The panel discussion featured Tado Jurić (Catholic University of Croatia), Karolina Novinščak Kölker (University of Regensburg), Stjepan Šterc (University of Zagreb, Centre for Croatian Studies), Caroline Hornstein Tomić (Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences), Jasna Čapo (Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research), and Josip Jurčević (University of Zagreb, Centre for Croatian Studies). The event also featured Tado Jurić’s concise exhibition of materials related to Croatian guest workers in Germany.
On 11 December the Croatian Heritage Foundation headquarters in Zagreb played host to a round table, organised by the Catholic University of Croatia and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, a German political party-associated foundation, that discussed comparative aspects between what has been referred to as the “guest worker” wave of emigration out of Croatia and into Germany, and the latest wave of emigration out of Croatia and into other countries of the European Union, together covering the broad period from 1950 to the present day.
The event opened with a welcome from the rector of the Catholic University of Croatia professor Željko Tanjić, and from Holger Haibach, the director of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung chapter covering Croatia and Slovenia.
The round table discussion opened with speakers Tado Jurić of the history department of the Catholic University of Croatia and Karolina Novinščak Kölker of the University of Regensburg, a public institution of higher education in Germany. In her presentation, titled “Munich as a Sanctuary, Workplace, Birthplace?”, Ms Novinščak Kölker spoke of Croatian residents that relocated to the German city of Munich from the period following the Second World War to the present day, with a particular focus on the manner in which these immigrants to Germany established and managed their ethnic organisations. In his presentation, titled “Guest Workers: A Comparison Between Then and Now”, Mr Jurić compared the heightened episode of the emigration of Croatians to Germany that began in the late 1960s with the current wave of intensive relocation. Jurić pointed to the many similarities in the media and government treatment of the phenomenon of emigration during the socialist regime in Yugoslavia and in present day Croatia. He also pointed to some of the particular aspects of the current wave of emigration that make it much more harmful to Croatian society that the episode that began in the 1960s was.
These speakers were followed by a panel discussion in which Mr Jurić and Ms Novinščak Kölker were joined by Stjepan Šterc of the University of Zagreb’s University Centre for Croatian Studies, Caroline Hornstein Tomić of the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Jasna Čapo of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, and Josip Jurčević, also of the University of Zagreb’s University Centre for Croatian Studies.
The event also featured Mr Jurić’s concise exhibition of materials related to Croatian guest workers in Germany.
Text and photography: Marin Knezović