Labor Migration
Labor Migration in and from Eastern Europe
Ringvorlesung Institut für Slavistik und Osteuropastudien
Eastern, Central, and Southeast Europe offer a critical vantage point for understanding the complexities of migration, one of the defining forces of our time. Labor migration in and from this region has shaped economies, social structures, and political debates across Europe and beyond. Yet these movements are often overlooked or oversimplified in public discourse.
Since the nineteenth century, people have moved to, from, and within Eastern Europe in search of employment and social mobility. In many of the region’s cities and localities, labor migration has transformed local economies, altered political dynamics, and reshaped everyday social life. In destination countries, these movements have contributed to the formation of new diaspora communities and increasingly interconnected labor markets. At the same time, migrants have built transnational networks and sustained cross-border cultural and economic ties that link workplaces, households, and communities across Europe.
This lecture series explores labor migration in and from Eastern Europe, broadly conceived, from a wide range of disciplinary and geographic perspectives. Across fourteen lectures, anthropologists, historians, sociologists and scholars from related fields trace key themes in labor migration from the nineteenth century to the present. Topics include border regimes and the racialization of migrants, precarity, informality, and remittances, as well as return migration and gendered dimensions of care and domestic work.
Diese Ringvorlesung wird auf Englisch und online (Zoom) durchgeführt. Die Vorträge werden aufgezeichnet und stehen anschliessend als Podcasts zur Verfügung. Mehr Informationen hierzu finden Sie auf der Website des Instituts für Slavistik und Osteuropastudien (ISOS):
ISOS: Ringvorlesung Labor Migration
Programm
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15.9.2026, 18:15: Introduction: Labor Migration in and from Eastern Europe, Past and Present
Sandra King-Savić (UZH) & Jonathan Raspe (Cornell University, USA); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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22.9.2026, 18:15: Labor Migration and Development in Socialist Yugoslavia: State Visions and Migrant Experiences
Sara Bernard (University of Glasgow); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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29.9.2026, 18:15: Globalizing Border Controls and the Conflict over Labor Migrants: The 1913 Canadian Pacific Affair
Tobias Brinkmann (Pennsylvania State University); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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6.10.2026, 18:15: Labor Migration and Ethnic Hierarchies in the Soviet Union
Jonathan Raspe (Cornell University); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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13.10.2026, 18:15: Nowhere and Nothing: The Entangled Lives of Migrants and Locals in Boston, Lincolnshire
Dace Dzenovska (University of Oxford); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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20.10.2026, 18:15: Tajik Labor Migration to Russia in the Wake of the War in Ukraine
Mariana Peixoto Irby (University of Warsaw); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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27.10.2026, 18:15: Understanding Internal Displacement in Ukraine: Between Housing and Employment
Oleksandra Tarkhanova (University of St. Gallen); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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3.11.2026, 18:15: Border Regimes and Differential Inclusion/Exclusion in and of the Balkans: The Case of Serbia
Marta Stojić Mitrović (Institute of Ethnography SASA, Belgrade); Ort: Online via Zoom
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10.11.2026, 18:15: Building Austria’s “Cucumber Capital”: The Past, Present, and Future of Migrant Farmwork in Austria’s Agrifood System
Paul Sperneac-Wolfer (University of Barcelona); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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17.11.2026, 18:15: Made a Refugee: Yugoslav Labor and Suspended Recognition in Switzerland
Sandra King-Savić (University of Zurich); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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24.11.2026, 18:15: Business as Usual? Normalizing the Economization of Ukrainian Migration to Poland: From Covid-19 to War in Ukraine
Marta Kindler (University of Warsaw); Ort: https://www.isos.uzh.ch/de/studium/ringvorlesungen/labor-migration.html
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