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Tending the “oasis of socialism.” Transnational political mobilization of Yugoslav economic emigrants in the FR Germany in the late 1960s and 1970s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Nikola Baković
Nikola Baković*
Affiliation:
Regional Historical Archives of Čačak, Čačak, Serbia
*
∗Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The article examines the development of the Yugoslav state's policy of transnational political engagement of Yugoslav citizens on temporary work in the FR Germany during the late 1960s and 1970s. This politicization of labor migrations was shaped by the interplay of the internal turmoil in the Yugoslav federation and the conditions peculiar to West Germany of the time. The change of the state's perception of external migrations is being examined through the extension of the agitation apparatus of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia onto the territory of the FR Germany and the mobilization of economic emigrants against the “hostile” political emigrants residing in that country. The main goal of these measures was to maintain the emigrants' transnational links to their homeland and ensure that their political standing was kept in line with the official Yugoslav ideological tenets until the time of the prospective return migration cycle. The extraterritorial character of these measures, coupled with the specific position of Yugoslavia within the Cold War diplomacy, led to a peculiar ideological interplay and shifting web of cooperation and confrontation between various actors.

Keywords

Yugoslavialabor migrationsGastarbeiterLeague of Communists of Yugoslaviapolitical emigrationCold War
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , July 2014 , pp. 674 - 690
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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