Past Event

Join us for the lecture “Post-Soviet Immigrants in Germany and the War in Ukraine” with Jannis Panagiotidis, Scientific Director of the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna.

DATE: Tuesday, December 5th

TIME: 12:30-2:00pm

LOCATION: Pigiarvik 608 (Formerly Robertson)

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Please register using the form below. 

About the Event: 

People from the former Soviet Union are the single largest immigrant contingent in Germany. The Russian war against Ukraine has affected them in particular ways, given their familial ties to both countries, their consumption of Russian-language media, the targeting of Russian-speakers as “diaspora” by Russian propaganda, and the (fear of) growing hostility against ‘Russians’. Post-Soviet immigrant attitudes towards the war have been a contentious issue against the backdrop of pro-Russian demonstrations in the spring of 2022. Meanwhile, social engagement among the immigrants for Ukrainian refugees has been largely happening outside the view of the broader public. This talk will analyze the multiple repercussions the Russian war against Ukraine has had among the heterogeneous post-Soviet immigrant communities in Germany, the rifts it has caused, and the transformations it engenders.

Sponsored by the Institute of European Russian and Eurasian Studies and Migration and Diaspora Studies with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant: “Displacement in Wartime: Russia’s War, Ukraine’s Actions and Consequences for Europe and Eurasia.”

About the Speaker: 

Jannis Panagiotidis is a historian, migration scholar, and Scientific Director of the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna. He has published extensively on migration from the former Soviet Union, including the monographs The Unchosen Ones: Diaspora, Nation, and Migration in Israel and Germany (Indiana UP 2019) and Post-Soviet Immigration to Germany: an Introduction (Beltz Juventa 2021, in German). His third monograph Anti-East European Racism in Germany (co-authored with Hans-Christian Petersen) is forthcoming with Beltz Juventa publishers in April 2024.