Remembering African Labor Migration to the Second World: Socialist Mobilities between Angola, Mozambique, and East Germany

This book explores the lives of African migrants who migrated to East Germany in state-sponsored schemes in the late 1970s and 1980s, contributing their labor power to the East German economy. It draws on over 260 life history interviews to uncover complex and contradictory experiences and transnational encounters, revealing dualities such as state and individual, work and consumption, integration and exclusion, loss and gain, and the past in the past and the present and future.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 377 pages
Publication date: 25 November 2022
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This open-access book delves into the narratives of Mozambicans and Angolans who migrated to East Germany under state-sponsored schemes in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Their purpose was to serve as aanguard labor force for the envisioned African industrial revolutions, contributing their labor power to the East German economy. Through a comprehensive analysis of over 260 life history interviews, the book unveils intricate and multifaceted experiences, as well as transnational encounters. What emerges is a tapestry of dualities that coexist in the memories of these former migrants: the interplay between the state and the individual, the dynamics of work and consumption, the complexities of integration and exclusion, the oscillations between loss and gain, and the interweaving of past and present. By exploring these dualities, the book offers a profound exploration of the lives of African migrants traversing the boundaries between the Third and Second Worlds. This transnational study, dedicated to the memories of worker-trainees, arrives at a pivotal moment when historians are unraveling the rich and intricate web of connections within the global socialist world.

Weight: 540g
Dimension: 209 x 150 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031067785
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023