Klaus Tenfelde and John Belchem are circulating the following, on their Conference on
Irish and Polish Migration in Comparative Perspective, in Bochum, Germany, in October
1999.

What does the Conference look like? Well, the Irish side looks like the Grand Tour
of the Irish-Diaspora list (European Chapter) - that's what it looks like.

Should be good.

P.O'S.


######

Forwarded on behalf of Klaus Tenfelde...

Below you will find a preliminary version of the programme of a
conference which John Belchem, University of Liverpool, and me
are jointly planning to organize in Bochum, Oct. 6-10, 1999. We are
still open for a few contributions, especially under certain aspects
which would fill to much space to mention here, and in addition, a
limited number of people could join the conference if they are ready
to travel on their own costs, and accommodate themselves.
Best wishes, Klaus Tenfelde.


Irish and Polish Migration in Comparative Perspective

Conference to be held at the Ruhr-Universität (Institut zur
Erforschung der europäischen Arbeiterbewegung)
Bochum/Germany, Oct. 6-10, 1999,

1. Introduction
Studies of the migration experience usually focus on individual
ethnic or national groups. This has had unfortunate consequences.
Studied in isolation, individual migrants tend to remain 'apart': they
are seen either as 'others' or as 'exceptional'. The purpose of this
conference is to interrogate such judgments by assessing migration
within a comparative perspective.

To reduce the obstacles and pitfalls in comparative studies, it is
proposed to concentrate on two European groups - one from the
West, one from the East - who display a number of surface
similarities. Situated on opposite peripheries of industrial Europe,
Ireland and Poland produced migrant outflows with similar
backgrounds, age structures, and religious cultures: Irish and Polish
migrants were mainly rural, predominantly young and single, and
adhered for the most part to distinctive forms of Catholicism.
Furthermore, the cases of Ireland and Poland will allow examination
of the complex geo-politics of migration.

In the framework of comparative analysis, it is not proposed to stick
rigidly to chronological boundaries. The conference will compare
issues and themes rather than a specific time period. Indeed, the
time periods under investigation will include the early 19th century in
the Irish case; in both cases, it seems advisable to end in 1939, but
include considerations of consequences, reaching well into the post-
war period. To facilitate comparison and reduce cultural and
national complexity, special attention will be paid to Irish migration
into England, and Polish migration into Germany, preferably into the
heavy industrial districts of both countries.


2. Rationale
The grounds on which comparisons will probably lead to far-
reaching insights which could not be attained by different means,
can be differentiated as follows:

Rural background: In what forms, and to what extent, did the almost
exclusively agrarian backgrounds of migrants shape their wishes to
migrate, their perceptions of reality, and their expectations of the
future? Within these push factors, what role was played by the
respective systems of farm organization and feudal rule, tenant
property and heredity factors, family structures, birth surplus and
rural pauperism?

Forms of migration: What are the precise numbers of migrants in
different time periods, and to what extent did respective waves of
migration originate in economic developments (pull factors)? Was
there any 'European format' of simultaneous migration from different
countries of origin, and did it extend to overseas migration? How
was migration organized, and what forms did it take, (single, family,
village and 'chain' migration)? What where the structural features of
the migrants (age, sex, skill etc.), and to what extent did migrants
perceive the move to be irrevocable? Who organized migration?

The industrial workplace: Without ignoring the socio-economic
diversity of the migrant experience, to what extent, and why did Irish
and Polish migrants tend to prefer heavy industrial work? Did the
structures and future outlooks of such work attract them, or would
the massive demand of labor on the part of heavy industrial plants
play a decisive role? Would special features of heavy industrial
work organization (authority, work culture, unskilled occupations)
account for its attractiveness to migrants, or vice versa?

Family patterns: How did young bachelors organize their daily time
schedules within completely strange environments, how were they
housed, how did they occupy their leisure time? With whom would
they associate? Who were the women they married, and how long
did it take them to form families? What were the features of such
families, to be formed predominantly within mono-industrial, male
workers' populations? How did deficient infrastructures and the
process of family building interrelate? What about sexuality,
women's work, child rearing and the relations of generations, and
what was the role of catholicism in all this? Can a distinctive type of
'young, catholic, heavy industrial migrant family' be differentiated,
characterized by rather conservative gender relations, male
authority, neglect of child care, and generally poor living conditions?
Urban environments and the politics of migration: What kinds of
supra-family ties were the first-generation migrants prone to
construct - within neighbourhoods, church parishes, work-place
acquaintances, and formal associations? Would certain distinctive
'milieus' evolve, and how would they develop in the course of time,
as they passed on to the next generation? What patterns of migrant
communities and church parishes arose? To what extent did the
migrant groups manage to construct their own self-sufficient service
economy (shops, information, formal affairs)?

What were the specific relations between resident populations, and
first or next generation migrants? Are there regular patterns to be
discovered through comparison of two migrant groups of different
ethnicity, though similar structure in terms of background, skill, and
belief? How did such relationships and tensions express themselves
in organizational form, and what were the respective politics of
toleration or rejection, what formal strategies were adopted by
employers, churches, administrators, and city councils? For
example, did a type of migrant theology evolve? How did legal
conditions shape the process of assimilation, and to what extent
where such conditions subject to change?

The culture of assimilation: Symbolic and representational aspects
of migrant communities are to be discussed here. To what extent,
and with what consequences, was apartness, otherness, realized
and perpetuated? What were the influences of the work place, and
of the distinctive features of family and community life? How would
the educational system reflect the needs of migrants' children? To
what extent did literacy spread, and what was the fate of
remembrance within communities designed to transfer history orally
rather than by written testimonies? How did the links to the countries
of origin develop, and what happened to the self-perception of the
migrants' heritage in the course of generational change?


3. Organization
The conference will divide into seven sessions (chair, maximum of
five speakers, and commentator). The organizers will issue an
internet advertisement of the conference, but will directly invite well-
known specialists on the subject matter to ensure that papers on the
Irish and Polish dimension become comparable. Since it will be
difficult to acquire genuinely comparative papers based on sufficient
empirical knowledge of both sides, comparisons will have to be
drawn by commentators, to introduce and feed discussions.

The conference will be organized on three days (including a
Saturday to facilitate cheap transport) at the 'Haus der Geschichte
des Ruhrgebiets', Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, October 6-9,
1999 (travelling: Oct. 6, 10; opening ceremonies: Oct. 6, 6 p.m.).
The conference is organized jointly by the School of History,
University of Liverpool (Prof. Belchem; contact:
J.C.Belchem[at]liverpool.ac.uk), and the Institute for Social
Movements, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Prof. Tenfelde, see below).
Thanks to a considerable donation on the part of the Fritz Thyssen
Foundation, Cologne, it has been made certain that travel costs,
hotel accommodation, and meals for contributors, commentators and
session heads can be reimbursed. For details on organization etc.,
please contact:
Prof. Klaus Tenfelde, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Institut zur
Erforschung der Europäischen Arbeiterbewegung, D-44780
Bochum; phone (office) 0049-234-7004687; fax (office) 0049-234-
7094249; phone (private) 0049-234-854060; e-mail:
Klaus.Tenfelde[at]t-online.de

It is intended to distribute conference papers to all participants well
before the conference so that, except for the opening lecture,
contributors may limit their talks to some 15 minutes. Discussions
will be opened by commentators who should be aware of their
comparative task to connect materials and papers presented in the
speeches. To secure the distribution of papers (15-20 type-written,
preferably word-processed pages) well in advance of the
conference, such papers must reach Bochum not later than Sept.
1, 1999.

The conference proceedings - including the papers by
commentators - will be published. Contributors and commentators
should expect to possibly modify their papers shortly after the
conference so that a fresh publication can be organized early in
2000.

Following the conference, it is intended to organize a series of
lectures on the subject matter, to be held at the Institute for Irish
Studies, Uiniversity of Liverpool, and possibly at a university
institution in Warsaw.

4. Sessions
The conference will be opened by a keynote speech presented by Prof.
John Belchem, University of Liverpool. In addition, chairpersons will
be selected according to their reputation in the field so that they
would be capable of opening the session by short addresses,
summarizing the problems under discussion.

Conference language will be English.

Understandably, the thematic suggestions which follow to a degree
are still incomplete, tentative and provisional. Yet all contributors
have already agreed to submit the papers mentioned below; some may
want to slightly modify the titles of their contributions in the course of
preparation.

Opening Lecture
(Title to be specified. Prof. John Belchem, School of History,
University of Liverpool)

I. Irish and Polish Migrants: Chronology, Backgrounds, and
Compositions
Chair: Prof. Jan Lucassen (Free University of Amsterdam,
International Institute for Social History, NL-Amsterdam)
Papers:
Polish Migrants to the Ruhr during the First World War (Doz. Dr.
habil. Jan Molenda, Instytut Historii PAN (Academy of Sciences in
Poland), Rynek Starego Miasta 29/31, PL - 00-272 Warsawa)
Irish, Poles and Other Migrants: A Comparative Study of Migration
to Britain and Germany, c1820-1914 (Dr. Panikos Panayi,
Department of Humanities, De Montfort University, The Gateway, GB
- - Leicester LE1 9BH)
Polish, Jewish, and German Migration from the Poznan Region
during the Nineteenth Century (Dr. Dorota Praszalowicz, Polonia
Institute, Jagiellonian University, ul. Jodlowa 13, PL - 30-252
Kraków)
Polish Migration to Northern France in the 20th Century (Dr. Olivier
Kourchid, CNRS-UMR Georges Friedmann, ISST-Université de
Paris I; 16, Boulevard Carnot, F - 92340 Bourg la Reine)
Commentator: Dr Philipp Ther, Free University of Berlin,
Fachbereich Geschichtswissenschaften, Kosterstr. 20, D-14195
Berlin)

II. Ethnicity and the Workplace
Chair: Prof. Klaus Tenfelde (University of Bochum)
Papers:
Solidarity in isolation? Irish iron-workers in northern England, 1851-
1914 (Dr. Don MacRaild, School of Social and International Studies,
University of Sunderland, GB - Sunderland SR1 3PZ)
Irish and Polish workers at the workplace, 1945-1951 (Dr. Ken
Lunn, Dept. of Social and Historical Studies, University of
Portsmouth, Milldam, Burnaby Road, GB - Portsmouth PO1 3AS)
Re-defining skill: ethnicity and Irish workers in South Wales in the
19th century (Dr. Paul O'Leary, Dept. of History and Welsh History,
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, GB - Ceredigion SY23 3DY)
English-Irish conflict in rural Britain: the case of Irish harvesters,
1815-1885 (Prof. Frank Neal, Dept. of Business and Management, Salford
University, GB - Salford M5 4WT)
Polish refugee and migrant labor, 1920-1950. Attraction of mining or
lack of alternatives (Frank Caestecker, Hilarius Bertolfstraat 54, B -
9050 Ledeberg)
Commentator: Dr. Benjamin Ziemann (University of Bochum,
Institute for Social Movements)

III. The Migrant Family
Chair: Prof. Anna Zarnowska (University of Warszaw)
Papers:
Madmen and migrants: did the insane migrate or did migration drive
the Irish insane? (Dr. Elizabeth Malcolm, Institute of Irish Studies,
University of Liverpool, GB - Liverpool L69 3BX)
Irish Immigrant families in the English West Midlands: a long-term
view, 1830-1914 (Prof. John Herson, School of Social Science,
Liverpool John Moores, GB - Liverpool L3 2ET)
Family Life and Catholicism among Polish Migrants to the Ruhr
Area, 19th Century (Prof. Klaus Tenfelde, University of Bochum)
Al League of Their Own. Strategic networks of Polish women as a
female response to male dominated networks (1890-1914) (Dr. Pien
Versteegh, Voorstadslaan 69, NL - 6541 SJ Nijmwegen)
Commentator: Dr. Susanne Rouette (University of Bochum, Faculty
of History)

IV. Associational Culture
Chair: Prof. John Belchem, University of Liverpool
Papers:
The Associational Culture of Irish Immigrants in Birmingham in the
19th Century (Alex Peach, Department of Humanities, De Montfort
University, The Gateway, GB - Leicester LEI 9BH)
Immigrant networking: the associational culture of the Irish in South
Wales in the 19th century (Dr. Louise Miskell, Department of History,
University of Dundee, GB - Dundee DD1 4HN)
Polish Organizations in Germany prior to the First World War (Prof.
Jerzy Koztowski, Instytut Historii Uniwersytet Poznanski (UAM), ul.
Marcina 78, PL-61-809 Poznan)
Polish Pits and community formation in the Northern Ruhr area until
1939 (Dr. U. Peters-Schildgen, D-Herne)
Commentator: Dr. Valentina-Maria Stefanski, German Historical
Institute, Warszaw, Palac Kultury I Nauki [XVIIP.], Plac Defilad 1,
SKR 33, PL 00-901 Warsawa)

V. Ethnic Nationalism and the Labour Movement
Chair: Prof. Christoph Kleßmann, University of Potsam, Center for
Contemporary History)
Papers:
Socialists among Polish migrants to Germany prior to World War I
(Dr. Krysztof Rzepa, Institut Historii, Uniwersytet Poznanski (UAM),
ul. Marcina 78, PL - 61-809)
Irish migrants, trade unions, and politics in the Scottish coalfields
(Dr. Alan Campbell, School of History, University of Liverpool, GB -
Liverpool L69 3BX)
Labour and Irish nationalist politics: a comparative analysis of
Liverpool, Bootle and Birkenhead, c. 1900-1939 (Dr. Sam Davies,
School of Social Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, GB -
Liverpool L3 2ET)
Irish-American and Polish-American Nationalism in the USA (Dr.
habil. Tadeusz Paleczny, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Instytut
Polonijny, PL - 30-252 Kraków)
Commentator: N.N.

VI. The Politics of Migration
Chair: Prof. Klaus J. Bade (University of Osnabrück)
Papers:
The politics of migration: the Polish migrant community in the Ruhr
region before and after World War I (Prof. John J. Kulczycki,
Department of History, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S.
Morgan St., USA - Chicago, IL 60607-7109)
Britain, Ireland, and Anglo-Irish migration, 1921-71: politics, public
opinion, and state policy (Dr. Enda Delaney, The Institute of Irish
Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, 8 Fitzwilliam St.,
Northern Ireland - Belfast BT9 6AW)
Electoral politics of Irish migrants in England (Dr. Alan O'Day,
School of Languages and European Studies, University of North
London, 166-200 Hollywood road, GB - London N7 8DB)
British Politics towards Polish Migrants in the 19th Century (Prof. Dr.
Kazimierz Dopierala, Polska Akademia Nauk, Zaklad Badan
Narodowosciowych, Stary Rynek 78/79, PL - Poznan)
Commentator: Prof. Colin Homes (Dept. of History, University of
Sheffield, GB-Sheffield S10 2HQ)

VII. The Construction and Preservation of Ethnicity
Chair: Prof. Robert Lee (University of Liverpool, School of History,
GB - Liverpool L69 3BX)
Papers:
The Irish Regional Diasporas Project (Dr. Brian K. Lambkin, Centre
for Migration Studies, Ulster American Folk Park, Mellon Road,
Northern Ireland - Omagh, County Tyrone, BT78 5QY, and Dr.
Piaras Mac Éinrí, Irish Centre for Migration Studies, University
College Cork, Bloomfield Terrace, Western Road, Ireland - Cork)
The comparative construction of ethnic identity among Polish and
Irish migrants to the U. S. (20th century) (Mathew J. O'Brien, Dept.
of History, University of Wisconsin, USA - Madison)
'The Polish Peasant', and the Irish: Transatlantic currents in peasant
studies (Dr. Patrick O'Sullivan; Irish Diaspora Research Unit,
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies, University of
Bradford, GB-Bradford BD7 1DP)
Commentator: Dr. Roger Swift (Centre for Victorian Studies,
University College Chester, GB-Chester CH1 4BJ)

- --
Patrick O'Sullivan
Head of the Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Email Patrick O'Sullivan
Irish-Diaspora list
Irish Diaspora Studies http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/

Irish Diaspora Research Unit
Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies
University of Bradford
Bradford BD7 1DP
Yorkshire
England