Yugoslav Albanian and South Slavic Labor Migrants and working class uses of the streets in Berlin

Good afternoon and good evening everyone.

Dear peter, thanks for organizing this.

It's my pleasure to

present some results of my recent research at um

humboldt University funded by fritz thyssen

steve Duncan, an Albanian migrants in Berlin.

Most of all I seek to solve problems that impact the real world.

My research developed after my first study

visit to New york city Columbia University,

which is by the way hosting us today and um

I thought of sharing some background information

that may serve as an exciting look.

When I arrived in new york city,

after some consultations with new york based researchers,

I met some fieldwork in Bronx

and state in Ireland to refer new areas of research

to my parenting best project from the comparative perspective.

And after a couple of weeks I realized the the amazing potential and

the richness of the material of the neighborhoods I was looking at.

So um

when I was studying at at uh anthropology department of Columbia University,

Um I found out that there is an amazing

initiative of young Albanian students at Columbia University,

Albanian Society who organized also while I was there in February 2020

um

an event celebrating uh anniversary of Kosovo independence.

And it was a great pleasure and

um amazing experience to

just listen to what those young students

and Albania's that have never been to Albania or Kosovo had think about

um the culture and traditions of opinion and also

that this political discourses and inter ethnic conflicts.

So um after this

grasp of experiences,

I started to question myself,

why do I have to research only the community while I can approach conviviality,

transcultural ISM and inter communication of different

communities creating the identity of the neighborhood.

So I wanted to include not only um

self Slavic communities of

ex Yugoslavia, but also other other communities that have been

present in the neighborhoods, both in Bronx, new local and and vetting in Berlin.

Um so,

um I wanted to give to my research wider view on the space making process.

And after coming back to Berlin, um

I was so excited about the materials

I collected and passionately started to develop

my project called migrant hoods. Um

looking at the district of South Berlin with a diversity community space there.

So let me just introduce you and share with

you some introductory questions on the city and migration.

So how can these cities and tango itself

themselves from from the complexity that is uh

that it is cursed by or they are cursed by.

And um the city defies space and time in its ability

to embrace complexities and it's in its ability to hold multiplicity.

And finally, question that came to my mind,

is it possible to speak about the subject of contemporary migration in terms

of objects materials and capital and data

without speaking about ex yugoslav migration.

So, uh

let's have a brief look at the archive materials

connected to the gas turbine term migration to West Berlin

and the background of uh discrepancies between newcomers and the german society.

Um so I'm presenting a couple of images connected with

space making process um in in the new context,

in the new special context.

So you can you can see this um

uh press photography,

uh we're gaster biters were cut by the photographer while having some

um

free time and and creating the space as connected to their

homeland

experiences and the everyday practices.

And

that shows the strong embedded nous of of the

traditions and and cultural um

activities

by

Extra costs of migrants in Germany.

And on the other hand,

we have also a cartoon from uh from mid 70s from from one of the Berlin and German

newspapers,

their target speaker where gaster biters are trying to

hitch hiking and um they are not succeeding.

And this is showing of course

like overwhelm nous of gaster bitter and multicultural context

that german society was not really prepared for.

And the text below the cartoon says

no more.

Mm hmm.

Mhm.

So the case study of Albanians who are coming from

the ex yugoslav Republics such as Montenegro,

Macedonia Serbia and autonomous province of Kosovo focuses

on the efforts in the place making process

as I mentioned and transfer the representations and

aesthetics to build visible and robust identity structure

and the big number of Albanians that came to West Berlin

In 1960s and 19 until 1980s decided to stay on a permanent basis.

Uh so one of the locations where Albanians are making their place in Berlin is

which is actually the most dense uh

mm hmm,

Presence

and the other one is very unique located on the north of Berlin.

In contrast to um

two other studies of Albanian migrants in western europe,

I adopt here a cross disciplinary approach of merging architecture,

urban um studies with anthropology and migration

studies equally in practice and theory that

so far has not been adopted in the research of southeastern european migrations.

So here are a few maps that I drew myself

showing the density of opinions.

Um little businesses like coffee shops and restaurants located in the

north part of american or um on the other hand,

we have also

the muslim cultural spaces with red circle uh

are matched Albanian muslim spaces and with green.

One other cultures like Arabs and Turks

and of course the location of the vetting and multicultural districts of vetting,

which is becoming actually very um frequented at the moment.

Yes,

so what I want to mention as well is uh there are three functions which I

uh found out during my research on Albanian

migrants that are very important as neighborhoods creating.

And these are like connectivity, complexity and conviviality,

which are based also on american studies on neighborhoods.

So complexity would uh would be defined as a variety of civic spaces such as plazas,

greens, recreational park with civic buildings

and a complexity of both public and private buildings.

On the other hand,

conviviality um is the life livability uh and social aspect is driven

by many and varied communities that not only inhabit but meet,

get together and socialize within neighborhood in the spaces such as coffee shops,

perhaps restaurants, bakeries and so on and so on.

And connectivity would be a space uh part of the neighborhoods which are from

as the first point walkable and socially connected uh and

that our linder able sit able and hand out able.

So

I bring Albanian

migrant patterns in the broader context of urban margins, neighborhood

and um urban culture based on cohabitation where participation,

migrant network practice and redesigning urban environment

um

is at the core of the analyzes. So let me just summarize with

uh

um

my

um fieldwork notes uh with one story uh that I would like to refer here.

Um It is early morning

in the title of a bar inviting, nearly toppled platz.

In the north district of Berlin, A middle aged woman is sitting close to the window,

her name is, hasna

Around the bar hookers between the gambling uh machine slightly

hidden from the first case after entering the bar.

A male in his early 50s is sitting on a hooker and checking his mobile phone.

His name is Mario.

Yes,

now works here since she came to Berlin five years ago as a bartender and waitress.

She's creation from rica Maria is the owner of this place for seven years.

He's the opinion from North Macedonia originating from a village

five km away from Tetovo.

They speak to each other in Serbo creation. Suddenly one other guy enters the place

and he greets everyone in both Serbo Croatian and Albanian

people dropped by for a couple of minutes just to

get the strongest person on the way to work.

Suddenly,

Jasna says,

I like this place reminds me of home,

we have Serbs, Croatians, Albanians and Roma coming here.

The atmosphere is familiar and everyone is friendly

as we are all from Yugoslavia, nobody cares about ethnic difference.

And with this story, I will, I would like to finish my presentation.

Um

I'm looking forward for some questions and thank you for

being with me.

Yugoslav Albanian and South Slavic Labor Migrants and working class uses of the streets in Berlin

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