Migration, politische Mobilisierung und Verwandtschaft: das Fallbeispiel der Kosovo-albanischen Bevölkerung

(Migration, political mobilization, and kinship: the case of the Kosovo-Albanian population)

 

Gefördert aus Mitteln der Thyssen-Stiftung

Leiter: Prof. Dr. Holm Sundhaussen

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin:

Dr. Georgia Kretsi

Laufzeit: 2005-2007

 

The project addresses the interdependency of political movements and different forms of migration. Specifically, in the case of Kosovo the social and historical sciences have focused on conflict escalation in the 1990s while neglecting the 1980s, a decisive period for the political organisation of the different populations of Kosovo. At that time, state repression intensified, resulting in the increasing informalization of economic and social structures. Parallel to these developments, underground political organizations were created on the basis of migrational networks. Such organizations were founded abroad in countries such as Germany and Schwitzerland in order to support the creation of an autonomous – and later independent – Kosovo Albanian republic within Yugoslavia. In this context, family relations and forms of political organisation experienced a crucial change. The research aims to determine the interconnection of kin and political interests and how these influenced the development of a popular Albanian political movement in the 1980s. The role of local political actions based on kin networks in the social and political transformations of trans-local societies is also addressed.