About the digital exhibition
“Migration has significantly shaped our society. In the series of images titled ‘Migration History in Pictures,’ we have selected objects from the DOMiD collection that represent specific phenomena in the history of migration since 1945. […]
How did the first ice cream come to Hamburg (Harburg)? Why is the term “guest worker” problematic? What role did migrants play in labor struggles? Why do we first think of men when we hear “guest workers” and overlook the large number of female migrants? What was the living situation of so-called contract workers in the GDR? These and other questions are addressed in the online stories.”
Our recommendation
One of these impressive photographs is that of a female worker at the Rewatex laundry in Berlin-Pankow in December 1990. The Rewatex laundry collective employed several hundred Vietnamese labor migrants before the reunification. Through this photo, we can not only trace the often overlooked history of female migrants but also question the representations of contemporary migration phenomena: What images of migration are present in our imaginations, in the media, or at our workplaces, and what perspectives are left out?