The two-day conference in Erfurt on October 01-02, 2026, will explore the history of migrant agency and (post-)colonial entanglements in East and West Germany from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Looking at the history of migration to the “two Germanys,” the event invites experts to explore the experiences and agency of different groups of migrants who are often associated with the Global South.
We will discuss whether the term Global South is, in fact, an appropriate analytical category, and whether it can, for example, also be applied to labor migrants from Southern Europe. We also seek to identify alternative criteria that characterize the collective experiences of migrants from the Global South, such as biographical proximity to colonialism and decolonization or migrants’ own self-positioning within a postcolonial context.
The conference is co-organized by Carsta Langner and Florian Wagner, both conducting subprojects on “Voluntariness and Solidarity” and “Voluntariness and Repatriation/Return Migration” in our research group at the University of Erfurt. We cordially invite you to participate in the conference. It will take place on campus at Erfurt University, Research Building “Weltbeziehungen,” room C19.00.04 (ground floor).
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Download the conference program here. For participation we ask to register via email to Carsta Langner and Florian Wagner in advance. Thank you!
THURSDAY | 01 OCTOBER 2026
13.00 | Arrival, Registration, Coffee
13.30 | INTRODUCTION | Carsta Langner and Florian Wagner (both Erfurt)
14.00 – 15.00 | PANEL I | Chair: Silvan Niedermeier (Erfurt)
Voluntary? Rethinking Spanish Labour Migration and Return through Migrants’ Experiences in West Germany (1960s-1980) | Carlos Sanz Diaz (Madrid)
Racism and Return: The Case of Bosnian War Refugees | Christopher Molnar (Flint, online)
Coffee Break
15.15 – 16.15 | PANEL II | Chair: N. N.
Italienische Migration in die Bundesrepublik Deutschland seit 1955: Formen, Erfahrungen und Darstellungen | Grazia Prontera (Salzburg)
Arrival Infrastructures and Migrant Agency in Hamburg in the 1970s/80s | David Templin (Osnabrück)
Coffee Break
16.45 – 17.45 | PANEL III | Chair: Felix Krämer (Erfurt)
Daughters, Nurses, Migrants: Catholic Women from Kerala in West Germany in the 1960s | Tobias Santosh Großmann (Nürnberg)
“Yellow Angels”: South Korean Nurse “Guest Workers” in West Germany | Yonson Ahn (Frankfurt)
19.00 | Conference Dinner
FRIDAY | 02 OCTOBER 2026
08.30 – 10.00 | PANEL IV | Chair: Kien Nghi Ha (Tübingen)
Gastarbeiter Activism in West Germany (1960s-1980s) | Florian Wagner (Erfurt)
Interwoven Narratives. How did Experiences of French Colonialism Shape Oral History Narratives of Algerian Labour Migration to the GDR? | Jan Schubert (Florence)
Memories of Migration: An Oral History Project on Memories, Narratives and Experiences of Greek Labour Migration to Germany | Émelie Bosselmann (Erfurt)
Coffee Break
10.15 – 11.15 | PANEL V | Chair: Birgit Schäbler (Erfurt)
Marxism-Leninism, African Socialism, or Something else? The Politics of African Students in and beyond the GDR, 1951-1980 | Sara Pugach (Los Angeles, online)
Spaces of Agency in Exile: Self-Organization and Participation of Exiled ANC Members in the GDR | Anja Schade (Hildesheim)
Coffee Break
11.30 – 12.30 | PANEL VI | Chair: Birgit Schäbler (Erfurt)
Mozambican Labour Migrants Under the Auspices of the Protestant Church in the late GDR | Tom Drechsel (Potsdam)
Asylum Seekers Resisting their Involuntary Allocation to East German Camps (1990/91) | Emilia Henkel (Jena)
12.30 – 13.00 | Final Discussion
14.30 | Short Walking Tour Decolonize Erfurt (optional)
