AEMI

From the Editor
I am pleased to finally present to you this double issue of the AEMI Journal, based
on a selection of papers presented at the Annual AEMI Meeting and International
Conference in Riga in 2014 and Turin in 2015. The Riga conference was dedicated
to the theme of Migration and Refugees – Then and Now, while the theme of the
Turin conference focused on Migrations in Europe in the Third Millenium.
In the opening article Some Terminological Dilemmas in Migration Studies
Janja Zitnik Serafin discusses the problematic use of the terms ‘autochthonous’,
‘host society/host country’, and ‘tolerance’ and argues that is necessary to constantly
revise the terminology used in migration studies. The purpose of her article is to
show how words create perception, and how our understanding of certain established
terms can depend on our personal experience, local circumstances and cultural
background. We should therefore develop a high level of sensitivity to the
different meanings of a particular term and also develop our intercultural awareness
to get a deeper understanding of our own culture and a greater openness to the production
of foreign cultures.
Maria Beatriz Rocha-Trindade´s article Portugal - Refuge and Refugees: Movements
and Personalities reveals the mobility of the Portuguese people from the early 1800s
till the present, and how Portugal has served as a space of shelter and a bridge of passage
for thousands of people from all walks of life and various nationalities: nobility,
famous writers, intellectuals as well as people fleeing war.
In Forbidden Heaven to Basque Refugee Children, Susana Sabín-Fernández paints
a grim picture of the Spanish Civil War and the dramatic evacuation of 32,000
children after the bombing of the Basque towns of Durango and Guernica. She
thoroughly examines the key persons involved in the evacuation, and explains why
many countries hosted the Basque children, while the USA decided not to do so.
Maria Jarlsdotter Enckell has taken on the huge task trying to indentify each one of
the entire non-Russian north European labour-force, recruited from 1798 to 1867
to fill the Russian American Company’s needs at Novo Archangelsk/ Sitka, on Baranof
Island, and around the North Pacific Rim: e.g. governors, naval officers, office
employees, and sea captains with their ship crews down to cabin boys. In her article
1798-1867: Russian America and its Latvians. In Search of Their Invisibles: the Personal
and Household Servants she particularly focuses on the personal and household
servants, also referred to as the invisibles.