Migration and Development in Central and Southeastern Europe since the Nineteenth Century

The focus will be on topics that have already been raised by members of both parts of the research group, but have not been brought to the fore so far. While the analyses of migration movements in the chosen region, i.e. South-Eastern Europe, have been concerned with emigration and the formation of emigrant communities, the members of the project group are foregrounding the impact of emigration on the communities of origin, especially in terms of return migration and emigrant remittances. Many emigrants chose to return, their departure abroad was based on the desire to earn money to pay off debts and improve their home settlements. Return migration remains important in this part of Europe, as returning migrants contribute to the economic and social development of countries through investment, shipments and skills.

The cooperation between Slovenian and German researchers will build on the applicants' research projects "Between the 'Tenth Banovina' and the 'Seventh Republic'" (led by Zobec) and Transnational Families, Farms and Firms: Migrant Entrepreneurs in Kosovo and Serbia Since the 1960s (Brunnbauer) - and will cover the following aspects:

- recording and retrieval of material in the IOS Library and the Slovenian Archives

- short visits and lectures to confront the perspectives of Slovenian and German researchers

- a joint meeting - a workshop to analyse and analyse the findings (in Ljubljana 2025)

- contributions by Slovenian and German researchers at the final conference of the project Between the 'Tenth Banovina' and the 'Seventh Republic' (at the same time

discussion meeting, second workshop) (Ljubljana 2026)

- preparation of a thematic issue to be published in the newspaper Dve domovini/Two Homelands (2026 or 2027)

- creation of a website (blog) with essays on research questions