People on the Move

• Why did they move?

• What the experience of those who moved? • How did others respond? • What were the consequences? • What is the legacy? • How does this fit into the bigger picture?

Travellers and Explorers – Conquest and Colonies – Post-Imperial Migration – Economic Migration – Forced Migration – Refugees – Children on the Move

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“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of thiswww.discoveringdiversity document are the sole .eu responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” Today we take travel for granted. Now it is unusual for people to be born, go to school, get a job, marry, live their entire lives and die in the same place. Once upon a time this was the norm. Only the privileged few travelled.

Nowadays, most people live in one place and work in another. They go to another city or even another country for their university education or their vocational training. They will probably spend some part of their adult lives working in another country. We fly long distances to go on holiday or for business reasons, and we tend to forget how difficult this used to be, even in the recent past when Europe and the world as a whole was divided by the Douglas Corrigan Cold War. visiting the Wright Flyer in London, The countries people choose to go to often reflect long-standing historical ties. People from former colonies often want to live and work in the former colonial power. They share a language and there may be strong cultural ties between the two countries. However, for most of us the reasons we choose to leave our homeland and settle in another country are usually very complex. Historians and social scientists talk about the push and pull factors – the factors, which push us into leaving our homelands, and the factors, which pull us towards another country.

People often leave a country because they have very little choice. The push factors are very strong. They may belong to a community which is resented or mistrusted by those in power. They may be trying to escape persecution because of who they are or what they believe in. Or perhaps years of economic hardship have forced them to look elsewhere. Often it is a combination of these factors.

At the same time they may be attracted to another country because of the economic opportunities and the shortage of labour there or because of its reputation for religious and political tolerance. These are the pull factors and they can be just as complex when it comes to trying to understand population migrations at any particular time in history.

There are two main results of this inward and outward Immigrants waiting to go ashore, Quebec, migration: First, if you look at the populations of the Canada, approx. 1911 United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries that were once described as the “New World” you will find large numbers of people whose ancestors came from Europe in the 19th or 20th centuries. You only have to pick up a telephone directory and look at all the Italian, German, French, Dutch, Irish, Russian, Polish, Greek and Scandinavian names, indeed names from every country in Europe. In some cases the émigré populations are now far larger than the populations in their countries of origin.

The second result of the population movements of the 19th and 20th “It is important to centuries has been that most of us, particularly if we live in the larger understand that how European cities, now live in multicultural communities. Some of the people living in smallest states of Europe, such as Luxembourg, Lichtenstein and multicultural Monaco, have very large populations of people who were born in communities perceive other countries. Many other countries have around 10%-15% of their each other is st nd populations who are 1 or 2 generation immigrants. historically conditioned” It is important to understand that how people living in multicultural communities perceive each other is historically conditioned. People’s perceptions change over time because the push and pull factors that encouraged migration also change. Countries where some people now complain that immigrants are “taking their jobs” invited the immigrants to come and do the jobs that local people were unwilling to do. Similarly, countries that now turn away political refugees, and prefer to regard most of them as economic migrants, once had a proud record for offering protection from persecution and torture.

To understand many of the contemporary issues around the migration of people we need a historical perspective and we need to look at these issues comparatively and not just from a national perspective.

Discovering Diversity is an educational project on the history of migrants in the Euro-Mediterranean area. The main objective is the development of a methodology that helps history and civic teachers to connect the individual history of students to the local and larger history of migration in the Euro-Med region. Discovering the different layers of community history will lead to the discovery of multiple facets of “Thisidentity, document has empower been produced communities, with the financial assistance and ofgive the Anna tools Lindh toFoundation. history The contentsand civics of this document educators are the soleto teach complex issues responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” through a process of personal discovery and reflection.

Discovering Diversity An integrative approach to the history of migrants

Educational Material: Introductionary Lesson

The introductory lesson plan is intended to fit into a learning module on the theme of diversity, seen through the experience of migration. The module is designed for younger pupils, 12-14, but could be amended to cater for an older age group. As this learning module will serve as an introduction to the bigger theme of migration, the activities will focus on the first part of the migration process: Deciding to Leave. Within the connected Case Studies, other stages of migrating are addressed as well.

The different stages of the experiences of migration are: DECIDING TO LEAVE GETTING THERE ARRIVING SETTLING STAYING OR RETURNING THE IMPACT

Each stage of the migration process can be related to specific aspects of diversity, such as the variety of cultures and regions from which people moved, the multiplicity of motives for migration according to religion, class and individual circumstances; the variety of cultures and regions of the communities to which migrants moved; and multi-perspective perceptions of the experiences of those involved.

The Lesson Plan assumes that the time and resources available for the lesson will be sufficient to enable discussion and activity work, in pairs or small groups, and that pupils will have access to a range of source material, in documentary form or online. A key part of the lesson will be based on role play.

General goal: develop understanding about reasons for peoples’ migrations in history

Specific aims: 1. Developing understanding about variety of reasons for migrating 2. distinguishing between pull and push factors 3. Making a distinction between different types of migration 4. Developing empathy towards different groups who migrate

Expected outcomes: students will 1) distinguish different reasons for migration in history, push and pull factors what influence migration, 2) the understanding and tolerance towards different groups of migrants will be fostered

Methods/techniques used: group discussions, working in groups with cards, role play, individual writing.

Resources: images on different kinds of migration, cards with different reasons for migration, cards “push factors” and “pull factors”, stickers, descriptions of situations and short characteristics of different roles for role play, sheets of paper.

Practical arrangements: assured premises for group work, participants are divided in groups of 5-6

Teacher Students

Teacher asks students discuss in small groups their personal or family Students discuss different experiences- changing of place experience of leaving home- why? for how long time? what did they take of residence for different reasons, travelling, spending with them? holidays at their grandparent’s house. They write examples on the stickers and put them on the wall/ flipchart.

Teacher groups information about students’ experience and leads a short Students share their experiences discussion on how do students feel when they are leaving home, what do they take with them.

Teacher Students

Teacher will firstly provide the pupils with different images showing Students task is find out from the images the reasons different groups of people (workers, sailors, peasants, religious groups, what make people decide to migrate and write them on tourists, army, people of different nationalities and skin colour) and the list different reasons (war, famine, deportations, job offers, advertisement by touristic companies) for migration. This examples can be taken from the growing collection of images within the connected Case Studies.

Teacher gives groups cards with most popular reasons for migrating and Students fulfil tasks asks pupils 1) to compare these with those they have written down and 2) to put together the appropriate picture with the relevant card. The teacher will than ask the students to tell if they have written more reasons than there are on the cards. After this, a short discussion will take place on the possibility to reformulate or group reasons for migration, or to add a new cards with reasons for migrating to the already existing cards.

Listen to the short explanation about pull and push factors The teacher will explain that there are push and pull factors influencing by teacher decision making of people.

Students sort reasons for migration in 2 groups: push Teacher asks students to sort cards- push and pull factors. When all the factors, pull factors groups have completed task the results should be compared.

Teacher Students

Teacher gives to every group a description of the situation, when the Groups read the description of different situations, divide decision to leave home can be taken. Descriptions of different roles - roles, discuss the role play and prepare presentation those who are eager to leave, those who still want to stay, man, woman, old people, young people and children – should be given as well. Students should play a short role play on taking decision- what should we do? - leave or stay, taking into account all the different circumstances.

Teacher leads discussion about similarities and differences the groups of Discussion of the results of the presentations. students have found when taking decision.

Evaluation of pupils work. Self-evaluation by groups.

Teacher Students

Teacher gives individual task for every student- to imagine some situation Writing a letter and write a letter from a person who is going to leave home, describing feelings, justifying his/her decision. The letter should be addressed to a friend who is in a similar situation and has to decide whether he or she should leave as well.

Tips to teachers/anticipated difficulties

Teacher should ask to share personal experiences only those pupils who want to do it. Sometimes experiences about leaving home are too painful and/or too personal.

Educational Material: Case Study

During the 50‟s and 60‟s Europe was badly in need of migrants to work. Therefore, European governments used recruit migrants from North Africa and other countries and host their families. During the seventies, more migrants moved to Europe to look for a better life and most of them settled down over there in a legal way. In the eighties and nineties, European countries started imposing strict measures on migration to Europe according to 1985 Shengen Treaty. Getting a visa, therefore, became very difficult to obtain. Therefore, many people and mainly youth began searching other means to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. They started crossing the sea illegally because of social Irregular Greenhouse Workers, Las Norias, and economic problems in their countries. As Almería, Spain, 2003 a result, a lot of people risked their lives. Many of them died. Moreover, sub-Saharan young adults including very young women followed suit by crossing North African boarders to reach Europe.

Martin Baldwin-Edwards, The Changing Mosaic of Mediterranean Migrations (Athens 2004)

During the fifties and sixties most migrants who moved from countries of the South towards the Europe in a legal way were young adults aged between 20 and 35. In the nineties, more and more younger people started embarking on the illegal trips. Their age ranges between 13 and 45. Even pregnant ladies and children have been involved. Migrants are from north Africa and different sub-Saharan countries. In the host country, you can identify those who moved legally and five categories of illegal migrants: 1. Persons entering the host country and do not adjust their status. 2. People who enter illegally and extend their stay. 3. Persons residing illegally and working illegally. 4. Persons residing legally and working illegally. 5. People accompanying migrants living by illegal means.

Moroccan Lady and Mercedes, Mediterranean Highway, 16 August 2005 The Mercedes is a car much favoured as a status symbol by North African migrants. For the drive back home, cars are loaded to their full capacity with family members, provisions, possessions, gifts, and merchandise to sell.

Legal and Illegal migrants from Africa and sub Saharan countries came to Europe. “Southern Europe is all-too familiar with irregular migration from North African countries such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Since the early 1990s, thousands of North Africans have attempted to cross the Mediterranean to reach Spain and Italy.

But, as the migration crises in Morocco's Spanish enclaves in 2005 and Spain's Canary Islands in 2006 made clear, sub-Saharan Africans are increasingly migrating to North African countries, with some using the region as a point of transit to Europe and some remaining in North Africa.

These migrants come from an increasingly diverse array of countries and regions, such as Senegal, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Sudan, the Horn of Africa, and even Asia.”

These migrants from sub-Sahara Africa have been trying to get to Europe, via Morocco and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Mellila. While trying to cross into Spanish territory they were arrested by the Moroccans.

This map depicts the different routes taken from sub Saharan migrants. All the routes aim for the North African countries from where the migrants try to reach the European peninsula by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Although the recent economic migration from northern Africa to Europe started only in the 1950s, there have been migration currents in this region for centuries.

“Throughout known history, there has been intensive population mobility between both sides of the Sahara through the trans-Saharan (caravan) trade, conquest, pilgrimage, and religious education. The Sahara itself is a huge transition zone, and the diverse ethnic composition of oases testifies to this long history of population mobility.

It was only with the advent of colonialism, which drew borders where there had been none and created modern states, that trans-Saharan mobility and trade collapsed. However, soon after independence, the foundations were laid for the contemporary trans-Saharan migration system.

In the 1970s and 1980s, forced and voluntary settlement of nomads, wars in the Sahel, and droughts provoked two types of mobility. First, impoverished (former) nomads and traders, such as the Tuareg, started migrating to work at construction sites and the oil fields of southern Algeria and Tuareg Libya. Second, with recurrent warfare in the entire Sahel Rider in zone, thousands of refugees settled in towns and cities in Niger Libya, Algeria, Mauritania, and Egypt.”

Passage des Folies Bergères, Marseille

Moroccan Migrants, Las Norias, Almería, Spain, 2004 Moroccan Immigrants in the doorway of the abandoned cemetery where they live. Some of the inhabitants have already been there for more than two years and some even have residence permits. In the background is a greenhouse where some of the occupants work.

“According to estimates of the Migration Policy Institute, there are some seven to eight million irregular African immigrants living in the EU, mostly in its Southern parts. The actual number fluctuates in accordance with the regularisation programs of member states, notably of France, and more recently of Italy and Spain. However, many of the officially recognized migrants fall back into illegality when their limited visas expire or if they fail to meet other conditions for recognizing their legal status.

West Africans constitute by far the largest share of SSA‐migrants in Europe. They came mostly from Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal (see figure 1). In general, Francophone Africans are more likely to migrate to France because of its special socio‐cultural post‐colonial relations with its former colonies and due to the language problem, whereas Anglophone Africans, notably Ghanaians and Nigerians showed more flexibility in selecting their destination.”

Migrant Agricultural Worker, Las Norias, Almería, Spain, 2003 A worker beating the whitewash off a greenhouse roof in preparation for the cooler autumn months

Country of Nationality 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 All countries 91,875 106,455 123,210 135,102 140,033 Africa (total) 54,133 63,275 78,585 89,644 90,250 Algeria 12,419 15,084 23,322 28,295 27,629 Cameroon 1,849 2,416 2,777 3,337 3,987 Comoros 924 1,091 1,031 1,081 985 Congo 1,752 2,269 3,235 3,699 4,104 Congo, Democratic Republic of 1,108 1,399 1,711 1,657 1,681 Côte d'Ivoire 1,772 2,185 2,654 3,294 3,924 Madagascar 1,523 1,666 1,862 1,939 1,861 Mali 1,537 1,682 1,836 2,474 2,476 Mauritania 429 536 794 1,176 1,052 Morocco 17,359 19,117 21,732 22,516 22,176 Senegal 1,951 2,227 2,377 2,562 2,505 Tunisia 5,588 6,578 7,744 9,417 8,766 Other Africa 5,922 7,025 7,510 8,197 9,104

SOURCE: "Immigration and the presence of foreign population in France in 2004" by Corinne Regnard. Ministry of employment and social cohesion. (see www.social.gouv.fr)

• To look for a better life. Apart from push factors, like violent conflicts, gross human rights violations, population pressure, degradation of natural • Poverty, unemployment and resources, and poverty, the major part of current migration is feeling marginalized in their due to external pull factors. Notably young people, threatened home country. by unemployment and lack of perspectives in their home • They are also fascinated by country, are eager to try their luck in what may appear to them the life in Europe. at first sight as their El Dorado, i. e. Western Europe. Many of them struggle to reach it, in utter disregard of the involved risks, by all means, mostly illegally. But let there be no misunderstanding, the extreme African poor do not even dispose of this alternative, as migration to overseas destinations involves considerable cost, which can be covered in many cases only with contributions by the extended family (e. g. 800 to 1,200 € per person for the transit from the Senegalese coast to the Canary Islands), good health condition, a minimum amount of risk tolerance, and embedded ness in viable trans‐national social networks.

Dirk Kohnert, African Migration to Europe: Obscured Responsibilities and Common Misconceptions (Leipzig 2007) 7.

A Mali Express bus in Mali, January 2011

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” AN INTERVIEW WITH SAID: A MOROCCAN MIGRANT TO ITALY (2011)

Fkih Ben Salah is a small town located in a rural and mountain region called Beni Mellal- Azilal in Morocco. Most young adults’ ambition in this location is to immigrate to Europe due to drought and poverty. Said is one of those young.

Said migrated to Italy in 1986.He was obliged to go there. He said: “I didn‟t want to come here but my family„s economic situation forced me to do so. My father is a farmer and my family is very poor. The area has suffered from drought. So I had to help and support them”

The physical journey in Italy created many complex emotions for him at the beginning. He said: “I felt lonely in the first few weeks. At that time, I had no friends and I felt homesick. I couldn‟t talk to anyone because I did not speak Italian. However, my situation by the time has improved. I began to understand, communicate and integrate into the Italian society. I was able to learn, to work hard and then to have my own family there; Then I started making and friends. My sons and daughters have developed friendships at schools and in the neighborhood. They understood each other and they spoke the same language. With help from their teachers and friends, they started to get used to their lifestyle in Italy.”

“Now I enjoy my life. I have overcome the most difficult part of my stay there. I don‟t regret going to Italy. My stay there has enabled me to take care of my family here, properly educate my children, invest in profitable projects in Morocco and contribute to the development of my country.”

“There are many people who do not know what difficulties they would need to face, but they knew that their life would not be the same. So they struggle. The problem for some is literacy in a society which believes in knowledge. People, there, learn more skills. Learn how to change them to adapt to the environment in order to overcome the difficulties”.

If you want to learn more about the life of Solomon after his arrival, click here

Once in Bilbao, he was provided with food, accommodation, and an allowance by the Red Cross, who also arranged for Solomon to go to school for the first time, where he is learning Spanish, the only language he is able to write, and Euskera, even though he is fluent in Hausa and his eloquence in English is impressive. Such are his powers of description that he is regularly invited to speak in English about his experiences at schools and universities, with the help of interpreters in Euskera and Spanish. The Red Cross has also sponsored his enrolment in a two-year training course in welding and construction skills. Solomon is also employed by Zutalur, an NGO based in Bilbao. Though granted Spanish residence papers in 2005 he is also in the process of obtaining a Liberian passport, the first passport of his life. This, he believes, would provide him with means of realising his dream of emigrating to the U.S. as a descendant of the freed African-American slaves who founded Liberia

Used cars in EU being sold in Morocco

• Some are against illegal migration and ask to penalize the exporting countries • Others consider it as normal act and raised the issues of human rights. They are convinced that these migrants should lead a decent life wherever the go and live.

Dirk Kohnert, African Migration to Europe: Obscured Responsibilities and Common Misconceptions (Leipzig 2007) 18.

Martin Baldwin-Edwards, The Changing Mosaic of Mediterranean Migrations (Athens 2004)

Hein de Haas, Trans-Saharan Migration to North Africa and the EU: Historical Roots and Current Trends (Oxford 2006 )

In France, people rallied against anti-immigration measures taken by the government of Nicolas Sarkozy. These pictures were taken during a demonstration against "disposable immigration", in Paris on the 13th of May 2006.

"Regularize the children of your ex colonies" "The foreigners - like them or leave France"

• Complete stop of the legal immigration, immigrants already present on the national territory are required to assimilate. • The unconditional and immediate expulsion of all illegal immigrants in France. • The stop of all the politics of integration focussed on positive discrimination. • The application of the national sentiment in the areas of employment, housing and welfare.

Combine the sources shown in the last 6 panels. What can you say about the way immigrants are perceived in Western European countries?

As great numbers of North African The Irish Times - Tuesday, May 3, 2011 immigrants crossed the Mediterranean Arab spring may lead to redrawing of Schengen-eroded Sea after the upheavals during the Arab Spring in 2011, European politicians borders pushed for border controls and the rethinking of the visa free Schengen Even though the outwork of the ructions in North Africa and the Middle East is zone. likely to remain unclear for a long time, the upheavals may soon lead to an emergency rejig of the Schengen rules. Such are the unpredictable vicissitudes of the “Arab spring”. The first reason for this is an influx of 30,000 mostly Tunisian migrants to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, many of them arriving over the Mediterranean on rickety fishing boats. Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi claims Rome cannot handle this on its own, but his EU counterparts have spurned pleas for special aid.

Thanks to French colonialism, the Tunisians are French- speakers. With no little Italian help, many of them tried to flee to France. President Nicolas Sarkozy was predictably boisterous in his response. Border controls are way up, trains are under close surveillance and the Tunisians are being sent back to Italy if caught.

At the weekend, however, the European Commission responded to Franco- Italian concerns by saying it is now examining new measures to allow member states reinstate some border controls in a review of migration policy.

“The temporary restoration of borders is one of the possibilities, provided this is subject to specific and clearly defined criteria, that could be an element to strengthen the governance of the Schengen agreement,” said commission chief José Manuel Barroso in a letter to Sarkozy and Berlusconi.

Economic migration is nothing new. Just as many people from Africa have recently been trying to escape extreme hardship and find a new life in Italy so millions of Italians, especially from the poverty- stricken South, went to the United States between the 1880s and 1920. Many of these migrants were able to send money back home to their relatives. This money remitted home was the biggest single source of income for Southern Italians in the years before 1914. Mulberry Street, “Little Italy” Manhatten, New York, circa 1900

SUMMARY OF MALTESE MIGRATION PATTERNS (1946–1996) Country To From Net migration Return % Australia 86,787 17,847 68,940 21.56 Canada 19,792 4,798 14,997 24.24 UK 31,489 12,659 18,830 40.20 U.S.A. 11,601 2,580 9,021 22.24 Other 1,647 907 740 55.07 Total 155,060 39,087 115,973 25.21

Since the 1950s there has been a regular flow of economic migrants leaving Malta in the hope of a better life abroad. This was also true of many people of Spain and Portugal. In past few years Malta has received many thousands of economic migrants from North Africa. This is an example of the way how the patterns of economic migration constantly change.

Italians in the 1962 in West Germany Germany has been a magnet for economic migration since the 1950s. Vietnamese in the GDR in 1990

Since the end of the Cold War there has been large scale economic migration to the West from former communist states in Eastern Europe. Just like Italian-Americans one hundred years ago, they send money back home to there relatives.

Money Transfer Remittance advertising in Oxford Street, London with Polish and Russian slogans.

It is not only Europe that is affected by economic migration. In recent years the numbers of economic migrants from Mexico and Latin America into the southern and western states of the USA have increased so rapidly that a huge security fence has been constructed to try to keep them out.

Aspiring migrant from Mexico into the US at the Tijuana-San Diego border. The crosses represent the deaths of failed attempts.

Educational Material: Case Study

Until 1973 when speaking of immigrants all concern and debate was linked to the labor force. After 1973 – like in all countries - the unemployment rate rose. 10 years later – in 1983 and forward – the debate started little by little to deal with conceptions like “refugees of convenience” and “cultural differences” and a revulsion of public feeling towards immigrants was seen.

It does appear that the vast majority from the first and second generation of these immigrants is well integrated in the Danish society of today. Nevertheless some clashes between cultures are sometimes seen.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s immigrants arrived to Denmark from primarily Pakistan, Turkey and Yugoslavia to meet the demand for unskilled labour, and in the course of time many of them sent for family members to join them. Immigration was stopped by law from 1973 but it is still possible for families to reunificate.

Particularly in the 1980s and 1990s refugees seeking asylum arrived in Denmark, the greatest numbers from The Middle East.

In 2009 eight percent of the population in Denmark is of other ethnic background than Danish. About 2/3 of them have their origins in the Middle East.

Of these Afghanistan 9.717 2.470 12.187 Iraq 21.311 7.852 29.163 Lebanon 12.032 11.652 23.684 Pakistan 10.983 9.251 20.234 Somalia 10.356 5.837 16.193 Turkey 32.039 26.687 58.726 Yugoslavia (former) 11.116 5.908 17.024

Source: www.dst.dk, July 2009. In July 2009 the total population of Denmark is 5.4 million.

Look at the numbers. How big is the difference between descendents from non-Western countries compared to Western countries. How can you explain this difference?

An example: In the 1960s the Turkish government set up agencies to manage the 1960s and 1970s mass labor migration from Turkey to Germany (and later Denmark) with the purpose of stabilizing the currency (from emigrants sending money home) and of getting new knowledge and skills to Turkey when they returned back home. In 1974 average (skilled or unskilled not specified) manufacturing wages equaled $US 0.63 per hour for Turkey while they were $US 4,5 in Denmark for skilled workers.

Immigrants to Denmark met a very different world from their own. As a western country with relatively high living standards, democracy and civil rights – among them equality and freedom of speech one could expect a clash of culture at certain points. The expectations for instance to a wife and a daughter in a family from the Middle East could be very different from that of a Danish family and the obligations toward society could be difficult to fulfill with very different conceptions of obligations.

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation.Do The you contents want of this document to know are the even more? Click here! sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” An immigrant – before and after

In 1970 no one was unemployed, neither Danish men or women nor immigrants - even though some did not speak Danish at all. The unemployment rate was 1,3%.

The photo is from the family photos of Caglanur Avci whose grandfather - Niyazi Cetinalp - immigrated to Denmark from Turkey in 1969. The photo on the left hand is taken in Turkey before the departure and the photo on the right hand in Denmark after his arrival. He stayed in Denmark and now his granddaughter Caglanur Avce, who is a former student of Langkær Gymnasium in Denmark will be the first in the family to achieve a higher education. She is now studying at the University of Århus.

Today there are about 200.000 Muslims in Denmark. The reasons why they moved are varied – economic, social and political. One key example is the 16.700 Somalis living in Denmark today. The first Somalis arrived in the country in the mid-1960s as students and guest workers and from the 1980s as refugees and reunited family members.

There are several reasons why Somalis have come to Denmark. Many needed asylum as a result of civil war and, in the case of family reunifications, the desire to be together with their spouses and immediate family. Many also ended up randomly in the country, for example because European asylum meant they had to stay in Denmark when they had hoped to reach Sweden or Great-Britain. Others again had some prior knowledge about Denmark through their family and friends and thus wanted to settle in the country.

The Somalis were one group among many. People also came from many other Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Turkey.

Click here to see statistics on the countries of origin of recent immigrants to Denmark

This photo is from the family photos of Caglanur Avci, whose grandfather - Niyazi Cetinalp - immigrated to Denmark from Turkey in 1969. His aim was to earn money enough to buy this tractor for his family back in Turkey and then return to Turkey. He did buy the tractor for his village, but things went differently for him. He stayed in Denmark and now his granddaughter Caglanur Avce, who is a former student of Langkær Gymnasium in Denmark will be the first in the family to achieve a higher education. She is now studying at the University of Århus.

Denmark 1900-1945 1960s to 1973 1973*-2002 2002**- Pull factors -No particular -Job offers -Family reunification except from -High income -Good conditions for -Green Cards*** the absence -Better living conditions asylum seekers of war and -Family reunification revolution Push factors -Wars -Low income -Escape from political, -Escape from political, -Revolutions -Bad living conditions ethnic, religious and ethnic, religious and -Pogroms -Help family back home economic repression economic repression -Persecution -Unemployment -Escape from (civil) war -Escape from (civil) war -Bad living -Governments push conditions

*Immigration stop by law from 1973 but still possible for family reunification. ** Very difficult to obtain a permit to stay in Denmark, for refugees as well *** Foreigners allowed to stay in Denmark as long as they work

Look at the statistics on immigration to Denmark. What would you expect to be the most important push factors since 1973 for migration from non-western countries?

Push factors: Pull factors: Government Push In 1970 in Denmark no one was unemployed, neither In the 1960ies the Turkish Danish men nor women nor immigrants - even though government set up agencies to some immigrants did not speak Danish at all. The manage the 1960s and 1970s mass unemployment rate was 1,3%. labor migration from Turkey to Germany (and later Denmark) with the purposes of • stabilizing the currency (from Tabel. Wages, Danish kroner pr. Hour (1 Danish krone = emigrants sending money home) 0.15 USD in average 1968-1978) • getting new knowledge and skills to Turkey when they returned back 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 home Skilled 16 20 25 33 43 53 Source: http://www.eu-employment- observatory.net/resources/reviews/NationalArti workers cles/Turkey-AutumnReview2008.pdf Unskilled 13 17 21 30 39 46 workers In 1974 average (skilled or unskilled Unskilled 10 13 17 25 35 42 not specified) manufacturing wages equaled 0.63 USD per hour for women Turkey. Source: www.dst.dk Source: http://www.iisg.nl/research/turkey2.pdf

From a report on CBS News in February 2008.

The Danish journalist, Sebastian Dorset, told me in an interview that “the contentment of Danish Muslims may stem from the fact that Denmark is almost totally homogenous socially. Denmark has no large disparities of wealth, and has had very little national turmoil for more than a half a century. We have very little violence. We have very little murders. So people are, feel very safe,” he says. Sebastian Dorset’s optimistic view cannot represent the whole truth. The experiences of immigrants in Denmark was not always positive. Assimilation into a new society often takes time and requires many painful adjustments. Many immigrants to Denmark were welcomed at the beginning, especially if they were needed to help the economy, but this welcome did not always last if the economic conditions changed. Many immigrants faced discrimination and prejudice because they were seen as representing an alien culture.

Maybe Denmark was not really the paradise they had dreamt of. All the same there were many things in Denmark they admired. It was tidy, people did not shout at each other the way they did at home, and most people seemed to have a lot of money. Finally no one in Denmark was starving or ill. It was a wonderful experience, but also strange. (Based on recorded interviews)

Fakhra is 13 years old and born in Denmark. In 1971 her father came to Denmark from Pakistan together with Fakhra’s uncle. They were to earn money and had been persuaded by friends and acquaintances back home who had said that a lot of money could be earned in Denmark quickly, so that they would be able to get better living standards in Pakistan. After some time the father sent for Fakhra’s mother who was pregnant with Fakhra and her 4 elder siblings. They were all going to live in Denmark.

Firstly the father missed his wife and his children. Danes were not that easy to get in contact with, and he felt very much lonely even though he got together with a number of the other Pakistanis in this country. Besides, the mother could also start working and in that way the whole family could earn more money so that all of them would be able to return in a short while.

At first the mother had not really liked getting a job outside home. It was not proper, but Fakhra’s father had convinced her. Fakhra thinks that her father is ‘modern’, because he is not as orthodox as some of the other Muslim immigration families that she knows about. If you want to know more about Fahkra, click here

Moneywise things got worse than they had expected. Taxes were high and even though they lived economically it was difficult to accumulate savings. Maybe Denmark was not really the paradise they had dreamt of. All the same there were many things in Denmark they admired. It was tidy, people did not shout at each other the way they did at home, and most people seemed to have a lot of money. Finally no one in Denmark was starving or ill. It was a wonderful experience, but also strange. It was as if someone was in command of all Danes, bur not someone visible.

But Danes were also difficult to get to know. On the outside they looked so nice and soft, but inside they had to be made of steel. Nothing really made an impression on them.

As time went by Fakhra’s siblings started at school. The Danish school was quite a shock to them. Classes were small and it was difficult to adapt to the Danish language and manners. One of her brothers had turned quite wild after having started at school. The principal had told him to stop. Fakhra’s parents did not understand why teachers could not keep better discipline with so few pupils in class. The brother did not understand it either, and since he was used to tight reins at home he had to test the limits. There must be some.

Do you want to know even more? Click here!

But as time went by everything turned out for the better for the family and children – also at school. Fakhra’s mother had started to work, they got money for a better flat, they could afford to send back some money, and they could afford to go home on holiday about once every two years.

The language is still a problem. Danish is hard to command, but they manage. A year ago Fakhra’s father bought a small shop together with his brother who is still here. They sell a variety of delicacies from Pakistan, and the father says that if business develops like it does now the mother does not need to work in a year’s time.

Soon Fakhra is to get married. She already knows to whom. She has not seen him, but her mother and father have, and they say that he is quite all-right. She is very anxious – what if he is not handsome, but her mother has said that she will certainly be happy.

Next year she is to leave school. She is to help her father in the shop – he is so busy in the morning when going to the vegetable market, and he and her uncle are contemplating expanding the shop with a restaurant. That could be quite nice.

Next year Fakhra is going home – on holiday that is. It is such a long time since she was there. Will she ever move back to Pakistan? ‘Of course if my family moves. But my father says that it will not be until the restaurant is profitable’.

When I chose to put pressure on my family to come to Denmark it was due to the political situation in Turkey. There was extreme hatred between the left and the right wing, and I was afraid that my eldest son got mixed up in something. I got a four room flat, but my wife stressed that she had come here against her will and she cried for six months…

…..”I was born in Turkey in a small village in 1924. The date was probably 5th of April, but I don’t know for sure. We were fine, my parents owned a farm….We did not go to school, because there was no such thing, and so I taught myself to read and write Turkish…..I took over the farm from my parents and moreover I managed a mill, but it was produced in England, and when it broke down it was very difficult to get spare parts. I got some from Istanbul, but they did not fit and so I got into debt. It was therefore necessary for me to earn money enough to pay back my debt. I therefore sold farmland and animals and got money to go to Denmark. I had heard of the country from a friend. I arrived as a tourist in Copenhagen together with 15 friends. We met someone called Nazif, and he promised to help us to get to Århus. I was tired and scared and doubtful, and then I said to him that if he took me – only me – to Århus I would give him 500 Danish kroner. I got work in Århus, and Nazif got work too. Later he brought my friends and they all got work…. I earned 580 kroner in four weeks. We lived 18 men in a room in a basement….One day at work I had an accident and I was taken to hospital. I have had pain in my back ever since. But I kept working…..I got a job at a factory. We did piecework, nine hours a day and time wages at 18 kroner at most….My boss and his wife were very helpful and they tried to find me a place to stay so that I could get my family up here, but my wife Hamide would not….in 1975 I managed to get them up here….When I chose to put pressure on my family to come to Denmark it was due to the political situation in Turkey. There was extreme hatred between the left and the right wing, and I was afraid that my eldest son got mixed up in something. I got a four room flat, but my wife stressed that she had come here against her will and she cried for six months…Now she is happy to be here. She has an eye disease, and she has to consult a doctor often, and that is not so easy in Turkey….Unfortunately I never learned Danish. All the time I thought that I would return to Turkey…and suddenly it was too late to learn…I have never had a bad experience with Danes or with the authorities. I just don’t think that we would be received today as we were in 1967.....The Turks behaved better at that time, they were afraid to be expelled. The Danes were willing to help….there was a relationship of trust between us….When we left for holiday in Turkey our Danish friends looked after our flat…”

Election poster in Copenhagen (May 29, 2009) If you were a recent immigrant to Denmark how would you feel? To whom do you think the poster is addressed?

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” THE POPULATION IN DENMARK ACCORDING TO CITIZENSHIP AND ORIGIN, 1ST OF JANUARY 2006 The population in Denmark according to citizenship and origin, 1st of January 2006 Number of Percent persons Danish Foreign Total Danish Foreign Total citizenship citizenship citizenship citizenship Total population 5.157.408 270.051 5.427.459 95,0 5,0 100

Persons with 4.957.171 7.053 4.964.224 99,9 0,1 100 Danish origin Immigrants and 200.237 262.998 462.235 46,5 53,5 100 2dn generation Examples: Turkey 25.841 29.709 55.550 46,5 53,5 100 Iraq 9.189 17.733 26.922 34,1 65,9 100 Germany 12.577 13.298 25.875 48,6 51,4 100 Lebanon 17.890 4.619 22.509 79,5 20,5 100 Bosnia 8.537 12.415 20.952 55,3 44,7 100 Pakistan 10.658 8.626 19.284 55,3 44,7 100 Yugoslavia 7.547 9.868 17.415 43,3 56,7 100 (former) Somalia 6.816 9.748 16.564 41,1 58,9 100 Norway 4.106 11.638 15.744 26,1 73,9 100 Poland 7.094 7.586 14.680 48,3 51,7 100 Iran 9.967 4.422 14.389 69,3 30,7 100 Vietnam 8.688 4,181 12.869 67,5 32,5 100 Afghanistan 1.973 9.273 11.246 17,5 82,5 100 Source: www.statistikbanken.dk/bef3 Comment: In 2006 the whole population in Denmark was 5.427.459. In 2009 eight percent of the population in Denmark is of other ethnic background than Danish. About 2/3 of them have their origins in the Middle East. They have settled mainly in the large cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense.

“Many immigrants cling to a lie. They say that they are going back home for example when they have earned enough money, but they seldom do. Why?

1.They live in a nostalgic vacuum where memories from the kin-state often seem to be better than realities back there. 2.They haven’t got the nerve to tell people back home about the lack of success in the new country. 3.They are not willing to say goodbye to free healthcare, free schools etc. that they are granted in Denmark.

The consequence is lack of integration.”

Source: Notes from a lecture the 11th of May 2010 by Manu Sareen, an immigrant in Denmark, member of the city council of Copenhagen.

Manu Sareen

Would you describe the clothing of this girl as modern or traditional?

How would a member of an older generation of Muslim immigrants to Europe feel about her way of expressing? And a Non-Muslim? Why?

PORTRAIT: “DANISH INSIDE, PAKISTANI OUTSIDE”

A report By Majken Astrup on the situation of Nasar Malik and his wife Huma Nasar.

Neither of them intends to return to Pakistan. They want to stay in Denmark and live out their dreams and ideas. In Denmark it is safe to dream on even though one gets old.

In a small office in a flat in Bagsvaerd Nasar Malik is banging away on a seven- year- old computer in Windows 98. The round spectacles are close to his face and he is bending over the keys. On the screen little bows and dots appear from right to left. The characters stretch upwards in a strange dance of streamers and loops. Malik is writing a newspaper article in Urdu. On the wall facing him are old family photos from Pakistan and above a quotation from the Koran painstakingly calligraphed by his wife, Huma Nasar. She has brought tea and sits next to him. She made the draft for the article Malik is typing. Together they have a news home page that keeps Urdu-speaking immigrants and refugees updated about Danish news. Abdul Wahid Reino Arild Pedersen If you want to know more about (born Reino Arild Pedersen in 1954) is a Danish Imam. He is married to a Nasar and Huma, click here Maroccan wife and he converted to Islam in 1984.

Look at the story of Nasar Malik and Muslim protesters his wife, the story of Abdul Wahid gather on City Hall Reino Arild Pedersen, the image of the Square in mosque and the Muslim protesters. Copenhagen What do these images tell you about Denmark as a multicultural society?

They both work full-time and run the home page in their spare time. It is only one of many projects that they run together. Neither of them intends to return to Pakistan. They want to stay in Denmark and live out their dreams and ideas. In Denmark it is safe to dream on even though one gets old.

Huma and Malik Nasar were both born and bred in Pakistan. As a young journalist Malik went to Denmark in 1972 to help his brother publish the newspaper ‘The Voice of Pakistan’ for Pakistanis living here. In 1996 Huma arrived. Malik’s wife was not afraid of leaving Pakistan but looked forward to experiencing a new part of the world (…) ‘We were never in doubt that Denmark was the right place for us. It has become our second homeland. In Pakistan we could never speak out freely. We kept our thoughts to ourselves. Everything was so tabooed. Sex, homosexuality, feelings. In Denmark one can talk about anything. We speak our minds without losing respect for each other. We have become more open and honest’ they take turns saying.

Malik admits that sometimes he has thought of them moving back to Pakistan one day, but every time they have decided to stay in Denmark. Primarily because they are more foreign in Pakistan than in Denmark Huma feels (…) Neither of them is afraid of getting old in Denmark. According to Pakistani tradition children must take care of old parents, but neither Huma nor Malik could imagine that their son, Daud, was to take care of them. They would never ask him to do so. ‘Our son has his own life. It would be stupid if he had to move home to take care of us,’ says Malik and Huma adds, ‘We take care of each other and are each others’ hands and feet. We take turns cooking, cleaning and washing. It is, of course, quite atypical for Pakistani husbands to take part in the housework, but both of us have our jobs. We manage on our own’ (…).

By E. L., February 10, 1970 The Danish worker looks at the foreign labourers as competitors, in terms of wages and jobs, as well as in the housing market. Is that really so strange? (…) Primarily the foreign labourer steals jobs from the lowest-paid.

Nothing is easier than demonstrating one’s infallible, democratic mind and one’s morally blameless opinions (…) especially when nothing is at stake. We can all be generous at others’ expense; regarding foreign labourers academics and other good people have demonstrated this quite clearly! Only sparsely have we heard from the point of Danish workers. The issue is relevant to the worker primarily. They discuss over our heads and accuse us of a lot of things such as racial hatred and selfishness – they are so busy installing in us a bad consciousness that will shut our mouths! The Danish worker looks at the foreign labourers as competitors, in terms of wages and jobs, as well as in the housing market. Is that really so strange? (…) Primarily the foreign Many shop-owners and employees in small labourer steals jobs from the lowest-paid. By accepting an even lower wage they press shops are foreign workers. the general level of wages in these low-organised sectors. In spite of all collective bargaining at levelling wages among workers the wages gap will become bigger than ever in coming years!

Call it discrimination or racial hatred, I don’t care, first and foremost I feel solidarity with my countrymen, Hansen and Petersen, and I’ll leave it to others to play do-gooders. For outsiders it is so easy to have the quite right ‘progressive’ international ideas. They can sit in their good, secure positions and hug themselves not risking redundancy and stagnation of wages.

We procure for ourselves a proletariat of alarming proportions if we do not put a stop to the uncontrollable and unrestrained ‘import’ of foreign labour. Instead of calling for solidarity among workers take a look at employers who, having earned big money on the efforts, know-how and skills of Danish blue and white collar workers, move their capital out of the country to live in tax-havens with not a thought of their countrymen.

We surely need a labour force reserve as a replacement for the one that disappears – and guest labourers are especially welcome. Primarily because this reserve does not cost us anything compared to a reserve consisting of unemployed or housewives. If we do not need the labour force it can be expelled. The burden of keeping a reserve then falls on the guest labourer himself or his home country. Normally the guest labourer does not bring either wife or children along. It means that our industry can grow faster since there are no demands for secondary investments in kindergartens, schools, housing and what else follows from having a family. Finally guest labourers are especially welcome because we need little investment in new buildings and machines to get them working - they do not mind working shifts.

Of the weekly 168 hours our factories usually work only 42. Theoretically we may therefore quadruple our production without further investment. In practise we may double our production making a few adjustments here and there. If only the guest labourers are going to help us. For economic reasons we must therefore say, ‘Welcome Mustafa’.

The social problems must not be overlooked, though. They may be terrible – to put it bluntly: 100,000 guest labourers in ghetto-like districts of Copenhagen must necessarily lead to theft, rape, murder and bloody clashes at a scale comparable to the big cities of the USA. Then we have to ban our young people from mingling with them. We must pass special laws against them – or throw them out of the country just like the Swiss did and pay what that will cost (…)

The pivotal point is that we realise that the guest labourers are not poor applicants that we can treat as if we were their masters. On the contrary we have to acknowledge that the guest helps us more than we help him (…).

‘People say that immigrants destroy Ishoy. This is nonsense. They do not change our borough as much as if we had housed a military camp (…) The Danes that are most negative towards immigrants are the ones who have most difficulties coping themselves. They see people arriving who do not know the language but make great efforts to manage. They arrive carrying a bundle on their backs and in the first months they sleep on the floor until they can buy a bed cash. I do admire that. Their backgrounds are almost caves, water was carried from the river, and then they arrive and adapt to modern high-rise flats in Ishoy with electric oven and rubbish chute. It is also admirable that they present a family life they way they do. They do not engage with dubious females, they do not behave badly in pubs. They send their children to school every day, clean and well dressed. They are tidy and they pay rent on time (…) I think we can learn a lot from our immigrants’ (…)

All the same mayor P.M. would now like to bar more immigrants from entering his Danich boys of Pakistani borough, primarily for the sake of the immigrants. ‘It all started when I married some Pakistanis, and they said that they should like to draw my attention to the origin playing cricket fact that in Ishoy the limit for Danish tolerance was about to be reached. They said ‘We cannot become Danes fully, but we have a chance that our children may become so, and we should like that, but only if we are accepted.’ That was in May 1974, and now we know from bitter experience that they were right. If there are more than 10% foreigners in a borough or just in a high-rise block problems start popping up. But if you say such a thing, especially in the local council, you can expect several months behind bars. Because that is racial discrimination’

Ishoy divided: Mohammed or Madsen. ’- If immigrants do not want to – at least outwardly – adapt to Danish conditions I think they might as well return to where they came from. We cannot go on containing the problems immigrants and refugees give us by their different ways of life’ says Per Madsen, mayor of the borough of Ishoy. (…)

‘Between 25 and 30 per cent of immigrants to Ishoy are redundant, while the equivalent number of Danes is only about 6 per cent. More and more immigrants use the welfare system as the basis of their daily lives, and at latest when they are between 45 and 50 they leave the labour market for good and think they need no longer participate. And considering the new rules of social support it does not pay for a father of 4 to work. Seemingly they do fine and are quite satisfied sitting on a bench in the town centre.

But the pivotal point is the children. We have got 470 children of foreign tongues in the borough, and many of them are married away to someone from the home country who then arrives here and does not speak a word of Danish. Furthermore they bring their parents, siblings, uncles and aunts up here. They arrive as standard tourists, but one day they are registered at the national registration office and the unemployment fund, and then one more person is a burden to the welfare system. In 1978 we had 644 of Turkish origin, now we have 1,440.

Women are suppressed in medieval conditions and do not join the labour market at all, partly because they do not know Danish, partly because they are not allowed to get an education.’

The Law on Foreigners was put into force on the 8th of June 1983. A much better legal status for asylum seekers was an important innovation and the law was called “the most liberal” law of its kind in Europe. Two examples shall be mentioned here:

•The so called ’de-facto refugees’ (not included in the Geneva Convention from 1951) were entitled to asylum. •Family reunification became a legal claim for those persons who were granted asylum.

But already in 1986 the government started to make restrictions. Since 2002 Denmark has become one of the most restrictive countries on these matters.

Source: http://www.danmarkshistorien.dk/leksikon-og- kilder/vis/materiale/udlaendingeloven-af-8-juni-1983/

From the New Year Speeches of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 1984 and in 2006 (after the affair of the Mohammed Cartoons).

Until 1973 when speaking of immigrants all concern and debate was linked to the labour force. After 1973 – like in all countries - unemployment rose. 10 years later – in 1983 – the debate started to deal with conceptions like “refugees of convenience” and “cultural differences” and a revulsion of public feeling towards immigrants was seen.

From 1984: “…With very different backgrounds refugees come to this country, sometimes injured on body and soul. We receive them and we are perhaps even a bit proud of the fact, that they have chosen our little Paradise, but when we realize that they do not seem to understand our way of life nor speak our language our hospitality seems suddenly scarce and the disappointment increase on both sides…and then we come up with our “Danish wit” and make stupid remarks perhaps followed by harassment ….. – this is not good enough. If we want the new year to be better than the old one here is a good place to start.”

From 2006: “…Here in Denmark we would like everything to go smooth and problems to solve themselves; we think that what is natural for us must be natural for others as well. But it is not that simple. We begin to realize that we have to explain the values upon which our society is built, so that people who have not yet become firmly rooted in Denmark can settle in….Last year we learned something about ourselves. We are now wiser about, what we stand for and where we do not want to give in…”

Compare these two sources and describe the change of attitudes towards migrants in Denmark since 1973.

Dansk Folkeparti is a Danish political party. At the general elections in 2007 the party got 13,5 percent of the votes.

The first two lines of the poster says: “No to Big Mosques in Copenhagen. Referendum NOW.”

“Freedom of religion and non-discrimination are fundamental principles that are protected by the Constitution of Denmark.

Section 67 of the Constitution protects the rights of citizens to be “… at liberty to form congregations for the worship of God in a manner according with their convictions, provided that nothing contrary to good morals or public order shall be taught or done”.

Section 70 lays down that “no person shall by reason of his creed or descent be deprived of access to the full enjoyment of civic and political rights, nor shall he escape compliance with any common civic duty for such reasons”.

Islamic communities are free to establish mosques in Denmark according to Danish law. Such communities have therefore already established a large number of mosques, though the exact number is not known.

Muslims living in Denmark are free to work as imams in the mosques by agreement with their religious communities.

Foreigners may come to Denmark and act as imams for a period. The exact number of imams in Denmark is not known. Land has been provided in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense, among other places, where Muslim cemeteries have been established. As is the case with other parents, Muslim parental groups may found private schools under the private independent school legislation. These schools receive some 75% of their funding from public sources. The Danish Ministry of Education does not categorise private independent schools in terms of their ideological or religious basis and is therefore not in a position to state the number of Muslim schools or pupils.

However, during the 2004/2005 academic year there were 21 private independent basic schools mainly or exclusively for bilingual pupils. This figure, however, includes private independent basic schools for pupils speaking languages such as English and German.”

Published by: The Ministry of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs

Source: http://www.business.aau.dk/~albrekt/surveybank/forside.htm The respondents are voters in Denmark (Election of 2005)

Question: Should 7 years 9 years 10 years Gymnasium Business- Do not Total immigrants who are gymnasium know (12 years) unemployed over a long period be expelled from Denmark? Totally agree 16,2 14,4 8,2 3,1 3,6 16,7 9,1

Partly agree 13,9 13,4 12,8 4,6 9,1 0,0 10,6

Neither/nor 20,4 21,9 18,3 10,0 14,5 16,7 16,7

Partly disagree 26,2 27,5 34,2 33,3 40,9 33,3 31,6

Totally disagree 17,6 18,4 25,7 47,8 31,8 0,0 29,5

Don’t know 5,8 4,3 0,7 1,2 0,0 33,3 2,5

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

N= 432 374 693 649 110 6 2.264

Source: http://www.business.aau.dk/~albrekt/surveybank/forside.htm The respondents are voters in Denmark (Election of 2005) Are people who have spent more time in education more or less likely to agree that long-term unemployed immigrants should be expelled from Denmark?

Bülent Diken from Department of Sociology, Lancaster University

“I believe that the “immigrant” is basically a sublimated fetish object. A fetish object, without which the populist politics of immigration, especially in countries such as Austria and Denmark, would not be able to exist. Without the immigrant as the “other”against which “we” define ourselves, it is impossible to sustain the clean-cutdefinitions of Danishness, Austrian identity, and so on. Then, obviously, Bülent Diken theimmigrant has a great function in this society. Hence I don’t think that the real aim of the immigration debate is to integrate immigrants – simply because if integration takes place, that is, if the “problem of the immigrant ” disappears, then the culturalist/communitarian definitions of Danishness cannot be sustained in their present form. “

Over half of the Somali group has now lived in Denmark for 10 to 15 years and has become a part of Danish society. For example, there are over 50 Somali associations, spread out over the whole country, whose focus includes integration, language, sports or support for reconstruction and development projects in Somalia. There are also several Somalis in Danish local politics.

Somali academics at a Many Somalis are still in touch with family and friends in Somalia, conference in Aalborg. neighboring countries or elsewhere in Europe or North America and are thus involved in various kinds of transnational practices, including remittances to family members in Somalia or in refugee camps. A number of the Somalis, who have acquired Danish citizenship, have, however, chosen to move to larger cities in Great Britain, such as London, Birmingham or Leicester.

To find out more about Somali immigration to Denmark click here

‘The scarf only means that I pay the respect to myself that men are not to look at my air’ says Sevda Eken.

Most Muslims prefer women to let their hair move with the wind. Although 23 per cent of Muslims in Denmark think that women have to wear a scarf twice as many – 51 per cent – disagree. 27-year-old high school student Sevda Eken is one of the Muslims who think that women themselves have to choose whether to wear a scarf. ‘My view is that women do not HAVE to wear a scarf and I don’t mind

Read more 

Women wearing colourful headscarves in Copenhagen

The survey that ‘Capacent’ made for the National Danish Broadcasting Company shows that Muslim men and women share almost the same opinions on this matter. Actually some more men are against the scarf than women – and Sevda Eken recognizes this picture. ‘My husband wants me not to wear a scarf, even if he is a Muslim himself’ says Sevda Eken. This is because her husband thinks it is a burden for her to be met by cold staring and stupid remarks because of her scarf. ‘He can see that sometimes I get sad and he does not want that’ she says.

Sevda Eken understands very well that some people think that scarves oppress women, but she does not share this view. ‘The scarf only means that I pay the respect to myself that men are not to look at my air’ says Sevda Eken. The survey also shows that there is no difference between old and young Muslims’ attitudes to the scarf. On the other hand attitudes vary very much according to which country they come from. Only 6 per cent of Muslims from former Yugoslavia think women must wear a scarf, whereas 38 per cent of Muslims from Iraq and Somalia think so.

France has banned head scarves from public places, some other countries have rejected this approach, looking at this evidence from Denmark, do you feel that this is an A woman wearing a headscarf of French Design important issue in a modern society?

% Immigrants Descendants Danes of immigrants

Agree 76 86 40 totally Table 5.3: To what degree do you agree with the following statement: ‘It is Agree 12 9 30 important that all people in Denmark have the possibility of freely exercising their partly religious rituals and wearing religious symbols’? Neutral 5 2 10

Disagree 3 1 11 partly

Disagree 4 2 8 totally

Total % 100 100 100

% Yes, Yes, Generally Never always mostly not Immigrants 51 18 14 18 Table 5.9a: ‘No matter if you have got children or not, would you allow your Descendants 33 20 21 26 children to marry a Dane?’ of immigrants

Why do you think recent immigrants are more likely to say they would allow their children to marry a Dane than those who are descendants of immigrants?

% Yes, always Yes, mostly Generally Never not Immigrants 50 22 15 13 Table 5.9b: ‘No matter if you have got children or not, would you allow your children to marry a person of another Descendan 42 28 16 15 ethnic origin than Danish?’ ts of immigrants Danes 59 24 9 7

% Yes, Yes, Generally Never always mostly not Table 5.10a: ‘No matter if you have got Immigrants 49 16 14 22 children or not, would you allow your children to have a Danish boyfriend / Descendants 32 15 22 30 girlfriend?’ of immigrants Danes 94 6 0 0

% Yes, Yes, Generally Never

always mostly not Table 5.10b: ‘No matter if you have got children or not, would you allow your children to have a boyfriend / girlfriend Danes 61 25 9 5 of other ethnic origin than Danish?’

% Yes, always Yes, mostly Generally Never not Table 5.10c: ‘No matter if you have got children or not, would you allow your Immigrants 58 18 9 16 children to have a boyfriend / girlfriend of own ethnic origin?’

Descendants 39 25 18 19 of immigrants

Go back to the answer that you gave in slide 33. Do the previous 6 sources affect your argument? Explain your reasons.

Representatives from the Danish Islamic Burial Foundation along with the minister of ecclesiastical affairs and education, Bertel Haarder, opened the country’s first Islamic cemetery last Friday after 15 years of wrangling, protests, accusations and, in the end, agreement.

The cemetery is located in Brøndby, about 10 miles south-west of Copenhagen.

‘It’s wonderful having the burial grounds,’ said Danish-Pakistani author and lecturer Rushy Rashid. ‘Now Muslims can really feel that religious equality also applies to them as it does to the other large religions, which have had their own cemeteries for years.’

Denmark has an estimated 200,000 Muslims. Most of those who pass away are buried in Danish cemeteries that have a separate Muslim burial ground, while around 70 are taken abroad to be buried annually.

The Danish Islamic Burial Foundation believes the site is an important step in Danish-Islamic relations and hopes that more Danish Muslims will now choose to be buried in Denmark.

‘It’s a dream for Muslims that has now become reality. That the cemetery is now inaugurated confirms that there is religious freedom in Denmark, and we see this as an expression of tolerance,’ said Kaseem Said Ahmad, the burial foundation’s chairman.

In 2009 the number of Muslims in Sweden was 550 000, 5% of the total population

In 2010 the number of Muslims in Norway was 101 000, 3% of the total population

In 2010 the number of Muslims in Denmark was 200 000, just under 4% of the population

In the 2010 general elections in Sweden, the anti- In the Netherlands, politician Rita immigrant party ‘Sweden Democrats’ won 20 parliament Verdonk founded the political party ‘Trots seats (5,7%). op Nederland’ (Proud of the Netherlands) which advocated Dutch values and Dutch culture.

Red Question: How do you feel politicians like Marine Le Pen would regard sportsmen of immigrant descent representing national teams of countries such as France and Germany?

by Samir Khalil Samir sj

Multiculturalism fosters fundamentalist violence. Politicians must concern themselves with integrating Muslims. The positive example of Denmark. Only with a strong identity can Europe help Muslims defeat fanaticism.

Beirut (AsiaNews) – Multiculturalism's mistake is that of closing cultures into the immobility of ghettos. With regard to Muslims, this makes it impossible for them to integrate and to take on a new national identity, leaving them prone to fundamentalism.

The question of national identity is very important both for newly-arrived Muslims and for those who have lived in Europe for some time. They should be made to feel proud of being Italian or British. If they live in Italy and if they integrate in Italy, they should be able to say "I am Italian" and not just because they are able to have a passport or they are standing on Italian soil.

Educational Material: Case Study

Since the 16th century the provinces of Bohemia-Moravia had been part of the Habsburg Empire. The land-owning aristocracy and the towns were overwhelmingly Germanic in character, as were the border areas settled by German colonists from the 12th century onwards. German was the language of administration, with Czech the lingua franca of the peasantry which formed the bulk of the population. BY 1848 – the Year of Revolutions in Europe - a number of Czech-speaking intellectuals were beginning to agitate for recognition both of Czech political rights and of Czech language and culture. Increasing industrialisation, particularly in Bohemia, led to migration of Czech peasants into the towns to serve the needs of the emerging and expanding industries. Whereas most towns in 1850 had German-speaking majorities, by 1914 the situation had been totally reversed (apart from in the border regions, which remained overwhelmingly German). The outcome of the 1914-18 War was a disaster for Germans living in Bohemia-Moravia and also for the Magyars in Slovakia, which had been under Magyar rule for some 900 years. The Habsburg Monarchy had collapsed. Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia became part of the newly-created Czechoslovakia. The German and Magyar populations were now minorities in the new country. The resentment against this was particularly acute in those border regions which had overwhelming German and Magyar majorities. The economic depression of the 1930s hit the industrialised border regions of Bohemia particularly hard and support grew in these German-speaking regions for the newly-formed Sudeten German Party (which campaigned for autonomy for the areas with German-speaking majorities within Czechoslovakia. There were similar separatist movements amongst Hungarians in Slovakia. In 1938 the Czech government , under pressure from Hitler and without international support, agreed to the transfer of its border areas to Germany, Hungary and Poland (Munich Agreement and First Vienna Award) in return for an international guarantee of its new borders. Six months later , Germany occupied what was left of Bohemia-Moravia, and Slovakia broke away to become in effect a German satellite state. Return

Three million citizens of Czechoslovakia, the Sudeten Germans, lived in the northern, western and southern border regions (the Sudetenland) of the new state that was formed after the collapse of the Hapsburg Monarchy in 1918. In the 1930s Hitler’s Germany demanded that these regions be incorporated into the Third Reich.

For more information click on the photograph.

What does this postcard tell you about the reactions of Sudeten Germans to the occupation by the Third Reich?

For more information about the resistance click here.

The Gestapo took over the police, Jews were dismissed from the civil service, communism was banned and many Czech communists fled the country. Czechs were drafted to work in coalmines, the steel industry and armaments production. 30,000 Czech workers were sent to Germany to work there. From autumn 1941, under Reinhard Heydrich ,German rule became more severe. Arrests and executions increased. Numbers vary but approximately 45,000 Czechs and 80,000 Jews were sent to the camps and almost all of them died there. There were several resistance groups: including the communists, the social democrats and groups organised by political leaders in exile, such as Eduard Benes. After the assassination of Heydrich by Czech partisans in June 1942, the Gestapo eliminated almost all Czech resistance for a time. They began to re-group in 1943 and resistance activity increased in 1945 as the red Army advanced from the east. In May 1945 there was a national uprising in Prague where 30,000 Czech men and women battled against German troops in the city. Return

The Nazi concept of Germanisation (in Bohemia and Moravia) favoured German ownership of Czech land. The Czech Land Office was taken over by the Nazis….The German Settlement Society in Prague acquired 53,100 hectares of land in the areas of south Bohemia and Moravia alone by September 1940. Under the responsibility of the re-organised Land Office, a long-range programme was started to re-settle the land with Germans. By February 1943 almost 5,000 German peasant re-settlers were installed in the Protectorate. Some 80,000 Czech peasants were driven from their lands by the establishment or enlargement of German military training camps. The expropriation of Czech land was closely connected with the gradual and systematic Germanization of Czech properties.

Radomir Luza, The Transfer of the Sudeten Germans, New York University Press 1964 pp.194-6

Why do you think Czech people disagreed about the assassination of Heydrich and what followed?

“When the day comes, our nation will take Many Czechs desired revenge up the old battle cry again: Cut them! Beat against those Germans they them! Spare nobody! Everybody has to find blamed for atrocities a weapon to hit the nearest German.” committed under Nazi rule.

A Czech army officer on BBC radio in late 1944.

“The German people have behaved like a monster. We must liquidate the German problem definitively.”

President Edvard Benes, May 1945

“The hardship of moving is great, but it is Foreign powers also supported less than the constant suffering of minorities the idea of transferring and the constant recurrence of war.” populations to reduce the dangers of future conflicts Former US president, Herbert Hoover, 1942 involving ethnic minorities.

“The total expulsion of the Germans will be the most satisfactory and lasting guarantee of stability after the war. There will no more mixture of populations to cause endless trouble. A clean sweep will be made.”

British prime minister, Winston Churchill, speaking in December 1944

There were many different reasons why Sudeten Germans were forced to leave at this time:

At local level there were spontaneous attacks on Sudeten German workers and families. Many were killed and many others were intimidated into fleeing. This process is often referred to as “Wild Expulsions”. Approximately 700,000 people were forced out in this way.

At national level the restored democratic government led by Eduard Beneš made it official policy to “remove undesirable elements from the country”. Under the Beneš Decrees more than 2 million people were rounded up, put in holding camps and deported. This included not only Sudeten Germans but also many Hungarians.

Following the demand of the Czech and Slovak people without land for an effective implementing of the land reform and led by the desire once and for all to take Czech and Slovak soil out of the hands of the foreign, German and Magyar landowners as well as out of the hands of the traitors to the Republic and to give it into the hands of the Czech and Slovak farmers and persons without land, I decree upon proposition of the government as follows: Article I 1. With immediate effect and without compensation and for the purpose of the of the land reform such rural property shall be confiscated as is owned by all persons of German or Magyar nationality, without regard to their citizenship. 2. The agricultural property of persons of German or Magyar nationality who participate in the combat for the protection of the integrity and for the liberation of the Czech Slovak Republic shall not be confiscated under the provisions of subsection 1. 3. The District National Committee is competent to decide upon application of the competent farmers committees whether an exception according to subsection 3 shall be made. Doubtful cases shall be submitted by the District National committee to the Provincial National Committee which shall forward them with an opinion to the Ministry for Agriculture for final decision. The latter shall decide by agreement with the Ministry of the Interior. Article 2 Those persons shall be considered as of German and Magyar nationality who on the occasion of any census since 1929 acknowledged their German or Magyar nationality or who became members of national groups, organizations or political parties in which persons of German or Magyar nationality were united.

Edvard Beneš was President of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938. He was president of the Czechoslovak government- in-exile in London from 1940 to 1945. He returned to Prague after the 1945 uprising there and became president of the restored Czechoslovak Republic from 1945 to 1948. The Beneš Decrees, passed in June 1945, provided for the expulsion or ‘transfer’ of the ethnic German and Hungarian minorities out of post-war Czechoslovakia. This policy was first proposed by the government-in- exile in 1943. The laws were issued as soon as possible after the Beneš government came into power. The laws were never officially repealed and have remained controversial ever since, even after the Czech Republic and Statue of Edvard Beneš outside Government Slovakia joined the European Union. building in Prague

Many Sudeten Germans were placed in ‘holding camps’ (often camps that had been used by the Nazis during the war) before being deported to Germany or Austria. Many faced greater hardship as they made long journeys in search of safety and somewhere to live. At first, they believed their new homes would only be temporary but, over the years, it gradually became clear that they would not return to the Sudetenland. Demands for an apology, or for compensation, were rejected. Sudeten Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia arriving in Berlin in 1946 to take a train to other parts of Germany.

After the period of ‘wild A blog posted by Aneesah expulsions’ ended, many Sudeten Ingrid on 26 July 2010 Germans were rounded up and “Hello Mark, detained in holding camps. Some I have been looking over your blog of these camps were former Nazi and I am in awe and deeply moved. concentration camps re-opened My mother could be one of those for a new purpose. young women in any of the pictures you have. Her family was expelled from the Sudetenland at the war’s end. I was a product from a ‘friendship’ in the refugee camp before moving on when they could find housing. I was placed in an orphanage and adopted by Americans – just like so many children after the war”

To find out what happened to Susanne in later life click here.

After her deportation Susanne had to get used to living in a new Germany. It took her a long time. She was only able to close the door on the period of the war and the expulsions when she went to University. Later, in 1977, she visited the native country she had known as a child for the first time since the expulsions. She realised that it was no longer her home . She did not want to live in a Communist Czechoslovakia. She never became a member of the Sudetendeutsche Landmannschaft ( Sudeten German Homeland Association ) because she was never keen on that organisation. Over recent years she has been involved in helping refugees, especially during the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.

To find out what happened when Susanne was a young girl click here

‘Czech-German relations’, from www.czechkid.eu a website for Czech teachers

Alan Midgley on his visit to the Hartmanice synagogue in 2010. The Hartmanice mountain synagogue before its restoration in the 1990s.

By 1950, eastern Europe`s minority populations had shrunk to a very small proportion of what they had been two decades earlier, and communities of ethnic Germans existed only in isolated pockets. In West Germany, well-funded refugee movements spearheaded calls for a return to the “German East”, demanding the right to return to their homes. Across the border, their deserted villages in western Czechoslovakia crumbled into ruins. Yet most refugees were integrated (into West Germany and Austria) astonishingly quickly, their paths eased by post-war prosperity. Long before the 1990 Treaty by which the two Germanies finally acknowledged the permanence of the post-war borders, most people knew that the “lost East” had gone for good.

from HITLER’S EMPIRE: NAZI RULE IN OCCUPIED EUROPE, Mark Mazower (2008) p. 550

Map of the Allied occupation zones in Germany in 1945

Governments of Czechoslovakia, supported by public opinion, consistently resisted any demands for an apology or for compensation to those who had lost their homes.

Sudeten Germans waiting to be deported.

In 1945 the majority German population in the Czech town of Novy Jicin was, with few exceptions, forcibly expelled without compensation. People were allowed to take with them only those of their belongings they were able to carry. Many of them settled in the baroque town of Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart. Since 1989 there has been close and harmonious co-operation between the two towns, with a notable absence of bitterness. Since the first great visit of a group of former German inhabitants to Novy Jicin and its surroundings with the delegation of the town of Ludwigsburg led by the mayor (1992) early contacts were isolated. Then both of the communities took the initiative and exchanges and cooperation became more frequent and more varied. For example: In the sphere of culture – exhibitions; music – choir (children: Ondrášek, adults (Ondráš), vocal sextet, Jugendorchester der Stadt Ludwigsburg, brass band; reciprocal lectures about monuments and cultural institutions; in 2007 summer festivities in Novy Jicin Square; presentation of Ludwigsburg: cuisine, dance, for example an old dance of former Kuhländchen (German witnesses) together with Czech dance circle in historical costumes; tours of historic places such as the castle and the baroque garden in Ludwigsburg; a film-photo- workshop, language courses, information for tourists etc. In the sphere of sports – an “Olympic Games“ for young people; bilateral competitions; exchanges of information (eg. on architectural renewal); social working; invitations for special occasions; cooperation between the club of friends of the town of Novy Jicin and the “Verein Alte Heimat“; visits to the collection of German old memorials in the cemetery in Novy Jicin and the Johann Gregor Mendel Foundation. The most recent activities include – a cycling tour from Ludwigsburg to Novy Jicin for visiting the traditional town festivities (September); a small celebration of the 80th anniversary of installation of the sculpture on the Masaryk square in Novy Jicin (in Ludwigsburg there is the copy of the same sculpture); the delegation of Novy Jicin visited Ludwigsburg in October 2009.

Source: Zora Kudělková, employed in the municipal office as responsible for international relationships of the town of Novy Jicin (1992 – 2005)

Alan Midgley recalling his visit to the Hartmanice synagogue in 2010

This photograph shows the monument in Elek, Hungary commemorating the Germans who lived in Hungary before they were deported by force.

Memorial at Pohorelice to those who died in the ‘Brno Death March’ in 1945

The Right to a Homeland is a Human Right

Prague Daily Monitor 6.12.2010

How far do these accounts reflect reconciliation between Czechs and Germans?

A German retrospective view: The Institute The view of a Czech historian, Jan Kulik for Research of Expelled Germans: when interviewed by Czech radio http://expelledgermans.org/sudetengermans.htm www.radio.cz/en/section/talking/the-benes-decrees- a-historians-point-of-view

How far do these accounts reflect continuing disagreements between Czechs and Germans?

Educational Material: Case Study

Some lines from his speech:

•Dear listeners: the situation is so alarming that I want to discuss this on the radio. •It is about the shortage of female workers in general and more specifically in the field of nursing. This could have disastrous consequences for the post-war situation. •Young girls are not as willing to do this work as they used to be. We see this happening also with domestic help, laundry girls, typists and the girls who work in workshops and factories. •Nursing is a profession, but it is also a calling and a duty: to provide help to a suffering fellow human being. I urgently call upon the nurses to come back. This is an emergency situation.

Later you will read more about the speech of the Minister.

Birthday party of the Jenny Caupain (sitting behind the woman that holds the record cover of the Cuban band La Sonora Matancera) on 25th of May 1958. The year before she and her compatriots started their nursing training in the Bergweg hospital in Rotterdam.

Territories administered by the Dutch East India Company.

Territories administered by the Dutch West India Company. Territories occupied later, during the 19th century.

The first attempt to settle a colony in Suriname was made by the British Lord Willoughby, the governor of Barbados. However his settlement was invaded by Dutch ships led by Abraham Crijnssen in 1667. In the seventeenth century Suriname became a Dutch colony. Slavery in Suriname started with the English and continued when the Dutch took over Suriname. The slaves had to work at plantations with sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton, which was exported for the Amsterdam market. The Dutch abolished slavery only in 1863; although the British had already abolished it during their short rule from 1799 and 1816.

In 1954 Suriname gained self-government, and became an Overseas Territory. The Netherlands kept control of defence and foreign affairs until the country became independent in 1975. It had 200.000 inhabitants in the 1950s, people with different backgrounds: the (native) Indians, black people (Creoles), taken as slaves out of Africa, Hindustanis (contract labourers from India), Chinese and Javanese from the Dutch East Indies, Jews, Dutchmen and many other nationalities. All groups had their own religions (Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus) and languages. But everyone in Suriname still speaks Dutch, which remained the official language after 1975. The natural resources are rubber, gold and bauxite. From the latter, aluminium is made which is important for the airplane industry. Surinamese drive on the left side of the road, a remnant from the time the British ruled Suriname. In 2010 Suriname had 486.618 inhabitants.

The part in Sranan Tongo is written by Trefossa in the 1950s.

Bali

In the colonial society of Suriname difference in skin colour and ethnic origin marked daily life. Some newcomers-nurses had experienced themselves that when going for a certain job skin colour made the difference. It was difficult to hold an important position, higher in the hierarchy. Hertha Gullit remembers that her father was only paid his normal salary as a teacher during his first years as Inspector of education – and that he did not think of complaining to his superiors about this. The experience of Hertha Gullit's father was typical of many colonial societies, such as British India, French Indochina or Portuguese East Africa.

After the Second World War the Netherlands returned politically and socially to the pre-war situation. The war time feeling of unity was lost and the old divisions returned. The three „pillars‟, the Protestants, the Catholics and the Socialists, regained their fixed positions in society, each living their lives within their own groups: The integrative forces that were there during the war disappeared. The old political coalitions governed again like before. Like before the war there was a strict morality in the social order. It was an homogeneous „white‟ society with a tradition of tolerance.

The family was the heart of daily life. Most married women returned to house work. The country embarked on reconstruction. The burst of economic energy led to prosperity, and to a shortage in labour in factories, households and hospitals. There was a severe housing shortage. Till 1952 food, soap, clothes and shoes were rationed. The labour shortage was especially acute in the poorer paid jobs. Therefore the Dutch government made a moral appeal to women to serve the country as nurses.

Peak 1, 1946: shortly after the war, many Dutch nationals in Indonesia wanted to return to the Netherlands. But also many people from the Netherlands left before 1950 to Indonesia. Peak 2: in 1950, after the year Indonesia became independent, many Dutch nationals decided to leave. Peak 3: 1958: In December 1957 Soekarno decided that all Dutch nationals must leave the country. They returned home in the first months of 1958.

Peak“This4: document1962: Transfer has been producedof New with theGuinea financial toassistanceIndonesia of the Anna. Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” Migration by persons of Surinamese descent (1950-2010)

In the 1950s the level of migration from Suriname to the Netherlands was still low. Only about a thousand people (almost equal numbers for men and women) a year. In this period only a few thousand people of Surinamese descent lived in the Netherlands. Their numbers started to increase around 1975, when Suriname became independent. In 2010 around 340.000 people of Suriname decent were living in the Netherlands.

Shortly after World War II Dutch hospitals were faced with a shortage of nursing personnel. In a radio broadcast the Minister of Social Affairs addressed young Dutch women and urged them to go into nursing. To attract more attention his speech was later published as well.

Cover of the published speech of the Minister of Social Affairs. “The Dutch people ask for nurses NOW!”

Broadcast speech of the Minister of Social Affairs Minister Willem Drees seeks to raise public awareness about a threat to national health. You read already something of it at the beginning of the Case Study.

„Dear listeners: the situation is so alarming that I want to discuss this on the radio.

It is about the shortage of female workers in general and more specifically in the field of nursing. This could have disastrous consequences for the post-war situation…

Young girls are not as willing to do this work as they used to be. This we see with domestic help, laundry girls, typists and the girls who work in workshops and factories.

People want to escape the feeling of strictness and misery which is understandable. But the girls also want something different: E.g. They go into the navy, I noticed that 1500 girls for the Marva were needed and that 70.000 girls applied!

But there is such a shortage of nurses. There are a few men in the hospitals, but I especially call upon women: “Come back to work in our hospitals”.‟

This is the first page of the scrapbook Fina Engelbrecht kept during her stay in the Netherlands. It begins with the advertisement in a Surinameese newspaper from the psychiatric hospital Hulp en Heil in Leidschendam for trainee nurses. After reading the advert she decided to apply. In April 1957 she left on the SS Cottica for the Netherlands.

The urge for adventure was an important factor for the Surinameese women. For Surinameese women, the colonial situation offered an opportunity to move themselves to another world. In the documentary Meisjes voor Maasoord (girls for the Maasoord hospital) by André van der Hout the former nurse Jos Herfst tells about her image of the colonial motherland before she left Suriname.

In the 1950s people travelled from Suriname to the Netherlands by boat. Delfi Baal left Suriname on the 14th of September 1956 to work in the Netherlands as a trainee nurse. She came on her own initiative, therefore she had to pay for the boat ticket of the KNSM - Royal Netherlands Steamship Co. herself. In those days you had to pay 235 American dollars for a ticket from Paramaribo to Amsterdam.

The boats had names such as Bonaire, Boskoop, Willemstad, Oranjestad and Cottica. On the day of departure, when the women walked along the pier to Boat ticket of the KNSM - Royal Netherlands Steamship Co. for the the large boat, the girls felt special. Many of them Cottica. recall this as a wonderful feeling.

Sailings, September 1963-August 1964 Vessel, Irpinia Ports of call Typical voyage:

Westbound:: Genoa, Cannes, Barcelona, Tenerife, Martinique, Trinidad, La Guaira. Eastbound:: La Guaira, Guadeloupe, Tenerife, Barcelona, Cannes, Genoa.

Additional ports of call on other voyages: Las Palmas, Guadeloupe and Barbados westbound; Trinidad, Grenada, Martinique, Dominica and Antigua eastbound.

They first flew to Trinidad and there they took the boat to Genoa in Italy. From Genoa they One roundtrip sailing in December/January: continued by train via Switzerland to the La Guaira, Curaçao, Kingston, Tenerife, Madeira, Netherlands. They took this less direct route because it was cheaper. Lisbon, Vigo, Le Havre, Southampton and vice versa.

SS Cottica Built in 1927 in Rotterdam for 88 (later 119) passengers and 78 crew members. The boat, owned by the K.N.S.M. (Royal Netherlands Steamship Co.), sailed from 1927 until 1958. It carried lots of migrants, e.g. it brought 55 Jewish refugees from Jamaica to Paramaribo in the beginning of 1943.

Most ships from Suriname called at the port of Madeira on their way to Europe. The Surinamese passengers aboard the Bonaire are going to the Netherlands to work as trainee nurses.

A photograph taken from the quay in Madeira, February 1957. On board of the Bonaire (from the left): Irene Dongen, Carl Perkins, Vera Kenswil, Helen and Resida Joanita Hanenberg.

Amsterdam, 1957 This is a page in the scrapbook of Fina Engelbrecht about her voyage on the Cottica from 26 April to 12 May 1957. The third picture shows her travelling companion Ronny Alfarez on the right, together with Fina‟s cousin, Cornelly Dankvoort, who came to collect her.

Quotes from the page from the scrapbook of Fina Engelbrecht beside the pictures from above on: •‘the meals were delicious’ •‘From 26 april ’57 to 12 mei ’57 I have had pleasant days on this ship’

Passenger Irene Wong said in an interview „On the ship most people were seasick. It did not affect me so much but some girls were seasick all the travel long‟

Click here to take a closer look at the picture

Click here to continue

This is a part of an interview with Delfi Baal published in the book: Zusters uit Surinamee (Nurses from Surinamee) in which she tells about her first night in the Netherlands.

Farewell photo taken in Paramaribo of the first group of nurses The first group of young trainee nurses recruited by the psychiatric hospital Maasoord in the Netherlands.

From the left to the right: Irene Wong, Thelma Tolud, Agnes Wong Sioe, Annelies Sriram, Irma Sjiew-A-Joen, Carla Perk, Yvonne van Ommeren, Vera Kenswil, Rea Waarde, Irene Dongen, Helen Resida, Lydia Krieger, Joanita Hanenberg, Nadia Oosterwolde en Anne-Marie Leefmans.

Jos Herfst (on the right) with her friend Delfi Baal on the roof of the hospital where she started to work, in Rotterdam 1956.

Nel Kappel (born in Paramaribo 1938) started as a trainee nurse at the Coolsingel-hospital in Rotterdam in 1957, when she was nineteen years old. Her nurse training was the start of an impressive career. Afterwards she studied at the Social Academy in The Hague and at the University of Utrecht. She was director of the first school for nurses in the Netherlands. Unlike most of her compatriots she returned in 1975 with her family to Suriname. There she worked at the Ministry of Education and as head of the Pedagogical Institute for children with behavioral problems and learning disabilities. In 1980 she became Deputy Minister for Education and until 1993 she was director of the Migration Institute. She was Consul General at the Consulate of Suriname in Amsterdam from 1993 and 1997 and again in 2000.

„From a young age I became involved with the supervision of the ward. As a first-year student I was granted supervision over a number of rooms. Every Monday morning the head surgeon would make rounds. Nobody ever dared to say a word. Those attending and the interns would follow in deference, it was quite a procession. The head nurse and the others in charge would be nearly shaking. One day, I was working in the ward… when the head nurse nearly bit my head off. Because, yes, Dr. Van Staveren‟s arrival was imminent. I went over to the door opening and calmly asked: “Doctor Van Staveren, is he Jesus‟ brother?”

The head nurse‟s eyes nearly popped out of her head and she shrieked: “I‟ll be speaking to you.” When I turned around, I was staring right into the face of the head surgeon, his whole staff behind him. My knees were shaking, because I was thinking: this is it, I‟ll get the boot for sure. I went over to the kitchen and colleagues came up to me confirming my fears might come true. That moment the phone rang: “Could that nurse from the West Ward report to Dr. Van Staveren”. I went over there, my knees trembling. He invited me to sit down, looked at me and said: “You‟re going to be a tough cookie.” He spoke to me in a very encouraging way. Never before had anyone dared to say such a thing to him. He didn‟t enjoy it at all when people jumped and grovelled to him. From that day on I was friends with Dr Van Staveren. Whenever he operated I was always allowed a front row seat.‟

Almost every migrant who tells about his/her arrival in a new country, will sooner or later discuss „food‟. Together with language, food is one of the two cultural aspects that people familiarize with first and hold on to most, even when they arrive in another environment. Not the climate, not the people, not the heavy work, but the eating habits were an almost insurmountable obstacle. Sometimes they were allowed to prepare food themselves in the small kitchens in the buildings were they were housed

At Irene Dongen‟s birthday, she made pom as a treat for her colleagues. At her room from left to right: Carla Perk, Mildred Tel, Rea Waarde, Irene Dongen, Stanny Wilsterman en Thelma Tolud.

Pom is a Surinameese-Jewish popular oven dish. What roti is for the Hindus,is pom for the Creoles. Pom is eaten as a main course at birthday parties, family gatherings and other holidays. Pom is made from root tubers Tayer (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) that grows in the interior of Surinamee.

In the Netherlands, ready pomtayer, grated and frozen, is available. You need to mix with orange juice or piccalilli and fill with spicy chicken and salt meat. Eat with white rice as well as snack on bread as a sandwich pom. Pom has a fairly mild taste.

In the Netherlands, fresh and ready pomtayer, grated and frozen, is available.

Irene Dongen “This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” Cultural Encounters

Irene Dongen cooking Surinamese food in the kitchen of pavilion Zuideinde in psychiatric hospital Maasoord, Portugal 1958

Head Nurse De Wilde and the nurses before the map of The Netherlands „In Suriname we knew everything about Holland. We traveled easily over the „blind‟ map of the Netherlands. But nobody knew anything about Suriname. Dutch colleagues asked the weirdest questions. Even doctors, even a psychologist! Whether we had houses in Suriname? Where we learned to speak the Dutch language? They knew nothing about their own colony!‟

Rotterdam, 1962 Armand Huisden, the later huisband of nurse Irene Dongen, in Rotterdam along the Lange Hilleweg

Nurse Rika Hoogstad (right) spent every weekend off at the house of her aunt and uncle, Annie and Frans in Schiedam. Her aunt was also born in Suriname, she was Rika's only relative who lived in the Netherlands.

Migrants were grateful to have links with people from their homeland that could help them to settle into Dutch life and ways

That‟s why until 1960 three quarters of the working women in the Netherlands were unmarried. The post-war ideology prescribed that the women took care of the children and the man was the breadwinner bringing in the money. There weren‟t any changes in this role pattern until the late 1960s. Until then, women who kept on working were assigned a less qualified position, especially in the service industry.

In Britain nurses from the West Indies kept on working after their marriage more often than their English counterparts. However, they were restricted in their possibilities for advancement. Due to the lack of day care centres and no family members to take care of the children, Irene Dongen they often chose to work the unpopular night shifts. In practice, this was often the only way to combine the teo worlds of work and home.

(…) Click here to continue reading 

After a seven-month stay in Surinamee she decided to train as a midwife since the stork was still missing on her badge. After consulting the chief of the Dijkzigt hospital, she was allowed to bathe babies in mornings and afternoons for six months when they needed her. She finished her training in that hospital and continued to work there until 1968. Because of her wish to have another child and the fact that she worked on the infectious disease ward she was afraid to stay there. The chief was sorry to see her go. She worked for an old-folks home for a while, but she soon missed the hustle and bustle of a Irene Dongen hospital.

She then applied to the Ophthalmological hospital and was hired immediately. After a month she was made night time chief and she continued working there for twenty-five years until her retirement.

That 75% preferred to stay in the Netherlands had to do with the new life that they arrived in. Women met their future husbands, married, and usually got kids. Every time they found a good reason to postpone their return home. In the end, going back didn‟t happen at all and the Netherlands Delfi Roseval-Baal with her family at remained home for most of the women who had moved to the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam. From the this country in the fifties. They spend most of their time here, left her Michaël, Delwijn, her husband and their children and grandchildren now live here. Family Harold, Irvine, Delfi en Corinne ties were a key factor in the decision not to return. In this, Roseval (1967). there is no difference with other migrants in other parts of Europe.

Delfi Roseval-Baal‟s career When Delfi Baal got her B diplome in 1959 she decided to depart for Paramaribo to practise her knowledge and skills in 's Lands Psychiatrische Inrichting (the country‟s psychiatric Clinic) but after a few months she noticesd that she had got out of the Surinamese working habit. In 1960 she started the A-training in the Dijkzigt-hospital in Rotterdam. When she got pregnant , she stopped the training. She stayed in the Netherlands and now visits her native country only during holidays

What does the graph tell you about trends in migration to the Netherlands from former Dutch colonies?

Country of origin 1996 2000 2005 2010 Indonesia 411622 405155 396080 382411 Dutch Antilles & Aruba 86824 107197 130538 138420 Suriname 280615 302514 329430 342279

Even though there were Surinamese people in the Netherlands before the Second World War, most women stressed that, in the 1950s, they felt as if they were the first ones to go through the experience. They were very visible because of their darker skin colour which in those days was very rare in Dutch society. This did not necessarily mean that patients and colleagues reacted strangely to their presence. None of the nurses that were interviewed seemed to have experienced serious problems with this. Most of the women did stress how different from today the Netherlands was half a century ago, how society was more tolerant and open then. They commented on how the situation at the present time has changed significantly.

The Hague, 1965 Teacher Ann Harris with her class of 4/5 years old ones of the Prinses Beatrix school in the Abraham van Beyerenstraat.

Would it be an idea to contrast this with a picture of modern picture of a mixed school?

Adeline Slagveer-Sylvester in Paramaribo, in an interview, None of the nurses that were interviewed 14th of March 2003 tells how she loved the inhabitants of seemed to have experienced much Rotterdam problems with reactions to their skin colour. Adeline re-migrated later to Surinamee but she loved Rotterdam and "Then I found a new home, with Ms. de Grave, a former patient I its inhabitants while she lived there. had taken care of. I had a coal stove, but did not know how to make it work, so I lived in eternal cold. The house was located in a working-class area, and I must say, they were great people. They had become my family. Rotterdam North had become my family. I was their child. They were ordinary locals, many of them I had nursed. You met many older people, who were very grateful. You just have to give a little bit of love and you get so much in return. It's unbelievable. "

None of the nurses that were interviewed seemed to have experienced much problems with reactions to their skin colour. That the Netherlands stood out positively had certainly to do with the Colonial Surinameese Society. Skin colour used to play an important role in getting a job in their country of origin.

Estimations of the number of Surinamese nurses who moved to the Netherlands during the late 1950s vary. It was at least two hundred, but it is more likely that there were more. In 2003, the names of 184 women were retrieved. Eleven had died by then and the residence of seventy-one of the women was unknown. 125 women could be located. Slightly less that a quarter of them had moved back to Suriname. The large majority had stayed in the Netherlands, although some had moved to Canada, the United States or Curacao.

Most of the women said they did not know what to expect when they arrived in the Netherlands. Some of them quit prematurely because of a conflict, or home-sickness, or because they were unfit for the job, or because they became pregnant.

How many of them succeeded to get a degree? Of the sixty-eight women of which detailed information has been collected, forty-seven (70%) got one or more degrees. 29 got the a-degree. 26 got the b-degree. 21 got the midwife certificate. Other special rainings that were undertaken y this group included those for work in the surgery room, for ophthalmology and neurology, and training to become a teacher

Poortugaal, 1958 posing with flowers after the graduation ceremony in the hospital‟s garden of Maasoord in the front at the right Irene Dongen, Rika Hoogstad behind her Irene Wong.

Qualified personnel in the health sector are often scarce and their departure to Europe would come with a loss of expertise in their homeland. This goes against the principles of the Dutch policy for development aid. In 2001, it became an official policy that nurses from outside the EU are allowed to help the shortage on the labour market in the health sector if they do not come from Suriname or South Africa.

Click here to read a fragment of this debate 

At the time of independence, in 1975, Dutch subjects living in the colony of Surinamee were given the choice of Dutch or Surinameese citizenship. Amazingly, 200,000 out of a population of 450,000 left Surinamee for the Netherlands – a level of migration that is staggering in size and scope. Today, the population of Surinamee has rebounded to roughly 450,000, while 300,000 people in the Netherlands trace their ancestry to Surinamee. While only 2% of the population of the Netherlands is Surinameese, 40% of the Surinameese population lives in the Netherlands.

Like all immigrant groups, the Surinameese experience in the Netherlands was initially rocky, with high rates of poverty, crime, drug use, and unemployment plaguing Surinameese communities. But, similar to the path followed by the “Indos” (immigrants from the Dutch colonies in Indonesia), Surinameese have slowly and steadily integrated into mainstream Dutch society without any major obstacles or delays. Unlike migrants from Turkey or the Middle East, Surinameese migrants spoke Dutch and were at least marginally familiar with Dutch culture. Additionally, the migrants who came from Surinamee were generally far more educated than those who stayed behind, a fact which helped them find jobs and independence.

We can conclude that they are rather well integrated in all layers of the society. There are small groups of mainly Moroccan youngsters of the second and third generation mixed with Dutch autochthones that attracts attention and receives attention on the front pages of newspapers and on television.

The Netherlands is a more multicultural society than it used to be. There are 16.5 million inhabitants on nearly 34.000 square kilometres, (400 inhabitants per square kilometre) and people from abroad continue to come in, attracted by our prosperity and wealth.

Apart from the former colonial migrants and guest workers in the past, in recent years many asylum seekers came to the Netherlands and people from the new European countries like Poland, Bulgaria and Rumania.

How to cope with this influx? In recent years there has been a rise of populist movements with an anti-immigration perspective. The tone in public debate has been hardened, as in many countries , not only former colonial ones. Very painful for the good willing and for the successful persons of the second and third generation. While the CBS report from November 2010 states that 40% of the youngsters In higher education are of allochthone descent. One should not forget the Dutch history: Still the Netherlands is an open trading country that has always profited from its contacts abroad and immigrants coming and contributing to its growth.

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the If yousolewant responsibilityto know of EUROCLIOmore andclick can underhere no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” What is the legacy

Ruud Gullit (left) and Marco van Basten, played for the victorious Netherlands soccer team at the European Championship in 1998.

Ruud Gullit is one of the most famous Dutch football players of Surinameese descent. His aunt, Hertha Gullit (sister of his father), came to the Netherlands in 1957 to work as a trainee nurse in the Bergweg hospital in Rotterdam.

Harry Ganpat (Suriname 1933) was a pioneer in introducing Surinameese food in the Netherlands. When he saw the Surinameese community grow in the 1960s he realized that there was a market for products from the country of origin. He began with a small Surinameese market stall in The Hague and opened his first shop with tropical fruit and vegetables in 1966. In the beginning he imported the products from Surinamee, but later from Indonesia, Thailand and India as well. Today it is hard to imagine there was a period when one couldn‟t buy a roti or a mango.

Roti

Tropical fruit in the market stall of the Surinameese merchant Harry Ganpat (Den Haag 1975).

Eating on Kwakoe festival

At the Kwakoe festival that has been organized in Amsterdam every summer since 1975, food from Suriname plays a central role.

Many women from Suriname were connected to the „Evangelische Broedergemeente (Moravian Church). In the 1950s, the EBG had only three establishments in the Netherlands: in Haarlem, Amsterdam and Zeist. Surinameese travelled to these locations for official matters.

The travelling friar Prinsen offered a solution for more regular contacts. He visited nurses who worked or studies, which got him the name „Friar of the Diaspora‟. He guided people, paid attention to their problems and arranged church masses. The dates and locations of the masses where to be found on a programme that was send around every month. The main event of the EBG was the service at Palm Fifteen Surinameese nurses from various Dutch hospitals do Sunday. The festive, white clothing was send from , their confession on March 22nd 1959 at the Evangelical together with the bags and of course the Halbe Community in Zeist. (small white hat). People from Zeist dressed in black.

Father Prinsen in the center Father Prinsen in the front

Fifteen Surinameese nurses from various Dutch hospitals do their confession on March 22nd 1959 at the Evangelical Community in Zeist.

The Dutch hospitals were not alone in their search for personnel abroad. On the other side of the channel, the door was wide open for nurses from abroad. At first, Britain looked in neighbouring European states. It caused quite a stir when they placed job advertisements in Dutch newspapers. People were afraid that as soon as Dutch women would hear about their opportunities abroad, they would pack up and leave. In the fifties, the majority of the nurses in training would come for the Caribbean islands. Just like their Surinameese colleagues, they came from those areas that used to be called the West Indies, or simply: The West in the Colonial Era.

Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957. Nine black youngsters are confronted with an aggressive crowd when they force their own entry in a white school. Serious riots are the consequences, and president Eisenhower is forced to intervene. In the same year Harry Belafonte sells one million copies of his LP Calypso and shoots the movie Island in the Sun. Tension rises again because of this. The movie is banned in South Carolina due to a „mixed‟ love scene, even though the lead actors don‟t kiss each other. In the same year, about one hundred Surinameese women came to the Netherlands to work in hospitals. Most of them saw the movie when it was shown in the Luxor Cinema at the Kruiskade in Rotterdam.

Audio-file: Island in the sun by Harry Belafonte

Educational Material: Case Study

People have lived in the Caucasus since at least the 8th BCE when the Greeks began to explore the region. A mountain range divides the region from north to south with the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian sea to the east. The Caucasus as a whole is ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse. The indigenous peoples commonly referred to as ‘Circassian’ inhabit the coastal region and the inland mountain area in the north-western area of the Caucasus. They include the Adyghe, Abkhazian, and Ubykh tribes. They share a common language, culture and religion but rarely a united political culture. Due to their location on the Black Sea coast, including the important ports of Anapa, Sochi Circassian people leaving their homeland by boat and Tuapse, they were heavily involved in trade and crossing the Black Sea (painting by the throughout the region. modern Turkish graphic artist, Faruk Kutlu) For over a century, from 1763 to 1864, the Circassian people fought against Russian Map showing the distribution of Circassian tribes in the 19th century. incursions but were gradually conquered in a Source: Amijad Jaimoukh, The Circassians: A Handbook series of battles and campaigns, referred to as the Russian–Caucasian Wars.

“The Circassian nation is composed of various tribes whose boundaries it is impossible to define accurately...... The tribes themselves ...are undergoing a perpetual change from the admission of new settlers and prisoners of war, while the native inhabitants , from various causes,. Seek new abodes in other districts.”

Source: THE PENNY MAGAZINE of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, April 14, 1838

Russia’s interest in the north Caucasus intensified during the reign of Catherine the Great. She appointed Prince Grigory Potemkin as viceroy of the Caucasus even though Russia only controlled a small part of it. Further military campaigns in the 1780s led to Muslim resistance in the north Caucasus and one of the resistance leaders, Shaykh Mansur declared a holy war.

In 1795 Tiblisi, the capital of Georgia, a christian country with powerful Islamic neighbours, was sacked by a Persian army. In 1801, at the request of Georgy XII, Georgia was annexed into the Tsarist empire. This now Scene from the Russian-Caucasian War, painting by the provided Russia with a power base in the Transcaucasus Russian artist, Franz Roubaud, circa 1866. to support any further incursions into the North Caucasus.

Resistance from tribes in Dagestan, Chechnya and Avaria increased but from 1801-1832 Russian campaigns in the region tended to be sporadic, mainly because of wars at that time with Sweden, France, Persia and the Ottoman Empire. In the 1830s Islamic resistance intensified under a new leader, Imam Shamil.

Following the conquest of the north Caucasus, the Russian Empire implemented a policy of evicting the surviving Circassians from their ancestral territories. The Russian General, Yevdokimov, was given the task of driving the remaining Circassian inhabitants out of their mountain strongholds to face exile or become Christians and join the armies of the Tsar or settle around the Kuban where the Cossacks were now in control. This policy was enforced by mobile units of Russian infantry and Cossack The Mountaineers by Pyotr Nikolayevich Gruzinsky 1872 cavalry.

“During May 1864 many Circassians gathered from all corners of the country to make a last stand in the valley of the Aibgo in the heart of the mountains. For four days (7-11 May 1864) Russian forces were repulsed with great losses. Heavy artillery was then brought up and strafed the valley. There were no survivors. The Russian S.D. Shenfield, The Circassians: A forgotten capture of this little valley was the last act of the genocide? in (eds) M. Levene and P. Roberts, The Russo-Circassian war.” Massacre in History, New York 2006

Tsar Peter the Great, from a painting by By the beginning of the 19thcentury the Ottoman Empire was already Nikolai Ge, 1871 in the Russian Museum, St Petersburg in decline. The other Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia) saw potential benefits for themselves in this decline but they also recognised possible threats to their national interests. A declining power could destabilise the delicate balance of power in Europe and the Near East. At the same time the Russian Empire was seeking to expand its sphere of influence over Constantinople and the European lands controlled by the Sultan. As long ago as 1725 the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great, had expressed an interest in competing with Britain for control over India. As the eastern frontiers of Russia extended further east through the Caucasus the British Government became increasingly concerned that Russia still had plans for India. Increasing tension between Russia and the Ottoman Empire dragged the other Great Powers into the Crimean War in 1853-56. The defeat of Russia forced her to reconsider her expansionist plans. She now concentrated on gaining control of the whole of the Caucasus. The Black Sea and its surrounding lands, including the Balkans and the Caucasus, remained strategically important for all of the Great CLICK HERE if you want more information Powers right up to the end of the First World War. about the strategic significance of the Caucasus.

The Caucasus and the whole Black Sea region became more internationally significant after Napoleon defeated the Russian army at Friedland in Prussia in 1807. The two countries signed the Treaty of Tilsit and became allies. Russia agreed to come to the aid of France in its war with Great Britain and her allies. In return France would make sure that Russia acquired Moldavia and Wallachia, two territories in Europe controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Today these regions on the Danube are part of Romania and Moldova. If the Sultan refused to surrender these lands France and Russia planned to attack the Ottoman Empire and divide up its European territories in the Balkans between them. This Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I met in threat to the region concerned the other Great Powers, Tilsit on 7 July 1807 to sign the treaty. particularly the Habsburg Empire, and Britain became concerned when Napoleon proposed to the Tsar that France and Russia should join forces to seize India from the British. However before they could put this plan into action the two allies fell out when the Tsar opened up Russian ports to neutral shipping to promote more trade. This contravened the Treaty of Tilsit and led directly to Napoleon’s armies invading Russia in 1812.

The British regarded India as the jewel in their Imperial Crown. They had feared Russia’s intentions towards India ever since Peter the Great had expressed an interest in the sub-continent in 1725. From that time onwards Russian influence had started to spread eastwards along the Black Sea and the gap between the south eastern border of the Russian Empire and the north western frontier of India had been gradually narrowing. Now the barriers to further Russian expansion were the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Afghanistan, China and Tibet.

This British cartoon, published in 1878, entitled “Save me from my friends!”, shows Sher Ali, the Emir of Afghanistan, in the middle with The Russian Bear on one side and the British Lion on the other. The British “Save me from my friends!” Published in the often referred to this strategic rivalry between British Magazine, Punch, 30 November 1878 themselves and Russia during this period as “The Great Game”. The Russians called it “The Tournament of Shadows”.

Mahmud II who was In the early 19th century both Russia and Britain were Sultan of the Ottoman seeking to control the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Empire from 1808-1839. Mahmud II. Constantinople controlled the Straits (the Bosphorus and the Dardenelles) which the Tsar described as “the key to the house of Russia’. Whoever controlled the Straits could either blockade Russia’s Black Sea fleet or restrict its access to the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Britain also wanted influence with the Sultan because Egypt was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire and British ships used the Suez Canal to get to India. By the 1830s the power and influence of the Ottoman Empire was in decline. In 1821 the Greeks had revolted against Ottoman rule. Russia supported her fellow Orthodox Christians against the Sultan. In 1833 Although the British Ambassador to St Petersburg in there was a revolt in Egypt against the Sultan led by his report to the Foreign Secretary in 1853 quotes Mehmet Ali, the Sultan’s own viceroy . Tsar Nicholas I describing the Ottoman Empire as “a It is about this time that the world’s media began to sick man” the phrase “the sick man of Europe” was talk of the Ottoman Empire as the “sick man of first used by the New York Times, 12 May, 1860. Europe”.

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” Further information: Why was the Caucasus so important to the Great Powers in the 19th Century? In 1833, Russian diplomats persuaded the Sultan to sign the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. In return Russia agreed to protect the Ottoman Empire from external attack and the Sultan agreed to close the Straits to foreign warships whenever Russia was at war. The other Great Powers were deeply concerned about Russian expansionism. She had designs on control of the southern Caucasus which would increase the potential for a land invasion of Persia and Afghanistan and this threatened British interests in India. Russia was seeking more influence over those European lands held by the Ottoman Empire where the majority of the population were Orthodox Christians. This concerned Austria-Hungary, Prussia and France. Also the Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi gave Russia free access to the Mediterranean through the Straits and this concerned all of the Great Powers. Britain responded by invading Afghanistan to create a buffer state between India and the Russian army. They were the first but by no means the last foreign power to learn how difficult a military occupation of Afghanistan can be. The Great Powers also persuaded the Tsar to abandon his Treaty with the Sultan and in 1841 the Sultan agreed that the Straits should be closed to all foreign warships except those who were allies of the Sultan in wartime. Competition between the Great Powers for influence over the Sultan continued to increase in the mid-19th century and eventually they clashed over the Ottoman lands in south-east Europe. Treaties negotiated in the 18th century had given responsibility to France for the protection of Catholics in the Ottoman Empire and responsibility to Russia for the protection of Orthodox Christians. Both clashed over which Church should control the holy sites in Palestine. Both appealed to the Sultan who decided in favour of the French. Russia retaliated by invading and occupying Moldavia and Wallachia. The Sultan declared war on Russia in 1853 and soon the other Great Powers were being dragged into what came to be known as the Crimean War.

The destruction of an Ottoman squadron of ships in the port of Sinop in northern Anatolia by Russian warships in 1853 provided Britain and France, allies of the Ottoman Empire, with the grounds for declaring war on Russia. Ottoman forces attacked Russian armies on the Danube and in the Caucasus and were defeated. An Ottoman fleet sailed along the Turkish coast of the Black Sea and was then trapped in port and defeated by the Russian Black Sea fleet. French and British battle fleets sailed into the Black Sea to support the Sultan. The Russian fleet was blockaded in its home port of Sevastopol and the Russian Crimean army was defeated in 1854 in the Battles of Balaklava and Inkerman. The Russians abandoned Sevastopol a year later. The Treaty of Paris, which formally marked the end Battle of Sinop, painted by Ivan Aivazovsky of the war, left Russia without a fleet in the Black in 1853. the painting is now in the Naval Sea and she had also lost her protectorate rights Museum in St. Petersburg. over the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

The years that followed the Crimean War witnessed the deportation of people from the Caucasus, particularly the Circassians, on a massive scale. Most attempted to cross the Black Sea to the Ottoman Empire. Many died during their journey because of starvation, shortage of water and disease. Today, only a minority of Circassians continue to live in their ancestral homeland. Most live in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Germany and the United States.

The mountaineers leave the Aul, 1872 by Pyotr Nikolayevich Gruzinsky

10,000 Abkhaz left the North Caucasus Source 11: Numbers of Circassian people from different tribes migrated in different dates 1852-1858 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassian_G Abkhaz population declined from 98,000 to 89,866 enocide#Migration_from_the_Caucasus_ to_the_Ottoman_Empire (Accessed at: 1858-1860 20.09.2010) Over 30,000 Nogais were expelled

1860-1861 10,000 Kabards were expelled 1863-1864 470,703 people left the West Caucasus 1861-1863 (according to G.A. Dzidzariia) 4,300 Abaza, 312,000 people left the West Caucasus 4,000 Natukhais, (according to N.G. Volkova) 2,000 Temirgoi, 398,000 people left the Kuban oblast (according 600 Beslenei and to N.G Volkova) 300 Bzhedugs families were exiled 400,000 people left (according to N.I Voronov) 493,194 people left (according to Adol'f Berzhe) 1865 418,000 people left (according to the Main Staff 5,000 Chechen families were sent to Turkey of the Caucasus Army)

McCarthy estimates that 1 in 3 Circassians died at this Stanislav Lak’oba has estimated that Circassian time and about 600,000 had left for the Ottoman migration was around one million by the end of Empire by 1864, with more arriving after this date. 1866. Justin McCarthy, “Factors in the Analysis of the Population of History: 18th century-1917 in Hewitt (ed) The Abkhazians: A Anatolia”, in Population History of the Middle East and the Handbook, Curzon, London, 1999. Balkans, Analecta Isisiana LXII, Isis, Istanbul, 2002 Kemal Karmat has estimated that up to 2 million Shenfield estimates that probably over half of the Caucasians, most of whom were Circassians, emigrated original Circassian population has not been accounted between 1859 and 1879, with only about 1.5 million of for and that at least one million perished in the those actually reaching their destination. (He also exodus. estimates that a further 500,000 Circassians left for the “The Circassians: A forgotten genocide?” in Leven & Penny Ottoman Empire between 1881 and 1914.) (eds) The Massacre in History, Berghahn, New York 1999 Ottoman Population 1850-1914, University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. “An accurate count of refugees from the Crimea and the Caucasus… is not possible to obtain. Most of Whichever estimate one uses, it is nevertheless clear that the those leaving the Caucasus did it in a hurry, in a scale of the emigrations from Circassian territories to the disorganised fashion, without passing any official Ottoman Empire was massive, and that the sudden influx of border point where they might have been counted such large groups of refugees will have had no small impact or officially noted.” on the Ottoman localities that received them. Alan Fisher, A Precarious Balance, Analecta Isiana XL, Isis, Sarah Rosser-Owen, The First Circassian Exodus to the Ottoman Empire Istanbul 1999 1858-1867, unpublished MA Thesis, 2007

1763 Russians began building forts as springboards for invasion. Establishing the facts of what really happened in history can sometimes be quite difficult. We saw 1785 The Chechens, under the leadership of Imam earlier that there are different estimates of just how Mansur declared war on Russia. many Circassians migrated after 1859, and 1794 Imam Mansur killed particularly after 1864. But all the sources seemed to agree that the numbers were high. 1829 In Edirne Treaty the Ottoman Empire accepted Russian rights over much of the We can also see from the various accounts of what eastern shore of the Black Sea . happened that most observers and historians agree 1840 Circassian forces attacked and defeated about the sequence of events which led up to the Russian forces in the coastal areas final defeat of the Circassians in 1864. 1843 Victory for Circassian forces led by Imam Shamil 1853-56 Crimean War Why is it so difficult to be precise 1859 Circassian leader, Imam Shamil, was about the numbers of Circassians who captured. died or left their homeland after the 1860-61 small scale migration to Ottoman lands Russian-Circassian War?

21 May Final defeat of Circassians by Russia and 1864 mass migration started 1876-77 Ottoman-Russian War

Many factors affected Circassian migration We can also make broad generalisations about the push and pull factors: the factors which forced the Circassians to Push factors: Russian invasion and war, emigrate and the factors which forced assimilation into the Russian encouraged so many to choose the Empire, mass killings and the threat of Ottoman Empire as their new homeland. further massacres, economic pressure and psychological pressure to leave their homeland. They had little choice but to leave.

Pull factors: Circassian immigrants were accepted by the Ottoman Empire, they shared the same religion with the Ottoman peoples, they hoped for a better life. They had more trust in the Ottoman Caliphate to protect them. Only a few Circassians agreed to settle elsewhere in An Adyghe strike on a Russian Military Fort to free the Circassian Coast from the occupiers . 22 March 1840. By the Russian Empire. Alexander Kozlov, (1818-1884).

“Some interest will naturally be manifested as to Although we can establish a lot of factual the causes which have led the Circassian people information about the people who moved, when to abandon their hearths and property, and to take they moved, how they moved and where they refuge, under fearful difficulties and dangers, in a went, it can sometimes be difficult to establish the foreign territory. On this subject it is rather difficult, as I have already stated, to arrive at the facts when examining the motives of people and accurate truth. The privations, the hardships, and governments, particularly when there are the loss of life which have attended the first accusations of massacres and the use of excessive stages of the emigration have not weakened the force. Written documents cannot always be determination of those left behind to brave the trusted if the people writing them have something same dangers, rather than remain on their native to hide or wish to influence international opinion. soil. There is ample ground for inference, Sometimes, as the editor of the Times of London therefore – and the Circassians so represent it – that the Russians‟ rule in the Caucasus is of a wrote in 1864, we may not have the full accurate nature which cannot be endured. The sacrifice of account of why so many Circassians moved or were independence alone would surely not have forcibly moved but there is sufficient information induced 300,000 people to fly in a body from available to make a good inference about it. their country,” The Times of London, Circassian Exodus, 9 May 1864

It is important to recognise that many historical accounts are constructed from evidence gathered from lots of different sources and these sources will not always agree with each other. The foreign ambassador based in St Petersburg, Russia will hear a different account from his colleague based in Constantinople. The journalist on the spot may have a different point of view from the military observer gathering intelligence for the High Command. The Doctor examining the immigrants at their port of arrival will have another perspective. Most will not only state the facts as they see them they will also seek to interpret these facts for their chosen audience. So, we need to compare and contrast these different perspectives and note the similarities and differences before drawing any conclusions about motives, reasons and causes. In each case we need to ask: • From whom might they have got their information? • For whom are they providing this information? • Why might they be selective with the evidence or biased in their interpretation? Our answers to these questions will enable us to decide how credible and reliable each of these sources is as an objective account of why the Circassians moved .

“You cleaned up and destroyed the rebellious “We should send the Mountaineers by force to the places autochthon [native] nations in West Caucasia in the last we want. If we need, we should deport them to the Don 3 years. We can recover the cost of this long bloody region. Our main goal is to settle Russians in the regions war from this fertile land in a very short time.” on the skirts of the Caucasian Mountains. But we Tsar Alexander II in a dispatch to General Yevdokimov shouldn‟t let the Mountaineers know about this.” Head of General Staff Milyutin, Imperial Caucasus Armies At the end of the war, when Grand Duke Michael came to Caucasia, Circassian Elders visited him and they “The Russians say that a fair offer was made to all the said that they were defeated, and they demanded to be mountaineers [Circassians] to move into the plain, and to allowed to live in their lands accepting Russian enjoy there, with an ample donation of land, some of the administration. The answer Grand Duke Michael gave privileges of local self-administration. If the tribes had was: “I give you a month. In one month, you either go accepted the offer, the settlement of the people would to the land that will be shown to you beyond Kouban, have cost a vast sum to the Russian Government”. or you go to the land of the Ottoman Empire. The Lord Napier , British Ambassador ,St Petersburgh, 19 May, 1864 villagers and mountaineers who are not leaving for the To Earl Russell, British Foreign Secretary coastal region in one month will be treated as prisoners of war.” “The things we did in Caucasia were very similar to the negative things that Spaniards did during the war in the American lands. I wish God almighty would not leave any blood marks in Russian history.” N. N. Rayevski, a General in the Russian army at the time who refused to participate in this campaign.

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” The British had a particular interest in events in the Caucasus. Ambassadors, consuls, special envoys, military officers and independent observers were asked to keep the British Government informed of what was happening. As these quotes show, their views tended to be coloured by where they were based and who they were talking to. “I took the liberty yesterday of calling the attention of The continued advances of the Russians in Circassia, Prince Gortchakoff to the painful statements in the English and the ill treatment experienced by the natives from newspapers concerning the hardships to which the Russian troops, have led to an almost complete emigrants from Circassia were exposed in their passage to emigration from the country...... The Turkish Turkey. ..[He] replied that the tribes had insisted on Government is therefore about sending vessels to leaving the country; that the Imperial Government Trebizond to remove the emigrants thence, and place regretted it; that it was absolutely necessary to remove them in different parts of the Empire; and it is also in these people from their mountain fastnesses, where their negotiation with the Russian Chargé d'Affaires here, in predatory and martial habits would be incurable. His order to be able to adopt some measures by which excellency added that the estimate of their numbers to those unfortunate people, who, after the most heroic which I alluded was probably greatly exaggerated. “ attempts in defending the country where they were Lord Napier to Earl Russell, St Petersburgh, 17 May 1864. born, are at last obliged to abandon it, may be able to seek asylum with safety in the Ottoman dominions. Sir Henry Bulwer,British Ambassador, Constantinople, April 12, 1864 “The policy of Russia, though unrelenting, has not been deliberately sanguinary. There was no desire to “A Russian detachment, having captured the village of exterminate the people; the object was to remove them. Toobeh on the Soobashi River, inhabited by about 100 Repeated attempts have been made to negotiate a Abadzekh, and after these had surrendered themselves general surrender and emigration...It is an error, prisoners, they were all massacred by the Russian therefore, to suppose that all these people, or even the troops. Among the victims were two women in great majority before the last general movement, have advanced state of pregnancy, and five children. The preferred the alternative of emigrating to Turkey.” detachment in question belongs to Count Lord Napier to Earl Russell, St Petersburgh, 23 May 1864. Evdokimoff‟s army.” Consul Dickson to Earl Russell, Soukoum-Kalé, 17 March, 1864

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” “The unanimity and precipitation with which the tribes “The principal inhabitants were summoned to present have crowded to the shore probably took both themselves before the commander of the [Russian] Russians and Turks by surprise. As soon as the troops, and were told that the Emperor, instead of Emperor [Tsar Alexander II] was informed of the consenting to the general extermination they had reports circulated abroad concerning the hardships and merited, graciously ordered the evacuation of their suffering to which the emigrants were exposed, His country... Three days they were told, were granted to Majesty telegraphed to the Grand Duke Michael them to come to a decision, and to make preparations desiring him to send agents to the spot to inquire into for the journey. On the fourth day fire was set to their the distaste of affairs and to provide the means of dwellings, and their inhabitants who had manifested relief. Instead of sending an agent, the Grand Duke the intention of seeking an asylum in Turkey, was went in person....It would appear by these accounts forthwith marched down to the nearest point of the that the distress of the Circassians on the Russian coast. On their reaching the spot, a military cordon territory has been exaggerated. The Grand Duke surrounded the encampment to prevent any further affirms that they are in possession of live stock, that communication with the interior. The men-at-war distributions of bread have been made to them, and and other sailing ships – which it is officially stated that their sanitary condition is by no means as bad as in Lord Napier‟s dispatch, had been at the Grand has been represented. No epidemic disorder prevailed Duke Michael‟s request, placed at his entire disposal among them. The suffering of the emigrants had in order to facilitate the Circassian emigration – rather been on the voyage to Turkey, and after their having never existed but on paper, the thousands of arrival at Trebizond, where there was a deplorable individuals congregated on the beach were doomed to accumulation, mismanagement and misapplication of remain there exposed to the inclemency of the the assistance sent by the Sultan”. elements for weeks and months, waiting for the providential arrival of a vessel from Turkey.” Lord Napier to Earl Russell, St Petersburgh, 23 May, 1864 Letter from a British observer, T. Milligen, based in Constantinople, which was included as evidence in the Journal of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Why do you think British diplomats followed Houses of Parliament, 3. August, 1864. events in the Caucasus so closely?

In 1856, not long after the end of the Crimean War, Lord Palmerston, admitted in Parliament that in its attempts to frustrate Russian policy in the Caucasus the British Government had made use of the Circassians when it suited them but had not gone to their aid when it was needed during the Russo- Circassian War.

Lord Palmerston, British Prime Minister (1855-58 and 18599-1865). In his long political career he had also served as Secretary of State for War, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary.

Signed by the people of Circassia 29 Sheval, 1280 (April 9, 1864)

Address of the Circassian deputies (Hadji Hayden Hassan and Kustar Ogli Ismael) to the Queen of England, London, 26 August 1862 (published in the Journal of the British Houses of Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee; 7 January, 1863

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” Finally, it is also possible to look at how historians have viewed the events since that time. “There are no words to describe the situation of the “Both the British and the Ottoman Empire Mountaineers in those days. Thousands of them died in the encouraged and supported resistance in Caucasus. roads, thousands of them died due to illness and hunger. They were intended to keep hopes of resistance alive, The coastal regions were full with people who are dead or to harass a potential enemy and to preserve options on the verge of dying. The babies who are searching for milk for more vigorous future action if international in their mother’s cold dead body, mothers who didn’t leave developments made it desirable and circumstances their kids from their laps even they are already dead from favoured it. The Englishmen who were active among cold, and people who are dead while they got closer just to the Circassians in the 1830s tried to develop a sense keep warm, are examples of the scenes that were normal in of common purpose among all the North Caucasus in the coasts of the Black Sea.” resisting the imposition of Russian Rule. Britain Y. Abramov , Caucasian Mountaineers . Materials for the history of traditionally regarded the Russian presence in the Circassian People, Moscow 1990. region as a potential threat to its domination in India, and hence consistently tried to influence Caucasian “In the course of May 1864 these tribes were annihilated affairs in its own interests...... in the later stages of the almost to the last man, woman and child. Seeing this, Crimean War, the British supplied arms and Circassians...in a frenzy of despair threw themselves into the intelligence to the Circassians, who reciprocated by valley of the Aibgo. For four days the Russians were repulsed busying the Russians and returning with intelligence with great losses. Heavy artillery was then brought up and of their own. [The Russians alleged that] the freedom began to belch fire and smoke into the little valley. Not one struggle of the Caucasian Mountaineers owed its of the defenders survived. The Russian army rounded up intensity to propaganda, arms shipments, and money people, driving them from their villages to ports on the supplied by Turkish and British agents.” Black Sea, where they awaited ships provided by the P.B. Henze, Circassian Resistance to Russia, St Martin’s Press, neighbouring Ottoman Empire. The explicit Russian goal was London 1992. to expel the groups in question from their lands.” S.D. Shenfield, The Circassians: A forgotten genocide? in (eds) M. Levene and P. Roberts, The Massacre in History, New York 2006.

The Turkish Government is willing and The first pull factor here was that the anxious to receive the fugitives, and administration of the Ottoman Empire incorporate them into their own reacted very quickly to the emerging population, but the movement has been situation in the Caucasus and made it so sudden and so extensive that it bas clear that they would offer refuge to been impossible to make provision for the Circassians. hosts that are daily pouring in. It is calculated that no less than 300,000 will, within the next two or three months, seek shelter in this country, and half that number are now seeking the means of transporting themselves to the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. The Times of London, June 13, 1864 .

“When the ultimate defeat and surrender of the The evidence suggests that the Circassians become apparent the Russian Ottoman administration made a Government made overtures to the Porte, in view commitment to take the Circassian of ascertaining whether the Sultan would receive exodus before they had a clear picture into his dominions such proportion of the of just how many migrants would seek Circassian tribes as would desire to leave their refuge within the Empire, or how country. urgent would be the demand for The Turkish Government consented to receive transportation away from the them on the condition that the emigration should Caucasian shore. be gradual and should not commence before the fine season. It was then believed that 40,000 or 50,000 would avail themselves of this refuge. The progress of events, however, has been so rapid that these stipulations have been totally disregarded, and the successive victories of the Russian army in the Caucasus produced the panic and the flight which have been recorded above.” The Times, 9 May, 1864

Empire? At this time it was not just the Circassians who were seeking a new life in the Ottoman Empire. Crimean Tatars, the Nogai and Muslims from the Balkans were also migrating westwards. Why did the Empire welcome so many immigrants at this time? The Empire had just experienced a series of disastrous wars, nationalist movements were emerging in the Balkans seeking independence from Ottoman rule and the Ottoman economy was badly in debt particularly to the Western powers. The newly-arrived Circassians were seen as a source of recruitment for the army and as settlers in areas of the Empire where there was unrest or the populations were difficult to control. At first many Circassians settled in Rumeli (see map), in the European part of the Empire but after the Russian-Turkish war of 1788 many re-settled in Anatolia in the southern Marmara and in the middle east. [At first] the Circassians were settled in Constance, Varna, Sofia, Pristina, Kosovo, Plevne and surrounding regions. Marc Pinson, “Ottoman Colonization of the Circassians in Rumili after the Crimean War”, Études Balkaniques 3, Academie Bulgare des Sciences, Sofia, 1972.

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” Why did so many Circassians go to the Ottoman Empire? “There is a project also of drafting some 20,000 of these men into the Turkish army: the Grand Vizier “If a proper system of succour be established, and Minister of War, Fuad Pasha, has sent a military the Turkish Government might make commission to the Black Sea, with this object, considerable capital of this movement. There headed by Ali Pasha, a general officer of Circassian are vast and fertile plains and tracts of land in origin, who is said to have weight and authority Asia Minor, and other parts of the empire, with them. The execution of this measure will comparatively denuded of population, to which enable the War Department to relax considerably the Circassians may be drafted with advantage. the system of recruiting, which would be an The rapid development in the growth of cotton, incalculable boon to the country at large; and which only requires bands for its further judging by the past exploits of the Circassian race, extension, could bring into immediate neither the army nor the general population of the requisition and profit the employment of a vast empire will suffer by the infusion of this new blood number of the people; but something must be into their ranks. This is certainly an excellent idea, done immediately, and the most practical and and one that may work well in time, but the urgent, useful mode of proceeding is to provide the almost imperative want of the moment is to abundant means of transport. “ obtain immediate relief, and by the adoption of The Times, June 13, 1864 stringent sanitary measures to check the progress of the disease which is destroying these unfortunate creatures in the proportion of twenty What do these two extracts from The per cent., and is spreading itself among the Times tell us about the indirect indigenous population.” consequences of Circassian migration The Times, June 13, 1864 to Ottoman Empire?

What is striking with the locations of settlements of The Sublime Porte also appreciated the Circassian diasporic groups is that they preferred to agricultural skills of many of the newcomers. As settle down in places, which then resembled those Rosser-Owen has observed, they brought with lands left behind in the homeland. Those who left them agricultural skills that were greatly in their villages, for instance, by river in the homeland, demand. found a new place by another river in diaspora; or those who used to live in the outskirts of a green mountain found a new home in a similar geography The geographical size of the Ottoman Empire in diaspora. It is not only the selection of the place also enabled many Circassians to settle in to settle down, which displays the commitment of places that were very similar to home. the Circassians to construct a diasporic home, or space, away from the homeland, but also the way “the Circassians showed themselves to be skilled they reified their culture poses the same tendency. agriculturalists, helping in the introduction of new machinery and cultivation methods, and for the most Ayhan Kaya, Circassian Diaspora in Turkey: part developing flourishing settlements out of Stereotypes, Prejudices and Ethnic Relations in previously uncultivated land.” Nedret Kuran-Burçoğlu and S. G. Miller (eds.). S. Rosser-Owen, The First Circassian Exodus to the Representations of the Others in the Meditarrenean Ottoman Empire 1858-1867, unpublished MA Thesis, World and their Impact on the Region, Istanbul: The 2007 ISIS Press, 2005: 217-240

It is not surprising that Circassians, as Muslims, were drawn to the Ottoman Empire. Only a relatively small number agreed to exile in Russia. For Circassians the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was not only the secular ruler of the Empire but also the Caliph, the direct successor of the Prophet Mohammed.

Deputatıon of Cırcassıan chıefs to the Sultan, 1856 Another pull factor was that the Caliph’s mother was Circassian and many Circassians already held important positions in the Palace administration.

We leave the fatherland with broken hearts! We run into the morning train, We rush in, bewailing our bleak destiny. Oh, how the road out of our hamlet twists and turns! We shed tears of blood as we are forced away from our homeland, With heavy hearts we bid farewell to our country! The officer in the Consulate is red-moustachioed, Our hearts sink as we scrutinize our children’s dark fate. The beautiful Zul Balhqe is sounding the pshina ((Adyghe accordion) We call our kith and kin, but, alack, they are nowhere to be found, We leave our fatherland against our will! Our beautiful caps lie on the edge of our foreheads, The steeds we ride, alas, we shall also have to leave behind. This song is one of a number of Woe, our forefathers and foremothers are weeping over us! laments upon the theme of the Wailing and mourning we are exiled from our motherland, We utter our farewells to the fatherland with bleeding hearts! Great Circassian Diaspora The crafts are sailing across the Black Sea, (Yistambilak’ue; Going to Sobbing and lamenting they herd us to the moored vessels. Istanbul). It was composed by a Our lot is verily to be in the Italian ship, Turkish Circassian but was then You cannot divine the country they are exiling us to, adopted by the Circassians still We depart from our homeland with broken hearts! living in the Caucasus.

Source 13 • Blue arrows show the migration by land of the Circassians and Abkhazians. • Red arrows show the migration to the Middle east and Anatolia of the Circassians and Abkhazians who settled initially in the Balkans

Correspondence from Constantinople (28.04.1864) As Russian forces moved through the North “Official intimation has been received here of the Caucasus forcing the inhabitants off their land capitulation of Vardar, the last stronghold of the the indigenous tribes were faced with three Circassians, and of the consequent submission of all the options: move to Siberia or Russian-controlled tribes. I had occasion in a previous letter to refer to the lands to the east; go to the Black Sea coast and flood of immigration which was pouring into the Turkish find a ship to take them to Ottoman lands or dominions from the Caucasus, and to the defeats which take the 3000 km overland route to Romeli in had been experienced by these gallant mountaineers; and Western Turkey on foot or by ox cart. All three although there could be no doubt at that time that the options were extremely hazardous. cause of the Circassians was hopeless, there was not The Circassians who were driven from their sufficient ground for anticipating the extraordinary homes in the years 1859-1864 mostly opted movement which has since developed itself, and which for the sea route to the ports of the Ottoman threatens, unless immediate relief and succour be Empire, particularly Samsoun and Trabzon and obtained, to degenerate, as regards these poor people, also Cyprus, which was part of the Empire until into an awful disaster. Whether this movement is to be 1878. attributed to a panic consequent on defeat, or to the The migrants from Chechnya, Dagestan, Asetin hatred inspired by the Russians, it is rather difficult to and Kabardinos who left between 1865-1866 determine; but there is no doubt that the three tribes and after the Ottoman-Russian War, 1878 known as the ‘’Shabsoukhs,’’ and ‘’Oboukhs’’ and mostly took the land route. ‘’Abazehs’’ have determined to abandon their country to a man, and take refuge on Turkish territory.

The Times of London, 9 May, 1864

People waiting on the shore of the Black Sea for a ship to travel to Turkey. Faruk Kutlu “It is calculated that no less than 300,000 will, within the next two or three months, seek shelter in this country, and half that number are now seeking the means of transporting themselves to the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. Unfortunately, it is found most difficult to obtain transports for this purpose. The Turkish Government has offered every pecuniary inducement for obtaining it, without avail. It is now their intention to disarm some of their men-of-war, and employ them for this service; but even this resource will not be sufficient to meet the difficulty...... Negotiations [by the Porte] are in progress with the Russian Government to induce them to open their ports in the Black Sea, so as to give a regular and systematic course to the movement, instead of driving the unfortunate emigrants to the unprotected beach in search of small coasting vessels, which are crowded Contemporary painting by Faruk Kutlu to excess.” The Times, 9 May, 1864

The Ubikh and Fighett tribes are fast embarking for Trebizond. In fact, after their land having been laid waste by fire and sword, emigration to Turkey is the only alternative allowed to those mountaineers who refuse to transfer themselves to the Kouban steppes and contribute periodically to the militia. The condition of these poor people is described by eye- witnesses as most distressing. In the hurry of departure the overcrowding of boats is so little heeded as to lead to frequent disasters, while such of their horses and cattle as war and famine have spared are being sold for a few paper roubles. In some instances the emigrants, sooner than see their weapons (may be heir-looms in the family for centuries) exchange hands Contemporary painting by Faruk Kutlu with the enemy, have flung them into the sea. With a view of introducing Russian colonization in the conquered districts the Government offer grants of A Circassian woman waits on the shore for a ship while the land and other privileges to the Azoff Cossacks who men look out across the Black Sea . may desire to settle there. Government employés indiscriminately, who may have served ten years in the Caucasus, will be entitled to claim an allotment of the land. Consul Dickson to Earl Russell. – (Received May 17) Soukoum-Kalé, April 13, 1864

Women, children and the elderly were most at risk while waiting for a ship to take them to the Ottoman empire. “The thousands of individuals congregated on the Faruk Kutlu beach were doomed to remain there exposed to the inclemency of the elements for weeks and months, waiting for the providential arrival of a vessel from Turkey. The scanty supply of provisions they had brought with them, once exhausted, hunger drove them to have recourse for subsistence to roots and the bark of trees within their reach. Hundreds of women and children died from either starvation or from the effects of food so noxious to the constitution; for in no instance was the slightest assistance afforded by the Russian authorities. It stands to reason that the mortality grew from day to day at the most frightful rate, and that the survivors were, at the moment of their embarkation, looking more like walking spectres than living beings.” Contemporary painting by Faruk Kutlu Journal of the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, 3 August, 1864

Source 54: The privations of the voyage. A womn nurses her sick baby “Already the outflowing tide of emigrants it to great as to place the Turkish Government in the greatest embarrassment. 27,000 of these unfortunate creatures, in the most utter destitution, have poured into Trebizonde [Trabzon]. The privations of the voyage in a most inclement season have produced disease of the very worst kind among them, which is not only committing fearful ravages in their own famished ranks, but it is extending to the local population. Typhus and smallpox are raging at Trebizonde, and the place is threatened with a famine. The Turkish Government is willing and anxious to receive the fugitives, and incorporated them into their own population, but the movement has been so sudden and so extensive that it bas been impossible to make provision for the hosts that are daily pouring in.” Contemporary painting by Faruk Kutlu The Times, 9 May, 1864

Folk memories of the Circassian Exodus “My mother was very beautiful. I remember her vaguely. She was tall and had big, green eyes. She had long dark hair coming down to her waist. During the Great Circassian Migration my mother and father, together with their two children, set sail for the unknown. They were forced to abandon their homeland, leaving behind their roots, memories and everything they possessed. In spite of all the suffering they had gone through, they never lost their hope. Because, they knew that losing hope was synonymous with death. As they sailed for the unknown, trying to hold on to life in boundless seas, diseases arouse in their vessel. Hunger, misery, diseases and death were following them.” “I was only four years old but I remember them throwing her into the sea... Her long dark hair entangled with the waves... Those on the ship watched her lifeless body until it disappeared... I remember weeping with my brother on our father’s lap...I was furious and Contemporary painting by Faruk Kutlu outraged, crying ‘Why did you throw my mother into the sea?’” The recorded memories of the grandmother of Dr. Sibel SİBER, Member of Parliament, Republican Turkish Party (CTP), North Cyprus

“Sailors were acquisitive. They were letting 200- The hazards of the journey by sea. 300 people on to the ships that have a capacity of 50-60. The people left with a little bread and water. In 5-6 days these were all consumed and then they caught epidemic illnesses from starvation, they were dying in the way to Ottoman Empire, and those who die were dumped into the sea. The ship that started the trip with 600 people ended up with only 370 people alive.”

French Military Adviser, A. Fonvill, “The last year of the Circassian War of Independence 12863-64: From the notes of a foreign party”, reprinted in the Nalchik edition of the Journal, Adyge, 1991.

Contemporary painting by Faruk Kutlu

“When 2718 people who left from Samsun July 6th – A telegram from Gallipoli announces the landing to come to Cyprus arrived, 853 of them were of 3340 Circassians. dead and the others were not very different from being dead. The daily dead toll is about The total of the immigrants hitherto landed on various points 30-50.” of the coast of the Sea of Marmora, 21,703. British Consul in Cyprus, R.H. Lang to the Letter dated Samsoun 30th ult., report 100,000 immigrants, Foreign Secretary, London and 300 deaths daily. Fresh arrivals from Circassia balance the departures. Some idea may be formed of the mortality Reports from Batoom, 26th ult., announce the arrival of raging among them when it is known that out of 8500 Circassians from Ardilar. June 30th, Varna. 530 600 Circassians who took passage in a steam Circassian passengers from Theodosia. transport, after a voyage of three or four days A report from Widdin says that the 35,000 emigrants had 370 only arrived at their destination. The been distributed between Zohmpalanka, Sofia, and Nich, 664 accounts that are received of the helpless and deaths after their departure from Widdin. They spread destitute state of these unhappy beings surpass typhus and small-pox wherever they settle. Nearly 200 men in misery and horror anything I have ever seen from the crews of Turkish vessels which convey the recorded in connexion with suffering humanity. emigrants, have had the typhus fever, and have been sent to Women in childbirth exposed to the the Naval hospital. This circumstance does not deter the inclemencies of a Black Sea journey, without Government from sending as before the vessels appointed to assistance or the bare necessaries of life, transport the immigrants. enveloping their newborn in a corner of their Extract taken from intelligence received by the Board of own ragged garment; sturdy warriors who had Health of the Ottoman Empire achieved many a gallant deed lying prostrate in the agonies of a horrible death, decks swarming with the dead and dying. The Times, 9 May, 1864

Report to the Board of Health of the Ottoman The Circassians who were able to Empire by the Sanitary Inspector, Samsun, arrive in the Ottoman lands May 20, 1864 experienced great difficulties, many died or became sick on the journey. “Gentlemen, Epidemic diseases were widespread I arrived at Samsun six days ago. No words are adequate among those who waited for months to describe the situation in which I found the town and the unfortunate immigrants.....Everywhere you meet for ships at Black Sea ports, often with the sick, the dying and the dead; on the threshold without food and money. of gates, in front of shops, in the middle of streets, in This and the following extracts from the squares, in the gardens, at the foot of trees. Every historical sources highlight the plight dwelling, every corner of the streets, every spot of the immigrants arriving in Turkish occupied by the immigrants, has become a hotbed of ports such as Samsun, Trabzon and infection. A warehouse on the seaside, a few steps Gallipoli. distant from the quarantine office, hardly affording space enough for 30 persons, enclosed until the day before yesterday 207 individuals, all sick or dying. The encampments present a picture hardly less revolting. From 40,000 to 50,000 individuals in the most absolute state of destitution, preyed upon by disease, decimated by death, are cast there without shelter, without bread, and without sepulchre (i.e. burial). There is no one to take care of the immigrants, no service organized for the burial of the dead, no horses, no carts, no boats, nothing.” Reproduced in The Times, 13 June, 1864.

“There are at present here from 70,000 to 80,000 “I was anxious – knowing how strong an impression Dr. individuals without bread, and there is no one to Barozzi‟s official report from Samsoun had produced keep them down in case of disorderly conduct. I throughout England – to forward the one he presented, on wish it were possible that his Highness the Grand his return from his sanitary mission, to the Board of Vizier could come here and witness the spectacle Health; convinced as I am that the facts he has brought to which this ill-fated town and the encampments light are such as not only to keep up, but increase tenfold, present...... In a few days hence this number will the interest displayed in favour of the Circassian exiles. I be doubled. How is it expected that such a mass of deeply regret, however… that the author....when men should be kept in order? How is it to be fed enumerating the various causes which engendered the and provided for? This immigration thus left to diseases which have occasioned and still continue to itself is an actual calamity..... if we had here an occasion the most awful mortality, among the Circassians, adequate supply of flour the number of ovens has not said one word concerning the principal among would be insufficient; we need biscuits. There are these causes – i.e., the barbarous treatment these exiles individuals who die from starvation, and the met with on the part of the Russian military number of those who have been four days without authorities....The question to be dealt with at present, is receiving their rations is very large.” whether the measures adopted by the Russian Generals to accomplish the „pacification‟ of the conquered provinces, Dr Barrozzi, an Italian medical doctor was were not calculated to occasion the diseases which have asked by the Board of Health of the Ottoman already destroyed upwards of two hundred thousand of Empire to report on the health and welfare of their inhabitants, and continue yet to decimate the ranks of the Circassian immigrants currently in the survivors, after finding a refuge in Turkey? Trebizond and Samsoun. Here is an extract from Extract from letter from T. Milligen, which was included his report on the immigrants in Samsun, May as evidence in the Journal of the Foreign Affairs 20, 1864 Committee of the British Houses of Parliament, 3. August, 1864.

“The situation of the exiled people “I will never forget the 17,000 people I saw at the was turning into a catastrophe. Novorossisk Bay [on the Russian northern coast of the Black Hunger and epidemics were at their Sea]. I am sure those who saw their situation couldn’t bear it peak. The group who came to Trabzon and would definitely collapse no matter what religion they decreased from 100,000 to 70,000 belonged to, Christians, Muslims, or atheists. In the cold people. 70,000 people arrived at winter, in the snow, without a house, without food, and Samsun. The dead toll per day was without any proper clothing, these people were in the hands about 500 people. This number was of typhoid, typhus and chicken pox diseases. The babies about 400 in Trabzon. 300 people in were searching for milk in their mother’s dead body. This Gerede Camp, the daily death toll in terrible black page in the Russian history caused great harm Akcakale and Saridere is about 120- to the Adygean history. The exile caused an interruption in 150 people. the history of social, economic and cultural developments and in the process of becoming one political Colonel Teophil Lapinsky, Polish eye union/confederation.” witness A.P. Berge, Russian eye witness

Is there anything which the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France could have done differently to prevent this tragedy?

Sir H. Bulwer to Earl Russell , Constantinople, May 3, 1864

“One mode of granting hospitality to these unhappy exiles is by dividing them amongst different Turkish villages in different districts, and allotting to four Turkish families one Circassian family in these districts. This is undoubtedly the cheapest mode, but the worst: it adds to the miseries of the already miserable condition of the Turkish peasant; it affords but a wretched chance of existence to the poor Circassians; whilst the strength of these almost invincible warriors is divided, dissipated, and lost.”

“Circassians were at first considered by the Ottoman political elite to be a kind of balancing instrument and a new stock of military potential for the future of the Empire. They were often used as security detachments and pioneers in remote and uncontrollable areas. As a reliable, countervailing force used to interdict and discipline Kurds, Turkmen, Druze, Bedouin and other nomads, they were an asset to the Empire from a demographic and military standpoint.”

Ayhan Kaya, Circassian Diaspora in Turkey: Stereotypes, Prejudices and Ethnic Relations in Nedret Kuran-Burçoğlu and S. G. Miller (eds.). Representations of the Others in the Meditarrenean World and their Impact on the Region, Istanbul: The ISIS Press, 2005: 217-240

“Ultimately, we have to ask whether the Circassian refugees proved to be a blessing or a curse for the Ottomans. Apart from the initial strain felt by the provincial economies and their local communities, the refugee crisis also had severe financial consequences for the Ottoman Empire, leading them to default on their loan repayments in the early-1870s. However, in the longer term, there is evidence that the Circassians did produce some benefits for the Ottomans. They contributed towards the modernisation of the Empire, with many of them working on the construction of the new roads and railways. The reforms of provincial government, with their emphasis on improving efficiency and on the facilitation of public works and institutions, were also at least in part likely to have been introduced at this stage as a result of the refugee crisis. The increase in manpower was valuable in the extension of the armed forces and in the provision of provincial policing, however problematic.” Sarah Rosser-Owen, The First Circassian Exodus to the Ottoman Empire 1858-1867, unpublished MA Thesis, 2007 pp.54-55

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” CONSEQUENCES: HOW MIGRATION INFLUENCED OTTOMAN SOCIETY

The settlement of the immigrants on a large scale had profound effects on the Ottoman Empire. A new and profoundly different Anatolia emerged over time; nearly all provinces were now home to substantial number of immigrants. They were given lands and animals on the vast plains of Anatolia.

Taken from a broader perspective, the settlement of the immigrants from the Caucasus brought about not only a demographic change in the population of Anatolia it also transformed the Anatolian heartlands into a land dominated by a Muslim population.

There are today millions of Turkish citizens of Caucasian origin whose ancestors settled at Marmara, Central-Anatolia, East-Anatolia and Black Sea regions of Turkey. Source: Jaimoukha, Amjad, The Circassians: A Handbook, Curzon: Caucasus World, London,2001, p.24 Taken from: http://www.circassianworld.com

Finding no choice except to settle in the lands of the Caliph, the immigrants quickly adapted to their new environment. They not only revitalized the agriculture of Anatolia and countered the separatist tendencies of some of the other ethnic minorities within the Empire, they also joined the Ottoman establishment itself, particularly within the army. They became a key element within the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire and provided a backbone of unquestioned loyalty and service. In 1918 Anatolia was occupied by Allied forces after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the first Circassian soldiers with Atatürk during the World War. A Turkish national resistance Turkish War of Independence (1920) movement emerged, led by the youngest genral in the Ottoman army, Mustafa Kemal (Atat dedicated to the creation of a modern, national republic of Turkey. The movement was led by Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), who had been the youngest General in the Turkish army. Many of the leading figures supporting Kemal Ataturk in the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1922) were of Circassian descent.

The Circassians have been in a state of Diaspora ever since their migration to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. During the last decades of the tsarist regime, their Circassian lands were resettled by Russians, Ukrainians and Armenians. Today, only a minority of Circassians still live there, mainly in three republics of the Russian Federation (Kabardino- Balkaria, Karacahay-Cherkessia and Adygea). Today, many people of Circassian origin live in A display of Circassian horsemanship in Transjordan during a visit by Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Germany and the the High Commissioner of Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel in April 1921. United States. According to estimates, some 120,000 Circassians live in Jordan, 45,000 in Syria, and 4,000 in Israel, but the bulk of the diaspora - 3.5 million - live in Turkey. This figure is four times more than the population living in the Circassians' traditional homeland in the North Caucasus.

Caucasians did their best to preserve their Caucasian customs and traditions. Full preservation of cultural identity and language of origin, have been possible only in isolated rural areas. Inescapable internal assimilation has taken place. For example, the last speaker of the the Ubykh language died in 1992. Before the Russian-Caucasian Wars the Ubykh had inhabited an area just northwest of Abkhazia in the Caucasus. By 1864,as Tevfik Esenç (1904 - October 7, 1992) was a well as other Muslim people of Caucasus, the Ubykh Circassian exile in Turkey and the last known left their homeland . By May 21, the entire Ubykh speaker of the Ubykh language. As a civil servant nation had departed from the Caucasus. They based in Istanbul, he was able to do a great deal of eventually settled in a number of villages in western work with the French linguist Georges Dumézil to Turkey around the municipality of Manyas (Balikesir). help record his language. He was also the primary In order to avoid discrimination, the Ubykh elders source of the mythology, culture and customs of encouraged their people to assimilate into Turkish the Ubykh people. culture. The Ubykh language was rapidly displaced by Turkish. The last native speaker of Ubykh, Tevfik Esenç, died in 1992.

“Over time the exiled ‘Circassians’ tended to become ‘Turks (or Jordanians, etc.) of Circassian descent’. Nevertheless, even in Turkey the younger generation still speak Circassian - albeit only poorly, as a second language - and profess a sentimental pride in the Circassian heritage. In Jordan, Palestine-Israel, Saudi Arabia and other countries that formed part of the Ottoman empire, compact communities of Circassians still exist. In Jordan Circassians exercise important functions as military officers and businessmen”. StephenD.Shenfield, The Circassians, A forgetten Genocide? The Massacre in History’ kitabı içinde der. Mark Levene&Penny Roberts,Oxford:2006.

A family of Turkish-Circassian descent A family of Turkish-Circassian descent in a Circasssian village in Turkey, 1970 in a Circasssian village in Turkey, 1975

STATE OF NEW JERSEY EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT: PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, Since 1864, the people of North Caucasia have been the victims of oppression by the Russian government; and WHEREAS, through the ages, the people of North Caucasia have struggled bitterly to regain their freedom; and WHEREAS, on May 11, 1918, following the Bolshevik revolution, the people of North Caucasia declared their independence and North Caucasia was recognized by many nations as a free state; and WHEREAS, in 1920, North Caucasia lost its freedom when it was conquered by the new Communist regime; and WHEREAS, over the years, people of North Caucasia who resisted oppression were either massacred or forced into exile, including many now living in the United States and in New Jersey; NOW, THEREFORE, I, BRENDAN BYRNE, Governor of the State of New Jersey, do hereby proclaim MAY, 1976 as NORTH CAUCASIANS INDEPENDENCE MONTH in New Jersey.

GIVEN, under my hand and the Great Seal of the State of New Jersey, this twenty-sixth day of May in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventy-six, and in the Independence of the United States, the two-hundredth. Signed GOVERNOR

http://www.circassianworld.com/new/general/1363-proclamation-byrne.html

The Journal ‘Nart’ which is the publication of the Journal ‘United Caucasia’ which is the the Federation of Caucassian Associations in publication of the United Caucassian Turkey. The title is: It was 143 years ago: EXILE Associations in Turkey. The title is: The shame of the society: Chechen refugee camps (in Turkey)

Poster: Lets meet at Kefken on 23 May The 21 May 1864 is conventionally seen as the beginning of “The Great Circassian Exile”, when Circassians were forced to migrate to Ottoman territories by the Russian Empire.

Circassians in many countries annually commemorate May 21 in remembrance of the mass deportations of their ancestors

This poster calls Turkish Circassians to meet at Kefken, a small port where some of the first Circassians to arrive in the Ottoman Empire landed.

The following two sources also relate to memorials of the exodus and the tragic events of 21 May 1864.

A memorial stone in the Adygheya Republic Ceremony of remembrance held in Sochi in 2010 for commemorating those who died in the Russian- the Adyghe people who died during the Russian- Circassian War . Circassian War.

“21 May is a Day for remembering our tragic losses as a nation May 21 in 1864 was celebrated by the Russian imperial and for looking back into our history closely. Yes we should society as a day of joy marking the end of the so-called remember, but not with hate and bitter feelings; rather with Caucasian Wars. The festivities held in Akhchipskh in order to opened minds, and with understanding of the historical facts, commemorate this ‘historical event’ consisted of a church so we can learn from the mistakes that were made in the past. service thanking god for bestowing victory upon the Russian And this is the message I want to give to the young generation. troops, a military parade and a banquet in honor of the royal We should learn to appreciate our own culture, our own family and those responsible for the ‘final subjugation’ of the language, each other... and have a belief in our future. Don’t open Caucasus.” your hearts for hate or a new conflict, but open it for love for Irma Kreiten, Southampton University, UK your motherland and your nation, who survived despite all the tragedies and hardships.” “I do not think such commemorations are a good idea Dr. Mohydeen I. Quandour, Author, Film Director, Composer. because the memory of yesterday’s miseries can lead to tomorrow’s. Warfare is one of the engines of history – people live in this place and not that, speak this language “Much has been written by historians and social scientists about and not that, have this religion and not that as the the nature and importance of commemorations for nations: consequences of victory or defeat in war. The Circassians they are simultaneously symbols and events; collective and lost a long and brutal war and many of them went into personal; political and cultural. Most importantly however they exile as miserable refugees. But all peoples have the same are both about the past and the future. The way in which the past; all have been losers, all have been winners. past of a nation is remembered is instrumental in the making of …Therefore, commemorations of past tragedies can fuel its futures. Therefore, while marking with grief the dispersal of present disputes that will lead to future tragedies. They the Circassians from their homeland, let May 21 also represent should be matters of history to be dispassionately the joy of a nation that is coming to know itself. “ remembered and assessed. These events happened and, Seteney Shami, Eurasia Program Director, USA. in most cases, had the losers been the winners, they would have done the same to their enemies.” All sources from: Patrick Armstrong, Political analyst, Canada. http://www.circassianworld.com/new/war-and-genocide/1465

The Caucasus is a region lying between Russia to the north, Iran and Turkey to the south, the Black Sea to the west and the Caspian Sea to the East. The Greater Caucasian mountains are perceived to be a physical dividing line between Europe and Asia. For centuries much of this region was part of the Persian Empire. But as a crossroads between Europe and Asia it was strategically important to Russia, particularly the North Caucasus, while the South Caucasus (Transcaucasia) gradually came under the control of the Ottoman Empire. There are more than 50 ethnic groups in the region and since the 8th century it has been an area where Christians and Muslims have lived alongside each other, sometimes peacefully, and sometimes in conflict. By the mid-18th century Islam was the predominant religion in the region. A long process of Russian expansion into the region led to the Russian-Caucasian Wars and then to outward migration by the Caucasian peoples and inward migration by Russians and other Slavic groups. These population movements and internal ethnic conflicts created territorial disputes which have continued to this day.

The growth of Russia between 1500 and 1900

The period of Russian expansionism begins with the accession of Ivan IV (Ivan the terrible) in 1533. Under his rule Russia expanded south eastwards down the River Volga to annexe the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan which blocked the trade routes to the Middle East through the Caspian Sea. By the early 16th century the process of colonising Siberia was underway and Russia then turned its attention to the west and south west. It encroached into the eastern territories of Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Livonia, and the eastern Ukraine. It also gained control of the Khanate of Crimea in 1783. By the late 18th century Russia had become a massive Eurasian empire and still expanding into the territories of the Ottoman Empire to the south.

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” The bigger picture: the continued decline of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the republic of Turkey 1. By the 17th century the Ottoman Empire controlled much of the eastern Mediterranean, central and eastern Europe, North Africa and south west Asia. A long period of expansion in Europe came to an end with the siege of Vienna in 1683 where a large Ottoman army was defeated by an Alliance of German, Habsburg and Polish forces led by Jan Sobieski, the King of Poland. Defeat was followed by 16 years of intermittent warfare culminating in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) through which the Ottoman Empire lost control of some of its European territories. The end of the expansionist era was followed by a period of stagnation where a number of attempts to introduce modernization and administrative reforms failed and conservative forces held sway in the Caliphate. A number of wars between the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia further weakened the capacity of the Caliphate to control its European territories. By the early 19th century a number of nationalist movements were emerging within the Ottoman European lands, particularly in the Balkans. The prolonged Serbian revolution (1804 – 1833) and the Greek War of Independence (1821) served to further fuel the flames of nationalism across the whole south-eastern region of Europe. During the 19th century a number of reforms were introduced including a reorganisation of the army, a new legal system along French lines and reforms in administration and education. Railways were constructed, the telegraph was introduced and other elements of modernization. Reformists pressed for a constitutional monarchy and the first Ottoman Parliament met in 1876. It sat for two years until the Sultan suspended it indefinitely. . The decisive victory of the Russian forces in the Russian-Ottoman War further weakened the Ottoman Empire led to the independence of Bulgaria, Wallachia and Moldavia and confirmed the independence of Serbia and Montenegro. Fearing further destabilization in the region, the Great Powers convened the Congress of Berlin in the summer of 1878 and took steps to restores some of the territory which the Porte had lost as a result of the war. On the other hand the Congress also created resentment in the region which ultimately de-stabilized the region even more and led to the First World War.

The Congress of Berlin succeeded in temporarily shoring up the weakened Ottoman Empire but Imperial Russia, the victors of the Russian-Ottoman War in 1878, felt that they had been treated as if they were the losers by the other Great Powers. The nationalist movements in the Balkans continued to grow and become increasingly active. Austria unilaterally occupied Bosnia Herzegovina and Novi Pazar in 1878 although Ottoman troops also continued to be stationed in both provinces for the next 30 years and both powers continued to contest each other’s occupation of these territories. Through the Congress of Berlin, Britain took control of Cyprus in 1878 and gradually took control over Egypt, while France occupied Tunisia. The old regime in the Ottoman empire was further weakened by the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, organised by a coalition of army officers, liberal reformists, nationalists and secular modernists was triggered by discontent within the 3rd Army garrisoned in Macedonia. Rebellion spread rapidly and on July 24 1908 Sultan Abdülhamid II restored the Constitution and the Parliament. A year later he was deposed in favour of his brother, Mehmed V, although power lay with the Government. In 1914 the Empire entered the First World War on the side of Germany and the Central Powers. After some early successes the tide began to turn against the empire in 1916 with the Arab Revolt. Following the armistice in 1918 and the Treaty of Sèvres, French and British troops occupied Constantinople and the Black Sea ports, Italian forces landed in Antalya and Greek forces occupied Smyrna/Izmir. A Turkish national resistance movement emerged, led by Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), initially to oppose the Greek-British occupation of Izmir and its hinterland. Victory enabled the nationalists to demand a revision of the peace treaty through the new Treaty of Lausanne. In 1921 Kemal established a provisional government in Ankara, a year later the Sultanate was abolished and in 1923 Turkey became a secular republic with Mustafa Kemal as its first president. Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) “This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” The bigger picture: the North Caucasus today

The history of forced migrations from the North Caucasus continued into the 20th century. In the 1930s many of the Cossacks were forced from their homes by Stalin’s policy of collectivisation. Then in 1943-44 whole communities of Ingush, Chechens, Balkars, Karachais, Turks and Kurds living in the region were forcibly deported to Siberia and Central Asia having been accused of collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. The long period of inward and outward migrations within the region, the re-locations and re-settlements, have led to territorial disputes. Since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991 there have been numerous such conflicts, including the Abkhazian War (1992-93), the Nagorno-Karabakh War (1988- 94), the Ossetian-Ingush conflict (1989-91), the two Chechen Memorial to the 334 dead children and wars (1994-96 And 1999-2009) and the South Ossetian War in teachers of School Number 1 in Beslan, 2008. North Ossetia after 1100 children and In May 2005 Chechen activists announced the formation of the adults had been taken hostage on 1 Caucasus Front: a coalition of Chechen, Dagestani, Ingush, September, 2004 by a group of Ingush Ossetian, Adyghe and other groups of militant activists to and Chechen separatists. oppose Russian rule in its southern republics.

Educational Material: Case Study

Ireland witnessed massive emigraon between 1801 and 1921. More than 8 million men, women and children le at this me. This is more than the number of people that ever lived in Ireland during this period. Many grew up with the expectaon to leave. Nowadays, the Irish can be found in most places the migraon and reasons to move are remembered around the world.

Ireland in the 19th and 20th century was characterized by massive emigraon. The most signiﬁcant exodus followed the worst of a series of potato crop failures in the 1840s - the Great Famine. It is esmated that more than one million people died, and almost the same again emigrated. The famine increased the need for migraon that was already there due to overpopulaon.

Although Ireland was hit most hard by the crop other European countries suﬀered from failures as well.

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/ RUMSEY~8~1~22424~740036:Map-of-Europe-by-J-- Pinkerton---Lon# EUROPE IN THE 1840s

During the 1840’s many European countries were aﬀected by a series of crop failures. Famine spread The food shortages led to riots all across Europe. The connuing food shortages and widespread public discontent were a major factor in causing Europe’s Year of Revoluons in France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Hungary in 1848.

This arcle in the New Zealand Chronicle from 2 October 1847 shows that the events in Europe did not go unnoced oversees

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 291, 2 October 1847, Page 1 THE UNITED STATES IN THE 1850

“A wave of new technologies brought about sweeping changes in the naon's economy. From agricultural devices like the coon gin and the mechanical reaper to communicaon improvements like steamboats and the telegraph, these innovaons changed the way Americans worked, traveled, and communicated. New tools even altered the way Americans lived and died; the efficient Sharps rifle was invented just two years aer the first successful use of anesthesia in a Boston surgical theater.”

American Experience, 2011

While the Great Famine gave emigration a major boost, it was already well-established before 1845, with some estimates of 1.5 million Irish people crossing the Atlantic in the period from 1815-45 alone. Economic motives have been the key factor over the last two centuries.

Lack of job opportunities, especially for those who did not have the right connections, or poor pay and conditions in Ireland, pushed many into leaving for the prospect of higher wages and secure employment in England. [...]

England's wartime economy (1939-45) and post-war boom attracted many Irish people to expanding towns such as Luton.

Other emigrants, Catholic and Protestant, Nationalist and Unionist, might leave Ireland because of political unrest. [...]

Others left either because they found Ireland's social and cultural life too restricting; to escape family friction; or to get an abortion. Divorce and contraception were illegal and job prospects were limited.

Read this text from the UK Naonal Archives Moving Here project. Which push and pull factors can you idenfy?

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” IRELAND IN THE 1840’s “The scenes we have witnessed at Skibbereen, equal any thing that has been recorded by history, or could be conceived by the imagination. Famine, typhusfever, dysentery, and a disease hitherto unknown, are sweeping away the whole population. The poor are not the only sufferers: fever is spreading to every class, and even the rich are becoming involved in the same destruction.”

Narrative of a Journey from Oxford to These pictures were published in the Pictorial Times about life in Ireland Skibbereen during the year of the Irish Famine by Lord Dufferin and G F Boyle in the 1840’s. (Oxford, 1847). What impression do you get of life in Ireland at this me?

This cartoon, appeared in March 16, 1844. Sir Robert Peel is portrayed as Sisyphus, pushing a rock which is simultaneously labelled "IRELAND" and "Daniel O'Connell." Under the tle is wrien: "Sisyphus is said to be doomed for ever to roll to the top of a great mountain a stone, which connually falls down again." What is the cartoonist trying to say about Sir Robert Peels Policies?

Primary Sources of sir Robert Peel Policies can be downloaded from hp://www.historyhome.co.uk/primary.htm

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” Rosea O’Hara and John Blaney, two migrants from Northern Ireland who moved to the Boston in respecvely 1905 and 1902 when they were under 20. They married in the States.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IRISH MIGRANTS

YOUNG:

UNSKILLED:

FROM A BIG FAMILY:

Between 1855-1914 numbers of migrants aged 20-24 varied between a third and 44 percent.

In contrast to most other migratory movements (dominated by men) an equal amount of men and women le.

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” BEFORE LEAVING "The American Wake began at night me, in the house of the emigrant, and connued through the night unl the early hours. The young emigrant would have previously visited friends and neighbors leng them know of the impending departure. All who were close were expected to aend. [...]

Women noted for their ability to keen awail or lament) would be called upon to acquaint listeners with the virtues of the emigrant and the suﬀering brought upon the parents by the departure. This eulogy was given in a high pitched wail, resulng in a room full of keening women and weeping men. [...]

In less poverty-stricken areas, the American Wake proved itself a more fesve occasion. Baking, cooking and cleaning were all part of the preparaons. Neighbors frequently contributed food and a half-barrel of porter or stout was available for the men. The kitchen furniture was moved and seang was provided around the walls for neighbors and friends. Song and dance followed, only to be interrupted by oﬀers of tea, and stronger beverages. Jibs, reels, quadrilles, hornpipes, and Irish step dancing were the order of the day. [...]

The next morning, the emigrant was accompanied by friends and family to the train staon or the dockside for his embarkaon."

Source: Kelley, et al., Blennerville, The Gateway to Tralee's Past, pp. 147-50)

The trip across the Ocean was rarely pleasant, but the those who travelled to Canada around 1847 suﬀered most. The condions on the ships like these were so bad and mortality rates so high, that these ships were named ‘Coﬃn Ships’.

“In only ten of the vessels that arrived at Montreal in July - four from Cork and six from Liverpool - out of 4,427 passengers, 804 had died on the passage and 847 were sick on their arrival; that is 847 were visibly diseased for the result proves that a far larger number had in them the seeds of disease.”

H Robert Whyte's immigrant diary, The Ocean Plague: The Diary of a Cabin Passenger, appeared in print in 1848, one year aer the author said he made his journey from famine-stricken Ireland to Canada. Whyte later crossed the border into the United States. Nothing is known about Robert Whyte, including whether such a person even existed; the name could very well be a pseudonym. All that is le is this diary, published in 1994 by Mercier Press and edited by James Mangan under the tle Robert Whyte's 1847 Famine Ship Diary.

The Diary gives a unique personal insight in the realies of life on one of the Coﬃn Ships. Start the Timeline: Diary of a Cabin Passenger

EPILOGUE

“The vast number of persons who quied Europe to seek new homes in the western hemisphere in the year 1847, is without a precedent in history. Of the aggregate I cannot definitely speak but to be within the limits of truth, they exceeded 350,000. More than one half of these emigrants were from Ireland and to this poron was confined the devouring peslence. (...) Many, as I have already stated, were sent out at the expense of their landlords. These were consequently the poorest and most abject of the whole and suffered the most.”

“By the end of the season there is lile doubt that the emigraon into Canada alone will have amounted to 100,000 nearly all from Ireland. We know the condion in which these poor creatures embarked on their perilous adventure. They were only ﬂying from one form of death. On the authority of the Montreal Board of Health we are enabled to say that they were allowed to ship in numbers two or three mes greater than the same vessels would have presumed to carry to any United States port.”

H Robert Whyte

about credits tutorial POPULAR DESTINATIONS

Most Irish moved to the United States of America, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The Irish tended to cluster in cies, especially harbour cies like New York, Boston, Sydney and Liverpool.

This map shows the populaon density of Irish in the United States in 1880 (click to enlarge)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl?data=/gmd370m/ g3701m/g3701gm/gct00009/ ca000078.jp2&itemLink=&title=Scribner%26%2339;s+statistical +atlas+of+the+United+States,++-+Plate+26:+Population+ %28German,+Irish%29&style=gmd&legend= POPULAR DESTINATIONS

This map shows the populaon density of Irish in the United States in 1880 (click to enlarge)

Immigrants who arrived in the United States before 1847 encountered big chaos. To manage the big inﬂux of immigrants Castle Garden Receiving Staon was opened in 1855. Due to corrupon, this Staon was closed in 1887 and from then on, the federal government appointed Ellis Island as the new site where incoming immigrants could register. Aer arriving at Ellis Island, immigrants were faced with medical examinaons, they were quesoned about their educaon, relaves that they were possibly joining and how much money they had. This invesgaon could take up to two weeks before they were allowed to travel on to their ﬁnal desnaon or they were deported back home if they failed their medical examinaon.

Many of the Irish emigrants wrote leers back home. They gave informaon about their experiences and advise for those who were thinking about leaving Ireland as well. The leers are a valuable source of informaon giving insight in how life was like in the new countries, and the challenges that they Irish had to face once they had arrived.

Richard O Gorman a middle class Irish emigrant from Dublin viewed emigration in positive materialistic ... My Dr. Father I must only say that this is a good place and a good terms. He wrote in 1859, country for if one place does not suit a man he can go to another and can very easy please himself. But there is one thing that’s ruining this “New York itself will be in 50 years the inest city on this place Especially the frontiers towns and cities where the low of earth –barring Paris-if even that excels it – it is only being emigration is most, the emigrants has not money enough to Take them built now – yet its situation is glorious….. to the Interior of the Country which obliges them to remain here in York The progress of the country in all matters of material and the like places for which reason causes the less demand for labour wealth is miraculous - There is in the Yankee - wondrous and also the great reduction in wages. energy - self reliance - power of combination - readiness in the use of all his powers - He has rough and ready work For this reason I would advise no one to come to American that would to do, and he does it - The business of the day is to till land not have some money after landing here that (would) Enable them to go - cut down timber - drain swamps - get rid of Indians - west in case they would get no work to do here but any man or woman build railways, cities, states - and our Yankee does it with without a family are fools that would not venture and come to this surprising speed - and what he can't do himself, he knows plentiful country where no man or woman ever hungered or ever will how to get others to do for him “…. and where you will not be seen naked, but I can assure you there are dangers upon dangers attending coming here but my friends nothing Source: http://www.emigrantletters.com/IE/ venture nothing have. ... output.asp? ArticleID=214738&CategoryID=6583&ArticleOutpu This letter was written on 22 September 1850 by Margaret tTemplateID=452&ArticleStateID=2 McCarthy to her family and would have served as an emigrant's guide. She was 22 years of age, the daughter of Alexander (Sandy) McCarthy, carpenter to the Crown estate, native of Boherboy, and Nell, his wife. Margaret sailed from Liverpool on 7th September 1849 on the Columbus and arrived in New York on 22nd October. She settled in New York.. “This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” CHAIN MIGRATION

The new living conditions might have been bad; compared to Ireland, it was still an improvement. Irish settlers mostly encouraged others to follow their example. They send letters with factual information about prices etc, and their views on what to do and what not to do. In addition, much of the money needed for the travel of new migrants was provided by those that already went. Because of this information ﬂow, migratory movements were able to respond rapidly to socio- economic changes in Canada, the States and Australia. Click here for exemplary letters http://www.hsp.org/node/2374

Working life was not easy for Irish immigrants. Oen, the only jobs they could ﬁnd were unskilled jobs, which were exhausng and low-paid. Men usually worked at building sites for roads, canals, housing, railroads, and sewer systems. Women were oen either working in factories or they were domesc servants.

The dangers to which the Irish were exposed are illustrated in the following quote from one middle class emigrant

“How often do we see such paragraphs in the papers as an Irishman drowned – an Irishman suffocated in a pit – an Irishman blown to atoms by a steam engine - ten, twenty Irishmen buried alive in the sinking of a bank – and other like casualties and perils to which Pat is constantly exposed, in the hard toils for his daily bread”,

(Quoted in Miller, Kerby A, Emigrants and Exiles, Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America, New York, Oxford University Press, 1985.) Source: http:// www.emigrantletters.com/IE/output.asp? CategoryID=6588

When the Irish arrived

Some Americans saw the Irish organisaons and grouping together as a rejecon of American culture.

Needed but Not Wanted ‘No Irish Need Apply’ could be found in mulple job adversements around [period].

This cartoon printed in 1889, stereotypes the Irish as unmixable in America's melting pot.

“From the early nineteenth century onward, Irish Catholics faced recurrent waves of an-Catholic senment. In 1831 protestants burned St The evangelical revivals of the early nineteenth century Mary’s Catholic Church down produced a "No Popery" movement. A popular children's in New York game was "Break the Pope's Neck."”

An-Catholic (an-Irish) riots in Philadelphia in 1844. “This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” IRISH-AMERICAN RELATIONS

The Know Nothing Party which was an an-Catholic, an-immigrant polical party. Their voters, mostly mostly nave born protestants, saw the massive emigraon of Irish Catholics and the growing polical power as dangerous. They believed that German and Irish Catholics would hold their allegiance to Rome and the Pope rather than the US. In the congressional and state elecons of 1854 and 1855 the Know Nothing Party grew faster and was a bigger threat to the Whig party than the republicans.

Given the large amount of people who travelled from Ireland to North America it is unsurprising that the exodus had signiﬁcant consequences for these countries.

The departure of so many Irish gave relief to Ireland which was densely populated. Populaon in the USA was less dense and the land sll largely unexplored.

The two greatest effects of the famine and emigraon in Ireland were in relaon to land and to marriage [...] The subdividing of farms was forbidden aer the famine. A new agricultural movement had spread across the country in what was known as the squaring of the land. Before this me, the people had generally lived in lile clahans or groups of houses and they held a patchwork of lile fields and plots all around. There were constant rows about pathways and boundaries and rights of way which usually broke out on fair day evenings when the men (and oen the women) fought with scks and stones. To stop this, the landlords squared out the land in lile farms as we see them today, with a house in the middle of a group of fields. This farm was not allowed to be subdivided and gives us the basic Irish landscape which we see today and which most people do not realize is less than two hundred years

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no old. circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” IRELAND

Historians who have been researching the economic consequences of the Irish migraon concluded that:

“in the absence of emigraon, faster labour force growth would have resulted in lower real wage growth, reducing real wage convergence on United Kingdom and the United States.”

From: The Impact of Emigraon on Real Wages in Ireland 1850-1914, George Boyer , Timothy J. Haon , Kevin H. O Rourke

The migraon movements also inﬂuenced the relaon between Irish and Americans. Whereas the Irish had a dominantly posive view of Americans from the start (aided by a mutual dislike of the English during the Civil War era) the recepon in the USA was not always what the Irish hoped for.

Between 1775 and 1783 the 13 (then In 1798 Ireland was shook by a mass rebellion for Brish) colonies fought a war of democrac rights and against Brish rule. independence again the Kingdom of

Great Britain.“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” Immigraon to North America by Country of Origin 1840-1860

Which percentage of the immigrants to North America in this period were of Irish descent? How do you think these numbers inﬂuenced the posion of Irish in North America?

At the turn of the 19th century, the Irish Catholic inﬂuence on New York polics was on the peak of its power. The leaders of Tammany Hall (the building on the le) employed tens of thousands of employees. Polics played an important role for the emancipaon of and integraon by immigrant groups, especially since they represented the majority vote.

Tammany Hall & 14th St. West, New York City, 1914.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tammany_Hall_LC- USZ62-101734.jpg POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE IRISH

Hugh O’Brien Francis Gilroy Louis St. Laurent John F Kennedy Mayor of Boston 1885-89 Mayor of New York 1893-94 Prime Minister of Canada 1948-57 President of the USA, 1961-63

The Irish Vote

Because of their numbers the Irish Vote became a factor of inﬂuence in the cies where the Irish seled. Men like Hugh O’Brien and Fancis Gilroy managed to raise to polical power and became mayors of Boston and New York. Being represented on such high levels contributed to the changing percepons of Irish as equals.

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Francis_Gilroy.jpg IRISH WORKERS IN THE US

An Irish labour force

In contrast to the economic situaon of Ireland in the 1840’s, the American economy was booming. The USA was the main stage of the Second Industrializaon and USA took over the lead of Great Britain as ‘workshop of the world’.

Areas of industry that were most successful were electricity and A photograph of a group of second generaon transportaon. The Irish were a workforce that were much needed. Irish-American steelworkers in the early 1900’s

Between 1870 and 1913, Britain's share of the world's industrial producon dropped from 32 percent to 9 percent. The U.S. share in this same period rose from 23 to 42 percent. “This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” The applicaon of steam engines on ships and connuing demand for oversees travels created the condions for companies to offer frequent connecons between Ireland, the UK and the United Kingdom. Posters to adverse these connecons can be found in most European country.

RMS Titanic 1912 SS President 1841

SS City of New York 1888

The 69th regiment during the American Civil War Look at the photograph. How can we tell that the people are Irish?

The tradition of holding ceremonies in honor of the Irish migration and Great Famine can be traced back till the early 19th century and continues to today. The picture on the left shows a memorial service that took place on August 1909 in Quebec. Monuments related to the Irish Diaspora can be found across the world in the cities that were most popular amongst the Irish (New York, Toronto, Boston, Sydney, Liverpool). Many of the monuments have been erected after 1990, which indicated a renewed interest in the Irish roots.

“My emoons are those of one whose Irish ancestry and heritage have been part of my consciousness from earliest days, indeed, as one whose great grandfather emigrated with his family in the immediate aermath of the Great Famine.”

Quoted from an Address By Sir William Deane on the occasion of the unveiling of The Great Irish Famine Memorial Sydney (Saturday, 28 August 1999)

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” Monuments in Memory of the Great Famine and Irish Migraon Monuments related to the Irish Diaspora can be found world-wide. The monuments are build in those cies where most Irish went to. Most have annual services to honor those who did not make it across, and acknowledge the contribuons that the Irish made to their new homelands.

move your cursor over the thumbnail picture to enlarge

Some Irish feel that the British Government did not do enough to help the Irish. They accuse the government of deliberately letting Irish starve to death. A small group of people very are active on the internet-fora to get recognition.

Blair issues apology for Irish Potato Famine

Tony Blair has issued a statement on the Irish Potato Famine 150 years ago which amounts to the ﬁrst apology expressed by the British authorities.

Source: Independent, Monday, 2 June 1997

A key factor in the improved relations between the Irish Republic and the UK was the close personal relationship between Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern. This relationship made a crucial contribution to the succes of the negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The Good Friday Agreement provided for a power-sharing government between Unionists and Nationalists in Northern-Ireland. It would not have been possible for the politicians in Northern-Ireland to work together without the friendly relations US President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony between the London and Dublin Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2003 governments.

How important do you feel Blair’s apology in 1997 for Britain’s role in the Irish Famine was in improving Anglo-Irish relations?

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/ Bush_Blair_Ahern_in_Northern_Ireland_2003.jpg LANGUAGE

The Liverpool accent The Internaonal Dialects of English Archives maintains short audio clips of nave speakers. Click on the links “THE 'Scouse' accent is well known to be below to listen to the samples of Irish and Scouse very specific of Liverpool's city and different accents. from the surrounding part of Lancashire and Cheshire. Irish (1) Scouse (1) English (1) Some language experts have been able to Irish (2) Scouse (2) English (2) idenfy a hybrid of Lancashire and Irish. Irish (3) Scouse (3) English (3) The dialect is a relict of the great influx of Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century Do you think Scouse is more similar to Irish or English? Is and shows that the new selers were so that surprising given the geographic locaon of numerous that they changed the very Liverpool. accent of the local people.”

Source: Peter Aughton. Liverpool: A People’s History, Lancaster, 2003, p.272 Liverpool Ireland

Irish place names outside Ireland Part of the legacy of many movements is the use of names of places that already existed in the place that the migrants came from. The use of Irish place names across the world is indicates how widespread the Irish migration was.

Examples are: The linkage to Ireland is hard to Killarney Heights, New South Wales miss in the seal of the city of (Australia). Dublin in Ohio Belfast, South Africa. Dublin, Ontario (Canada). Ulster County, New York (USA). Can you think of any place names in your own area that came from migrant communies?

These are the names of Irish Migrants mentioned on the Famine Memorial in Toronto.

Over time, the situation changed, and the Irish became more accepted in American Society. This coincided with the arrival of new groups of migrants (such as Italians, Russians and Poles); the decrease of the Irish proportion of migrants to the USA; and increased social opportunities of many second generation Irish-Americans.

In the early 1900’s many Americans started to celebrate St’ Patricks day (Irish Patron Saint)

Boston has always been associated with Irish Americans as can be seen from the uniform and logo of the NBA Basketbal team the ‘Boston Celtics’.

A Catholic Community

When the first Irish arrived in the United States most inhabitants (including most of the founding fathers) were Anglican/Presbyterian. The massive influx of Catholics from first Ireland and later Germany made Catholicism a major religion the United States. The religious clashes have are discussed in Experiences and Percepons.

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” http://i.images.cdn.fotopedia.com/t772eb58m34m-f2g6sjoppgA- original/New_York_City/Set_default_flags/Landmarks/ St._Patricks_Cathedral/ Basilica_of_St._Patricks_Cathedral_New_York_City- original-7.jpg What is the Bigger Picture?

Ireland continued to be an emigration country also after the home-land situation improved in the late 1800’s. The USA remained a popular destination but other locations received a large inﬂux of migrants from Ireland as well. Because of the large numbers of migrants, wide geographic spread of destination countries and strong and lasting ties with the homeland, this migration movement is commonly referred to as the Irish Diaspora.

The term 'Irish diaspora' appears in a 1954 book 'The Vanishing Irish', but it was not unl the 1990's - mainly thanks to President Mary Robinson - that the phrase came to be more widely used to describe Irish emigrants and their descendants around the world. In her 1995 address to the Joint Houses of the Oireachtas, 'Cherishing the Irish Disapora', Ms Robinson reached out to the "70 million people worldwide who can claim Irish descent". She went on to say that "The men and women of our diaspora represent not simply a series of departures and losses. They remain, even while absent, a precious reﬂecon of our own growth and change, a precious reminder of the many strands of identy which compose our story".

Source: hp://www.irelandroots.com/roots4.htm Ms Robinson, the ﬁrst female president of Ireland (served from 1990 till 1997)

!"#$%&'%The Irish migrants to the USA were ()*+,-$*.$not the only ones who preferred the city over the countryside. In about 150 /)012$years after the Irish famine it became 3*3/41,"*2more normal to live in a city than not. )541,"65$,*$ #)*+,-$ *.$+*)47$ 3*3/41,"*28$ %9::;&:::

“This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” http://www.flickr.com/photos/fromthenorth/3573869382/ THE AMERICAN DREAM

The idea of the American Dream has aracted many people to the United States. This short video tells the experience of a woman from who moved to the USA. hp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2lJs-0swH8

Look at the numbers. Which percentage of the migrants came from Ireland during the famine-years in the 1840’s? How did this change in the decades aer?

“Today, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated by people of all backgrounds in the United States, Canada and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest producons, St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated in other locaons far from Ireland, including Japan, Singapore and Russia” move your cursor over the thumbnail picture to enlarge

Can you think of any other naonal celebraon that is celebrated in so many places? What does this tell you about the cultural impact of the Irish?

Irish Pubs can be found in most major cities and might be the most visible aspect of the Irish Diaspora.

This Irish Pub in Krakow is one many that is spread across the world.

“This document has been produced with the ﬁnancial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundaon. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reﬂecng the posion of the Anna Lindh Foundaon” NEEDED BUT NOT WANTED “New waves of immigrants are rarely, if ever, popular. But they are oen needed. Many people have migrated to Western European countries from North Africa and Turkey during the last half-century, not because of Western generosity, but because they were required for jobs that naves no longer wanted. They were treated as temporary workers, however, not as immigrants.”

Quoted from Ian Buruma in the arcle Needed but Not Wanted (2010 - 12 -13)

Consider the views of the people in the video clip. How do they view the Brish policies on immigraon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDA8KJlX1pw An Indian perspecve on Brish Migraon Policies. (New Delhi TV)

Remarks by the President on Immigraon Reform at the Chamizal Naonal Memorial El Paso, Texas, May 15th 2011

“We deﬁne ourselves as a naon of immigrants -- a naon that welcomes those willing to embrace America’s ideals and America’s precepts. That’s why millions of people, ancestors to most of us, braved hardship and great risk to come here -- so they could be free to work and worship and start a business and live their lives in peace and prosperity. The Asian immigrants who made their way to California’s Angel Island. The German and Scandinavians who seled across the Midwest. The waves of Irish, and Italian, and Polish, and Russian, and Jewish immigrants who leaned against the railing to catch their ﬁrst glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.”

Websites: ‣Moving Here: 200 Years of Migraon from England (UK Naonal Archives) ‣Toronto Irish Famine Memorial ‣Irish Famine Memorial Sydney Australia

Books: ‣Colm Tóibín; Diarmaid Ferriter. The Irish Famine. A Documentary, New York (2002) ‣David Fitzpatrick. Irish Emigraon 1801-1921, Dublin (1984) ‣Tim Pat Coogan, Wherever Green is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora, New York (2001) ‣Oscar Handling. The Uprooted. ‣Terry Coleman. Passage to the USA.

DVD’s: ‣Out of Ireland: The Story of Irish Emigraon to America (1995)

Educational Material: Oral History Lesson

“We all have migration in our history. Whether it be recent or not so recent migration is a binding force in how our communities are built. This teaching and learning idea helps the participants (students, youths) see the similarities in their history.”

Students will better understand their own history, the similarities with the history of other students (participants) and their place in local, regional and national history.

An example of a migrant that is meaningful for the class. A way to develop timelines.

Lesson 1: To explainithe structure of the learning activity and to disucuss source materials and interview techniques.

Lesson 2: To develop a common and/or individual timeline and to comparing results, discussing push pull factors.

During the first lesson, the teacher will familiarize the students with the idea that the personal experiences of their relatives or acquaintances are a part of history as well.

This is followed by a clear instruction of how the pupils can go around and find these personal experiences within their own environment.

An oral history (or testimony) is the personal living stories of people told in their own words. It is peoples’ authentic experience which is put in stories. It has been one of the most important working method of historians since Herodotus and Thucydides to the researchers nowadays.

• living memory of a few generations • selective attention, stereotypes and prejudices of the respondents; and • influence of ideologies and political situation in the past and present.

NB! Because of these limitations it is important to use other sources as well.

Ability to think about own life experience

Tolerant outlook

•When did you move? •Why did you move? • Why did you move to (destination)? • How you experience the journey? • How did you experience the arrival? • How did the move impact your family? • How did the move impact the society you moved to? • How did the impact influence the society you left? • Can you give an example of these impacts?

NB! Lesson 2 will work best if you agree with the class which questions to ask. The ones mentioned here are exemplary.

The easiest way to find respondents is to ask friends and relatives. Well-known people often have very interesting biographies. It is fine to ask people who retain their own family archives, and who are keen on local history, or used to work at local newspapers, etc.

Таke notes. When conducting interviews, especially about memories from the past, your interviewee will have many opportunities to let his/her mind wander. You do not want to stop these reminiscences, but you do not want the topic of the interview to be discarded either. Good notes allow you to scan back and ask directed questions that will put the interview back on track. Notes also help you remember what good follow-up questions might be.

Always have a means of note taking

The person that is interviewed might have interesting primary sources. These photo’s and objects will help the persons that is being interviewed to better remember his/her history and with permission of the owner make interesting material for the timeline in lesson 2.

People often have photo’s related to the stories they tell.

Set a time limit. Having a definite point when the interview will end, will keep you focused on your topic and the progress of the interview. When interviewing elderly people, long interviews might be difficult. Time limit also help with this.

Don’t forget to bring a watch or other way to keep track of time “This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of EUROCLIO and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the Anna Lindh Foundation” Lesson 1: More guidance

Respect the person you are interviewing. Do not push them. Create a trusting and friendly atmosphere. Find a balance between formal/informal communication. Ask for permission if you want to record the interview. Bring your questions with you.

During the second lesson the pupils will make a timeline. This will give them a greater understanding of each others history and the similarities of the various people that are interviewed (and their own history).

NB! This works best if you create groups of 5-10 students. (otherwise it will take too long to make the timeline).

•What were the reasons to move? (identify the push and pull factors) • What was the reception upon arrival? • Did they feel accepted by society? • Did this change over time? If so, when? Why do you think this is?

Have students make a timeline of 5-10 key events in the stories of the people they interviewed as homework. Make a common timeline in the class. Timeline software can help, but timelines can also be made using paper or a clothing line.

Tip! Assign different colours to the individual stories, so that the chronology of the different stories becomes more clear.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5233301_creati ve-ways-make-timeline.html

Task for Students Make list of the push and pull factors that caused the people that were interviewed to move.

Are the reasons different or similar? What does this tell you?

NB! You can also use the Case Studies on www.discoveringdiversity.eu to compare reasons to move

This lesson is in it self a way of formative assessment. The students present their timeline and discuss with the teacher and other groups the way the timeline is formed. They will have to explain why they choose the sources that they did and how the different sources relate to each other. They will also have to discuss the process of the creation of the timeline and how it affected them.

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