AEMI

160 AEMI JOURNAL 2015 2016
Duchess of Savoy by marriage. At the
death of her husband Victor Amadeus
I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy
between 1637 and 1648. When she died
the large complex became the property
of different religious congregations and
remained this way until recently when
it became the property of the Commune.
The symmetrical villa with two
entrances is surrounded by a romantic
park of trees and a small lake.
As this years meeting is the twenty-fifth
in a row, I am particularly happy that
the association is attracting new member
institutions. Last year was very successful
in that respect, as we had the
pleasure of adding four new institutions
to our membership list: Institute for
Migration Research and Intercultural
Studies (IMIS), Osnabrück (Germany),
The Centre for the History of Migrants
(CGM), Leiden (the Netherlands),
Karlstad University, Department of Political,
Religious and Cultural Studies
(Sweden) and the House of Emigrants,
Gothenburg (Sweden).
The enlargement of our Association
is part of our strategic planning, and it
therefore caught my immediate interest
when I was addressed by the president
of ETTW - Europeans Throughout the
World - Niels Jørgen Thøgesen, asking
AEMI to become a partner organization.
Europeans Throughout the World – Les
Européens dans le Monde is a pan-European
umbrella organisation, which
works at a European level for all European
expats. It does not replace the national
and other associations of expats.
It is an added-value to them – helping
them to make Europe work actively for
our millions of expats in Europe and all
over the world.
Mr. Thøgesen contacted me shortly
after the Riga meeting, on the recommendation
from our Basque collegue,
Mr. Asier Vallejo Itsaso, director for
the Basque Community Abroad, and
we have emailed regularly since. Despite
many attempts, lack of resources
and bad timing has prevented us from
meeting. However, your board has decided
to become partner, and our two
organisations are now exchanging information
and have linked our websites.
As ETTW has members and associated
members in countries where AEMI is
not represented (e.g. Malta, Romania,
Slovakia, Lithuania and Switzerland), I
believe the network represents a great
potential for further enlargement of our
association.
Hans Storhaug,
Chairman
September 2015