European Refugees between South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe: Self- and External Categorisations in Contested Spaces of the Twentieth Century

This project reconstructs the significance of European refugees for the transfer of global categories (e.g. “refugee”, “Sh’erit ha-Pletah”, and “Holocaust survivor”) between internationally contested spaces in the twentieth century. It focuses on people who, to escape persecution and world war, fled to British-ruled territories in South Asia and the Middle East. After 1945, these individuals and groups positioned themselves in different locations. Whereas some stayed in the emerging states of India, Pakistan, and Israel, others returned to Europe—especially Britain and East and West Germany—or migrated elsewhere. Methodologically, the project explores the interactions between processes of self- and external categorisation and conflicts about space. It thus contributes to a history of European societies “from below”.