General objectives
The ‘History and Migrations’ Chair, born from the cooperation between the University of Luxembourg and the City of Dudelange, in partnership with CDMH, aligns with the objectives of the C²DH, an interdisciplinary research center. Its goals are to:
- Serve as a national platform for critical studies and debates on Luxembourg’s contemporary history.
- Act as a local mediator to promote a multimedia and digital culture in research, teaching, and knowledge dissemination.
- Reflect on the methodological challenges of history in the digital age..
This cooperation focuses on three main areas: research, teaching, and the public promotion of results, in close collaboration with CDMH and the City of Dudelange. It covers the thematic areas of the four research units of the C²DH: Contemporary History of Luxembourg, European History, Digital History, and Public History.
Teaching
The ‘History and Migrations’ Chair is committed to enriching the curriculum of the Master’s in Contemporary European History (MAHEC). As part of this, courses and seminars will be offered in partnership with CDMH and other institutions. Additionally, the Chair will conduct another seminar within the Master’s in Public and Digital History (MADIPH) at the University of Luxembourg, focusing on migration history and the Holocaust. Furthermore, the Chair will provide a history didactics course within the Bachelor in European Cultures program, integrating migration and interculturality issues. It also plans to develop lectures on migration history in collaboration with external academic partners, with some sessions held at CDMH in Dudelange.
Research
Research will primarily focus on migration dynamics as a system linking places of origin, transit spaces, and destinations, to account for the complexity of flows in their territorial and socio-historical contexts.
Additionally, it is essential to analyze migration paths and the experiences of migrants to identify and understand the impacts of migration policies on both migrants and the societies of origin and destination.
To this end, it is necessary to study the evolution of circulation spaces over time and how they are shaped by different periods and regulatory frameworks, analyzing the relationships between all social mechanisms, from migrants to national public policies.
By generating new knowledge, it becomes possible to produce valuable and insightful reflections for the development of public policies aimed at maximizing the positive impacts of migration.
Luxembourg, described in 2012 by American political scientist Joel S. Fetzer in a landmark study as an ‘immigration success story,’ can draw scientific expertise from this success. However, this concept should be nuanced and critically examined in scholarly exchanges with other researchers, including political scientists, economists, historians, and sociologists. Factors such as economic equality or inequality, labor market and societal integration, social mobility indices, spatial segregation and diversity, and the attitudes and discourse of political and economic elites must all be considered.
Public dissemination
The scientific and strategic partnership between the C²DH and CDMH, as well as between the University of Luxembourg and the City of Dudelange, will ensure the public dissemination of research results. This will be achieved through publications, exhibitions, joint events, and initiatives that properly highlight the history and memory of immigration and emigration. To date, the importance of these phenomena has not been adequately recognized in Luxembourg or other European countries.
A monthly newsletter will present ongoing research projects and scholars working on migration. It will also analyze statistics and media reports on migration, as well as provide information on exhibitions, conferences, and symposiums relevant to Luxembourg and the Greater Region.