PRESENTATION IN VIENNA, DECEMBER 2012

Understanding the Transatlantic Migration Experience. MigrantInnen aus Österreich-Ungarn in den USA, 1870–1950

Annemarie Steidl / Wladimir Fischer. Respondent: Franz X. Eder

December 5, 2012, wisokolloquium-seminary series,  Institut für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, University of Wien

Steidl and Fischer presentetd a book project undertaken together with James Oberly (University of Wisconsin, Eau Clair). This study concerns transatlantic migrations from central Europe to North America. The starting point is Austria-Hungary, a state that sent the most ethnically diverse migrants to the United States. The book treats migrants from all relevant ethnic contexts of the Monarchy.

The book treats both the demographic and the socio-economic situation of migrants and the “identity management” of the migrants in a comparative perspective. Thus, the agency of the actors comes into focus, too. Among the topics are migrant marriage pattersn and strategies on the US labor market, and the development of the migrant public culture, most importantly the foreign language press. A case study is devoted to the south-slav identity managers in the USA.