Survey of the Archival Sources concerning Migration and Settlement ...

migration and settlement, we decided to adopt a thematic approach, using acomprehensive definition of migration in order to include as much information aspossible. Migration, according to the definition employed, occurs as soon as a person ororganization crosses international borders for any reason (refugees, migrant labourersand so on), exluding reasons such as business, tourism, leisure etc. The settlementprocess, our second subject of interest, is closely related to international migration andin many cases can result in the temporary, semi-permanent or permanent formation ofminorities.As a result of this rather broad approach and concomitant criteria, not only arematters regarding migration in the most narrow sense considered but, as we pointed outin the foregoing paragraph, the social aspects relating to refugees and minorities are alsoreflected in the material. While the relationship between refugees and migration is quiteobvious, the link between minorities and migration needs futher examination, because itwould not be correct to argue that the formation of a minority is always the result ofmigration.The best way to elucidate this is to make a comparison between two kinds ofminorities. On the one hand we have the indigenous minority of the Laplanders in thenorthern part of Scandinavia, and on the other we have the indigenous minority of theRuthenians in the south-west of the Ukraine. Both may be classified as minorities onsocio-historical, cultural, religious and other grounds. The Lapps however did notmigrate recently on a significant scale and therefore are not included in this survey. TheRuthenians form a different category from the Lapps because they migrated in quitelarge numbers, for instance to the USA around the beginning of this century, and hencecan be found in this overview. On the basis of this comparison it could be possible torefute the premiss that there is a causal relationship between minorities and migration.In concrete terms, this means that one cannot speak of an empirically underpinnedsociological rule as far as the relationship between these two demographic aspects isconcerned. Nevertheless its correlative potential should not be underestimated;something that is dormant may be triggered off and become manifest. Bearing this basicfact in mind, it is important to realize that specific circumstances determine whether aminority remains indigenous or has a tendency to migrate in large numbers.We have to look at the Jewish community in Eastern Europe at the beginning of thetwentieth century to illustrate that certain circumstances can lead to migration on a largescale. The Jews, an indigenous minority in this region, had a culture, religion andlanguage distinct from those of the indigenous majority. Their social, cultural, religiousand political life was kept in most cases strictly separated by the all-powerful state fromthat of the rest of the population; interaction was reduced to a minimum. It is nottherefore surprising that in times of crisis these strained relations, together with otherfeelings of discontent, would occasionally ignite acts of discrimination, violation,injustice and – in the worst case – pogroms. 10 When these persecutions became moresevere and occurred with greater frequency, the Jews, being the scapegoat, were forcedto seek safety in flight.Initially, millions of Jews fled to Western Europe but after the Nazis seized power andanti-semitism held sway, they crossed the Atlantic and settled in the USA. This meltingpot of races and cultures seemed like a 'Valhalla' for migrants. Appearances, however,are deceptive and the oppression of Afro-Americans and native Americans has largelygiven the lie to this view and would seem to indicate that minority problems areinherent in every society. Without detracting from the truth of this, we should realize