In her talk, Dr. Reimer illustrated the different concepts of migration and applied them to current developments in the United States and Europe.

The rector of the Andrássy University, Prof. Dr. Dietmar Meyer gave a short introduction and welcomed Dr. Reimer. He emphasized the long history of migration and highlighted the fact that migration how we experience it today is unprecedented. Out of this new situation, many problems arise that need to be solved. He then passed the word on to the organizer of the event Dr. Ursula Mindler-Steiner, who is an Assistant Professor at the University of Graz at the Institute for History/Austrian History and is now working at the AUB as well as at the University of Graz. After a few introductory words on Dr. Ulla Kriebernegg and her work, she passed the word to Dr. Kriebernegg, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Inter-American Studies at the University of Graz, who chaired the lecture and said a few introductory words about Dr. Reimer’s work as well.

Dr. Reimer then started her lecture by asking the question of what home meant for the audience. She presented ‘home’ as something people do not leave without definite reasons, which is why the reasons for migration need to be investigated. To answer this question, Dr. Reimer introduced different theoretical approaches that are already in place. She mentioned the Neoclassical Model, the approach of New Economics, the Dual Labor Market Theory, the World System Theory, and the Network Theory. She then laid a certain focus on the theory of Gender Relations which explored the role of women in the global economy. Dr. Reimer summed this up with concluding that no theory can explain ‘Migration’ which in her perspective occurs through multiple levels.

In the next part of her presentation, Dr. Reimer focused on the United States history of dealing with immigration. Focusing on the history of immigration in the US, one important landmark she mentioned was the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965. In 1980 the United Nations’ definition of refugees was adopted to US law and since then about 50.000 refugees officially entered the United States every year. Dr. Reimer also highlighted, that in recent years and especially since Donald Trump became President of the United States, these numbers have been the lowest of all times, going down to 30.000 refugees admitted per year.

After Dr. Reimer, the understanding of refugees in the United States is highly shaped by racial ideology. This can be seen when comparing two cases: The handling of refugees from Cuba and Haiti. As Dr. Reimer concluded, because of racialization refugees from Haiti were treated even worse than those from Cuba because of the color of their skin. Additionally, in perspective of whether Asylum is given or not after Dr. Reimer depends heavily on the individual.

Dr. Reimer concluded her presentation by showing recent data on migration. In the last two years, the United States has received fewer refugees than all other countries in 2017 and this development seems to deteriorate in 2018. Also, migration is a circular process meaning that since 2014, more Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico than have come to the United States. Lastly, Dr. Reimer discussed the topic of hyphenated identities, which is the term used in the United States for immigrants who perceive themselves to have more than one national identity. One example of this are the so-called “Dreamers”, the generation of immigrants who came to the United States as children and to whom their country of birth is often alienated. Some of them have produced special literature like poems or songs, which is the special focus of Dr. Reimer’s research. The evening event closed by a discussion with the audience.