Welcome Speeches

Dr. Uwe Haupenthal cally several years ago, even if it can be Director of the Nordfriesland Museum and considered a balmy breeze here compared the Museum Association of North Friesland to the situation in other countries and on Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished other continents. Suddenly humanistic guests: values count for little, whereas political On behalf of the Nordfriesland Mu- and economical burdens matter all the seum and the Museum Association of more. Uncertainty has been coming within Nordfriesland I wish to give a warm wel- reach everywhere in Europe overnight. come to each one of you. And I would like Tis has to be hurdled in a democratic to wish you an interesting and successful way within the next few years, without conference. our open societies falling to pieces. Te venue and date for your meeting in Meanwhile, the challenges are tre- Husum have been chosen well. For quite mendous. No one should understate the some time now, we – together with our problems – or, on the other hand, negate curator Dr. Paul Heinz Pauseback – have the chances that are opening up. After engaged ourselves with the emigration all, societies are always in motion, and of Ludwig Nissen, later founder of the culture depends on the disputes caused by Nissenhaus, to New York. After a number unfamiliarity and otherness. Incidentally, of unsuccessful attempts, Nissen made a this is what every museum is about! fortune in the New World, and we owe We are all very anxious to hear the our museum to that very capital. Tus questions you will be asking during the our house is causally embedded in issues next few days, how you reason them, of migration. Nissen’s achievements are a and what approaches or solutions you story of success. In his days, hundreds of will present. You are contributing not thousands of people from Schleswig-Hol- only to current political debates but also stein emigrated, too – although with much to the European idea, which should not less economic success! be threatened by certain nationalistic Certainly, the history of the USA has tendencies. been a story of migration to this day – even I wish you every success with your if this fact is ignored by certain political conference. Tank you very much for circles nowadays. Migration is a dominant your appearance, and again: Welcome feature of human history. To the best to our museum! of my knowledge, today more than 60 million people are feeing from political Dr. Paul-Heinz Pauseback and ecological catastrophes. Tis is a fact Head of the Emigration Archive of the that until most recently had been barely of Nordfriisk Instituut interest to the inhabitants of our allegedly Ladies and Gentlemen – Friends from safe Europe. But this changed dramati- and of AEMI, let me put it this way: “A 58 AEMI JOURNAL 2017–2018 dream has come true!” is missing. Tis is a good opportunity After announcing this conference in to thank her for her work and always Tu r i n 2 0 1 5 a n d ofering an invitation to it ready support. (Let’s give her, her boss in Santiago de Compostela last year, I am Mr. Haupenthal and the team of the now opening the 27th Conference of the Nissenhaus loud applause). Tis goes Association of European Migration Insti- too for Mrs. Marlene Kunz, the treasurer tutions hosted this year by the Nordfriisk of the Nordfriisk Instituut, who cannot Instituut and the Nordfriesland Museum be here with us today, and for Tomas Nissenhaus, where we are today. Steensen, our director, especially for his Ahead of us lay three conference days engagement in securing funds for this full of papers, discussions, brainstorming conference. and networking, and last but not least, of Let me now talk about two things we the fun and the delight of being together are all deeply concerned about. Te frst again with friends and colleagues – and is migration, a basic human behavior with of course of meeting new ones every year. which we are all professionally connected My hearty thanks to all of you for coming in one way or another. And the second here, and: “Welcome to Husum, welcome is Europe, a united, free, pluralistic, to North Frisia.” democratic and therefore strong Europe. Today will be our day of labor. We will Over the last years we have watched our hear 17 papers this frst day, the even share dream fading, staggering, swaying right of 15 minutes given to each speaker. Te and left under heavy blows, trying to timekeeping will be rather strict; therefore fnd its way into a common future. Te the chairmen and chairwomen of the only possible good future, I may add. sessions have these yellow and red cards. And because the situation is so difcult, Yellow means: still 5 minutes to go, red: meetings like ours are so important. Tis one minute left, come to an end please. is a European event. When we meet, we But nevertheless, we will take our time are part of Europe United. It is the initial and will not hurry. Tere are breaks and goal of the founders of the AEMI that refreshments enough, and we will take a has become so important now: people walk to the harbor for lunch to get some from all over Europe coming together fresh air. And you see this pipe: it is not on friendly terms, working and having the emergency break in case someone fun together. Tis flls the European Idea should happen to be color blind. I will with life. Europe is not a distant vision use it before I or Mrs. Horschig would then, symbolized just by as distant names announce something technical to make as Merkel, Macron, Juncker or Tusk. No, sure that everybody is listening. when we meet, Europe gets a face, a voice, Let me now introduce to you Mrs. a name more familiar to us. Europe is Horschig, who represents the Nissenhaus Benan, the Basque, it is Maddalena from Museum as I represent the Nordfriisk Turin, it is Emilia from Galicia, Maria Instituut. Like myself, she is also in charge Beatriz from Portugal – and Brexit or no of all matters concerning this AEMI con- Brexit – it is Brian and Paddy, our Irish ference. So feel free to ask either of us if friends. Yes, Europe on a personal level any questions should arise or if anything becomes a friend. And when we go back 27TH AEMI CONFERENCE 59 home, we take this spirit with us – and at the Mexican border to restrict illegal that makes these annual meetings so very immigration. Te EU struggles hard to important. fnd a way to get back the control over Tis year we have our meeting here in the outside borders, especially that vast the Nissenhaus Museum. An institution border called the Mediterranean Sea. For that has been built from the fortune the Schengen Area and the Dublin treaties Ludwig Nissen earned as a successful will only work with an efcient border immigrant in New York and in his last will control and an even share of migrants and bequeathed to his city of birth, Husum. refugees for every member state. He is an example of a very successful self- Otherwise national borders will spring made man and of a perfect integration in up again all over Europe, as Ferruccio his new home country. As a very self-con- Pastore showed us so impressively at the scious German-American member of the Turin meeting. I would not have believed Anglo-American elite, he had to show all in 2015 that this could be the case too his qualities as a good fghter during the at our next-door border with Denmark. time of the German-bashing of World But now this once vanished border has War I. You can learn more about him and been closed again since 2016, now it is his times in the exhibition on this foor. regularly guarded by the police again, Te frst part of our conference dealing who since last week have been reinforced with migration to the USA represents a by soldiers. After a visit to Hungary, the homage to him. representatives of the People’s Party in Beginning in 2015, we are now in the Denmark are fond of a solid fence at the third year of the so called “Migration border. We will go on an excursion across Crisis”. It has become more and more the border to Tondern on Saturday – and clear that we are at the beginning of a maybe fnd out that on the West coast movement that will be the most important things usually are not as hot as elsewhere. as well as the most crucial feature of the At the Turin conference we also learned century, and we are also sure that we have that great parts of the African population no time to waste. Last year I cited Niall are on the move. It will be a great chal- Ferguson, a well known Harvard and now lenge to cope with that and stick to our Stanford historian. In an interview with principles of freedom. No national state the German newspaper Die Welt he had for itself can do that, only a new founded compared Europe with the United States. United Europe can be up to that task. Migration from the South, he said, will In Santiago de Compostela I said it had make the US a more Latin-American become very clear that migration contains and more Catholic land. Migration from both positive and negative aspects, chances Islamic countries, he added, will make and dangers alike, as everything in real life Europe more like the Near East. So the does, depending on the people involved. problems Europe will have to solve in the Only in ideology and wishful thinking it future will in this respect be more like the is otherwise. Luckily this kind of idealism ones in the United States. US President is on the retreat since then, but there is Trump had fared well in his campaign in my opinion still too much thinking of with the promise to build a solid wall just that kind going on. 60 AEMI JOURNAL 2017–2018

Terefore, migration policy should not to me – whatever noble motives they be regarded as an attempt against the right may have or claim to have – more like political tendencies, or as a means to show a part of the problem than like a part of that you are steadfast in your religious a future solution. Surely we all have our faith or of superior moral standards, and personal preferences but as scientists we surely not as being used to polish up a should try to avoid this trap. So we should certain bad national image. Migration be able to enlighten the way a little bit policy is a value in itself; it does not need with our fndings. Philosophy, science any additional and distracting impetus. It and democracy have the same ancient deals with human beings, afecting whole root in Athens. Since then we know that lives of millions of people, their fears, the important thing is not a monolog dreams and hopes – everything – and not promoting one’s own point of view. To always with a happy end. We know about defend one’s own sacred opinion at any the necessity and obligation to guarantee cost is undemocratic at heart. What really shelter to those whose lives and health counts is the much more tedious and are in immediate danger. But we have to troublesome open dialog between equals accept that not all we want from others honestly searching for a compromise, can come true, and that the more people which is always the best solution to a come, the more will have to go back. So problem. And that is also the way a real the main and only concern of migration United Europe will surely work. policy should be the wellbeing of the hu- I now wish us all another great AEMI mans it concerns: refugees, migrants and meeting. Unfortunately, the Governor of natives alike. And it should be pragmatic, Schleswig-Holstein, Mr. Daniel Günther quick, consequent and compatible in the cannot be with us today to open this whole of Europe. conference. He is hosting the President We are far from that, I know. But what I of the German Republic, who is visiting also know is this. If this thing goes wrong, Schleswig-Holstein today. But he will I am not so much worried about the mi- write a foreword for our AEMI Journal grants or refugees. It is not their fault that comprising this year’s papers. I suggest that migration leads Europe into a crisis. Tey we take this opportunity to express with a behave like all human beings – they are hearty applause how much we appreciate trying to save their lives and/or improve his support and interest in our work. their living conditions. What I am afraid Now let us start our meeting with of is how we – the natives – might react, my introducing the keynote speaker of led by national egoism and driven by fear. this year’s conference: Professor Tomas It is our job as researchers and scien- Steensen, the director of the Nordfriisk tists to speak up in time, to put forward Instituut. facts and fgures, our fndings and our He will now tell us what it means to theories against the loud right-wing and be a Frisian, what it requires to become a left-wing ideologies, against maximum member of this minority and what history, claims of pressure groups and against culture and language have to do with philanthropic naivety as well. Teir usually it. And he will tell us about our special loud and solidly founded opinions appear inclusive approach to minority afliation, 27TH AEMI CONFERENCE 61 which is so totally contrary to the exclusive coming conference as well, and I wish national one. Maybe it could work not the participants many informative and only for a minority but at the European stimulating lectures and discussions. level as well? (Translated from German by J.Ž.S.) Daniel Günther Dieter Harrsen Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein Landrat / Chief Executive of the District Migration and integration are salient of North Frisia themes for Schleswig-Holstein. Tat is You may not have noticed at frst glance, why I am so pleased that these proceedings but I have a kind of migration back- of the Association of European Migration ground myself. A long time ago, at the Institutions (AEMI) are now published. age of sixteen, my great-great-grandfather Results of an event so important for emigrated from the island of Pellworm, Schleswig-Holstein are documented here: where he was born, to the USA. Tere he results of the Husum Conference titled “At managed to make a small fortune, and in Home or Uprooted” that was co-organized the year 1900, when he was thirty-four by the Nordfriesland Museum – Nis- years old, he came back home. Now he senhaus and the Nordfriisk Instituut in had enough money to buy two farms cooperation with AEMI. including farmland on Pellworm. Schleswig-Holstein can contribute a lot When my great-great-grandfather went when we speak about European migration to New York, it was normal to do so. Te movements. Besides the immigration United States was an immigrant country, of our people to the United States of and no president would have thought of America, our state also knows the con- building a wall against Mexico or other sequences of the fight from a war and its countries. aftermath – be it after the Second World But the world has changed, and we are War or nowadays. Trough its Emigration facing diferent challenges today. More Archive, the Nordfriisk Instituut has very than 60 million refugees have left their well illustrated the topics of migration home countries. About 1.3 million have and integration. arrived in Germany since the year 2015 As the Minister President of this state, I and about two thousand have been put am extremely pleased when migrations in a up in Northern Frisia. Here they found a wider European context are the subject of lot of people willing to help them; many discussion in Husum. AEMI is a network people partly acted for the public auth- of currently forty organizations in twenty orities. Federal President Frank-Walter European countries due to which it is Steinmeier, whom I am going to meet bound to present this topic to European in Husum castle tonight, gave a speech publics in a positive way. In doing so, on this year’s commemoration day for AEMI has been making a valuable con- the German unity on Tuesday. Tere he tribution to the united Europe, and the pointed out that we Germans have not many speakers and conference guests have yet answered a rash of questions. played a signifcant part in it. In his speech, Federal President Stein- I wish AEMI a lot of success with the meier said: “Other people’s hardship must 62 AEMI JOURNAL 2017–2018 never leave us unconcerned.” But Stein- When Ludwig Nissen left his home- meier also said that we have to try to bring town in 1872, he strived for a better life in line the realities of the world and the in a better world. Tese days, millions possibilities of our country. Tis difcult of people try to reach other countries discussion now lies before us. We will because of poverty, political persecution need a special law with which we will be and fear of war, and unfortunately we able to manage and control immigration must admit that the rest of the world depending on our own standards. It will hides behind its own smaller problems. be one of the most important tasks of the I am convinced this behavior is wrong, next German federal government to start and so I am thankful that scientists like this discussion and involve the people in it. you deal with this topic, so that a united Scientifc support can help us deal with Europe has a chance to come true. these challenges, and thus I wish you good I suppose a certain question is going results out of your conference. to be important during this conference: Tank you for listening! What does ‘a home’ mean? A place, a language, family, neighborhood or friends, Uwe Schmitz religion, customs and traditions, and so Mayor of Husum on … But to leave you enough time to Dear Mr. Storhaug, ladies and gen- discuss all the aspects of your theme, I tlemen: will come to the end now. I am very pleased to welcome you to the I wish your conference a lot of success, 27th AEMI conference here in Husum, in and I will be happy if you have the oppor- the Nordfriesland Museum Nissenhaus. tunity to spend some time to visit Husum’s I am grateful to Paul-Heinz Pauseback attractions, for example the harbor or the from Nordfriisk Institut, who asked me historic center. Have a good time and if I could address a few words to the thank you for listening. participants of this meeting, and said that I should do this preferably in English. I have to admit that my schooldays were over a long time ago and that I usually use English for ordering food and drinks during the holidays. For this reason, I hope you agree I should not talk too long. At frst I would like to say that it is a great honor for Husum and me as its mayor that this conference is taking place in our little town this year, especially because I have heard where it took place in former years. I think that the topic you are engaged in has always been of fundamental importance for the whole of mankind, and is still very important these days.