Abstract

Analyzing the long-term dynamics of migrant integration is a significant challenge for researchers. This paper traces how ‘ordinary’ German-speaking migrants in the USA expressed their sense of participation and belonging throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries in the letters they wrote to their families ‘back home.’ We study a large collection of migrant letters written by German-speaking immigrants in the USA between 1830 and 1970 and analyze this new data with methods of computerized text analysis. The investigation shows how migrants continuously make and re-make identities within and across their heterogeneous migrant ‘groups.’ Our paper highlights the strong incentives for social and cultural integration in the absence of restrictive host state policies. We also show that political events and crises affecting both the country of origin and the destination country act as a catalyst in redefining, at least temporarily, parts of the migrant identities in relation to both the sending and host states.

中文翻译：

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感觉德国人和美国人的同时性：分析私人移民通信的150年

摘要

分析移民融合的长期动态对研究人员而言是一项重大挑战。本文追溯了美国“普通的”德语移民如何在19世纪和20世纪初的“回国”信中表达他们的参与感和归属感。我们研究了1830年至1970年之间由美国德语移民撰写的大量移民信件，并使用计算机文本分析方法分析了这些新数据。调查显示，移民如何在其异类移民“群体”之内和之间不断地建立和重新形成身份。我们的论文强调了在没有限制性东道国政策的情况下促进社会和文化融合的强烈动机。