AEMI

18 AEMI JOURNAL 2015
the city of Riga this year. The meeting
with the French Ministry of European
Affairs took place in Paris on 1 November
2013. It was organised by Virginie
Brenot-Beaufrere, Head of Cultural
Department at La Cite de la Mer, Cherbourg,
France, and was a materialization
of a meeting that was expected to take
place in the beginning of the year. Nathalie
Lhayani at the French Ministry of
European Affairs, welcomed the Board
(represented by Maddalena, Sarah and
Hans) providing us the opportunity to
present AEMI and its network and to
discuss the possibility for funding of
one or more of the projects described in
the report of last year (mainly the book
project Making Europe Bottom Up: European
Migratory History (1800 – 2010).
However, the French Ministry made
it clear that it could only support projects
concerning France, e.g integration
of non-citizen immigrants in France.
The application also had to be in French.
Consequently, Sarah and Generique was
given the responsibility to have an application
ready by March 2014, focusing
on 1) the construction of EU citizenship
related to past and present migrations in
France, comparing Ius soli and ius sanguinis,
discrimination and policies of
inclusion and 2) places of memories and
history of migrations in Europe (three
places in each European country to be
put on a map on the AEMI website. Just
recently, the project was granted 5000
euros which will be spent on making a
leaflet presenting a synthesis of research
on French migration - in both the
French and English language.
On 2 – 4 April 2014, the Board (represented
by Maddalena, Sarah, Eva and
Hans) met with the organizing committe
in Riga, represented by Latvians
Abroad and the University of Riga:
Marianna Auliciema, Baiba Bela, Liga
Belicka, Ilze Garoza, Liga Hartpenga,
Juris Zalans, Maija Hinkle and Ints Dzelzgalvis.
The organizing committe was
well prepared, presenting the board alternative
themes, schedule and venues
for the upcoming conference. The main
focus will be on refugees and migrants –
now and then. During the meeting Ilze
Garzola made an interview with vice
chair Maddalena Tirabassi and chairman
Hans Storhaug that was published
on the Latvian Online news portal. The
interview titled Not Everybody Leaves for
Money, can be downloaded at http://
latviansonline.com/emigration-everybody-leaves-money/
After a farewell dinner, Ints Dzelzgalvis
guided us through the historical part
of Riga, while presenting us a short version
of the city´s history; Riga was a
major centre of the Hanseatic League,
deriving its prosperity in the 13th–15th
centuries from the trade with central
and eastern Europe. The urban fabric
of its medieval centre reflects this prosperity,
though most of the earliest buildings
were destroyed by fire or war. Riga
became an important economic centre
in the 19th century, when the suburbs
surrounding the medieval town were
laid out, first with imposing wooden
buildings in neoclassical style and then
in Jugendstil. It is generally recognized
that Riga has the finest collection of art
nouveau buildings in Europe.
As recruiting new members in order
to enlarge the network and to strengthen
our economy has been, and still is, one
of the main objectives of your Board, I
am very happy to report that we have