CRS Seminar: Questions of Privileged Migration to North America in the Second Half of the 20th Century
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Guest Speakers: Mary Patrice Erdman, Case Western Reserve University; Daniel Jerke, University of Vienna; Jana K. Lipman, Tulane University; Krenare Recaj, Carleton University
When millions of people were forced to flee from Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, discussions were waged both in academia and the wider public if the Ukrainians were privileged in comparison to other groups of refugees (compare Şahin Mencütek 2022; Chishti/Bolter 2022; Pardy 2023). It seemed to have been forgotten, however, that similar accusations have been made earlier, ranging from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s with regards to refugees arriving in the United States and Canada from countries like Cuba, Kosovo, Poland and Vietnam. But by taking a close look, we can see that back then the situation too was much more complicated and nuanced, because privileges are relative as well as relational (Robertson/Roberts 2022). Why is is then that certain groups garnered a reputation of being preferentially treated while they mostly didn’t feel favoured? Is there something that we can learn in hindsight from these historical cases? And last but not least is there a way to overcome the spiral of mutual accusations and distrust in order to forge alliances?
Bios
Mary Patrice Erdmans is a professor of sociology at Case Western Reserve University. She is currently conducting a project on return migration of Polish refugees who had come to the United States in the 1980s. Previously, she published a book on the encounter of Polish immigrants with Polish Americans in Chicago during that decade.
Daniel Jerke is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vienna. His work deals with refugees from Poland who went to Austria and Canada in the 1980s.
Jana K. Lipman is a professor of history at Tulane University. She has written about Vietnamese and Cuban refugees in the United States. One of her books analyses the transit of Vietnamese refugees to the United States after 1975.
Krenare Recaj is a Ph.D. candidate at Carleton University. In her work, she compares oral testimonies of Kosovar Albanian refugees resettled to Canada with official government narratives from around the turn of the century.
