Migration and mobility research

Mobility and migration have always been responses to more or less complex economic, ecological, social and cultural, but also religious, ethnic and political conditions of existence. Mobility and migration have always been able to set various social processes in motion, such as the transformation of urban and rural areas or cultural developments and the formation of transnational networks. However, they could also bring about individual changes such as opportunities for advancement or integration and identity formation.
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The research area focuses on the migration relations of two major European regions, the German and the Hungarian, from the 17th century to the First World War, examining religiously and economically motivated migration movements as well as the mobility of labour or students. A special chapter of this extremely rich history of migration and relationships and thus of the research area is the settlement migration of the ‘Danube Swabians’. 

As mobility and migration permeate almost all areas of life, historical migration research fundamentally requires interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approaches.

The photo shows a sign with the names of the twin towns of Elek in Hungary
The picture shows an old photo of Orczy Street in Budapest around 1890.
Copyright Fortepan / Hauptstadtarchiv Budapest. Archiv-Referenz: HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.07.084
The image shows emigrants waiting in front of a ship. Below is the text: They boarded ships, some in Ulm, others in Regensburg, and sailed down the Danube like the Nibelungs once did, but not like them with sword and shield, but with plough and spade and child.