic diaspora" to the "New World."
The traditional Sephardic Jewish diaspora originated in the expulsion of Jews from Spain after 1492, followed by further waves of forced emigration from Portugal. After the escape, the newly founded Sephardic communities in port and merchant cities like Thessaloniki, Amsterdam, London and Hamburg became centres of trade and commerce, cultural and intellectual development. Today, hardly any descendants of these former Spanish and Portuguese Jews live in Hamburg. Therefore, the focus of research within this projects shifts to another spectre of Sephardic diaspora: Persian Jews, who can look back on 3000 years of their own traditions, took up residence in Hamburg in the middle of the 20th century for mainly business reasons. In the wake of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, a significant number of Jewish refugees arrived, whereupon the Persian-Jewish community became an important part of the Hamburg Jewish commune.
The Polish diaspora claims 17 million expatriates, equivalent of about 40% of Poland's current population. Polish emigration has been a result of complex historical processes which started in the late 18th century, when Poland disappeared from the map of Europe partitioned by its three powerful neighbours Russia, Austria, and Prussia. One wave of emigration from Poland was caused by the Communist rule after the Second World War, while the last great wave took place after the fall of the iron curtain. Today 14-17 million people of Polish descent are estimated to live abroad. Among the more recent communities in Germany, Hamburg ranks second after Berlin.
The term “Russian” diaspora is used here to refer to a variety of groups of different ethnic or religious affiliation, who have emigrated from the territory of the former Soviet Union. Although this case offers possibilities of affiliation to more than one diaspora, this group is heuristically treated as a whole, but internal differentiations will be subject to empirical investigation in the course of this project. A special aspect of research is the legal status of the large numbers of migrants who came to Germany being considered as returning co-ethnics. This is significant for the formation of diaspora communities, as it implies a change from one diaspora identity to another, from Germans in Russia to “Russians” in Germany, referring to a country of origin which is “officially” considered not to be their homeland.
Master theses - Current research projects:
- Berit Langeneck: Greek Diaspora in Hamburg
- Aleksandar Milivojevic: Serbian Diaspora in Hamburg
- Ursula Schmucker: Persian-Jewish Diaspora in Hamburg
Ressourcen und Strategien in der Diaspora. Die persisch-jüdische Gemeinschaft in Hamburg. - Simon Sell: Polish Diaspora in Hamburg
- Nikola Spilok-Malanda: Russian Diaspora in Hamburg
Master theses - Completed research projects:
- Julia Berger: Ghanaian Diaspora
- Elina Peltola: Finnish Diaspora
- Simone Reich: Ghanaian Diaspora in Hamburg
Diaspora als Ressource. Die ghanaische Diaspora in Hamburg (Hamburg 2009). - Caroline Thon: Armenian Diaspora in Hamburg
Diaspora and success. An ethnographic exploration into the Armenian diaspora community in Hamburg (Hamburg 2008).
Comparative Research (International Research Partnership)
A core feature of our approach is intercultural comparison. For this reason, an international research partnership on an European level based on a common history of co-operation and networking with former international research projects was established. By means of this collaboration it is possible to study each diaspora in at least two different national and urban contexts. In order to ensure comparison, in-depth ethnographic fieldwork at these primary reasearch sites is supplemented by shorter research and surveys in other relevant cities.
Cooperation Partners:
- Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES)
Prof. Dr. Flip Lindo
University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Het Binnen Gasthuis, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 237
NL-1012 DL Amsterdam
Homepage: Prof. Dr. Flip Lindo
Phone: ++31-20-525 2663
Fax: ++31-20-5253628 - New Bulgarian University Sofia (NBU)
Prof. Dr. Milena Benovska-Sabkova
Ethnographic Institute
2d corpus, office 613, ul. Montevideo 21
BG-1618 Sofia
Homepage: Prof. Dr. Milena Benovska-Sabkova
Email: mbenovska"AT"yahoo.com
Phone: ++259 878 565054 - Université de Fribourg
Prof. Dr. Christian Giordano
Séminaire d’anthropologie sociale
Rte des Bonnesfontaines 11
CH-1700 Fribourg
Homepage: Prof. Dr. Christian Giordano
Phone: ++41-26- 300 78 42/ 41
Fax: ++41-26- 300 96 64 - University of East London (UEL)
Dr. Maja Korac-Sanderson
School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies
Refugee Research Centre
Docklands Campus, University Way
GB-E16 2RD London
Homepage: Prof. Dr. Maja Korac-Sanderson
Phone: +44(0)20- 8223-7248
Fax: +44(0)20- 8223-3296 - University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki
Prof. Dr. Eftihia Voutira
Dept. of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies
156 Egnatia Street
GR-540 06 Thessaloniki
Homepage: Prof. Dr. Eftihia Voutira
Email: voutira"AT"uom.gr
Phone: ++30-2310-891476
Individual research projects
- Prof. Dr. Waltraud Kokot: Armenian Diaspora in Sofia
- Mijal Gandelsman-Trier: Jewish Diaspora in Montevideo, Uruguay
Institutional cooperation and research partnerships
- Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES)
University of Amsterdam
Het Binnen Gasthuis, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 237
NL-1012 DL Amsterdam
Homepage: IMES
Email: t.zijlstra"AT"uva.nl
Phone: +31-20-525-3627
fax: +31-20-525-3628 - Robert Bosch Stiftung Denkwerk - Schüler, Lehrer und Geisteswissenschaftler vernetzen sich
Heidehofstr. 31
D-70184 Stuttgart
Coordination University of Hamburg: Dr. Astrid Wonneberger
Homepage: Denkwerk Ethnologie
Email: astrid.wonneberger"AT"uni-hamburg.de
Phone: +49-40-42838-4184
Fax: +49-40-42838-6288