These essays deal with the experience of migrants in the countries they have managed to reach, and elaborate on the consequences of their absence far away from home and the impact on the households left behind. The authors have aimed to stay as close as possible to the identity of these migrants, split up in class-based clusters. Though subjected to migration politics and policies of both the countries of departure and destination, the focus is on the migrants themselves.

Various scholars from the Netherlands and abroad will respond to these essays on the basis of their investigations and writings on labour mobility from the Global South to the countries considered to be part of the Global North. The workshop will be chaired by Hein de Haas (Amsterdam Research Centre for Migration, UvA) and Leo Lucassen (International Institute of Social History). 

About the speakers

Marcel van der Linden is a senior fellow at the International Institute of Social History. Previously, he was director of research at the International Institute of Social History and held a professorship dedicated to the history of social movements at the University of Amsterdam. He has published widely on global labour history.

Jan Breman is emeritus professor of comparative sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a senior fellow at the International Institute of Social History. His research interests are work, employment and labour relations in contemporary Asia, history of colonialism, labour migration, conditions of poverty and the social question in a global perspective.