We are pleased to announce that on 01.04.2023 the new project "Archiving MigOst" has started at the ZfI. Under the direction of Dr. Karoline Oehme-Jüngling, in cooperation with the Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (ISGV) as well as the joint project "East German migration society itself narrate" (MigOst), archive workshops are designed and implemented together with five participating Dresden migrant:in self-organizations (MSO) and their archives are made accessible for the subsequent use of science and practice.

The institutionalization of migrant (self-)organizations (MSO) in (larger) cities of the GDR and the new federal states can be understood as an effect of the upheaval of 1989/90. As a result, a plural, open discourse on migration became possible beyond partial public spheres. In addition to spaces for (intercultural) exchange and information, the developing MSOs are concerned with questions of the right of residence for contract workers, political asylum, support for civil war refugees, the "integration" of ethnic German immigrants and, last but not least, everyday racism and right-wing violence. In the public discourse, migration-related topics have long remained underexposed, and have received little attention from the majority society. For some years now, the scientific and social examination of the migration history of the GDR and East Germany has been intensified. The project "Archiving MigOst" deals with the early phase of the organization and institutionalization of MSOs and their role in the transformation process (ca. 1989-2000) by exploring the self-archives of the MSOs, making them accessible for subsequent use by scholars as well as MSOs themselves. Considerable amounts of written material have been produced in the MSOs, which are important as sources for their own and official historiography. The preservation and indexing of such bodies of knowledge in "other" archives has been recognized as relevant to society as a whole. In order to preserve the character of the self-archives, "Archiving MigOst" uses a participatory approach: together with five participating MSOs in Dresden, archive workshops are designed and implemented. The self-archives will be included in a new collection of the Life History Archive of the Institute for Saxon History and Folklore Dresden and structured and made usable in a meaningful way via metadata. In addition, a handout will be developed to make tested procedures accessible to other MSOs, and short organizational histories of the five participating MSOs will be published.

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Supported with funds from the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship.