On the Move: Emotions and Human Mobility

Abstract

The introduction to this special issue of JEMS discusses some of the major developments in the study of emotions, and suggests ways in which various theories and perspectives can be relevant to the study of migration, in particular to the study of social interaction between migrants and members of local communities and to the study of interaction within transnational families. The paper addresses a series of questions. What are emotions? How are emotional processes shaped by migration? To what extent are these dynamics influenced by structural possibilities and constraints such as immigration policies or economic inequality? How do migrants interact emotionally with the people they meet in the receiving countries, and how do they attach to their new surroundings? How do they keep contact with their absent kin? In which ways do migrant organisations and institutions frame migrant experiences, provide support, increase a sense of belonging, or influence and translate government policies? In summarising current debates about these themes, the paper will highlight the approaches in the individual contributions that make up the various papers in this special issue, as well as draw on some of my own research on Sudeten Germans. I conclude with some suggestions for further research.

Keywords:

• Emotions
• Migration
• Transnationalism
• Sudeten Germans

Notes

1. Recent publications include discussions of emotional interaction within transnational families (Baldassar 2007; Baldassar et al. 2006; McKay 2007; Yeoh et al. 2005), the effects of communication technologies on long-distance interaction (Panagakos and Horst 2006; Wilding 2006) and emotional return journeys to the homeland (Baldassar 2001; Lambkin 2008; Ramirez et al. 2007). Other scholars have analysed the emotional costs of labour migration in terms of gender, ethnicity and power (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2005), or practices of homemaking and diasporic belonging in migrant communities (Ahmed et al. 2003; Burrell 2008; Fortier 2000). Individual chapters and articles have appeared in numerous books and journals. Furthermore, journals such as Mobilities (Conradson and McKay 2007), Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power (Svašek and Skrbiš 2007) and the Journal of Intercultural Studies (Svašek 2008) have produced special issues on emotions and human mobility.

2. The Sudeten Germans formed the second-largest ethnic group in Czechoslovakia when it was established after the First World War, which brought an end to the German-dominated Habsburg Empire. When Hitler gained power in Germany, many Sudeten Germans supported him and welcomed the incorporation of ‘the Sudetenland’ (border areas belonging to Czechoslovakia) into the Third Reich in 1938, as well as the Nazi occupation of the remaining parts of Moravia and Bohemia in 1939. After the end of the Second World War, President Beneš signed a number of decrees and sided with the Potsdam Agreement. As a result, the majority of the over 3 million Sudeten Germans were expelled to Germany and Austria.

3. Thanks to Dirk Schubotz for his valuable suggestion.

4. Magerl was expelled from Wusleben and resettled in the Bavarian village of Hohlweiler. Before the expulsion, around 300 Sudeten Germans lived in Wusleben, situated close to the Czech–German border. In 1949, it became part of a restricted military zone on the Czech side of the Iron Curtain. (http://www.zanikleobce.cz/index.php?lang=d&zdroj=427, last accessed 07 March 2008); see also Hamperl (1997) for more detailed information.

5. For obvious reasons, the number of Sudeten Germans with first-hand experience of the expulsion is decreasing. To most of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, their ancestral Sudeten German background has little or no relevance.

6. Evidently, the physical dimensions of emotions can also be consciously managed, for example through the body politic and the careful orchestration of rituals, when people are gathered in a space as one collective, when sad music is played after moments of quiet reflection, or when acts of celebration are accompanied by colourful processions, as happened during some of the expellee events. The fear of loss and separation is so ingrained in human nature that I myself, while critical of Sudeten German expellee politics, felt strongly moved by the rituals.

7. Sudeten German organisations have been calling for ‘Heimatsrecht’ since the expulsion, demanding support from the West German government (the issue was taboo in East Germany) and, since 1990, from the German government. They have also raised the issue at the European Parliament and the American Senate (Svašek 2002).