Session: #616

Content:

The movement of people has been part of European history from the earliest migration into Europe out of Africa millennia ago to the present. Taking the long-term view that archaeologists possess, we are all representatives of immigrant communities. And yet, today, migration is declared across Europe to be a ‘problem’ requiring ‘solutions’. Such rhetoric feeds into and supports community division and fear of others who are different. While transphobia, homophobia, islamophobia and antisemitism grab the headlines within countries, there are also existing European populations also treated as ‘outsiders’ that nobody notices.
The attitude towards the various forms of migration within and from outside Europe is at root a cultural phenomenon – it is not natural but created. Heritage management has often argued that sites and archaeological cultures are important for local and regional identities. Does it thereby also share in the rejection of people with other origins and identities? This is equally true for long standing (“historical”) national minorities in present-day countries and “new” migrants (even if the border has moved, not the persons). And what of the heritages of those who are entering Europe from other parts of the world? Is the idea of European heritage an exclusive one, or one that seeks to incorporate new elements (and perhaps we can remember how much the heritage of individual communities is in itself borrowed from elsewhere, often the result of the colonisation of other parts of the globe)? Should we – as workers on heritage – be concerned with migration at all?
This session seeks contributions which address these and other related questions. The session consist of the presentation of formal papers and their wider discussion, also involving commentators drawn from the EAA Heritage Advisory Committee and Community on Archaeological Legislation and Organisation.

Session: #616

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